Typical energy costs for a 4 bed detached house

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

zaax wrote: »

Thats way too high. You need to check your insulation etc. it should be about £60

What rubbish.

How on earth can you say that without knowing their usage?!

The OP is unlikely to be using £350's worth of energy a month. £60 a month is equally unlikely even if people do "check their insulation".

BG can and will change the DD amounts, the OP just needs to speak to someone that isn't a moron. If they go online, they can change DD's themselves.

2013yearofthehouse

Robin9 wrote: »

My costs are similar to the other posters at £95 a month - two pensioner household. With Eon/Age UK who adjusted DD downward automatically - it was set at £125 when I switched in January.

Ask BG to revise DD

zaax wrote: »

Thats way too high. You need to check your insulation etc. it should be about £60

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

What rubbish.

How on earth can you say that without knowing their usage?!

The OP is unlikely to be using £350's worth of energy a month. £60 a month is equally unlikely even if people do "check their insulation".

BG can and will change the DD amounts, the OP just needs to speak to someone that isn't a moron. If they go online, they can change DD's themselves.

Bluebirdman, Zaax was replying to Robin9's post, not the OP. Although your point still stands, Zaax cannot know how much Robin9 needs to use - for starters, among other factors, Robin9 doesn't mention the size of their property (it could be implied it's 4 bed detached) or anything about their actual usage.

Also, not sure why Robin9's post was singled out for Zaax's reply (especially saying "way too high"), since several people have posted similar costs. We're 2 people in a 4 bed detached house paying £78 a month. We couldn't reduce our electric by much, it's about 2000kwh a year, so in order to reduce our bills to £60 a month, we'd have to reduce our current gas usage from 13,000kwh a year to 8000kwh a year, which is quite a difference.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

2013yearofthehouse wrote: »

Bluebirdman, Zaax was replying to Robin9's post, not the OP. Although your point still stands, Zaax cannot know how much Robin9 needs to use - for starters, among other factors, Robin9 doesn't mention the size of their property or anything about their actual usage.

I know exactly to whom zaax was referring, hence my point was valid.

Perhaps I should be clearer.

"zaax, how on earth can you tell people £60 a month is normal, what is true in your house isn't true for everybody. The national average is around £100, so pipe down!

OP, we also can't advise what you should pay without knowing your consumption in KWh. £350 is almost certainly too high, you can adjust this by logging into your BG account online"

This should be better, apologies for not being clear earlier.

2013yearofthehouse

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

I know exactly to whom zaax was referring, hence my point was valid.

Perhaps I should be clearer.

"zaax, how on earth can you tell people £60 a month is normal, what is true in your house isn't true for everybody. The national average is around £100, so pipe down!

OP, we also can't advise what you should pay without knowing your consumption in KWh. £350 is almost certainly too high, you can adjust this by logging into your BG account online"

This should be better, apologies for not being clear earlier.

Apologies, rereading your first post, I can see they were separate sentences, but I took it as follow on (my brains a bit frazzled today, as workmen have been removing the nearby pavement with a pneumatic drill for the last 3 hours). Anyway we're in complete agreement on Zaax

haras_nosirrah

We are on bg fixed price so can't change to next year.

The first direct debit letter we got was for £270 a month in Apr and we have just had a revised one for £350 a month last week. It took them ages to set up our account so I know that from feb to end apr is catch up as hadn't been paid so that is part of the increase but when I did a beginning may to end of May two readings it came up as £35 consumption so not sure why they have upped the direct debit by another £70. Spoke to India and they said that it is based on the estimated usage from the previous occupants which is a higher usage household from us. Got put through to the uk and they said to wait a couple of months paying the higher amount which will clear the delayed payments and then give another reading and they will see about direct debit. Have asked them for one of those energy meters. If it stays at £350 not sure we can afford to live here. Was budgeting around £150 and thought that was pessimisic

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

We are on bg fixed price so can't change to next year.

The first direct debit letter we got was for £270 a month in Apr and we have just had a revised one for £350 a month last week. It took them ages to set up our account so I know that from feb to end apr is catch up as hadn't been paid so that is part of the increase but when I did a beginning may to end of May two readings it came up as £35 consumption so not sure why they have upped the direct debit by another £70. Spoke to India and they said that it is based on the estimated usage from the previous occupants which is a higher usage household from us. Got put through to the uk and they said to wait a couple of months paying the higher amount which will clear the delayed payments and then give another reading and they will see about direct debit. Have asked them for one of those energy meters. If it stays at £350 not sure we can afford to live here. Was budgeting around £150 and thought that was pessimisic

It's your DD, you need to instruct them. Either that, or sign into your account online and change it yourself.

laurahester

Scottish power did exactly the same thing with us when we first moved in - they could only allow a dd of £160/month as this is what the previous occupiers had. If you are new to that energy supplier it seems to be standard practise. I refused and the only way round it was to save the money myself into an account and then pay the bill when it was sent. I had to build a history of 6 months before they would allow me to have a dd based on my useage and not the previous owners. Very annoying!

freddie65

Hi

I'm with First Utility and have been paying £275 per month for dual fuel for about a year. When I first switched from B Gas I was paying £120 per month, they then said I wasn't paying enough so they increased to £275.

I've just had an email from them saying that my account has built up a deficit of £675 now (even though we are in summer) and they now want to increase my DD to £405 per month.

I'm completely at a loss with this and would really like to some help/advice.

House is 4 bed with 3 kids.

Sounds an absolute fortune for gas and electric???

2013yearofthehouse

freddie65 wrote: »

Hi

I'm with First Utility and have been paying £275 per month for dual fuel for about a year. When I first switched from B Gas I was paying £120 per month, they then said I wasn't paying enough so they increased to £275.

I've just had an email from them saying that my account has built up a deficit of £675 now (even though we are in summer) and they now want to increase my DD to £405 per month.

I'm completely at a loss with this and would really like to some help/advice.

House is 4 bed with 3 kids.

Sounds an absolute fortune for gas and electric???

How many kwh are you using annually? How much were you paying before and was it enough? Has your kwh usage increased?

Robin9

laurahester wrote: »

Scottish power did exactly the same thing with us when we first moved in - they could only allow a dd of £160/month as this is what the previous occupiers had. If you are new to that energy supplier it seems to be standard practise. I refused and the only way round it was to save the money myself into an account and then pay the bill when it was sent. I had to build a history of 6 months before they would allow me to have a dd based on my useage and not the previous owners. Very annoying!

I do like Laurahester's suggestion - it may be annoying but I don't like lending Utlities money though unnecessarily high DD's.

Our individual bills are going to be a combination of the property we live in, our life styles and the tariff we are on. A single person in a new-build property – out at work and socialising will use far less than a family of 4 in an older property, however well insulated, ,with people at home during the day.

When setting up your account with a supplier do take the paperless bills option, ignore DD until you can establish a pattern like Laurahester

Do use the online methods to monitor your bills. .Read your meters every month and dont’t forget to submit them !

Certainly Eon and OVO allow you to change DD once set up - both will tell you what your bill is when you submit your readings and you can then pay this online without waiting for a quarterly statement.

Never pay an estimated bill