£153 a month, gas and electric in a 3 bed terraced house?

joncrip

Hi everyone,

I live in a 3 bed end terrace. It's 100 years old, one large lounge/diner, one kitchen, one bathroom, three bedrooms. I installed extra insulation in the loft last year, and that saved us about a third on the amount of gas we're using. We've got a seven year old combi boiler which supplies us with heating and hot water for washing up and showers. Our cooking appliances are electric.
There's three of us in the house: myself, my wife and our 18 month old daughter. I don't think the heating was on at all over the summer, but in the last couple of weeks we've had it on for two hours at night and two in the morning.
We're paying £103 a month for gas, and £50 for electricity. I've just compared prices on U Switch, and we could save about £22 a month by switching to Sainsburys. But that's still £130 a month, which seems high.
Any thoughts?
I have wondered whether it could be the positioning of our thermostat - it's in the hall by the front door, which never gets any warmer even when the heating is on full blast!

PennyForThem_2

lol - I live in a large 4 bed detached property which is 100 years old and only pay £80 per month for electricity and gas. Admittedly on my own but even when 3 of us I did not pay what you pay.

Try putting on warm clothing, looking at cavity wall insulation, draught excluding sausage dogs against doors and limiting central heating.

My heating isn't on - only hot water. Probably won't go on until Nov.

When I was a child there was no central heating and, born in January, I was put out in pram for first year all the year round open to elements. You got used to cold and put on warm clothing. I think we were healthier for it.

CashStrapped

Somthing is very wrong with your usage. It is on the very high end. It also seems disproportionatly high compared to your house type, occupents and boiler age/type.

My boiler is 35 years old, and I am using less gas than you for the same/similar usage.

Firstly, how long have you lived here? What is your DD amount based on?

When you compare with other suppliers are you using accurate figures based on your annual KWH usage, or are you just using your DD figures?

Do you know your annual KWH figures for gas/electric? Do you know your daily usage for gas/electric?

First you need to establish exactly what your daily usage is in KWH. Then you need to start looking at why the usage is so high.

If you have the figures (daily and annual) post them here.

Kendall80

Your usage does seem unusually high. Family of 4 here. Spacious 4 bed semi with conservatory (heat loss!). Combi Boiler = 10 years old. 71 pound a month for both electricity and gas combined.

keith1950

We're paying £103 a month for gas, and £50 for electricity. I've just compared prices on U Switch, and we could save about £22 a month by switching to Sainsburys. But that's still £130 a month, which seems high.

You do need to use your usage figures in kwh's , it is pointless entering direct debit amounts into comparison sites.

If you are actually using £103/month ( £1200/year ) of gas then that is simlar to my mother , who lives alone, but likes the house around 27 degrees which I find too hot. She usually uses around 27,000 kwh's.

I have wondered whether it could be the positioning of our thermostat - it's in the hall by the front door, which never gets any warmer even when the heating is on full blast!

If the thermostat nevers switches off then whatever the temp. in the hall the rest of the house should be scorching !

It is also pointless comparing yours costs with other people because some people are in all day , some virtually never in , some people like it hot , some like it cold etc. etc.

dogshome

As already posted, we need your annual consumptions of Gas & Elec in Kwh to give sensible advice - If this hasn't been given to you on your bills, give your supplier a ring and ask.

Apart from the above, it's possible that high Direct Debit payments are due to earlier D/Debit payments being too low, so the current level is set to collect older debt

joncrip

Thanks for all the info. I did use KWH on the comparison site. We used something like 16092 KWH of gas last year. As I've mentioned - the only gas appliance we have is the boiler, and that is 7 years old and has been serviced annually.
I think that due to the placement of radiators and our thermostat, that whenever our heating is on it is running continuously, as our corridor will never get up to temperature. There are no radiators in the corridor where the thermostat is, or the kitchen which is next to the corridor. Our living room is at right angles to the corridor and so very little heat makes it through to the thermostat. Perhaps investing in a mobile/radio thermostat would be worthwhile?

CashStrapped

Ok, around 16000kwh is around the average for the UK.

Depending on your electric use, you should not be paying anywhere near £150 per month in my opinion.

If your electric use is around 4500kwh for the year (rough UK average); based on current tariffs, your DD should be around the £100 mark.

This suggests to me either:

1. When you initially compared/signed up to your current energy company, you gave them incorrect figures, or you used DD amounts as a guide.
2. Your electric use is much higher than average.

Solution:


Get accurate KWH figures for your gas and electric (how did you get that 16092KWH figure?).Use them in a comparison site, and take your pick.



Check if your current supplier has any leaving penalties first.



Out of interest, let us know your electric KWH usage and how you got those readings.

patanne

It may be worth investing in an additional radiator in the hall but near the kitchen and also thermostatic valves for the radiators. If you have an ordinary combi boiler at present and have to replace it with a condensing one you could well need a radiator in your kitchen too if that is where the boiler is.

Sometimes you just have to spend to save!

CashStrapped

patanne wrote: »

It may be worth investing in an additional radiator in the hall but near the kitchen and also thermostatic valves for the radiators. If you have an ordinary combi boiler at present and have to replace it with a condensing one you could well need a radiator in your kitchen too if that is where the boiler is.

Sometimes you just have to spend to save!

That is not the correct solution nor solves the problem.

Something is very odd. Regardless of the DD amount, 16000KWH is a "normal user" UK average. So he is not a high gas user at all. If that 16000 figure is accurate, something else is the issue here.

To have a DD value of £150 he would have to be using 30,000KWH+ of gas and 5500KWH+ of electric.

Or a normal amount of gas, (16,000KWH as he stated) and a huge amount of electric 10,000KWH+, to make the sums add up.

Are you paying off debt? How long have you being paying the £150 DD?

joncrip

CashStrapped wrote: »

Ok, around 16000kwh is around the average for the UK.

Depending on your electric use, you should not be paying anywhere near £150 per month in my opinion.

If your electric use is around 4500kwh for the year (rough UK average); based on current tariffs, your DD should be around the £100 mark.

This suggests to me either:

1. When you initially compared/signed up to your current energy company, you gave them incorrect figures, or you used DD amounts as a guide.
2. Your electric use is much higher than average.

Solution:


Get accurate KWH figures for your gas and electric (how did you get that 16092KWH figure?).Use them in a comparison site, and take your pick.



Check if your current supplier has any leaving penalties first.



Out of interest, let us know your electric KWH usage and how you got those readings.

Ah ha - so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, and it's our electricity that's over-average. We used 6000kwh of electricity last year. These figures are from our annual statements from British Gas. Our electricity is possibly slightly higher because I work from home sometimes and have to have a computer running 24/7. We also had lots of high-energy lights until recently.