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

CashStrapped

Even using those figures 16,000KWH for gas and 6000KWH for electric.

That gives and DD value based on a good tariff of around £114. (Depending on the unit prices in your area)

Out of interest, how long have you been with this company?

joncrip

Since about 2012 I think. It would be interesting to get a quote actually based on those figures.

CashStrapped

Yes, alsways use accurate KWH figures if you can rather than random DD amount guesses. Energyhelpline is the one I use as it shows all tariffs by default.

What are your results for your area?

More importantly, how long have you being paying £150 and what state is your account with BG in? Credit or Debit?

sayan1

There is a chance you could have a faulty meter. I live in a new built two bed property & our gas bill for the last 3 months was £650 due to a faulty meter.

joncrip

I'm going to give them a call tomorrow and have a chat. It would be interesting to see if they'll switch us to a Smart Meter.
Our gas account is £230 in credit as of this month, our electricity account is neutral. But I need to do a meter reading tomorrow too.

CashStrapped

What do your comparison results say based on your figures for your area?

joncrip

CashStrapped wrote: »

What do your comparison results say based on your figures for your area?

Energy Helpline says that I could save £282 a year by switching to Sainsbury's Energy.

CashStrapped

Sounds good to me.

Somehow, if your usage for last year was not a one off, and to be honest last year was very mild, British Gas seem to have you on a very high DD and tariff.

If you input your exact KWH figures, then that saving is based on the correct figures compared to your current tariff with BG. This suggests to me that you are on a really poor tariff for your usage pattern with BG, regardless of the high DD. That is the cause of the issue.

This may be because you have never used KHW as a comparison.

First thing, go down the energyhelpline list, as see how far down British Gas are, and how much they can save compared to the best.

If their offering no where near as good, switch, no questions, just switch. Ironically, the sainsburys tariff is offered via British Gas.

As a side note:

Your electricity use is very high. Based on your annual usage that averages at around 16KWH per day!

You would expect 16KWH per day in winter maybe, but it should be far less in summer. So, as another method to bring bills down further, start to have a good look at your electricity use. How many things on standby, do you use cfl or led bulbs and so on. Use sleep mode when away from your computer for shor periods, or tweak the power usage settings so it goes to sleep if you leave it for too long. Do not use any electric heaters. etc. etc.

matelodave

I'd say your electricity is too high high if you are using 6000kwh a year and you heat your house and hot water with gas.

Try turning stuff off when it's not being used and don't leave equipment on standby. Computers, printers, scanners, TV's, game boxes, video recorders, SKY boxes, microwave ovens etc all use a bit when on standby.
Washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers etc use the same amount of electricity when full as when they are half empty so only use them with full loads.

You really need to be monitoring your energy use yourself by reading the meters at least weekly to see when and what is using it. You'll then have more control over what you use.

Your bills just tell you how much you've already used and got to pay for, they don't help you keep your consumption under control.

Your thermostat must be in a room that gets heated by the heating system otherwise it will never turn the heating off.

A programmable wireless thermostat is the easiest way to slove that problem and will cost you less than £50. They are easy to DIY fit if you know what you are doing and it should take a competent electrician less than an hour to fit if you don't.

The receiver unit is located next to the boiler and is connected to it in place of the existing thermostat. The new wireless stat can then be put into any room you like - it doesn't even have to be screwed on the wall. Any TRVs in the room with the thermostat should be wide open otherwise the two will fight each other

Your hot water tank should be well insulated and also have a thermostat & timer that controls the tank temperature by turning the boiler/pump on and off.

patanne

Shouldn't the OP have credit on his gas as we are going into winter? So it does not seem that his DD is set too high unless he is paying off from a year ago when he had too low a DD.

I still think his unheated hall in particular is part of the problem because every time a door is opened even with TVRs it will make the heating kick in due to the blast of cold air entering the room. At the moment it is unheated AND has the thermostat, the temp in the rest of the house must be up & down depending on whether the front door has been opened recently