Struggling to properly evaluate energy costs

Lungboy

We bought our first house in November, and started our utlities then so they are due to change soon hence me looking into new deals, but we didn't move in until May due to the renovation work taking a long time. As such, I'm finding it very difficult to accurately work out our energy usage, as I only have our summer numbers to go on, which will be low. I know that with winter coming I should be looking for a low gas price, but as I don't know our likely usage I can't work out whether a low gas price is more important than a low standing charge. We are in a 1930s 3 bed semi (loft freshly insulated this year, double glazing albeit a bit old, solid walls), 2 adults plus a toddler and soon to be a newborn. We tend to be as economical as we can, with low power bulbs and we turn everything off whenever possible. Any ideas?

D_M_E

If you are frugal with your energy use and keep your heating set around 18c and turn it down at night, I suggest you use annual figures of 2000Kwh for electric and 15000Kwh for gas when you consult comparison sites, and when you do switch ask your new supplier to set your direct debit payment to £100 and you should get change out of that when the cold season ends.

When the weather gets warmer again, look at what credit you have built up and what you have used and you should be able to get your DD reduced to around £60 or even less.

lisa110rry

Hi Lungboy, my best suggestion to you is to keep a spreadsheet of monthly readings! It's quite easy to calculate your usage (although gas is more complicated than electricity) and then, after this year, you will be able to record a quite accurate usage, with the only unknowable being the weather! I do this, posting my readings on the supplier's website monthly so that their assessment of my monthly dd can be as accurate as possible (and I can pull them up if they try to take the mick).

teddysmum

Having gas central heating/water heating , I find that our electricity usage is fairly constant throughout the year, but you would need to add a little extra to cover the need for more laundry, when the new baby is born.