Is prepay more expensive and which boiler should I get

sparklewing

Hi everyone.

We are in the process of selling our bed flat and buying a 3 bed mid terrace. At the moment we have alll electric with storage heaters(which we use quite a lot in winter despite there not actually being much heat coming from them) and our tarriff is something odd like the water and heating are always cheap rate. We pay £42 a month currently by direct debit which covers the bills for the year.

The new house currently has an electric prepay meter and billed gas which runs off an old back boiler(for some reason there are only radiators and a gas fire downstairs and no heating upstairs but that's a different story).

Anyhoo is it cheaper to swap from a prepay electric meter to a normal billed meter or is theprice the same either way? Never had a prepay before so not sure how it works.

And also we are going to get a new boiler/radiators(including upstairs this time) and a new fire are we best to get a combi boiler or condensing or some other type? Which is cheapest? We would be getting the water from this as well as heating(I think the hot water is currently electric but not sure)

Also how much extra a month do you think we would expect to pay we have budgeted £80 a month(averaged out over a year) for gas and electric is this too little to budget or too much? We hopefully won't be using the heating too much as we are also getting new double glazing put in, plus with it being mid terrace I assume it will get a bit of heat from houses on either side and we never have baths just showers.

Farway

Prepay in all cases, except Ebico, is dearer

You will have little choice on the type of boiler due to environmental laws, so condensing is really the only choice, and a combi is IMO the way to go, then you only heat & pay for hot water you use nad not heat a whole tank full

Can't help on budget, it really comes down to your family, insulation, house type etc etc. Best to try and get it in Kw or Units and not pounds, then you can compare like with like

For instance I use 1500 Kw of electric & 10,000 Kw of gas anually, but my circumstances, live on own, terraced 3 bed house, double glazing & loft insulation, will be vastly different from many others

sparklewing

Thanks very much, will look into getting a non prepay metre fitted then, hopefully they will do it for free since I have been a customer for 3 years(at a different address) and have never missed or been late with a payment.

Will also get a condensing combi boiler. Thanks again.