First Home Energy

DavidWFC

Me and my partner have just moved into our first home, which is a new build property. I'm not sure on what my usage would be so have been using the recommended levels by suppliers. I've been put with British Gas by the builder on there standard tariff and they estimate my monthly bills to be £42.65 for Electricity and £50.78 for Gas. Which seems expensive to me... What's your thoughts and advice?

[Deleted User]

yes it is expensive, It is British Gas and a standard (most expensive) tariff too.

Just have a look at the price comparison sites to see how much you are being overcharged. Two trustworthy sites are
https://energycompare.citizensadvice.org.uk/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub
Just use the average energy used for the time being as it will take a year to know your real usage. Just take monthly meter readings and track your energy used to see if you are on track as the year goes on.

DavidWFC

gsmlnx wrote: »

yes it is expensive, It is British Gas and a standard (most expensive) tariff too.

Just have a look at the price comparison sites to see how much you are being overcharged. Two trustworthy sites are
https://energycompare.citizensadvice.org.uk/
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub
Just use the average energy used for the time being as it will take a year to know your real usage. Just take monthly meter readings and track your energy used to see if you are on track as the year goes on.

Thanks, I tried the MSE link. However, I haven't heard of any of them apart from First Utility. The top picks are...

Avro Energy - £62 p/m
Bulb - £64 p/m
Flow Energy - £65 p/m
First Utility - £69 p/m
Ovo Energy - £70 p/m

This is based on the MSE estimates of 9168 kWh for gas and 3045 kWh for electricity. Do these sound OK? Thinking about switching but thought I'd ask for opinions before jumping into it if you guys don't mind. Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Try to increase the fuel used to allow for a bad winter (normally gas will increase by 1 or 2 or 3 thousand units if that is your source of heating, electricity if not used for heating will not vary too much). Then compare to the list above as this may change things.
If it is a new built home, did the developer give annual kWh estimates for the property?
Also all the MSE tariffs have a link to the forum's feedback, just expand the "Feedback & Info" link on every tariff to get the link.
And finally, it can be cheaper to use different gas and electricity suppliers so check out the sums that way too.