Price of Gas & Electricity

caveman38

Can someone point me to any previous posts asking what peoples bills are.
I ask as I have learned of a number of people that pay £800-£1,000 for a 3 bed semi per year. Whereas I live in a 4 bed semi and pay double. I have never switched suppliers but would be interested by other peoples bills to ascertain if I'm being wasteful or they're frugal.

boliston

2 bed flat 45 pounds a month - approx split 15 gas/20 electric/10 standing charge

Deneb

Surely the usage is more beneficial as a comparison than the cost, since the latter depends on the supplier and tariff.
For us, 4 bed "link detached" (semi-detached only on ground floor) our annual usage is 5100 kWh electricity and 23,600 kWh gas. I try to be fairly frugal with the heating, and we don't like the house to be particularly hot anyway. Normally set at 18C when it's on.

AndyPK

It's not a case of whether you are being wasteful by leaving things on.

The problem is that you have never/not switched recently. You will be on your suppliers standard tariff which is the most expensive.

You need to switch to a fixed deal which lasts a year and this will save you £100's. (maybe £300)

either with your existing suppliers, or different suppliers.

And you need to do this EVERY YEAR.

Goto
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

and fill in your details of kwh used

tick big named suppliers only, and see how much you could save, and also the difference between getting a fixed deal with your existing supplier and moving to another big supplier.

I pay less than £700 for a 4 bed.

Clearly you have never watched martin lewis on TV, as he is always on about this.

"This Morning" ITV Mondays
Breakfast show ITV Thursdays
Even his own series ITV Mondays 8pm (maybe finished now)

It's a great time to get this sorted.

matelodave

This is a question that keeps getting asked and theres no accurate answer.

It's likely though that if you've never changed suppliers that you could be paying more than you need to - I could increase my leccy bill by £500 just by being on the wrong tariff so it's definitely worthwhile using a comparison site to check whether you make a saving, just by getting a better tariff.

You do need to input your actual consumption in kwh though rather thah just trying to compare costs - it should be asy enough to get your annual consumption figures from your bills, always assuming that they aren't estimates and that you do read the meter to check that they are correct.

As to consumption, that's a "how long is a piece of string" question. It depends on your lifestyle, what appliances you've got, how well insulated the house is, what sort of heating you use, how hot you keep the place and whether you bother to switch stuff off when it's not in use.

The average's for the UK are around 13500kwh for gas and about 3500kwh for leccy, so if you use more you'd be considered above average and conversly you'd be below average if you used less.
However, whats an average house, average family and even what's the average weather (it can depend on where you live) as all of them will affect how huch you use.

You need to do your own homework to work out how much you use and to see how much you could save by reducing your consumption and getting a better tariff. Firstly though make sure that all your bills are correct and based on actual meter readings.

Robin9

AndyPK wrote: »

Goto
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

and fill in your details of kwh used

tick big named suppliers only, and see how much you could save, and also the difference between getting a fixed deal with your existing supplier and moving to another big supplier

Just to emphasise you need to use readings 12 months apart - and these should be actual not estimated. Use kwh - never £.

You may find the savings shown on the comparison sites confusing due to the OFGEM rules. Do your own sums.

Once you've swopped get into the habit of reading your meters at least once a month, give them to your supplier online and also keep your own records.

telemarks

Deneb wrote: »

Surely the usage is more beneficial as a comparison than the cost, since the latter depends on the supplier and tariff.
For us, 4 bed "link detached" (semi-detached only on ground floor) our annual usage is 5100 kWh electricity and 23,600 kWh gas. I try to be fairly frugal with the heating, and we don't like the house to be particularly hot anyway. Normally set at 18C when it's on.

Agree. We use 15,500kWh Gas and 5300kWh Elec which costs around £100 p/m on Sainsburys for an old three bedroomed Detached house heated at 21 degrees. Check your annual statements on your suppliers website for your numbers

As always Insulation, draftproofing, careful usage and efficent system is the key. No point having the cheapest supplier on the planet, if you are just heating outside with it,.

But then again may as well switch ASAP, as you will be paying too much if you don't..

caveman38

Deneb wrote: »

Surely the usage is more beneficial as a comparison than the cost, since the latter depends on the supplier and tariff.
For us, 4 bed "link detached" (semi-detached only on ground floor) our annual usage is 5100 kWh electricity and 23,600 kWh gas. I try to be fairly frugal with the heating, and we don't like the house to be particularly hot anyway. Normally set at 18C when it's on.

Agree on that. I checked and see that my usages are 14,800 & 4,325. Seem respectable compared to yours but I'm paying £1,500 on my 2 bills with BG and EON.
Been on comparison web site USwitch and I could save £370 -£420. Simplest would be BG one and save £377.
Are the dual fuel switches seamless and are there any to avoid?

matelodave

I'm all electric and presently pay around £850 a year for a large three bedroom detached bungalow out in fenland, but I've found a tariff with First Utility which would charge me £1355 for exactly the same amount of energy, that's over £45 a month more.

You consumption seems about right, although I'm sure you could put some effort into reducing it a bit but your main problem is being on expensive standard tariffs.

Just plumb your consumption figure into the cheap energy club or another comparison site and see how much you could save.

macman

Your usage is perfectly normal for a house with gas CH and DHW. Your bills are so high simply because you are on SVT's.
A switch takes about ten minutes to do, so I'm curious as to why you have delayed for so long, since you have been on MSE since 2007? So your potential saving over that period would have been in the region of £3-4K.

AndyPK

I've been avoiding dual fuel switches for the last 2 years, as there is so much more to be saved by having them separate.

Note down the pence per KWH and daily charge, and for the supplier (BG) you are considering, work out how they get to your total yearly cost.

Now tick the electric only box, and see what comes up cheap in the big suppliers for that. Note down their pence per KWH and daily charge. Are they both less? or do the calc's. Are they overall cheaper?

Finding gas only seams to be more difficult but similar principal.

How much would you save having them separate? If for example its only £25/year saving you may consider its not worth it.

If its £75+ /year you may consider it worth having them separate?

p.s you may get less cashback for not doing a dual fuel switch, but paying less its always good...