New to mains gas, how much to budget

tori.k

We are finally moving to a house with a mains gas supply, being pretty rural heating fuel has always been an up front affair in the form of oil, lpg or wood and coal.
I know this is a how longs a piece of string question but wondering how do i work out the average use of gas for a 3 working adult household in a 3bed well insulated house ( 10 year old) with a gas combi boiler and gas hob.
im just trying to avoid a huge top up bill, but don't want to overpay to much as looking to free up income for sorting a new house.
Do you think £60 is a realistic figure to start a DD or is this too low.
any advice would be appreciated

AndyPK

I'd be thinking more of £400 a year but that assumes


1. You are on a fixed 1 year deal (not standard tariff)
2. Unsure how much cooking adds to it.


Take readings at 2 week intervals to give yourself an idea

Smodlet

It depends on your tariff to a large extent and on what type/size of 3 bed house you have. A detached will lose more heat than a semi. Large rooms and high ceilings cost more to heat than small rooms, obviously.

Have you checked out the CEC/other comparison sites to see what you can get? The CEC will give you an estimate based on "average" usage but how accurate that is, who knows?

If it is of any help, our smallish 3 bed semi with 2 adults who are in all the time uses approx 13500kwh of gas per year. We have gch and a 2 year old combi boiler. There is insulation but it is not state of the art, just "good enough" apparently. We cook with electricity so if yours is a gas cooker, you need to factor that in.

tori.k

I was planning to stay with our current electricity supplier and just add in the gas in the short term. we currently ( accurately) been using £68 a month in electric (E7) for household use and water, heating is off gird.
I do cook from scratch but its only one meal most days as we all work/college full time so if I allow £100 a month for both, sound reasonable?
I have no idea on mains gas. its still a bit of a rarity in Cornwall but slowly getting more common.
I would ask our energy supplier but they do tend to hugely over estimate and its always a hassle getting the credit back at the end of contract so would rather come across as having some idea of what we will use

yearly electric 3763 kwh day
6403 kwh night
Our currently electric will naturally drop due to the new house being smaller and a more efficient 3 bed semi detached

Robin9

When you move you need to ring your elec supplier and give them readings - take a photo if you cN.

At your new house find out who the existing suppliers for gas and elec are and ring them with the readings. Then you can arrange to swop suppliers.

You cannot simply transfer your existing supplier from the old property to the new.

For gas

Smodlet

The only way to know is as AndyPK said; take regular readings and update your online account with them. If you have only just moved in, I might take them weekly or even daily for one week, then weekly. Once you have 30 days' worth you can multiply that by 12 which might give an idea of annual usage since we are near the equinox (with snow on the ground!)

Then just multiply by the unit rate including VAT, add the daily standing charge including VAT x365 and divide by 12 for a rough monthly cost. It is not possible to give you any better idea than that without actual figures but you will figure it out.

If you have not yet moved there is nothing to stop you looking on the CEC anyway and putting in your new post code to get an idea of available tariff charges.

matelodave

As Smodlet says, you wont go far wrong if you budget for 13500kwh a year for gas and then monitor what you are using. The actual cost will depend on what tariff you get - your DD could vary by £20 or more a month so it's worthwhle making sure you get decent value.

If you read the meters at least once a month, send the info in to your supplier you'll be able to see how much you are over/or underpaying.

Be aware though that you'll use the majority of your gas in the winter so if you start a contract now then you should end up with quite a lot of credit by October which can easily get wiped out by next March.

Ideally you need to be at least two months in credit by October to take care of winter - that's what catches most people out.

Smodlet

I think matelodave just called me average.

tori.k

Thats what im kind of trying to do just didn't have any reference to usage until you gave me your figures, i know your figures are irreverent to our set up but looking that £1200 a year for gas& electric should enough to budget until I get our accurate figures, we haven't move in yet, im just trying to get my ducks in a row.
Im sure everytime we've move I swear it will be the last.
Thank guys

tori.k

Robin9 wrote: »

When you move you need to ring your elec supplier and give them readings - take a photo if you cN.

At your new house find out who the existing suppliers for gas and elec are and ring them with the readings. Then you can arrange to swop suppliers.

You cannot simply transfer your existing supplier from the old property to the new.

For gas

I did mean I would switch the new place supply to our current electric supplier they are currently still the cheapest supplier for us

Smodlet

As you say, tori.k, you cannot know until you are there and have actual usage figures but, if your new house is average-sized, £100 per month for both fuels should be enough if you find a good tariff.

Sorry if this confuses: I pay barely more than half of that but we have solar panels so estimate we generate at least a third of our own electricity and I am still in credit at this time of year, just. Without the credit when I had to change tariffs at the end of my last fix (how bad does that sound? :rotfl:) I would be paying £70 pcm.

Our last house was also a three bed but detached and twice the size of this one, no exaggeration so "3 bed house" is about as vague as you can get, I'm afraid. I would call this one about average for a semi.

May I wish you the best of luck with your move and well done for thinking ahead so well. I hope you and yours will be happy in your new home.