£101pm Utility Bill for 1 Bed Flat Reasonable?? :(

mikedelaney2424

I have edited this because due to a miscalculation when posting, we are actually estimating a £100 per month total utility bill (heating, water heating, water usage, electricity usage).

Hi Guys,

Myself and my girlfriend feel like we are being stung with a Switch 2 (community heating) standing charge of £471 per year, even though Switch 2 only provide heating and hot water supply to our one bed flat in an apartment block.

When combined with our electricity supply (fixed), and actual heating and hot water usage, we are estimating that we will spend £101 per month (£50 per month each) on Water, Heating, Electricity over the course of a year...

Is this a reasonable total utility bill for a couple in a one bed flat in London?

£470 quid in standing charges aka admin fees and 'maintenance' seems excessive.

Our switch2 £ per KhW is 0.04

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as we're feeling pretty lost and uncomfortable with it.

Thanks,

Mike

Robin9

Quite possible - for your money you are getting all your electricity, water heating, heating and not having to put money aside to replace any of it.




Energy is not cheap.

Smellyonion

Its a bit high. But not too excessive. £50 would be more reasonable.

You'll gain in the winter and lose in the summer since your standing charge leads to heavily reduced rates. This type of set up benefits high users.

PasturesNew

Looks very fair to me, no matter where you are in the country - even for 1 person.

It's fixed and provides everything, so you've no worries about skimping on heating or anything. Bit of a bargain I'd say.

Would I switch from my individual bills where I skimp -v- yours? Yes! Although I'd spend a bit more... no more skimping. I could luxuriate in heat the minute it just turned a bit nippy

jcontest

£72 per month for Water+Heating+Electricity?


That sounds like a dream to me.
We pay £53 a month for Water alone. As water is tied to council bands (in my area at least) then adjusting it to a band A property would lower the cost to perhaps £45.



So I would say enjoy it while it is there. The place where these schemes tend to get costly is when something goes wrong and the owner has some relation to the repair company, and residents have to pay towards the repair.

mikedelaney2424

Hi guys, I'm really sorry but my girlfriend has just flagged that I have mis-calculated our forecast of utility bills, updated one is below:

Water Usage - £300
Heating and Water Heating Usage (Switch2) - £120
Switch2 Standing Charge - £471
Octopus Energy (electricity) - £324

MONTHLY AVERAGE - £100 per month (£50 each)

In light of this does your opinions change?

ValiantSon

jcontest wrote: »

That sounds like a dream to me.
We pay £53 a month for Water alone. As water is tied to council bands (in my area at least) then adjusting it to a band A property would lower the cost to perhaps £45.

Ask for a water meter to be fitted.

PasturesNew

mikedelaney2424 wrote: »

Hi guys, I'm really sorry but my girlfriend has just flagged that I have mis-calculated our forecast of utility bills, updated one is below:

Water Usage - £300
Heating and Water Heating Usage (Switch2) - £120
Switch2 Standing Charge - £471
Octopus Energy (electricity) - £324

MONTHLY AVERAGE - £100 per month (£50 each)

In light of this does your opinions change?

For one ... if in the south (warmer) it's a bit pricey.
For two ... at £50 each it's a little pricey, but bearable.

The main thing is it's a fixed price... you don't have to worry about usage or monitoring or skimping. Sometimes that's priceless.

I'd feel I could do it cheaper by skimping, .... but if you can afford the £100/month then enjoy the luxury of not worrying about the bills.

I probably pay £60/month for 1 person who doesn't wash often ... and who lives in a house that most would consider "bit nippy here init!"

jcontest

Based on the new info I do think it's a bit expensive.
But here is the thing, there's nothing you can do about it. The standing charge for these types of schemes can be excessive, they actually eat up all of the cost savings of CHP plants. You'll probably find that about 40% goes to actual running cost, 40% goes to admin with the other 20% going towards Repair, PPM, and a slush fund in case all goes belly up.


You should be able to contact them to get a breakdown of where the money is going, but they will likely not give you actual costings on anything. Basically this is a new approved monopoly and your taking part in it.


https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/05/district-heating-fuel-bill-regulation


https://www.staticwhich.co.uk/documents/pdf/turning-up-the-heat-getting-a-fair-deal-for-district-heating-users---which-report-399546.pdf

Robin9

OP Look at this another way. You are getting all your utilies paid for about £3 a day.

How many coffees-to-go are you buying ? How much does that cost?

Which is the best value?

redux

jcontest wrote: »

That sounds like a dream to me.
We pay £53 a month for Water alone. As water is tied to council bands (in my area at least) then adjusting it to a band A property would lower the cost to perhaps £45.

ValiantSon wrote: »

Ask for a water meter to be fitted.

Water meter cut this house bill from £700 to £220 a year. It could go down a bit more by claiming no surface drainage ends up in there.

I also installed dual rate flush valves in both toilets.