Help! My gas and electric has become really expensive since moving house

arlenecrone

I'm hoping someone can help me understand why there has been such a big jump in my gas and electric since moving house. I live in a 4 bed 1930's semi and my gas and electric is costing around £200 a month.

This house is different to our last in that it has a condensing boiler and a megaflow heating system. I had a plumber come out to do some bits and he advised that i should have the hot water on all day (6am-10pm) as the megaflow just tops it up and keeps it hot but i'm not sure if that is expensive? We generally only use showers at night in my house (2 adults and one 4 year old).

Another factor is that we have 2 shower pumps that give great water pressure but i'm worried they are adding to the expense. I can hear them come on whenever i run water (even the cold), is this correct?

I do understand that our gas will be more here because its an older house but it still seems really expensive to me.

Any advice appreciated. we already switched to octopus so i dont think its a supplier issue.

Robin9

Are you up to date with your meter readings ? If your meter was Smart before your move to Octopus it won't be now and you need to be providing Octopus with monthly readings.

arlenecrone

yes unfortunately we are - i wish it were just a case of an estimation!

I literally just updated today and we did the same last month.

Robin9

Another meter check - are these modern meters - some can be difficult to read and have a decimal point which is easily missed.

Is the issue Gas or Electric ?

arlenecrone

I've no idea if they are modern but they are very easy to read. The gas meter has a black and red panel with the decimal seperating the two. I know that i dont put in the red part.

For the electric, its digital

Talldave

arlenecrone wrote: »

I'm hoping someone can help me understand why there has been such a big jump in my gas and electric since moving house. I live in a 4 bed 1930's semi and my gas and electric is costing around £200 a month.

This house is different to our last in that it has a condensing boiler and a megaflow heating system. I had a plumber come out to do some bits and he advised that i should have the hot water on all day (6am-10pm) as the megaflow just tops it up and keeps it hot but i'm not sure if that is expensive? We generally only use showers at night in my house (2 adults and one 4 year old).

Another factor is that we have 2 shower pumps that give great water pressure but i'm worried they are adding to the expense. I can hear them come on whenever i run water (even the cold), is this correct?

I do understand that our gas will be more here because its an older house but it still seems really expensive to me.

Any advice appreciated. we already switched to octopus so i dont think its a supplier issue.

If the tank is well insulated, boost it once in the morning and a longer period in the evening (dinner, washingup, showers)? Isn't the megaflow a mains pressure thing? In which case why do you have pumps? They won't be adding much to your electricity bill if they're only on for a few seconds at a time though.

What's insulation like?