Paying too much for Electric & Gas

CakeCrusader

Our estimated use is 8,756.31kWh gas per year, 3,213.01kWh electricity so it looks like your estimated usage is just about double of mine. Are you trying to give them meter readings online? If they don't match their estimated usage they aren't accepted online, you should call them up and give them the readings over the phone (not via their automated meter reading service). I found this one out when I tried to give them a gas reading of 10kWh for the summer and their system thought I was lying so it wouldn't accept the reading. Who uses their central heating in the summer?



Basic stuff to keep your bills down; don't leave electrics on stand by, turn things off at the switches when not in use, don't leave lights on in an empty room.

victor2

Find out if your actual annual usage is anything like your supplier's estimates by looking at previous bills based on your actual readings. Find two actual readings close to a year apart if you can, and from that determine your actual annual usage. As has been said, your electricity estimate is very high. Leaving things on standby etc. is not going to make any significant difference to your usage given the age of your appliances. So unless you floodlight your house every night, use a tumble dryer for lengthy periods every day, or spend ages under an electric shower daily, it's hard to see how you can be hitting those figures with gas heating, which you presumably have.

kjrann

victor2 wrote: »

Find out if your actual annual usage is anything like your supplier's estimates by looking at previous bills based on your actual readings. Find two actual readings close to a year apart if you can, and from that determine your actual annual usage. As has been said, your electricity estimate is very high. Leaving things on standby etc. is not going to make any significant difference to your usage given the age of your appliances. So unless you floodlight your house every night, use a tumble dryer for lengthy periods every day, or spend ages under an electric shower daily, it's hard to see how you can be hitting those figures with gas heating, which you presumably have.

Thank you - we do have a tumble dryer but it's only used in Winter for drying towels (at that would only be at weekend), we also have gas central heating and an electric shower but neither used excessively. Nothing is every left on standby and hubby has OCD so everything is turned off when not in use! Will log into our account to see if I can compare bills a year apart.

kjrann

victor2 wrote: »

Find out if your actual annual usage is anything like your supplier's estimates by looking at previous bills based on your actual readings. Find two actual readings close to a year apart if you can, and from that determine your actual annual usage. As has been said, your electricity estimate is very high. Leaving things on standby etc. is not going to make any significant difference to your usage given the age of your appliances. So unless you floodlight your house every night, use a tumble dryer for lengthy periods every day, or spend ages under an electric shower daily, it's hard to see how you can be hitting those figures with gas heating, which you presumably have.

CakeCrusader wrote: »

Our estimated use is 8,756.31kWh gas per year, 3,213.01kWh electricity so it looks like your estimated usage is just about double of mine. Are you trying to give them meter readings online? If they don't match their estimated usage they aren't accepted online, you should call them up and give them the readings over the phone (not via their automated meter reading service). I found this one out when I tried to give them a gas reading of 10kWh for the summer and their system thought I was lying so it wouldn't accept the reading. Who uses their central heating in the summer?



Basic stuff to keep your bills down; don't leave electrics on stand by, turn things off at the switches when not in use, don't leave lights on in an empty room.

Yes, I've always submitted meter readings online. Nothing is left on standby and everything not is used it switched off at socket due to hubby's OCD. I've just created a template to log daily usage to two weeks - will be interesting to see how it changes at the weekend when we are home. Thank you for your replies - much appreciated

Green_hopeful

We did an audit at my partners house. He was using 27 kWh per day of electricity. I laughed for a good long time at how bad it was.

We had an energy monitor on the electricity. We turned everything off and put things back on in turn to see what they were using. We found some shockingly high consumption. We swapped the lightbulbs for LED ones from a pound shop. We got rid of some appliances and bought lower energy versions second hand. We stopped using the drier and made sure we only do full loads of washing.

I use a general rule of thumb that many appliances use about 1 kWh per load or an hour on the oven.

We are now averaging between 7 and 8 kWh per day. That’s over £1,000 saving a year. Others will be more efficient on mse but I think it is quite a good reduction.

This year we need to look at the heating.

Norman_Castle

kjrann wrote: »

Will log into our account to see if I can compare bills a year apart.

Your bills should show annual consumption in kwh based on previous years usage.

Talldave

Your electricity consumption is higher than your lifestyle would suggest. Time to plug in an energy monitor and do some detective work.

And time to switch to another supplier!

Monkey_B

For comparison:
In the last 12 months, we have used 25000kWh gas and 4300kWh electricity.
We are a family of four with a 1 and 3 year old. My partner has only just gone back to work so has mostly been in the house day and night over the last year. Washing machine is on constantly, tumble dryer used a lot whenever the sun isn't shining, central heating on pretty much permanently from Sep to Apr (including overnight in the kids rooms).
Also, we live in a detached dormer bungalow, so upstairs is effectively in the loft which severely limits insulation options. It's an incredibly inefficient house to heat!
Boiler is about 5 years old, so reasonably efficient (I assume).
Bearing all that in mind, I am extremely keen to make sure I am on a good energy deal and tend to switch every year. I currently pay £117p.m. on a fixed deal with Outfox the Market.
I reckon you're paying way more than you should be - get yourself signed up to MSE Cheap energy club and get switching!

Redboot

Ofgem publishes Typical Domestic Consumption Values (TDCVs). These are currently:

Gas
Low - 8000 kWh
Medium - 12000 kWh
High - 17000 kWh

Electricity (single rate meter)
Low - 1900 kWh
Medium - 3100 kWh
High - 4500kWh

But each to their own. If you are happy with your current consumption levels, and can afford them, then carry on

Use a comparison site to find the best deals for your usage and supply region.
Consider signing up to a monitoring and alerting service (such as MSE's own Cheap Energy Club) to regularly check you are on the best deal for you and alert you when you are not.

RelievedSheff

It does sound like you are paying quite a lot for your gas and electric.

We are a similar household to yours with two adults living in a 3 bed house out Monday to Friday at work from 7am to 6pm.

We are currently paying £61.50 per month for gas and electric with British Gas which is made up £29 for electric and £32.50 for gas.

We have been with our current supplier since June and have so far built up a decent credit balance to pay towards our higher winter gas consumption.