High bills - what happens if we find a fault

raddougall

RelievedSheff said:

raddougall said:

Talldave said:

The billing is correct.  Your consumption doesn't surprise me. All looks OK apart from the costs you were quoting.  Please tell us your tariff costs?

Thanks @Talldave
Just seemed very high to me, especially in those first weeks when we had no gas appliances for part of it, but I did come from a 2 bed terrace to a 4 bed detached. However, when I compare to my brother with a 3 bed detached house with a thatch roof, our usage appears to be something like 3x his. I could appreciate a bit more, but 3x is a lot.

Bulb tariff is/was ...
Electricity 19.66p per day plus 13.50p per KWh
Gas 19.47p per day plus 2.78p per KWh

It is useless comparing your house against your brothers. All houses are different. Our 3 bed detached house used 6500kWh of gas last year and 2500kWh of electric. Doesn't mean all 3 bed detached houses will use that amount.

Your tariff appears to be a little on the high side for both gas and electric. When you are using the amount of energy you are even a small difference in price can make a big difference to your bills.

The hot tub is one way you can cut our bills. Get rid of the thing. All of our friends who have them reckon they cost around £1 per day just to keep them to temperature. That's circa £365 you can save a year.

Thanks @RelievedSheff
Id say on the hot tub front they are right at £1 a day. We enjoyed it though and used it so worth it. And yes I appreciate the rates are not the cheapest on the market. I’m looking at new ones since I don’t think Bulbs green claims are quite what I was hoping for.

Really it’s the gas usage here that I’m focusing on. I’m quite thrifty with the heating and while I appreciate compatissions are hard, I don’t understand how we were apparently on track for annual use of around 25,000KWh when we don’t even cook with gas.

MWT

raddougall said:

Really it’s the gas usage here that I’m focusing on. I’m quite thrifty with the heating and while I appreciate compatissions are hard, I don’t understand how we were apparently on track for annual use of around 25,000KWh when we don’t even cook with gas.

Cooking isn't going make much difference compared to heating costs anyway.

I'll give you another comparison point.

We have a 5 bedroom detached house and use around 14,000kWh a year, but...

We have 'A' rated double glazing, good cavity wall insulation and very good loft insulation as well as a relatively recently installed  condensing boiler operating in the right water temperature range.

In winter we keep the thermostat at 20C with a drop to 16C overnight and use thermostatic radiator valves to keep the temperature low in rooms we are not using.

It isn't hard to get from our usage to your usage if you don't have all of the above in your property.

RelievedSheff

raddougall said:

RelievedSheff said:

raddougall said:

Talldave said:

The billing is correct.  Your consumption doesn't surprise me. All looks OK apart from the costs you were quoting.  Please tell us your tariff costs?

Thanks @Talldave
Just seemed very high to me, especially in those first weeks when we had no gas appliances for part of it, but I did come from a 2 bed terrace to a 4 bed detached. However, when I compare to my brother with a 3 bed detached house with a thatch roof, our usage appears to be something like 3x his. I could appreciate a bit more, but 3x is a lot.

Bulb tariff is/was ...
Electricity 19.66p per day plus 13.50p per KWh
Gas 19.47p per day plus 2.78p per KWh

It is useless comparing your house against your brothers. All houses are different. Our 3 bed detached house used 6500kWh of gas last year and 2500kWh of electric. Doesn't mean all 3 bed detached houses will use that amount.

Your tariff appears to be a little on the high side for both gas and electric. When you are using the amount of energy you are even a small difference in price can make a big difference to your bills.

The hot tub is one way you can cut our bills. Get rid of the thing. All of our friends who have them reckon they cost around £1 per day just to keep them to temperature. That's circa £365 you can save a year.

Thanks @RelievedSheff
Id say on the hot tub front they are right at £1 a day. We enjoyed it though and used it so worth it. And yes I appreciate the rates are not the cheapest on the market. I’m looking at new ones since I don’t think Bulbs green claims are quite what I was hoping for.

Really it’s the gas usage here that I’m focusing on. I’m quite thrifty with the heating and while I appreciate compatissions are hard, I don’t understand how we were apparently on track for annual use of around 25,000KWh when we don’t even cook with gas.

Cooking won't make much difference to your gas use. It is heating and hot water that use most gas.

How big is your house? What year was it built? Does it have roof, wall and floor insulation? How old are the windows and are they double glazed? What make is your boiler and how old is it? Is it a combi or traditional boiler with hot water cylinder? If it has a separate cylinder how long is that set to heat per day? Do you have TRV's fitted? How often do you have your heating set to come on? At what temperature is your thermostat set?

All of these things will affect how much gas that you consume. Even things like the orientation of the house and how much warmth is gained from solar gain can impact on bills.

Gerry1

You did well to spot that the dodgy agent had tried to monetise you by putting you on a rip-off Spark tariff, but sadly you then blotted your copybook by moving to a mediocre Bulb tariff.  I hope you at least got a referral fee !  Or did you use a commercial comparison site and forgot to search the wider market and didn't compare separate fuels, which are often cheaper?

Make sure that you get it right in your new property.

RelievedSheff

Most of the advice given on here is going to be a bit irrelevant if you are moving to a new property so quickly.

But it will give you some pointers for when you move to your new house. Make sure you are on the best tariff for your area and your needs. Make sure you have the heating and hot water systems set up to best suit how you use them and at the most efficient. And try to reduce your consumption of both gas and electric, they were both on the high side.

Don't forget to take your meter readings when you leave this house and first thing when you get to the new house.

raddougall

@MWT
@RelievedSheff
Indeed I understand all this has an impact. Here are the particulars....

Built around 1970. Upgraded since. Double glazed all round, cavity wall insulation, loads of loft insulation, brand new combi-boiler, thermo valves on all radiators, south facing front of the house. 20-21 degrees when we're there, 16 overnight or when out.

All those factors suggest we have a good energy efficiency. 

There is one reducing factor that the kitchen and hall downstairs had a tiled floor rather than carpet. 

Any obviously we have to account for some working from home and then Covid so that would have increased our use a bit especially in Jan and Feb. 

Still 25,000KWh seems excessive for a year. 

But if we can't find fault in the bills then there is nothing more to do here really since we have now moved out. I'm just revisiting it as we owe £400 now due to living there mostly in the winter and having this crazy high usage.

I really just wanted to see if anyone could spot a problem that I had not

RelievedSheff

Assuming the new boiler was a condensing boiler was it set up so that is could go into condensing mode?

To go into condensing mode and thus be the most efficient the return temperature for the water needs to be around about 55 degrees which means that the water temperature going out of the boiler needs to be about 60-65 degrees depending on the size of the system and how it is set up. If the boiler temperature has been set too high it will never go into condensing mode and won't run very efficiently.

Again a moot point as you are moving out but something to bear in mind for next time.

brewerdave

Bit irrelevant now as you have moved ,but I have a 5 bedroomed detached - both of us at home (retired), my wife is forever turning the thermostat up and yet we "only" used 16700 kwh last year for heating, hot water and cooking- so sounds like there was something not right with your boiler!!

raddougall

Thanks @brewerdave
I did start on this road when we lived there but the landlord was a nightmare so we had to get out unfortunately. Thats why I think if there was a physical fault then there isn't much I can do but if it was a bill fault then I have a chance. 

But yes, the scenario in your house is reasonably comparable to the conversations my partner and I have and your usage is 7000-8000 KWh less per year.... thats as much on top as my previous house was on it's own.

@RelievedSheff Indeed it was a condensing boiler and the temp of the water for both heating and hot water was set to the recommended levels as per the manual. I think it was 65 for heating and similar for the hot water. Actually I think I eventually set the hot water under the recommended as we just didn't need it that hot.