Huge rise in energy since move

Gerry1

Depending on the exact date in August, the switching window may already be open, so get comparing!
This calculator may be better. 

matelodave

Be a bit wary about being in credit - bills and readings can often be behind your consumption or DD payments so until you really do understand how your bills and meter readings correlate with each other it's best not to demand a refund.

If you've got your original meter readings and your readings from today then you could probably make a reasonable stab at working out your annual consumption and whether your direct debit will cover it.

(6712kwh in 232 days = an average of 30kwh a day x 365 = 10560kwh per annum which TBH is a bit on the low side of average. Bear in mind though that you shouldn't be using anything like 30kwh/day in the summer and it's likely to be more like 60-100kwh a day in the winter. This means that you use a lot more than what you pay for as a DD in the winter and a lot less than your DD amount in the summer and hopefully it will balance out over the year.

It really is worth the effort of trying to understand what is going on as it's helps your bank balance and even more importantly your stress levels as you don't get nasty surprises

Nooglienoo

matelodave said:

Be a bit wary about being in credit - bills and readings can often be behind your consumption or DD payments so until you really do understand how your bills and meter readings correlate with each other it's best not to demand a refund.

If you've got your original meter readings and your readings from today then you could probably make a reasonable stab at working out your annual consumption and whether your direct debit will cover it.

(6712kwh in 232 days = an average of 30kwh a day x 365 = 10560kwh per annum which TBH is a bit on the low side of average. Bear in mind though that you shouldn't be using anything like 30kwh/day in the summer and it's likely to be more like 60-100kwh a day in the winter. This means that you use a lot more than what you pay for as a DD in the winter and a lot less than your DD amount in the summer and hopefully it will balance out over the year.

It really is worth the effort of trying to understand what is going on as it's helps your bank balance and even more importantly your stress levels as you don't get nasty surprises

Thanks! I wasnt planning on withdrawing the credit yet as like I mentioned I am wary that there may be an error. I'll keep the credit with them and get a refund of what's left after the final bill.
I'm waiting to see if BG suggest bringing back down the DD that they doubled two months ago - as I suspect they put it up as high as they did to pay off the debit before the tariff ended. Really missing Scottish Power now as their app was fan-bloody-tastic for tracking bills, was so much clearer and the interface was so easy to use. BG app is clunky in comparison.

I thought I did understand it all but this thread is quickly making me realise I have barely scratched the surface of what I could analyse with my energy spending! 

Nooglienoo

Robin9 said:

Sounds right and 2355 kWh is typical - where is the 18995 figure coming from ?

I used an online calculator which I believe was interpreting my meter readings as imperial rather than metric.

[Deleted User]

Nooglienoo said:

Robin9 said:

Sounds right and 2355 kWh is typical - where is the 18995 figure coming from ?

I used an online calculator which I believe was interpreting my meter readings as imperial rather than metric.

Hi,

why not just set up your own spreadsheet, do regular meter readings and keep your eye on things.

Nooglienoo

frugalmacdugal said:

Nooglienoo said:

Robin9 said:

Sounds right and 2355 kWh is typical - where is the 18995 figure coming from ?

I used an online calculator which I believe was interpreting my meter readings as imperial rather than metric.

Hi,

why not just set up your own spreadsheet, do regular meter readings and keep your eye on things.

I'm a graphic designer by trade so excel is not my strong suit!!

Haha! Honestly I may have to start. In the old house I never felt compelled to as every month my meter readings were uploaded and every month the DD went down. Was fantastic. Though I think this house might be a little different and my negligence of meter readings at the end of the year with the move and Christmas has made me realise I need to get back into my old habits.

Talldave

It is really easy in Excel. For gas, my kWh entry in cell R48 is: =(P48*Q48*1.02264)/3.6, where cell P48 is the gas used in m3 and cell Q48 is the calorific value (which I get off the bills, currently 39).  Cell P48 contains: =E48-E47, column E contains the meter readings, so that's effectively current reading minus last reading.  For electricity you just subtract meter readings which are already in kWh. All the formulae are relative so can be drag copied.  Then you can plot pretty graphs.....

victor2

Talldave said:

It is really easy in Excel. For gas, my kWh entry in cell R48 is: =(P48*Q48*1.02264)/3.6, where cell P48 is the gas used in m3 and cell Q48 is the calorific value (which I get off the bills, currently 39).  Cell P48 contains: =E48-E47, column E contains the meter readings, so that's effectively current reading minus last reading.  For electricity you just subtract meter readings which are already in kWh. All the formulae are relative so can be drag copied.  Then you can plot pretty graphs.....

Unless the OP knows at least the basics of Excel, that will have bamboozled him/her.

I used to work with graphic designers, they could perform wonders with images on a computer, way beyond any abilities I had, but simple stuff I could do in Excel with my eyes closed would just leave them perplexed.

OP. At least keep a log of your meter readings along with dates, take screen dumps of any you input to your supplier and download copies of any statements the supplier produces. You can then analyse them at your leisure later.

Your statements will show the formula used to convert gas meter readings to kWh. It is pretty simple, and the only variable is the calorific value (CV), which only varies by a fraction, if at all, from month to month. Variations only make a difference of pennies in a typical monthly bill.

tim_p

There’s plenty of apps out there, makes it really easy to enter data.  All meter types covered too. 

Robin9

I think's its even easier - it's a back of a fag packet exercise. My primary school arithmetic (yes I'm that old)  used to round things up or down so you could get a good idea of the answer before you did your actual multiplication eg 2800 became 3000 and 2.345 became 2 giving 3000 x 2 = 6000 (actual 6566 so if you got 600 or 60000 you knew that those were wrong)