HELP - 2 People/2.5 Bed Semi - Crazy Monthly Bill

engineer0101

I'm so confused and struggling where to turn. 2 people living in a 2.5 bed 1930's semi detached house. We are in the house (awake) maybe 6 hours a day tops weekdays and hardly in weekends. I love being cold so the heating is rarely on either. LED bulbs throughout. 

Our monthly bill is £97.27 Elec/391kWh average and £38.46 gas/627kWh average equalling £135.73! This is with British Gas and according to them we're on the cheapest tariff and USwitch can't beat it either.

I'm paranoid our smart meter is dicky as it seems to have shot up from sub £100 when we had it fitted back in mid-2020 but I would imagine anyone at British Gas would just shrug and go "yeahh sure". Does this seem high to anyone else? People I've spoken to scoff and ask "really?!" when I mention how high it is.

What can I do?

Thankyou so much in advance.

Neil_Jones

Get some bills out and check whether you are being billed on actual usage or estimated usage; note that the latter can still apply even with smart meters.

QrizB

Are those your annual averages?

391kWh/mo electricity is 4700kWh/yr, and 627kWh/mo gas is 7500kWh/yr. That's roughly double the amount of electricity I would expect for your situation, but about right for gas (maybe a bit low, if anything).

Do you have your bills from before the smart meter? What was your annual average then?

And exactly what BG tariff are you on?

Edit to add:

Regarding electricity, do you have an instant electric shower? Are you bitcoin mining or running a game console 24/7? Are your fridge or freezer ancient?

Robin9

Just because your meter was Smart once it may not be now .Read the meter and compare it  with whats on the bill.

tim_p

Electric high, gas low. Possibly. 

Post some meter readings, ideally from a year or so ago and today. 

Gerry1

Things have all changed recently of course, but the BG claim is meaningless.  They were only referring to their own tariffs, and even that claim may not have been true because there are many tariffs they don't publicise.

Similarly, you probably failed to see the whole of the market with Uswitch, only the expensive tariffs they could have switched you to.

Stop using any instantaneoius electric shower, switch off the immersion heater(s) and any electric room heating, send monthly bills if the smart meter(s) have gone dumb.

FreeBear

QrizB said:

Are those your annual averages?

391kWh/mo electricity is 4700kWh/yr, and 627kWh/mo gas is 7500kWh/yr. That's roughly double the amount of electricity I would expect for your situation, but about right for gas (maybe a bit low, if anything).game console 24/7?

Similar sized household here. Elec is ~2400KWh and gas, ~7000KHw per year and that is with an electric shower.

Electric underfloor heating or an immersion heater would be two of the most likely candidates for eating electricity. Halogen flood lights outside would be another culprit.

Reed_Richards

Hot tub???

BobT36

Wow! In my old (1900s Mid-Terace) two-bed house, we're two people and were pushing between £56-£74, summer / winter use. That was with a really good Igloo / Avro tarrif, but still. It's also not much different now in our two-bed flat. 

We only have a couple of LED bulbs, the rest are CFL. We have two beasty gaming PCs running with two monitors each, and two work laptops most of the day. We get up late and stay up late so lights are on late. We do turn lights off in the rooms we're not using though.

We don't use heating very much though (unless it's REALLY cold after wrapping up with a fleece and warm socks), and only heat the rooms we're in, and we manually switch it on / off, rather than using a thermostat. The combi boiler is gas, and heats the shower (plumbed). But other than that, gas usage is low as the cooker/hob is electric.

We have a big (newish) fridge, but run a mini-fridge too. 
How you're managing to use DOUBLE what we are, I have no idea. Make sure you're providing monthly readings, and get with a better biller than British Gas.

[Deleted User]

Electric heating?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

ignore the IHD if still working/using it, take actual meter readings from your smart meters morning and night, or at least once a day for a week.That will help you identify any spike.

Provide readings to your supplier at least once a month to avoid estimates.

Set up your own wee spreadsheet to keep your eye on usage and payments.