British Gas Advice

SUPERGIRL2020

Asking for a family member

She lives in a 2 bed flat only her and her bf they were paying £35 on the gas and £30 on the electric a month. They have just been told its gonna double on the 1st of April direct debit payment 

This seems steep what should she do?

EssexHebridean

That depends - was their £65 a month actually covering the amount they used? And are the unit rates and standing charge they are being given to apply from 1st April in line with the new capped rates? 

And finally - have they worked out what they believe they should be being charged based on the power they have ACTUALLY used over the last year? How does that compare with the estimate they are being given by BG?

Robin9

More info please @SUPERGIRL2020  Are their present bills based on Actual or Estimated readings?   What is their tariff ?

SUPERGIRL2020

She has found her electric bill online but no gas bill as yet as they only switched over in Jan from PAYG. They moved into the flat last August but was on PAYG for the gas only

QrizB

OK, so she's got a smart meter now. That's helpful.

What does the electric meter read today?

SUPERGIRL2020

QrizB said:

OK, so she's got a smart meter now. That's helpful.

What does the electric meter read today?

I got her to send a photo so you can see cos its all mumbo jumbo to me lol 

QrizB

OK, if she touches the little "home" button (picture of a house, bottom left) she will get a menu. Move down the menu to the entry "meters" (not the similar "meter balance") then choose the Electricity option. The first item on the list should be the current electricity meter reading.

If she then presses "back" button (curly arrow, bottom right ) there will also be an entry for Gas. This will tell here the current gas meter reading.

SUPERGIRL2020

QrizB said:

OK, if she touches the little "home" button (picture of a house, bottom left) she will get a menu. Move down the menu to the entry "meters" (not the similar "meter balance") then choose the Electricity option. The first item on the list should be the current electricity meter reading.

If she then presses "back" button (curly arrow, bottom right ) there will also be an entry for Gas. This will tell here the current gas meter reading.

Is this what you mean? Not sure is she has done it right 🤷‍♀️

QrizB

SUPERGIRL2020 said:

QrizB said:

OK, if she touches the little "home" button (picture of a house, bottom left) she will get a menu. Move down the menu to the entry "meters" (not the similar "meter balance") then choose the Electricity option. The first item on the list should be the current electricity meter reading.

If she then presses "back" button (curly arrow, bottom right ) there will also be an entry for Gas. This will tell here the current gas meter reading.

Is this what you mean? Not sure is she has done it right 🤷‍♀️

Yes, that's exactly it!

So here current gas meter reading is 00732, and her electricity meter reading is 00648.

As I can only see her electric bill I'm going to assume her gas and electricity meters were both replaced on the same day, 4th October.

Since the 4th of October, 159 days, she has used 648kWh of electricity. If she continues to use at that rate for a whole year she will use 1488kWh.

• On the current cap, 1488kWh/yr costs £400/yr, £33/month.
• On the coming April cap, it will cost £587/yr, £49/month.

For gas it's a bit trickier; typically you use a lot less gas in the summer than in the winter.

Since the 4th of October, 159 days, she has used 732 cubic metres of gas. That's around 8200kWh, 51kWh/day. If she uses gas at that rate during the winter 6 months, and uses 10kWh/day for hot water only during the summer 6 months, over a whole year she will use 11100kWh.

• On the current cap, 11000kWh/yr costs £543/yr, £45/month.
• On the coming April cap, it will cost £910/yr, £75/month.

In your original post you said:

She lives in a 2 bed flat only her and her bf they were paying £35 on the gas and £30 on the electric a month. They have just been told its gonna double on the 1st of April direct debit payment

I think she's currently paying a bit less than she should be for oth electricity and gas. Her electric bill should be going up to more like £50/month, and her gas to £75/month.

She might get away with paying less than this over summer - her usage will be lower than during winter - but anything she doesn't pay now, she'll have to make up when winter arrives.

She's using a bit more gas than I'd expect for a 2-bed flat; is there any scope for her to turn the thermostat down, or bung up some draughts?

SUPERGIRL2020

She is on the standard variable tariff. Ive just seen about the April price cap will this affect her tariff with British Gas?   

MWT

SUPERGIRL2020 said:

She is on the standard variable tariff. Ive just seen about the April price cap will this affect her tariff with British Gas?   

Yes, if you look again at the post from QrizB just above yours, you'll see calculations for the change to the cap in April.