Monthly gas + electricity bill over £600 for 3 bedroom semi??

makara

makara said:

One thing she did mention - the Air Coolers / Heaters we use DO use a lot of Electricity. 

I have my Air Cooler on pretty much all day (bar a few hours) - it's 65 Watts - but even that on an 18 hour estimate of use per day she worked out to be only £10 per month.

My mother's Air Cooler / Heater is 75 Watts.


But here is a weird thing - my brother's Air Cooler / Heater sticker says it is 2100 Watts - surely that can't be right...?

AHA -


My brother's Air Cooler / Heater is no longer made - whereas my mother's is...looking at the Amazon link for it, it states -


Cool: 75w. 

Heat: 2100w


Both my mother and my brother DO make use of the Heater function of their Air Cooler / Heaters - obviously not now, but when they feel cold - which unlike me is often.

Could the OVO lady be on to something when she asked if we are using Electrical heaters of any sort...?  She did say Gas Central Heating is cheaper to use to heat ourselves compared to Air Heaters...


The Wattage I gave her for my mother's one was 75 Watts (that is what she based the £10 per month on...)

- I did not realise the HEATING part of it (and my brothers's one) uses 2100 Watts !!!!


https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOMCOM-Portable-Humidifier-Controller-Included/dp/B08Z3P54HF

pochase

You are miscalculating because that are units - the m3 you mentioned earlier. You need to multiply by 11.2 to get to KWh. So it is 848 x 11.2

The real formula is more complex, but 11.2 is near enough.

pochase

Here is the calculation again with your real reads. Gas is up a bit and electricity is slightly down.

makara

Here is the calculation again with your real reads. Gas is up a bit and electricity is slightly down

Many thanks - maybe Electricity went down as due to the hot weather we aren't using the Heating element of the 2 x Air Coolers / Heaters

I will be interested to see if the Smart Meters give a substantial difference in readings.  Maybe they won't, but at least then we can be sure our meters weren't faulty.

Robin9

@makara   You are well on the way in explaining the electric but what of the gas  which is not only high but excessive?    Do you run the house hot  -  over 20 and also day and night ?

makara

Robin9 said:

@makara   You are well on the way in explaining the electric but what of the gas  which is not only high but excessive?    Do you run the house hot  -  over 20 and also day and night ?

Possibly we were doing so over winter and spring

- and yes possibly also through the night too

(my mother prefers using the Central Heating radiators to hang wet clothes on to to dry - rather than our tumble dryer...and being 80 and female she seems to feel the cold a lot)

However in terms of our Gas hob - she hardly ever uses it now, as due to her age and infirmity we now nearly always order delivered food - so I would have expected the gas costs to have come down / or at least neutralised with the hob getting hardly any use now.  

Or perhaps Central heating usage far outstrips Hob usage generally in terms of Gas?

Mstty

Could you not cook and use the gas hob rather than ordering delivered food nearly always? That generally isn't a way to save money on gas.

Just a thought to add to the energy/household cost savings.

Alnat1

Is there a thermostat for your heating and if so, what temperature is it set to?

makara

Only 2 of our 6 central heaters have thermostats - the one in my room was only put in very recently, as the old valve started leaking - but I have it set to "off" always as I generally feel hot all the time.

The other one is in our extension - I can never figure out what setting that one is on, as unlike mine it doesn't seem to have a marker on the valve.  But that's the main one my mother likes to use to dry washed clothes on

makara

Is it worth switching to another provider?

Or are they all level pegging in what they charge?