Energy - Totally confused

k_man

QrizB said:

Tigsmom said:

We have just been offered a fix as follows- current annual usage has £829 electric £1621, fix offered gas £1603 electric £2913 which seems ridiculously high.

On ther current SVT:

• an £829/yr gas bill would mean you're using about 10,000 kWh/yr
• a £1621/yr electric bill would mean you're using about 5,200 kWh/yr

Your gas consumption is a little lower than the average household, bot your electricity use is getting on for twice the average.

From October, using the current Cornwall Insight estimates, your SVT bills will be roughlt:

• gas: £1550/yr
• electricity: £2600/yr

You'll probably be slightly better off sticking with the SVT rather than taking the fix, but anything you can do to reduce your energy use is going to help.

Gas is lower than average, but higher than expected based on

Tigsmom said:

I’m not naive enough to expect to pay a fixed direct debit and be able to use what I like! My point is we hardly have the heating on in winter anyway so if I pay double what I’m paying now, as they’re asking what happens if I don’t use that much energy? Do I get a refund? That’s what happened last time I fixed and to be frank I need that money to live off now not sitting in their account until the end of their financial year. 

QrizB

k_man said:

QrizB said:

Your gas consumption is a little lower than the average household

Gas is lower than average, but higher than expected based on

Tigsmom said:

My point is we hardly have the heating on in winter anyway

Agreed; I was thinking (but failed to say) that there's much more scope to reduce the electricity bill than the gas one. Cutting £1000/yr from the next 12 months' electricity bill should be fairly easy, cutting that from the gas is likely to be much harder.

markin

If electric heaters or electric underfloor heating is being used you need to cut it off and use Gas, Gas is cheaper.

Make sure the immersion heater isn't accidentally on.

Tigsmom

Robin9 said:

@Tigsmom   Your present annual costs of £829 and £1621  suggest you are a very high user of both electricity and gas.  There should be plenty of room to cut your costs -  details of please of your property, heating etc .

We only use heating at 17 degrees for 1 hour a day between November and March so how can we be very high usage? My parents have their heating on all day at 22 degrees most of the year! 

The_Fat_Controller

@Tigsmom as said above, your electricity usage is high, so you need to identify what is using all that power and cut down accordingly.

Robin9

Tigsmom said:

Robin9 said:

@Tigsmom   Your present annual costs of £829 and £1621  suggest you are a very high user of both electricity and gas.  There should be plenty of room to cut your costs -  details of please of your property, heating etc .

We only use heating at 17 degrees for 1 hour a day between November and March so how can we be very high usage? My parents have their heating on all day at 22 degrees most of the year! 

@k_man and others have corrected me - my apologies for my wrong comment.  The savings need to come from your Electric

Mstty

Tigsmom said:

Robin9 said:

@Tigsmom   Your present annual costs of £829 and £1621  suggest you are a very high user of both electricity and gas.  There should be plenty of room to cut your costs -  details of please of your property, heating etc .

We only use heating at 17 degrees for 1 hour a day between November and March so how can we be very high usage? My parents have their heating on all day at 22 degrees most of the year! 

Hi Tigsmom,

You gas usage is actually under the average but I am concern it is roughly 10,000 kWh a year and you say you only heat for one hour a day. Even given that the first hour of heating is the most expensive the boiler will be firing full probably for that full hour (do you know the kWh rating of your boiler) even so might be worth lower the temp on your boiler and checking you are not heating your hot water to a high temp all day.

The electricity is high so do you have high energy gadgets or cook multiple meals in the ove. Wash and dry clothes a lot or have gaming desktop PC's in the house.

Also worth checking your immersion switch is not turn on unless you have no hot water tank and a combi boiler👍

Tigsmom

Robin9 said:

@Tigsmom   Your present annual costs of £829 and £1621  suggest you are a very high user of both electricity and gas.  There should be plenty of room to cut your costs -  details of please of your property, heating etc .

I’m in a 1920s 3 bed end of terrace. Family of 4 (2 teenagers) Combi boiler for heating and water but only use heating 1 hour a day November to March. Electric cooker, washer, dryer. Husband works from home on laptop. I can’t get my annual usage because that part of the British Gas app hasn’t worked since January. I can try and work it out from individual bills but could take a while. 

GingerTim

Do you have a smart meter? If so, you can download the Bright app for free and it should pull at least twelve months' worth of hustoric usage.

[Deleted User]

Tigsmom said:

Robin9 said:

@Tigsmom   Your present annual costs of £829 and £1621  suggest you are a very high user of both electricity and gas.  There should be plenty of room to cut your costs -  details of please of your property, heating etc .

I’m in a 1920s 3 bed end of terrace. Family of 4 (2 teenagers) Combi boiler for heating and water but only use heating 1 hour a day November to March. Electric cooker, washer, dryer. Husband works from home on laptop. I can’t get my annual usage because that part of the British Gas app hasn’t worked since January. I can try and work it out from individual bills but could take a while. 

Look at an energy bill from a year ago and deduct the meter readings from what your meters are showing today. Any bill that you use must have readings annotated with any ‘A’ or ‘C’: that is, do not use estimated readings.