British Gas Shock Increase

gandalftheking

Hi Guys, I know the landscape and was expecting a rise from 1st Oct, but...

Our three-person average use home Gas/Elec DD has gone from £200pm to £550pm. This has to be a mistake surely. We've just come off the back of the summer period too, and while I recently got an electric car, it's charged overnight only 2-3 times a week as we do little mileage. On the BG account page it gives me a total estimated usage on our fixed to May 2023 tariff of £2400 approx. for both services (not £6600 (£550x12)). Thats 4,219.62 kWh for Electric, and 15,603.54 kWh for Gas. There is around £300 of debit at the moment.

I'm calling BG today obviously to query this, but any thoughts welcomed at this stage.

Robin9

I have asked MSE to move this to Energy 

By itself DD £'s mean little.   Can we have actual annual consumptions please ?

Even at £200 I think you are an above average user / and/or you are carrying forward some debt

powerful_Rogue

gandalftheking said:

Hi Guys, I know the landscape and was expecting a rise from 1st Oct, but...

Our three-person average use home Gas/Elec DD has gone from £200pm to £550pm. This has to be a mistake surely. We've just come off the back of the summer period too, and while I recently got an electric car, it's charged overnight only 2-3 times a week as we do little mileage. On the BG account page it gives me a total estimated usage on our fixed to May 2023 tariff of £2400 approx. for both services, not £6600 (£550x12). Thats 4,219.62 kWh for Electric, and 15,603.54 kWh for Gas.

I'm calling BG today obviously to query this, but any thoughts welcomed at this stage.

Depends what your fixed rate is. No point people speculating as no-one here will know the answer. Wait and see what BG say when you phone them.

gandalftheking

I do love a bit of speculation though 

user1977

You'll need to tell us your actual consumption over the past year, otherwise we'll have no idea whether their estimates look accurate.

shiraz99

If you're currently in debit by £300 at this time of the year then clearly your £200 pm DD is too low for your usage. You don't have to take their estimate, you can change the DD amount to whatever you think it shod be.

born_again

So the estimate will be for the last 12 months. You now have a EV which will increase the electric usage.
But the big issue is £300 debt after the summer months. (EV usage caused this?) As you should be in credit now to cover any increased usage in winter.

Start by paying of the debt. To get a clean slate.
Start sending monthly meter readings so you know exactly what you are using each month.

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

Jenni_D

born_again said:

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

They may simply be doing top-up charges without really needing to. (It's generally better to run an EV between 80% and 20% charge, then recharge to 80%).

born_again

Hence the question.

mattyprice4004

Sounds about right - you’re in debt at the moment when usage would have been low over the summer so the DD needs to account for that plus the price increases. 

[Deleted User]

Jenni_D said:

born_again said:

No idea which EV you have but charging 2 or 3 times a week does not say low mileage to me.

They may simply be doing top-up charges without really needing to. (It's generally better to run an EV between 80% and 20% charge, then recharge to 80%).

Out-of-interest, where has this piece of advice come from? I am on my third EV and there is no manufacturer-imposed restriction on charging: indeed, charging to 100% is advised for cell balancing purposes.