Our monthly bill from Bulb seems astronomical!

Floydie

Thanks for your views and comments - apologies for the late response...

To answer some of the questions:

This bill was from my reading: 95756 on Dec 27 and 96159 on Jan 25

Elec bill was £496 for the same period.  Apart from lighting, we have elec UFH* in the kitchen

*We do have water/gas UFH in one room so part of the gas heating system but it is on low and only comes on when the heatign is on.

Its calcualted at 10.0090 p/kWh which I think it average

the boiler is set at 69 degrees and the temp drops relatively quickly to 40s/30s

Its a Baxi Megaflow 32 HE A and about 11 years old

we do use thermostatic controls on rads (most aare on full, a few are set low including the ones mentioned above for the UFH) . The thermostat is in a rubbish place (upstairs landing) and its old (perhaps faulty) and it was set to 23 degrees - this is where I may have dropped the ball because I always thought that if the heating is only on for 2 hours then the thermostat is effectively not in operation - it won't get to 25 degrees in the house and because we are on a timer it won't go on for more than 2-3 hours. 

And now the poor kids are freezing because I've told them we can't afford this type of bill for the next year.

The meters are metric but they look old (house was built in 1969 but they can't be that old...)

Regarding previous reading, its a real mix of estimates and my readings:

25 Jan 23	Gas	Customer	96159
25 Jan 23	Electricity	Customer	49285
27 Dec 22	Gas	Customer	95756
27 Dec 22	Electricity	Customer	48118
26 Dec 22	Gas	Estimated	95597
26 Dec 22	Electricity	Estimated	47688
27 Nov 22	Gas	Customer	95292
27 Nov 22	Electricity	Customer	46859
26 Nov 22	Gas	Estimated	95259
26 Nov 22	Electricity	Estimated	46623
26 Oct 22	Gas	Estimated	95063
26 Oct 22	Electricity	Estimated	45926
29 Sep 22	Gas	Customer	94958
29 Sep 22	Electricity	Customer	45383
26 Sep 22	Gas	Estimated	94981
26 Sep 22	Electricity	Estimated	45638
26 Aug 22	Gas	Estimated	94915
26 Aug 22	Electricity	Estimated	45020
17 Aug 22	Gas	Customer	94902
17 Aug 22	Electricity	Customer	44852
23 Jul 22	Gas	Customer	94892
23 Jul 22	Electricity	Customer	44613
23 Jun 22	Gas	Customer	94874
23 Jun 22	Electricity	Customer	44240
22 Jun 22	Gas	Customer	94872
22 Jun 22	Electricity	Customer	44228
18 May 22	Gas	Estimated	94814
18 May 22	Electricity	Estimated	44379
18 Apr 22	Gas	Estimated	94682
18 Apr 22	Electricity	Estimated	43459
31 Mar 22	Gas	Customer	94531
31 Mar 22	Electricity	Customer	42968
18 Mar 22	Gas	Estimated	94745
18 Mar 22	Electricity	Estimated	41446
18 Feb 22	Gas	Estimated	94432
18 Feb 22	Electricity	Estimated	40625

macman

If you are trying to heat the house to 23C or 25C then it's not surprising that your consumption is very high. Or have I misunderstood?

cannugec5

We don’t have UFH. Just ‘ normal’ central heating. Our base line is 10 degrees overnight and 18 degrees during the day. If we feel chilly we turn it up to 20. But that is occasional. 

Anybody that sets their heating to 23 or 25 in the U.K. is going to have high bills…. 

Floydie

yes 23 is the setting but it never reaches that level (or does that not matter? and that is THE cause of the massive bill?) 
As I said, perhaps I'm doing something glaringly wrong but the heating is only on for a limited time and I reckon it only gets to about 18 degrees after the 2-3 hours....

matt_drummer

You have used a lot of energy, how it relates to the size of the house I don't know.

It looks like 2,426 Kwh of electricity between 27 November 2022 and 25 January 2023 and 867 m3 of gas in the same period, which is around 9,700 Kwh

To compare our 4 bedroom detached house uses around 1,650 Kwh of electricity a year and 12,000 Kwh of gas a year.

We heat a 200 litre hot water tank every day and the heating is on a 20 degrees C from 06.00 to 21.00 seven days a week.

Our house is about 110 m2 including a 14 m2 conservatory that we heat with gas.

Our house is an epc B(89).

We cook with electricity.

We have solar panels and consume at most 800 Kwh of what we generate.

So I would say you used as much electricity in two months as we use in a year and as much gas as we use in around 10 months.

I would not say that we were reckless with our energy use but I have made no particular efforts to cut down, we could use less if we were happy to sit here a bit cooler, but were not!

laidbackgjr

Floydie said:

yes 23 is the setting but it never reaches that level (or does that not matter? and that is THE cause of the massive bill?) 
As I said, perhaps I'm doing something glaringly wrong but the heating is only on for a limited time and I reckon it only gets to about 18 degrees after the 2-3 hours....

If it only gets to 18 degrees after 3 hours you have either very inefficient heating - do the radiators get warm? or very poor insulation. This morning our thermostat was at 12 at 6am, heating came on at 6:30 and the house was 18 degrees by 7:15

Gerry1

Pointless having any electric underfloor heating when you have gas.  It costs three times as much to run.

EssexHebridean

I’d suggest your first assessment might be what are people wearing? Are those complaining it’s “freezing” wearing shorts and t-shirts? Or long trousers, socks, and a couple of layers - at least the top one long sleeved and fairly thick - a jumper or a fleece - on the top half? If sensible winter clothing is being worn, then it may be that the heating isn’t working efficiently for some reason - generally speaking most people would find around 20°C comfortable enough - we tend to sit at around 19° indoors most of the time, others are comfortable a little cooler. I’d agree that your current thermostat level could mean your boiler is working flat out for the entire time it’s working though, which will of course bump up the gas bills! 

Spoonie_Turtle

matt_drummer said:

… It looks like 2,426 Kwh of electricity between 27 November 2022 and 25 January 2023 …

That's more than our entire usage including all heating and hot water (via heat pump) for those months.  We are considered high users of electricity, ~9/10,000kWh per year.  Our thermostat is set to 18℃ though!  (But the lounge gets up to low 20s thanks to body heat and a PC.)

nadsat

Are you sure your gas meter is metric - ours is cubic foot units. I think we use more gas than you and our bill is lower. We used about 8000kWh gas between 1 Nov and 31 Jan, so 3 months and we have a 5 bed house and have always been a high use household. 

You're best posting what the bill looks like - certainly without the price guarantee and extra £67 a month our bill would be horrible though.