High Gas Bill

WOOLLEY

Hi
I purchased a two bed end of terrace house in the middle of November and have just recieved a gas bill for 2 months for £98. I feel this is expensive as when we set our account up with N Power we were told that the previous people were paying about £26 a month so this is what i set my direct debit for.
We have the heating on from 6am till 7am then 5pm till 11pm with the program set at 20 degrease. The boiler also heats our hot water as well.
We have 8 radiators in the house, with 2 people living in the house, who are only there in the evenings. We probably have about 12 showers a week.
We also have a gas hod but electric cooker.
This bill is from the 2 meter readings that we have given them so it is the correct amount of gas used and not an estimate. The kwh usage in these two months was 2729 i was wondering if this seems excessive ?
If anyone can help or has any ideas on what maybe causing such high usage please let me know.

tanith

It does seem a little high, we are in a similar house and we pay under £50 per month for dual fuel... but we don't cook with gas. Do you have proper cavity and loft insulation this is what made the difference to ours I am sure...
I also adjust the thermastat daily, if its a warm day I turn it down 2 or 3 deg and if its freezing I have it on 21deg.. but it does go off around 9:30 and the house stays warm till bedtime.. my best suggestion is check the insulation... and always draw curtains as soon as possible in the evenings it does make a difference..

espresso

The average gas consumption in UK is 20,300kWh a year so in two winter months, using 2729 does not sound that excessive.

SwanJon

Remember that you will use more in winter, so even though the average for the previous tenants may have been £26, thedy would have used more in winter.
It's never going to be perfect using the previous tenant's amount as circumstances always change - you probably have the heating at a different temperature for a different length of time.
Keep taking readings and make sure they use them, that way you'll be only be paying for what you use.

bengal-stripe

Have you compared the bill (which might be estimated) with the actual reading?

espresso

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Have you compared the bill (which might be estimated) with the actual reading?

Read post #1 again!

:rolleyes:

laurynsausage

Hiya
Just a thought did the previous occupants have any debt with their provider that they were paying off? This may have been passed to you...

I work for a local authority and I have seen this happen a few times, new tenants move in the suppliers pass the debt over.....

hope you get it sorted.

whatatwit

Is there any reason why you leave the heating on until 11pm.
Ours goes off about 8.30 and there is usually enough heat left in the rads and the house to last until we go to bed.

It is very difficult to compare with previous occupiers as you don't know how many hours they had the heating on for.

Gorgeous_George

£98 for two Winter months is quite good.

No doubt you were at home over Christmas and New Year. This will skew the monthly usage. The next two months may be cool but the days will be getting longer and you are likely to spend more time at work. After that, it will be Spring and the heating will be off (still need hot water) until October/November.

You can make savings on the heating. Turn the thermostat down and limit the hours that the heating's on (obvious stuff). Remember, turning a hot tap costs money.

GG

Lavendyr

We have a similar-sounding house and consumption to yours, and our gas during winter probably costs us £40 per month, so your usage doesn't sound that far off. We have our thermostat lower than you do (typically 15 degrees, if it's v. cold 17.5) so perhaps try turning that down. Remember that your usage will come right down as soon as we get into spring.

Terrylw1

Read this thread I posted just incase it's relevant.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=693717

If they have manually replaced your bill due to being unable to issue 1 automatically (potentially because you gave them readings that were lower than the estimate they produced) then your unit price might be wrong.