Are our bills excessive?

wackojackouk

Hi guys

Recently received our bills for Gas and Electricity from British Gas and Southern Electric respectively and I have worked out we are paying over £550 a year at present and I was wondering if this sounds like an excessive amount of use for 2 people living in a mid terrace 2 bedroom house just outside London.

We have Gas Central Heating which is only on in the winter (although we had a new combi boiler fitted in April so may notice a performance difference in price in the future) and the cooker etc is gas.

The cost of the electricity is the thing that puzzles me. We never leave the tv on standby or anything as I read on here it drains energy. We have PC's and peripherals plugged in but they are always switched off when not in use (apart from the ADSL) and the only other thing I can think of that we use a lot, electric wise is an electric shower but I have been told these cost peanuts.

Can anyone advise me if this

a) sounds a lot for electric (£306 per year) or gas (£244 per year)

b) any tips what to do to reduce this or if we can check to see it's all working ok

c) How Npower and Scottish Power compare to our present suppliers.

Thanks again WJUK

ps here are the figures again:-
(Gas) British Gas = £244
(Electric) Southern Electric = £306.

Cardew

Firstly TV’s on standby use a few pence a year.

£306 for electricity seems a little high but not excessive – mine is approx £450 for 3 people.

It is pertinent to point out that whilst BG has a high tariff for gas they are pretty competitive on electricity; although not the cheapest.

I would have thought £244 for gas is very good.

It is easy enough to work out what is using your electricity for some appliances – washing machine, dishwasher etc by simply reading the meter before and after a cycle.
It is less easy with a fridge or freezer as it depends how often and for how long they operate.(e.g. compressor running) An inefficient/faulty fridge or freezer can use a lot of electricity.

Whilst you will certainly be able to make savings by using other suppliers it will not be huge savings – a few %. Whist you can work out exactly your savings at any given point, there is not much point in doing this as all suppliers rates keep changing.

bonnie_2

my gas is 726 and electric 402 both from british gas so i think yours is cheap mine is for four people in a 3 bedroomed victorian conversion, high ceilings etc and sash windows which are draughty my water is 504.

cougar_3

Have you found the website https://www.uswitch.com ? That can help you more than anyone here!

Cardew

truscott_uk wrote:

Have you found the website https://www.uswitch.com ? That can help you more than anyone here!

Have you found the articles and threads that are critical of uswitch - and point out all the flaws with the sevice?

Of the questions the originator posed it will help with question C.

kazd

My gas and electric combined is £103.50 per month. We live in a slightly larger than average 4 bed detached.

wackojackouk

Can you point me in the right direction in relation to the articles/threads that are critical to uswitch.

Thanx

WJUK

pricefighter

Why not follow MSE Martin,s advice at
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1103281560,22751,

s.c.

Cardew wrote:

Firstly TV’s on standby use a few pence a year.
.

errr no,.... Though I agree with most of what you say Cardew, I must disagree with you about cost of leaving things on standby. ( depends on age and type) but is £s not pence. Computers are even more expensive if left on and can average 400watts.

Wackojackouk
One of the most expensive things is the fridge freezer, as you cannot switch it off, the older the more expensive as the insulation would be poorer cos electricity was cheap.

I reckon average useage without using an immersion heater would be around £80 a quarter and that is trying to be frugal with loads of economy light bulbs.

You could get one of the plug in lcd power meters to check what each appliance uses say in a week and work out possible savings. £6.25 at Tchibo/Somerfield?, Lidl and Aldi also have them periodically.

http://www.tchibo.co.uk/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/uk/-/GBP/TdUkDisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=cV6s8Q0bU6-slU_KsFKmlQ6PoNCruaB6aTc=?ProductID=YCYKZAOiCCAAAAEAZtDQDYJT&BackTo=Search

Cardew

s.c. wrote:

errr no,.... Though I agree with most of what you say Cardew, I must disagree with you about cost of leaving things on standby. ( depends on age and type) but is £s not pence. Computers are even more expensive if left on and can average 400watts.

S.C,
We really should get this matter of standby consumption for electrical devices sorted out as there is so much confusion on the subject.

I have looked at the standby consumption for 4 TVs, DVD, 2 VCRs and a Microwave. Their standby power consumption ranges between 0.6watts and 1.2watts.

Now if we take the average as 1 Watt, it will use 1W x 24(hours) x 365(days) this is 8,760watts or 8.76kWh per year. Taking the cost of Electricity as 6.5p a unit that means it will cost 57 pence a year to run.

I don’t doubt there are some appliances with higher standby consumption but I suggest mine are typical – you can confirm this by looking at manufacturer's handbooks on the web.

Perhaps you would care to comment why you think I am wrong?

If we turn to Computers, it is much harder to determine consumption. My Desktop is rated at a maximum of 300 watts and my laptop at 90 watts. However that aggregates the consumption of every component – hard drive, DVD writer, CD ROM, sound card etc and assumes they are all running.

Perusal of the Microsoft website indicates that the average consumption of a desktop PC is 60-80watts and a CRT monitor the same(LCD monitors much less) – that of course is while they are switched on and operating. Most monitors and PC have a hibernate facility where the consumption is a fraction of the operating consumption.

I would respectfully suggest that it is misleading to state that a computer can average 400watts when left on.

s.c.

Cardew, my figures are no more exagerated than yours.
The few watts you state are those used by the displays, on dvds vcrs and microvaves, after all that is all that is powered when not in use.
However unless you have a lcd tv, the Cathode ray tube in most conventional tvs is what consumes the most on standby, having three heaters one for each colour left on to extend the tubes life.
In the stand-by mode they draw a varied amount of current.... 4 to 12 watts. If you take 8 as a medium the every 7 1/2 hours it is like having a 60 watt light on for one hour.

If a TV is in standby for an average of 20hrs per day.... that is 160 watts. 2 tvs ( second one in the bedroom or kids room = 320 watts per day (around 2.3p per day) times 365 days is 116,800 per year. Multiply that by your local kwatt/hr rate and you will know what it costs you. ( over £8)

This is what Oxford university has to say about it.

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:-TNMnaN1DSUJ:www.admin.ox.ac.uk/estates/environment/indep.doc+standby+consumption+of+tv+sets&hl=en
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/estates/environment/energyandw.shtml

Quote from the above documents on energy conservation, re tvs,

" avoid switching appliances on to stand-by mode.
A colour TV on stand-by consumes 24% of the energy when the TV is fully on "
A Computer, monitor, printer and modem left on standby consumes around 60 watts. would you leave a 60w light bulb on permenantly?
The latest computers have 550W power supplies, CPU can consume in excess of 100W alone (25 to 40w unloaded)and need more than one fan to keep them cool. so three fans are used, water cooling is already offered.
So the more modern the computer the more power consumed as opposed to domestic appliances, which tend to consume less, the more modern they are.