Average Electricity Costs Poll

gouldy44

for electricity alone (via prepay key) our average each month is £151 (based on £1661 we have paid on our prepay key from jan 2010 until nov 2010),
now i have spoken to friends and family that have similar persons in house hold etc.. and they say there bills for electric average £80 per month!!!! and think thats high.....

we are mum and dad to 5 children under 12 (7 in house)
we have scottish power standard rate prepay key
we have central heating but its only been used for the last 5 wks or so( timer set 7am-10am & 7pm - 11pm)
we are at work during the day and kids at school so no major electrical use in the day
we use electric cooker washer dryer tv kettle games consoles and mobile chargers etc...
we have energy saving light bulbs in each room

we use quite alot of electric but friends and family do similar but there bills are half mine

i rang scottish power to explain my statement in 28mths (since we have been with them including the last 11mths at £1600+) we have paid £3400 - which averages per month since 2008 £121.42p...
the VERY HELPFULL WOMAN at scottish power said " just rip the bill up what you have paid is right!!!!) why rip it up this is my proof??
She then RANG ME BACK to say yes £3400 for the 28 months is right AGAIN SAID "RIP THAT BILL UP AND THROW IT AWAY"??????

Only after did it sink in she wanted me to throw my proof away and accept this statement was right. why also did she phone me back? she had already said bill was right and rip letter up!! very strange
my statement reads:
total payments -£3400 account balance -£2792.50p (in credit) for the period 28 july 08 - 02 nov 2010

is this right? the woman said we owe them nothing and they owe me nothing!! why does my balance state IN CREDIT?

received the statement as we moved to british gas a few wks ago

what do you think???? many thanks

IvanDrago

im paying £57 per month with BG fixed rate standard.

i dont think i use that much though as im single and only in from 6pm til 7am. and sleep 11-6.30.

im alll electric and have a 1kw heater in the room i am in on about 6 hours a day

thecatswhiskas72

No debt on meters, British Gas duel fuel, subscribed September, unfortunately card meters as private rented & cannot change...:huh:

Here is a my personal guide of my costs. I have a young son who lives with me & I was working full time 7.30am til 6pm-now redundant 2 week before Xmas. Nice...:(

Always had energy saver light bulbs, 'A' rated appliances, have 4 fleece covers on sofa, goat wool socks & tried not to heat the house or water where unnecessary (until I could see my own breath-temp in house was 6/43 degrees.....nearly freezing) _pale_

I have a very, VERY warm dressing gown - nearly falling apart - and that's just the dressing gown....:o !

July 2010
Gas £20 per wk -cooking & heating water x1 hour every 2x days
Elec £12 per wk - average weekly washing x3, drier if rained, hoovering, lamp, etc etc
Total £ 32 per week

Nov 2010
Gas £59 per wk -cooking, heating & hot water x2 hours a day (heating comes on when just heating water-very annoying as have to run round in summer turning them all off- but British Gas Boiler Check man was super helpful & says nothing wrong/all is OK :wall:....
Elec £15 per wk - as previous but slight more drier usage-pitance really.
Total £ 74 per week .... now getting in debt with overdraft :think:

Dec 2010
Gas £5 per wk - cooking & now heat water 2x hours a week & share baths (after my boy-!) - :undecided
Elec £49 per wk - now selling all my clothes & the coat off my back
Total £ 54 GO FIGURE!!! :dance:

I save £20 a week by having been given-Thank God as I couldn't afford one let alone 2x oil filled radiators-2kw each but only need lowest heat setting as they're fab. Still it's 20 squidlies as I was unfortunately made redundant 2 weeks ago & now into my £1 a day charged overdraft by Halifax Bank. It's killing me.

If no heat is on we can see our breath. Normal 2 up 2 down, floorboards. Breeze/draft from boiler is horrendous-goes all thro' the house. Boiler is over 25 years old and landlord (private) will not replace (boiler & parts now obsolete/no longer exist).

So far, in 7 years-they have had a grand total of £37,800 off myself alone & not a new boiler in site. No wonder they have nice cars-I can only afford legs & they're all my own.

Cannot even afford to move to a smaller place & now the government want to cut off my lone parent benefit as I keep being told I'm over qualified for nearly every job I go for.........
Think I'll become a Nun. Cheaper heating.......:xmassign:

[Deleted User]

just had a nasty shick.

quarter bill £258, (no gas supply). 36 units per day.

seems loads, esp seeing yhat we are out most the day. damn storage heaters.

what do people usually pay combined?

DawnandAl

Please can someone advise me on what to do.
My daughter is living in a one bedroom private rented flat, she lives with her boyfriend. She works full-time during the day and he dosen't. Well our dilema is that she pays on average £40 per week in the winter (2 old storage heaters) and £20 - £30 in the summer.
This seems extortianate to me, she is really struggling to make ends meet. The agent (Balmforth estate agents) have said that they are on economy 7 and that the meter (which is digital) is not showing any proper readings of usage. They are not prepared to help out with regards to the heating. Oh yes, she has also been paying for the communal hall light and noone will take responsibility for it.
The poor little mites have spent an absolutely freezing christmas and a very costly one just to take the chill off the air.
She is currently switching from Scottish to Southern electric but has not had confirmation by post yet. Who would be her current supplier? what do you think would be an average cost for her electric, she has the two storage heaters, an average size fish tank with heater and pump, washing machine, cooker, fridge and freezer, water etc.,
Also is there a thread on private tenants rights or similar as she is havi ng other problems.:(

Always_after_a_bargin

andy2004 wrote: »

Cheaper than us, my mum was on a cheap payment tariff with Southern Electric for 2 years and since August when it stopped is now on energyplus care general domestic. ready for a price hike
she was paying £10 a week for electric and £7 for gas, and always in credit. now shes been told she has to pay £24 a week for her electric yes a week and still only £7 for gas, thats before they put it up by what is it 9.6% so i'm factoring in about another £3 on top, we've phoned up today to see if she can be put back on the lower tariff but this is a kicker, we no longer come under the percentage,
which has increase from 10% to 20%. we are currently 13%. so we are 7% over the top.
something to do with income / amount you use in £ = 20%
i would hate to be someone at 19.5-19.9%

£24 a week for electric is just unbelieveable. that £96 a month compared with only £40 the previous

ok breakdown.
we are with Southern Electric.
we live in a 3 bedroom house, there are 2 people and 2 cats.
i use a pc pretty much everyday, lcd tv as the monitor
mum uses a 32in lcd tv everyday.
2 freezers, 1 fridge, 1 gascooker, electric kettle, microwave, 8kw shower, used erm 3 times a week by me, and twice a week by mum.
about 20min per time.
washing machine and dryer not used daily, more every other day.
Gas central heating on everyday if its less than 19'c in house.
my mum is 74 so fills the cold.

Just has double glazed windows put in past month, everything else roof, cavity walls etc all done about 2 years ago.

Usage hasn't changed at all, thinking about changing supplier after we get are current electric bill and this is another kicker, we pay £40 a month yet in only 3months after august of being taken on the lower tariff we owe a whopping £220, so we cant change due to that as we would have to pay it in 1 lump sum.

Thats exactly whats happened to us. We pay 40 a month and have done for god knows how long and have always near enough broken even. My usuage has not changed but now have occured a 220 pound debt with them over 6 months. First quarter it was 198 in debt and after another three months still continuing to pay 40 quid a month it was in November 220. We are in credit with our Gas. I need to get a grip of it to be honest. Going to have to ring them and find out exactly what tariff i am on. I cant let it go on much longer. Going to have to ring them and pay extra a month if its the amount is correct and soon as i cleared move somewhere else. Its obvously their price hike that has done this and not a changed in my usuage. I am with southern electric too

debhyp

Just got my latest bill from Southern.

We pay £60pm Gas and £40pm electric.

We live in a 2 bed semi (1950's). Work during the day so only in from 5pm onwards, and weekends. Only 2 adults.

According to the bill we use 80kWh Gas per day (taking over the last year) and 11 units electric per day.

We have a combi boiler, gas hob but eletric oven.

This can't be right can it? It seems a lot.

They are saying that we use about £680 gas and £500 electric per year, and now owe them £150.

Premier_2

debhyp wrote: »

Just got my latest bill from Southern.

We pay £60pm Gas and £40pm electric.

We live in a 2 bed semi (1950's). Work during the day so only in from 5pm onwards, and weekends. Only 2 adults.

According to the bill we use 80kWh Gas per day (taking over the last year) and 11 units electric per day.

We have a combi boiler, gas hob but eletric oven.

This can't be right can it? It seems a lot.

They are saying that we use about £680 gas and £500 electric per year, and now owe them £150.

The average household energy consumption is 20500kWh of gas and 3300kWh of electricity per year.

You appear to be using 29200kWh of gas and 4015kWh of electricity per year. This is above the average. Do some research into how you could reduce consumption; your supplier should also be able to give advice on this.

The good news is, if you are on a tariff that only charges £680 for 29200kWh of gas, that seems like an absolutely cracking deal
The electricity cost is not so good, and you may be able to do better. Check using a comparison site.

You say you pay a total of £100 per month so you will pay £1200 over a year.
If your annual cost of consumption is £1180 (£680 + £500) then you should be on target to break even over the year. When paying monthly by DD, your account will go into debit and credit at various times, but overall you appear to be on target to pay the year's consumption cost.

khris210

It maybe that people are just not mentioning it, but nobody seems to be reading their meter, just accepting what the company says. My partner and I live in a 2 bedroomed semi-detached cottage, roof heavily insulated, double glazed, oil heating (sob) and until Nov used on average 7.2 units a day over the past 3 years. That's with no gas, so electric cooker etc, low energy light bulbs, computer, TV usual stuff. We're retired so in and out most days. I say until Nov because then we had PVSolar panels fitted, and they have produced 106.6 kw so far. and luckily our meter is the dial sort so goes in reverse. Our usage has now more than halved to 2.98 kw a day, according to a reading I've just done. I'll put this info on the right forum if I can find it.

johnlewis179

Hi All,
I received my winter quarter bill this month from Southern Electricity and it has come up to GBP 570. I would like to know whether this is a normal bill amount. We have only electricity at home, no gas. My winter consumption details are as follows
- live in a 2 bed room apartment.
- there are 2 adults including me and one 4 yr old child
- Got LCD TV and a Laptop.
- Only one electric heater runs, others are switched off the whole day. The one that is on runs only for a few hours per day.
- we take hot water bath daily.
- we cook 3 meals a day so I think our cooking is quite extensive.
- the house has laminated flooring and doors and windows have double glazing.

For the last 3 quarters, we have received on average GBP 250 so i feel that this quarter the bill is slightly high, although i accept that our winter usage has been quite high. I need some advise as to what i should do. Should i ask the energy supplier to do some investigation if thats possible or should I just pay the bill and accept it as is?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, please!!!