Average gas and electric bill?

mashauk · 1 November 2011 at 12:40AM

NPower are trying to charge me £189 a month (just gone up from £128 a month) for gas and electricity, 2 bedroom Victorian terrace house, my partner is at home during the day sometimes but doesn't put the heating on if I'm not in (it goes on from 9-12 and then 9-12 at night only when it's really cold as I work evenings), normal usage I'd say, TV, PC etc but not heavy users. They reckon I have a debit amount, but I keep sending them readings so don't understand why! They're ringing me on Wednesday (the last reading they've billed for is wrong) to discuss changing tariffs but to be honest I'm thinking of changing suppliers but I can't work out who is cheaper as I'm useless with figures and it doesn't make sense to me as the bill is so complicated. They made a mistake a while ago by putting a decimal point in the wrong place, I nearly fainted when I saw what their estimate for the year was:)

mdmillar · 6 January 2012 at 12:25AM

I am new here as a member but have regularly come here to get some help:D I've been trying everywhere to see if what we pay is normal, we live in an old council house that has an extension on the extension on the extension lol it's got a fairly new boiler but old radiators in 90% of the rooms with no individual or general thermostats. We have 5 children ranging from 19 to 7 so we have a range of tv's, laptops and one games console we only use the tumble drier once a day but do several loads of washing, our youngest son is severely disabled so someone is up 24/7 as he is doesn't sleep very well and is epileptic. I've tried phoning our electricity supplier (swalec) to query weekly amount we put into a key prepayment meter we do have an old debt on the machine (we've been paying it off for 2 and a half years now!) and they say everything is normal. We did save money by swapping the gas meter over to Eon (both meters were in the property when we moved into it) as we were roughly putting in around £60 per week to keep the house warm now it's down to £40 per week. As for the electric we put it £60 per week and obviously if i've had to use the tumbler more than once or twice that shoots up to £70 is this normal?? I'm reading here everyones seems alot lower than ours but we've always put it down to the fact that someone is up 24hours a day?? These bills are slowly killing us so if I can save money I'd love to I have tried going round turning off appliances when not being used turning off lights etc we try to use the radiators to dry off small items of clothing but it doesn't seem to dent this £60 per week stinger!!! Looking forward to any advice xx

DoctorWhen · 17 April 2012 at 11:18AM

I am a single guy living in a 2 bed detached house with an Economy 7 tariff from npower. There is no gas supply to the property.

I'm currently paying £190 per month on electricity, which seems pretty high to me seeing as there's nobody at home during the day and the only things active are fridge, broadband router and a low power CCTV install (~8W IP Camera).

Most of my appliances (including TV, PC etc) are physically switched off at the wall when not in use and my white goods are all "A" rated. I run the dishwasher once a week or so (mostly I do small amounts by hand) during the night on a timer, the washing machine is used a couple of times a week on a low (30deg, maybe the odd 40) wash.

The big problem, I suspect, is the storage heaters: I keep them pretty low during the winter as I am fairly warm, unless I have guests in which case the heaters get switched on a day before, but that probably only averages once a month. The heaters are generally all off during the summer.

My bills leapt from about £60/month when I moved from a 2-bed flat (all electric again) to £190/month and it's becoming really difficult to keep up!

I'm going to start keeping an accurate check on consumption to see why my bills are so high...

DragonQ · 17 April 2012 at 3:01PM

Two bedroom house (new build), two of us housesharing. Over the last 8 months our average electricity spend is ~£33pm and average gas is ~£21pm.

However, obviously over summer our gas usage will drop and we've also moved to a cheaper gas supplier recently, so I expect that to drop to about ~£16pm by the time we've been in the house for a year. In fact, if we had been with our current supplier since we moved in, our average for the year would be ~£13pm by the time the year is up!

DoctorWhen wrote: »

I am a single guy living in a 2 bed detached house with an Economy 7 tariff from npower. There is no gas supply to the property.

I'm currently paying £190 per month on electricity, which seems pretty high to me seeing as there's nobody at home during the day and the only things active are fridge, broadband router and a low power CCTV install (~8W IP Camera).

£190pm is pretty crazy, although since you say there's no gas supply it kinda makes sense because electricity hobs and boilers are generally less efficient (and thus more costly) than gas ones. I don't know much about storage heaters but since you say your previous all-electric flat cost you 70% less, maybe they are the main culprits? From the brief amount that I've read, they can eat up a lot of elecitricty and the main way of reducing this is to turn down the "input" control.

Have you tried looking at a comparison site, armed with how many kWh you're currently using per year? You might be able to trim a significant amount off that bill!

ttwlcd · 8 May 2012 at 12:31PM

I'm British gas customer dual fuel since may 2009. I have been sending in my meter reading even their little man has read the meter and as far as I knew everything was fine. Just had a shocking letter of them saying they have made a mistake with my bills, the computer that accepts the meter reading was for some unknown not been accepting my reading so I owe them £900. Now I know I have to pay this amount but not in two months like they ask because my husband is disabled and I'm his carer so we don't work, but what I am questioning is they have worked out my bill to be nearly £3000 for electric for the three years we have Been with them. All electric switches are switched of at night only telly on during the day, we do live in a four bedroom house but everyone out during the day except me and husband. All bulbs are the new cost efficient ones and all electric goods, tumble dryer not used heating and hot water is on gas we pay £54 a month for this separately

Terrylw1 · 8 May 2012 at 9:22PM

ttwlcd wrote: »

I'm British gas customer dual fuel since may 2009. I have been sending in my meter reading even their little man has read the meter and as far as I knew everything was fine. Just had a shocking letter of them saying they have made a mistake with my bills, the computer that accepts the meter reading was for some unknown not been accepting my reading so I owe them £900. Now I know I have to pay this amount but not in two months like they ask because my husband is disabled and I'm his carer so we don't work, but what I am questioning is they have worked out my bill to be nearly £3000 for electric for the three years we have Been with them. All electric switches are switched of at night only telly on during the day, we do live in a four bedroom house but everyone out during the day except me and husband. All bulbs are the new cost efficient ones and all electric goods, tumble dryer not used heating and hot water is on gas we pay £54 a month for this separately

Hi,

It would best to create a new thread on this.

Until then, they can easily agree to spread the debt over 12 months, which is the norm.

It would be best to also post more about the meter readings and the kwh values as these utility suppliers often "try it on" and there are codes regarding back billing which you may be able to use.

If you post more on a new thread, you will get advice from posters who look at billing problems more than average cost threads.

Candy53 · 9 May 2012 at 9:48AM

Even though we are on standard electrity and gas, and pay the bills separately.

Winter bills from Nov to Feb: Electricity - £186. Gas - £141.
Added together the monthly sum was £109.
That will always be our highest.

This bill: Electricity - £152
Gas- £114.
Came out per month at £89.

Then the next bills especially the gas will be lower still.
We're in a 3 bed semi with 4 adults.

Candy

zippyj · 16 May 2012 at 11:24PM

For a three bedroom 1930's semi, with a downstairs extension, I'm currently paying (Gas, with M&S Energy):

Jan £194
Feb £188
Mar £99
Apr £90
May £40 (thus far, for just over two weeks)

It's costing a fortune. Only have the thermostat set to 17 degrees maximum, and for the last three months it has been on for an hour in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening. The hot water is on for 1hr 10mins each day.

Electricity is about £45pm, which is about what we were spending before in a 2 up 2 down, but we're paying in a month what we were paying for a whole quarter in the previous house.

The cost of heating is really affecting us. I've had the rads powerflushed and rebalanced by a GSR local trader, and two radiators changed to newer ones, and the system 'serviced' by British Gas under their Homeplan. Not sure what else to do.

Even just heating the water uses 0.4 units (old units) each day for 1 hour and 10 minutes. That seems excessively high.

leanne31 · 23 May 2012 at 6:42PM

iv got a 4 bedroom house,,1 stay at home child and me rest at school.. with scottish hydro i pay 108 gas and 56 eleky im on benefits and cant aford to pay is these payments to high or is thas a usual price x

1plus1equal3 · 24 May 2012 at 4:12PM

hi, i live in a brand new house which is all electric.im very carefull about how much electric i use, and probably have the washing machine on twice a week, dont do a great deal of cooking,have 1 tv in the house, 1 computer. I dont have a problem with my summer usage, its about a tenner a week,but as soon as the colder months arrive my usage goes up to around 30 quid a week, which means im paying about £20 just for the heating, , i think this is far too high for heating a 2 bedroom, brand new house, and im also on the social tariff, so my bills at the moment are cheaper then they will be when this tariff finishes.I have looked everywhere on the internet to find out what the average yearly bill for a new , 2 bed house is but cant find any details.My housing association say that they have to look at a yearly figure , and the average is 18 units a week, but i dont live yearly, i live weekly, and cant afford to subsidise the winter througout the summer, and wouldnt be able to if i was on a prepayment meter. i think 30 quid a week in the winter is far too high, or am i out of touch.

Average gas and electric bill?

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