I just had a heart attack when our first gas bill came in today. After living in a two bedroom flat for six years, where the monthly direct debit of =A38.00 covered things for the year I was shocked to find the gas bill for the first *six weeks* of living in our new three bedroomed semi-detached (1980 built) house was =A3145!!
It is an Ideal mini C32, combi boiler. We've had the heating on for
2=2E5 hours in the morning and then 6 hours in the afternoon/evening - about the same as we used to in the flat.
Does =A3145 sound excessive for six weeks? I know it is winter and expect it to be a bit higher but could there be something wrong with the boiler?
It's unlikely that there is something wrong with the boiler. However, you could look up the rating of the boiler and the gas consumption rate on the manufacturer's web site and time the boiler to check this.
As you say, it is the heaviest quarter.
You don't describe your flat - e.g. the age of the building, how many outside walls and which floor it was on.
These all make an enormous difference.
First of all, you have what is probably a much larger place in terms of outside walls (three and on two floors?)
Secondly, you may have benefitted from flats above or below before. This is no longer true.
The consumption will go down in the spring to autumn, but don't expect it to be close to the figures for the flat.
You could get a very rough idea of likely range if you have your old bills. Look at the quarterly consumptions in kWh (not payments because prices may have moved). Then allocate percentages of the total for the year to each quarter. You might need to adjust the figures if there were estimated readings that were wildly out.
For example, you might get 40% in the current quarter, 25% in each of spring and autumn and 10% in the summer.
Take your current 6 week figure and double it to get 12 weeks, then apply the same factors. Using the figures I just illustrated, you would get £290 for the current quarter and £725 for the year.
Empirically, this does sound quite high to me for this type of property. There are several other possibilities.
- You have a tariff which has a much higher price for the first N units and this is weighting the relatively low usage of a 6 week period much higher than the usage across 12 weeks. This will become clearer in a full quarter's bill, but you can check what you got today to see if this accounts for the apparently high figure.
- The supplier might have estimated readings and done so with high figures. If they have, give them the reading and ask them to resubmit the bill.
- You are on a tariff/supplier which is not a good match for your pattern of use. They do vary depending on where you live and level of use.
If you think that you have a reasonable idea of use patterns over the year, then have a look at
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and see if you can find a better deal. Generally, the best deals are where there is least human involvement in the account and for paying by direct debit.
I'm currently using Powergen's EnergyOnline tariff for both gas and electricity and it remains the best deal for my location and pattern of use. However, it's almost certainly different for others.
Using a direct debit allows the cost to be spread over the year, however, don't accept the first offer of an amount from the suppliers because they usually set it up so that you overpay by 10-20% over the course of the year and then carry it forward. Personally, I don't like lending them money, so I negotiate what I expect to be an underpayment and carry the shortfall forward. That way, I am earning the interest and not them.
The other thing that may well be worth looking at is loft insulation. On a house of this age it is likely to have compacted, so it's worth changing or supplementing. You might be able to get something from the local authority to help pay for that, but it's not that expensive.
I'm currently using about 81 kWh/day, averaged since January, about 2.59 units/day. That's for a three-bed semi with two occupants, and a gas cooker and combi. That equates to 3,400 kWh over six weeks, and at the prices they were charging then ( it's gone up twice since Jan 1 ) that'd come to about £77.65.
So, yes your bill does sound a bit high. I'm in a warmish part of the country though. It has been a fairly cold winter. My tips are, insulate your loft to at least 8", turn off the bedroom rads when you leave the bedroom in the morning and don't turn them on 'til shortly before bedtime, run a cool hallway, and aim for about 20 C in the living room and 16C in the bedrooms. My hallway fluctuates according to the weather but will reach 16C perhaps in cold weather, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Also see if your radiator pipes are insulated if they run under a timber floor downstairs. Mine were uninsulated and effectively formed the equivalent of a small radiator throwing heat away in the breeze from the airbricks. Finally, seal as many draughts as possible, windows/doors/under the stairs/skirting boards etc.
Check for draughts and turn the heating down now. Take 5 degrees off the thermostat and wear a sweater. How many windows do you leave open? Is your immersion hear on full time?
And how much did they load on your meter when they read it? I get the impression they clip you for a call out charge every time they come. Well someone has to pay the multi millionaires that ruin the company; there is a limit to how much they can save through shoddy service.
The classic "you're paying part of the previous owners bill"? If you took a reading when you moved in and take a reading at the time of recieving the bill,send the leccy board them readings.
Feel happy, I've burned about 550 quid since Christmas on oil.
Nope. You just have more external surface area than you are used to and a cold winter.
A two bed flat plus kitchen and living room and bathroom - sepacially if it has maybe just two external walls (not uncommon) will be very cheap to heat.
Now you have probably double the wall area, plus a roof and a cold floor..
Calculate how much wall area you used to have, and now compare with wall, roof and floor area you now have..bet its about 20 times bigger!
That's a substantial fraction of the possible output of the boiler, and if the boiler is sized to the heating load, it seems reasonable.
However. Some quick estimates could be done, to see if this is reasonable. How long does the house take to come up to temperatrure? What's the temperature in the morning, compared to when the heating goes off at night?
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