Gas & Electric Bills

glenimp617 · 10 May 2013 at 12:50

Think I'm paying too much (then again I know how expensive the world is so maybe not).

Family of four, five bed house....£166 a month

That's with Scottish Power. I'm on their standard tariff so I'm sure I can get a better deal. Does anyone know who is generally the cheapest or are they basically all the same :confused:

Quite fancy one of those wifi boxes which tells you how much electric you are using. Hopefully I can find a few ways to save a bit

Schnippzle · 10 May 2013 at 13:01

Just got a 6 month "review" of our bill through from Scottish Power.

When we signed up they said they'd be charging us £38 a month on a flat fee which would not change. This was fine up until this month when they "revised" this flat fee and made it £309 a month until April next year. This was based on the usage of the previous occupier, of which there wasn't one, compared with our electricity usage. Our usage has also been incredibly erratic since we moved. This is for a flat with 2 bedrooms, one tv, one cooker, one fridge/freezer etc...calculated as "low usage".

This has been forwarded to their complaints department.

4T5 · 10 May 2013 at 13:03

This is what Compare sites are for.

Schnippzle · 10 May 2013 at 13:06

I was somewhat surprised when Scottish Power said they were reviewing our direct debit payments and amending the flat fee of £38 to £309. Somewhat of a jump tbh.

darael · 10 May 2013 at 13:22

Schnippzle said:
I was somewhat surprised when Scottish Power said they were reviewing our direct debit payments and amending the flat fee of £38 to £309. Somewhat of a jump tbh.

Work out your annual usage. If you've only been in the property 6 months, just double what you've used in the last 6 months for your annual consumption.

Once you've worked out your annual consumption, use a price comparison site to find out your annual cost. Add on what you currently owe to Scottish Power (debit), divide by 12 then make it up to the next pound. This is your monthly payment.

Ie: Consumption is £800/year, currently £80 in debit - (800+80)/12 = £73.33/pcm or £74/pcm when rounded up.

Sliver · 10 May 2013 at 13:28

darael said:
Work out your annual usage. If you've only been in the property 6 months, just double what you've used in the last 6 months for your annual consumption.

Not a great way to estimate annual consumption as 6 months of the year are colder and darker and require more energy as opposed to the other 6 months which are warmer and lighter and require much less.

4T5 said:
This is what Compare sites are for.

This ^^

isonomicjedi · 10 May 2013 at 13:34

glen8 said:
Think I'm paying too much (then again I know how expensive the world is so maybe not).

Family of four, five bed house....£166 a month

That's with Scottish Power. I'm on their standard tariff so I'm sure I can get a better deal. Does anyone know who is generally the cheapest or are they basically all the same

Quite fancy one of those wifi boxes which tells you how much electric you are using. Hopefully I can find a few ways to save a bit

Jesus thats high.

I live in a 5 bedroom house with ver large open plan lounge and diner and I pay £88 per month.

edit: I'm with Scottish Power fixed until april 2014 since last year.

I don't have gas as I'm all electric.

Glaucus · 10 May 2013 at 13:38

Sliver said:
This ^^

Not this, comparison sites for utilities are useless for many reason. Do some "hard work" and make a spreasheet.

The op sounds about right for winter usage with heating on and poor insulation, it varies massively between insulation and how much you have heating on, if you have people at home constantly its far high. Be it parents or a shift worker, people who have houses that all go to work from 9-5 massively reduce their bills. But you can nearly always save money, just don't use comparison sites, they cant work out complicated tariffs, they often also include money back from companies like npower. They never match a self done spreadsheet and sometimes by a fair amount. The more data you have the better, ideally a month by month usage.

WillyNelson · 10 May 2013 at 13:38

£80pm for gas & electric. Family of 3 in a 3 bed victorian terrace. Gas cooker & CH.

I just got our winter bill (Oct-Apr) and they want to jack it up to £100pm. But seeing as we were £550 in credit in Oct and now only have £100 to pay I'm going to keep it at £80. The heating is off now so the credit balance will soon build up again.

Kainz · 10 May 2013 at 13:40

Wherabouts does the OP live?
I ask because I am having similar concerns and am planning to investigate as to why our Gas bills are at £160 a month). We have been with British Gas for years but the monthly Gas bills since 2013 have been from £150-170.

That is for a 4 bedroom house that is well insulated. Our tariff is 'Gas Online Variable Nov 2013 with EnergySmart'. It is meant to be a cheap tariff for online users but bugger me something isn't right.

There was a local survey in my area recently run by the council in order to save people fuel bills - essentially a price comparison site. I await their results as I did enter in our details.

BennyC · 10 May 2013 at 13:45

Make a spreadsheet and do the calculations yourself with your usage & their teir rates/standing charges.

Swithing to an online energy product & paying by DD will save you some.

2/3 people in a new 4 Bed semi with Scottish Power has been costing £60pm for gas & elec. Recently gone up to £84mp but it's a seasonal variation due to the winter so will go down again.

isonomicjedi · 10 May 2013 at 13:46

Glaucus said:
Not this, comparison sites for utilities are useless for many reason. Do some "hard work" and make a spreasheet.

This

I have a spreadsheet showing my electric use week by week for last 6 years.

Then ring around all suppliers find their actual prices and input them into spreadsheet.

Find cheapest and your sorted.

A little bit of work but saves you hundreds of pounds.

Horse Pop · 10 May 2013 at 13:48

That thing with the electricity is a PITA.

Caught me out too.

Presumably what you want to do is pay 120 a month or something regardless of how low the initial payment is so it doesn't suddenly jump up.

Someone suggested I do this and I didn't but I wish I had of done.

Glaucus · 10 May 2013 at 13:49

isonomicjedi said:
This

I have a spreadsheet showing my electric use week by week for last 6 years.

Then ring around all suppliers find their actual prices and input them into spreadsheet.

Find cheapest and your sorted.

A little bit of work but saves you hundreds of pounds.

All tariffs are on their websites, they just aren't easy to find half the time, but a bit of digging through all the links will find them. Usually in a pdf download.

Uther · 10 May 2013 at 13:53

EDF have just whacked ours up from £76 to £100 a month, for a 2 bed terrace.They tried to change it to £110 before Christmas, until I told them 'I don't think so'.
Time to move companies I think.

Glaucus · 10 May 2013 at 13:57

Uther said:
EDF have just whacked ours up from £76 to £100 a month, for a 2 bed terrace.They tried to change it to £110 before Christmas, until I told them 'I don't think so'.
Time to move companies I think.

what's your actual charges there may well be a good reason for them to increase it.
when they increase DD its extremely rarely its due to a price increase. its due to you using more than the estimate they made or you gave when you signed upto. Its not good getting into to much debit, some's ok as you over pay in the summer.

glenimp617 · 10 May 2013 at 14:02

We live in a new house (2008) and had the energy assessment done prior to moving in. The bloke who carried out the tests said it was as energy efficient as you can get.

We both work full time, kids are at nursery or grandparents

Don't watch much TV (LED anyway), both have showers not baths, don't keep the house really hot as prefer it pretty cool. My PC is on most of the time (corsair 600w psu) but I don't think that would cost £160+ a month

elmarko · 10 May 2013 at 14:03

For that many people in the house & the size it's not that unusual cost, but location & supplier will make a difference (quite a big one sometimes).

Are you between the age of 45 & 55 with teenage kids? (as that's the demographic my models predict will use around that amount of energy to get a bill that high)

My tips, get some accurate data on your consumption - figure it out manually using the standing charges/unit rates - then go paperless/direct debit & find a long term fixed deal which is the lowest price, also take note of additional offers (most comparison sites don't take into account vouchers & other offers).

Sliver · 10 May 2013 at 14:04

Glaucus said:
Not this, comparison sites for utilities are useless for many reason. Do some "hard work" and make a spreasheet.

Ok then. This ^^ lol

I actually have a brilliant deal with Npower. I started at a comparison site and then phoned a few suppliers before settling on Npower. My duel fuel bill per month is around £70. I'm chuffed with this. I could make a spread-sheet, but It would only be as useful as the data I plugged into it and this is where I'm ignorant as I don't know what to do. :confused:

Still, even with a spread-sheet, I can't see me paying much lower than what I already pay.

jimjamuk · 10 May 2013 at 14:05

Just had NPower up ours from 76 a month to 206. Only spotted it when I was looking at my bank statement. Anyway made a complaint (not that I've used the energy but on upping the number without even telling me)

Anyway ditched them now for Scottish Power on one of the guaranteed capped rates (with the added bonus of no early leaving fee).