How much is electricity and gas per month for a 4 bedroom house?

[crokky]

Just roughly how much should it cost, have received a bill this morning that is really shocking.

We have the elec and gas, both with npower on a combined direct debit of £94 per month. I have just received a statement saying that our account balance is £980 in debit - WTF!

The only think that I can see to do is to have a look at the gas meter because the bulk of the money is on gas and they have estimated the reading.

It seems that our direct debit of £94 was way too little - I am really angry that npower have not warned us of this - they must have known this was inadequate and has been building up for months, it is a total shock to us. Just to add, we don't have much stuff so would not think our energy consumption would be particularly high (apart from washing machine etc).

I just want to know how much everyone else's direct debits are really.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Oh dear, what a nightmare Ours is £80 a month for the combined debit.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

If you take a proper meter reading you should be able to work out how much you have actually used in gas and what the bill should be.

[mankyscotslass]

Our combined gas & elec is £121 a month. Our last reading showed us £60 in debit, but that will balance out over the next few months.

We take readings every month and update on line so we know where we are up to.

We are in a 3 bedroom semi.

[crokky]

Yes, I will take a reading. I am so shocked about this - there are 4 people in a 4 bed house. Fairly normal I thought!?

[crokky]

thanks mankyscotslass - npower chose this amount of £94 - it does seem too little compared to yours.

[mankyscotslass]

When was the last time you had the meter read?

It must have been a shock.

[crokky]

both the meters are outside so readers can just do it without us knowing. the gas seems to have been read last December, the elec is more up to date

[mankyscotslass]

We are fairl heavy users though. we have jsut replaced most of the bulbs to energy saving ones, so that should help.

I am a SAHM so am in the house a lot, so the heating is on although low, and appliances are used fairly frequently.

[lal123]

Have you checked the meters yet? We're about £65 a month for gas and electric, and about £40 in debit on gas at the minute.

[Fizzylemonade]

I'm in open plan 3 bed and a sahm, mine is £110pm!

I used to work for npower they will have based your £94 on your previous consumption, you will have been getting bills every 3 months so should see whether your payments are covering your consumption.

Check your meter readings as sometimes they can be input incorrectly, then do your sums.

[crokky]

Things have changed so much - before we had kids (eldest is only 3 so not that long ago), we lived in a 2 bed terrace and had a combined direct debit for gas and elec of £43 per month. This place is bigger and prices have gone up, I just didn't expect this!!! I have looked at the meters and the readings seem fairly close to those on the bill so there is no glaring error there. I've been so busy with stuff that I had not considered that the direct debits were wrong. We changed suppliers a year ago, but had a man round the other day (cold calling) saying a lot of people in the area were on shocking tariffs - I didn't have time to discuss it or anything - my 3yo was trampling on a fairy cake and my 1yo was crying so I didn't do anything about it. Perhaps he was right, but it is hard to trust cold callers who are trying to get you to sign up to stuff. I think I am going to look at changing suppliers through a cashback website so see if I can make any money back that way.

[crokky]

Am ranting now...but all these stupid tariffs and deals - I just don't get it. Gas is gas and everyone needs it - why don't we just pay for each unit used all at the same price? These tariffs are so confusing and I just don't really have time to make sense of it.

[MrsMichaelSchofield]

I agree - it is really very complicated

fwiw - am in 3 bed and monthly dd is £102 but am about £30 in debit

[crokky]

So ours was def too low - everyone with 3 beds is paying more than us with 4 beds - I had no idea.

I have sent an email to DH with a lot of f words in (not directed at him!)

[notcitrus]

My house is around 6 beds and we're paying about £100/month looking at bills over the winter. Just moved to EOn rather than EDF+NPower so that might have helped - moneysupermarket claimed I will save £800 this year. I took that with a pinch of salt but they might actually be right!

[wombleprincess]

three bed cold house, no double glazing, dd is £180 a month. ouchh.

[clumsymum]

Crokky

"Am ranting now...but all these stupid tariffs and deals - I just don't get it. Gas is gas and everyone needs it - why don't we just pay for each unit used all at the same price? These tariffs are so confusing and I just don't really have time to make sense of it. "

You don't have to understand or work them out, just follow these steps.

1. Stop Panicing
2. Read your meters NOW, and ring up your supplier and give them your actual readings.

1. Ask them to tell your consumption over the last year, or the nearest 12 month period for which they have readings. It's better to get it in Units/KWHs than in money.

1. Go to , and plug the numbers in, to get a view of which supplier/tariff would be best for you. You don't have to click thru to change right there and then. It could be that your current supplier has a better tariff for you (happened with me last time).

1. Check quidco etc to see if the recommended supplier has any deals etc.

Armed with that information, you can actually make the change, and save some money.

Oh and one more thing. Try to think about things like "is the TV on, even when no-one is watching it", "can I turn down the hot water a little bit, so it doesn't get quite so hot", and "can the central heating go off an hour earlier in the evenings?"
They all save you something.

[crokky]

clumsymum - I have done as you suggested.

Hopefully, I've earned £70 cashback from topcashback and I have changed both gas and elec to eon.

I am going to take a meter reading every month and put it in a spreadsheet .

[clumsymum]

That's great Crokky. Now the trick is to do the same thing every few months to keep up with the lowest tariffs.

did your meter reading come near the estimate? if not, maybe you don't owe as much as you thought.

[handbagqueen]

Hi,

I had the same shock as you a couple of years back. I spoke to our gas supplier and agreed a reasonable repayment plan and the debt was paid off over a year.
BTW our combined gas/electricity is about £180pcm this means that we usually about spot on and don't build up a huge credit or debt (the credit built up over the summer covers the debit that builds up over winter).

We also found its cheaper in winter to leave the heating on 24/7 and use the thermostat to keep the temp at 18/19C.

Hope this helps.

[clumsymum]

"We also found its cheaper in winter to leave the heating on 24/7 and use the thermostat to keep the temp at 18/19C."

Have you REALLY found this cheaper (i.e. properly measured what it costs both ways)?

I have seen arguments both ways about this, some say it really is cheaper to keep the temp constant, others that this is a myth, it depends on the variation between inside and outside temps, and that you are better letting heating go off.
I haven't been able to test it myself, as dh wouldn't let me keep heating on all night (even on the coldest night) , he says it would get too stuffy.

[NervousNutty]

I have a 4 bed semi and pay £60 a month electric and £40 gas.

[BeehiveBaby]

About £120 for big, old 3 bed here.

[Thrifty]

crokky
just a thought, but as its just your gas bill thats high, have you double checked your meter to make sure its not metric? Do your units have "cu3" next to them? If so your meter is imperial, however, if your meter is newer and metric, then is possible they could have worked your bill out incorrectly, and they could be charging you nearly 4 times too much.
I spent the whole afternoon the other day trying to work out our annual usage for our 3 bed semi it came to something like 5000 kwh of electricty and 13250 kwh of gas. I worked it out it should be costing us £90 pm to cover the winter too. Thats on our current tariff with scottish power. I cannot find a cheaper provider for dual fuel. Like another poster, i am managing it all online now and submitting regular readings so we can keep on top of it.

[handbagqueen]

We did measure it accurately before making the decision to leave the heating on all the time in winter. We picked a two week period and too reading before and after, then another two week period with similar outside temps and had the heating on timer - I am at home during the day so I used to switch it on for an hour when it got cold. At the end of this experiment it was cheaper (not by a huge amount, but enough to make a difference) to leave the heating on - it also meant that house was always lovely and warm.