To ask what your energy usage and bills are?

[OnNaturesCourse]

I seem to paying a lot... But its my first winter in a bigger house so I don't have a lot to base it on.

I've just had my last quarter bill : for gas I've used 3595kWh and billed £146.69, for electricity 1092kWh and billed £182.02.

I have a 3 bedroom, 7 room total, house.

Should mention the house is rented and has a extremely old boiler and is draughty BUT we make a point of just wrapping up and only putting heating on for a hour in morning, and a few at night - 3 hours max. We aren't particularly heavy on the hot water either, I turn it off when it's not needed.

Hi have you got a smart meter at all or any device that helps you measure rather than rely on your supplier re useage? I only ask as we are in a similar position moved to a renovation project bills last year hard to compare due to ongoing works this year supplier wanted 319 per month . We had a smart meter fitted and supplier agreed to put charges down to 210 a month - still - we have monitored our own use and seem to be using approx 180 a month (with the heating on). Ours is a 4 bed, 3 bath, 4 reception with large kitchen diner as well. We think ours is a lot lower usage than the supplier is requesting so we are self monitoring.

I have a smart meter, and I'm considering get a review done as when we were on holiday in the summer we turned our boiler off yet on return our smart metre was showing readings of 4p per day for gas.

Go to the Money expert website and check out which supplier would be cheapest for you.Many suppliers do dual fuel,paperless and monthly direct debit for a discount.
Is this an estimated bill or from a meter reading?
Comparisons with others won't help as houses are different so make sure your one the best tarrif and paying monthly at least makes it a bit more manageable.

Your bills do seem very high to me. I moved to Octopus Energy last year and my bills are now just over £60 per month for combined gas and electricity. 2 bed house, one bathroom. I have a friends referral code which is share.octopus.energy/new-macaw-74

which would give both you and me £50 credit in our accounts.

This sounds like a massive promotion on my part and yes, each time someone signs up using my friend code I get £50 credit, but I joined them last year because they looked good in terms of cost. Worth checking them anyway.

That seems like a lot, especially considering you won't have used as much gas before it got colder.

I'm on prepayment meters so an expensive tariff. I have a 2 bed, 2 reception room house - the rooms are large with high ceilings, it's old and draughty. But I use about £50 gas and £40 electric per month in winter. In summer the gas is a couple of quid a month,plus standing charges. I imagine you're on a cheaper tariff than me, but I have a newish boiler which is very efficient compared to my old one.

I have been comparing online and can only seem to get the amount down by 5-10 per month because of my readings on this bill.

Its actual readings thanks to my smart meter.

I just don't see how it's getting the readings. I'm going to sit and watch it one day I think!

Our combined gas and electric are around £100/month and I've been convinced it ridiculously high and trying to figure out what's costing so much. Reading this I'm not sure now! The house a 1950s semi over 3 floors (loft conversion), 5 bedrooms and 2 reception rooms plus kitchen and utility. I think better insulation will be the key for us though. The loft room is always cold.

£50-60pm combined gas and electric, 2 bed apartment. It does seem to have gone up a fair bit this year

This quarter £120 electric and £60 gas. 2 people.

Bills are definitely on the rise, I think we will need to put up our DD as we are normally in credit going into winter but not this time!

Was that your monthly usage or was that your estimated annual usage?
My bill gives the estimated annual usage you help compare other tariffs. My estimates are:

5497 electric per year
17393 Gas per year

I pay £123 a month combined gas/electric, 4 bed detached in Scotland with nearly 20 year old boiler

Cuddly... Thank you, I've had a look and they can't offer cheaper. The link contains your personal information tho so you might want to remove it?

It was my actual usage / bill for the quarter.

I'm in the same boat, albeit a leakier one (our electric bill is rather worse). I discovered that a heated towel rack was absolutely killing us, weirdly, we turned it off and saved about £3/day.

I found that all the hidden systems in my house comprise about .10/hr.

I've went round turning everything off, including the heating and it's still burning gas and electric. I must be missing something.

Depending on tariff you will have standing charges too. Depends on the type and age of boiler too as apparently our pilot light never goes off unlike newer ones that go on and off as required

I pay £77 per month for gas and electricity combined. The electricity component is a lot higher than the gas component. Sorry I don't have the actual figures to hand.

I found shopping around for the best tariff made a big difference. I also got the price fixed for two years so there won't be increases on the price.

Find it better to pay a set price per month rather than less in the summer and more in the winter.

• Get on best tariff (i.e. I take my own readings and submit them, go paperless etc).
• LED lightbulbs use 10% of the electricity of some halogen bulbs. They can reduce your bill dramatically.
• Don't leave things on standby
• When you boil a kettle use the minimum amount of water
• Don't leave lights on
• The film for windows can save a lot of energy
• Have shorter showers

I reckon your electricity bill is the one you can reduce the most.
Like Impending found about her towel rail, there are often hidden items!

I hope any of that helps, I know what it's like to worry about bills.

About £50 pcm for both gas and electric, I work from home so it’s on a fair bit. I looked around and it seems about right but switched supplier for £150 cash back anyway. Mines a 3 bed newbuild though which seems to hold the heat in.

Thank you Sky.

I suspect our electricity bill gets a bit higher due to occasionally using a electric heater in one of our rooms (there is no heater in there) and prehaps the slow cooker?

We get a standing charge but that doesn't show on our smart meter, only added onto our bills.

We are getting a new boiler next year and I can't wait - our current boiler isn't even produced anymore. It's the only boiler that's ever been in this house.

Slow cookers use minimal energy. Electric heaters however will burn through it

@NoseringGirl

Our combined gas and electric are around £100/month and I've been convinced it ridiculously high and trying to figure out what's costing so much. Reading this I'm not sure now! The house a 1950s semi over 3 floors (loft conversion), 5 bedrooms and 2 reception rooms plus kitchen and utility. I think better insulation will be the key for us though. The loft room is always cold.

We have exactly the house you describe (3 floor, 5 beds due to loft conversion, 2 receptions) and we pay £80 per month combined on a good energy deal. Our loft rooms are always toasty, as they were only converted a year or so ago, and have fabulous insulation. We also have a relatively new combi boiler. So I don't think your £100 a month is far off the mark.

'Ive went round turning everything off, including the heating and it's still burning gas and electric. I must be missing something.

Have you tried isolating the fuses in the fusebox?

I pay £82 per month for 3 bedroom new build. I think it's going to go up because I've been cold the past few days but throwing a jumper on, I'll probably give up and put it on during the day this week. It's set to come on for an hour in the morning and 3 hours at night. I also just purchased a tumble dryer so the electric will be up too.

Impending, I wouldn't know how to do that!

£185 a month for gas & elec combined. Fairly big house, is Victorian with high ceilings so hard to heat.
I’ve recently changed supplier and we are on the cheapest deal, it just takes a lot to heat this house, there’s always someone in it so heating is on all day and the weather where we live is at best drizzly for 11 months of the year and we have a lot of washing, so use the dryer and heated airer regularly.
We have a smart meter, which I often look at and think wtf, how much?! I recently tried turning the boiler down to setting 2 (there are 5 and we’re normally on 3) and we managed to save around £1.50 a day, but we were freezing despite wearing thick heavy clothes and it felt like the heating wasn’t on at all, so we’ve switched back to setting 3.