Is this bill stupidly high or about average?

[billquestion]

We are 2 adults and 2 DC in a 3 bed detached house. Our energy bill this month was £394 for electricity and gas combined (screenshot attached with the breakdown of each). Does this seem insanely high or about average?? 🤔

I'd say it was high - particularly the gas. Presumably you have gas for cooking, including your oven. And have the heat turned way up. And maybe have the windows open so you can breathe. I used to do this when MiL was living with us as she needed her portion of the house at max temperature all day, every day including in the summer. Such a lot of waste!

I'd be checking that everything is turned off that can be off and see also if you can batch cook to save on the oven being on so much.

And I'm assuming when you say 3 showers a day for 3 adults that means a total of 3. Not that you're each having 3 showers every day which would be ridiculous. Just to give you the EWWW factor we've stopped showering every day as we aren't at work every day. It makes a difference to the bills but very little to the way we smell. (no complaints from anyone at least!)

My last electricity bill was about the same as yours but my gas bill was only around £45 so I think it really must be the heating. Ours hasn’t come on yet apart from an hour a day in the bathroom, plus we have underfloor heating which I think is supposed to be a bit more efficient.

I’m not a ‘competitive under-heater’ at all and I would crank the heating up if I felt I needed it but it’s currently set at 19 degrees during the day and it hasn’t got yet cold enough where I am for it to click on. I’m expecting my bills to rise when the temperature drops.

Using heating a lot and using it to dry clothes sounds like it is probably responsible for the lion’s share of that bill. Maybe a dehumidifier or heated airer would help? Costs some electricity to run obviously but should surely be cheaper than heating up the whole house unnecessarily.

I would say that's very high. It's more than three times ours for a five bed end terrace. Three people, three showers a day, tumble drier usage and heating was on almost every day at some point in October, although less than an hour a day on average.

No - the £66 came off that

Surely that depends on what they've been upto and how dirty they are?

So it was actually £328 combined when the £66 came off

I have a teenager and a toddler. One is self conscious and showers every day, the other ends up covered in all kinds after a day at nursery and needs a bath every day.

Gas seems very high indeed, and electricity higher than I might expect.

we’re in a 6 bed detached house. 2 adults (1 wfh), 2 teens.

our electricity was the same as yours in October but our gas was only £76.

I think it's pretty high. Family of 5 here ( 2 adults and 3 kids). 1st Oct to 3rd Nov was £165 for both gas and electric (£50 of it was gas). I don't really use my tumble dryer much as I try do my beds etc on days it's forecast to be dry and do a load daily that I can hang up in my drying area in the utility room. I wash at 20 degrees as it makes a big difference to the bills, set the heating temp to 20.5 but that will need to rise a bit in Dec I think. Kids generally shower more than bath as it saves a lot. I cook with an air fryer.

Higher than ours. 1920s 4 semi with poor quality extension. Sahm/DH works from
home and we use the tumble drier lots. At least 2 showers and 1 bath a day.

That looks high to me.

I have a large 6 bed stone house with no insulation and 1970s double glazing. My ddm is £350pm ( a compromise as Octopus want £412...) and we are only using about £250pm of gas/electric. I'm currently £1200 in credit and rising.

In the same amount o grime you’ve used 6x more gas than me…. And about 40% more electric. Could you have a gas leak?? What are you doing

We are the same, 2 adults, 2 teens, detached 5 bed. We have two ponds and 2 aquariums running 24/7 plus 2 American fridge freezers. Our electric is about the same but our gas is only about £40 per month but we haven’t had the heating hardly at all yet,

Have you got any secret appliance like underfloor heating or a hot tub that hasn't been mentioned yet.

4 of us in a 5 bed house.
Our October bill was £170.
Your gas usage is very high - our gas was half the electricity cost. Although I'd expect that balance to change as the temperature drops.

What is your thermostat set to?

No

Not a problem just trying think the high usage as underfloor heating users a lot, and people forget about the waste of energy a hot tub is.

there's the reason your bill is so high. No heating on here, no tumble dryer, down to one very quick shower for the adults and three-four times per week for the kids. Washing is all done on a super quick wash and hung out if possible. Our bill for th months was over £150, when at the start of the year it was £80, with us using everything to its full advantage.

Your electric is less than ours by c 80kwh (2 people, 4 bed, electric car, no gas appliances), and way over our gas but we’ve used heating one evening a week, two baths a week and shower no more than every other day.

This time of year they'd usually be fully clothed so only hands to get muddy.

Are you using a full size bath? We didn't have a bath so used a flexi tub in the shower, might save on hot water.

It’s really high. I live in a 4 bed detached (south east so it’s been mild) and wfh apart from 1 day a week and my kWh for electricity for October was 325kwh and my gas was 300kwh. We had the heating on 4 times in October for 1 hour each time- it’s been mild and as our heating is not great we have to manually put it on and off, some rooms get warm and some don’t (we are planning renovations next year which should resolve that). I use an electric fan heater and heated blanket when I wfh at the moment as it’s much cheaper than having the heating on when it’s just me at home and I’m in the small study room all day. We heat our water for 1.5 hours a day for daily showers/ occasional baths. So our gas usage is still quite low at the moment, electricity higher- the spilt for October (paying by DD) was £110 electricity, £32 gas.

Your electricity usage was 500kwh- are you running your tumble dryer a lot and lots of other appliances? Is your shower electric?

Your gas usage is also high but maybe you’ve had your heating on quite a bit if you’re somewhere a bit colder? Or are you heating water for several hours a day? If we ran our heating for 2 hours a day and heated water for 1-1.5 hours then I estimate it would cost us £7 a day gas, so £210 a month just gas- I think that will be necessary when it gets colder.

No child needs a bath or shower every single day, regardless of what they get up to in nursery. A flannel and half a sink of warm water is absolutely enough most days. If my child was coming out of nursery with hair saturated in glue or paint every single day (which would NEED a bath) then I'd be complaining tbh.

We're a family of 5 and your gas bill is three times our most recent one...seems like very high usage to me.

Ok so if you don’t want to change what you’re doing you have to accept your usage is high therefor your bill will be high. It doesn’t look unusually high for your activities, it’s just you use more than a lot of households.

old style Victorian house? They are awful to heat. We used to live in old style Victorian house ( 2 beds, not the highest possible ceiling) our bills halved when we moved to new built.