Surely heating can't cost this much?

[Dreamwhisper]

My DM lives in a 3 bed detached bungalow. She's getting down because she's says her gas usage is coming to £600 per month, just gas?

I don't understand how this can be right. That's over £7,000 a month just for gas, and she is being very conservative with it. She has an old fashioned boiler (is it old fashioned? I don't know much but what I mean is, it's not a combi boiler it's the one that heats a tank of water for hot water). But it is a new boiler.

She won't get someone out to look at her meter in case it's wrong as she says they charge £50 if they come out and nothing's wrong. I want to pay this for her or go halves with my brother as I simply don't see how it can be right?

My bill has gone up a lot too but £600 a month for conservative heating seems an absolute unsustainable nightmare.

Not see how that can be correct

I should have added - a while ago before my dad died, my dad had reduced their monthly rate to a really low amount, and when the bill came round my mum had a big lump some to pay of a couple of grand.

I'm convinced my mum's estimate is wrong, and it's skewed by that 1 off payment. She is convinced it's right.

She needs to be submitting readings for accurate billing. Or have a smart meter installed?

I know right!! In September when this came up we all came around and were saying how it's simply can't be right. She has tried to speak to them on the phone but they don't seem to understand. Her bill is an estimate (it's unfamiliar to me as I myself am on prepayment)

I'm on CAB website right now, but I don't know how far I can go with her provider if I'm not the account holder.

That doesn’t seem right at all.
Has she been giving readings, or are her bills estimates? Is she still paying off arrears?

If its a hot water tank then she needs to adjust how much it heats the water. I don't have one but from what I've read I here, it costs fortune to keep the water warm all the time - heating it once a day and using it for a bath is enough.

I'm going to see if I can arrange this; I'm worried though if there is some kind of reason the reading would be high but accurate, like a leak or something, would that even be possible?

Is she going off the bill or a smart meter. It may be that she has smart meter set to show KWs not £s. We did this by accident and it was showing like we’d spent £25 a day when it was 25kw and only around £6?

No she has credit cards so she payed off a lump sum in one go. I personally believe this is why her estimate might be so high? Because their system is calculating the bill as that huge total being her usage and it's massively bumping up the average or something?

Those emersion heaters where you have to heat a whole tank to draw hot water just eat up the gas. Why didn't she get a combi boiler?

I keep saying it's not right, and when she explains it to me, she says something like "I'm using this many units a month, and 1 unit = £7" or something.

I'm seeing her at the weekend as I just can't accept this is her bill. She is resigned to it; she managed to negotiate to pay £450 a month but as she said, that's just the direct debit so she thinks when her actual bill for usage comes through she'll have to pay loads again next year in a lump sum. It's just not right.

If her bill is an estimate it’s likely she is overpaying, not that she’s actually using that much gas.

Is the bill £600 or is her Direct debit £600? If the latter it’s probably an overestimate by the gas company, plus extra to stop her going into debt again.

you should be able to send in meter readings if she’s not on a smart meter, which should make it more accurate within a few months.

If it’s an estimate it’s pretty much just inaccurate and will be based off last years readings (if any were submitted) or whatever was paid last year plus a buffer for the current climate.

You can easily read the meter and submit the readings. Regardless of what’s going on that’s the best start for actually checking how much has been consumed. From there, If it is very high investigation can be done.

When I say new I should have said new-ish.

I'm wondering if it's that, though I don't know if I'll be able to convince her to pay for a new boiler. These costs are just insane though she's nearly 70.

I think this too, I'm upset though that it sounds like her provider has not been helpful or understanding at all and have just been happy to accept the money (as she is the sort of person who would take their word for it)

Accurate readings are the key.

If there was a period of time when the readings were estimated, and then a bill - a Catch-up of sorts, then the chances are they are using that usage to predict the future - which is SO stupid and a big problem of just using computer algorithms to calculate payments.
Can you get readings from her, and infro from bills (online or paper) and the actual costs per kWh? If she speaks to them, she ask that they speak to you for queries from now on.
Most important I would think is knowing the figures from the big CatchUp.

She needs to be giving them actual readings every month. Then she can see where she stands with it all.

As for the hot water - we have a separate tank, and it’s set for an hour in the morning & an hour in the evening. Definitely look into that. There’s 4 of us in an old 3-bed semi, our actual gas costs were £70 for October (the last full month I have a bill for)

I'd check her boiler settings. One time I had mine serviced they turned the dial up to volcanic levels and I didn't realise until I got a massive bill.

She needs to read her meter every month and give them the exact meter readings, then she only needs to pay for what's she's using.

Estimates are just that - estimates.

I've just had a smart meter fitted

Because I'm so in credit and they still increased my gas bill up to £250 per month!!! Based on estimates, I was in credit all last year including winter.

It shows that my gas centra heating (large old draftvhouse) costs £1.20 an hour to run. £1 ph to use gas stove, 8p ph when running gas central heated (combi boiler) shower or hot tap for washing up.

. So I put heating on for up to 5 hours a day (£6) sometimes 3 hours to keep house gear 18' and we cook everything at same time. So my gas bill should be £150/month during winter if I can stick to it, maybe a bit more over Xmas/Dec/ NY and January.

Nowhere near £250 or even £600!!! a month.

My gas bill will be approx

80p per hour when running shower or hot tap I meant not 8p

I don't think it's an immersion heater, as they run off electricity - but yes, do gobble it up.
It need not be the case that an older style boiler/water tank is expensive to run - it is a matter of setting timers and thermostats appropriately, and having a good lagging jacket :o) Combi boilers can be horrible, as they somethimes are too powerful for the property and keep cycling on and off. Give me an "older" one any day.

Does she have it heating all the time? Or can she set the hot water to heat just morning and evening?

Does she have the radiators on in all of the bedrooms?

I dint know, I've got an old boiler with a tank. My quarterly bill with submitted readings has come today at £228.

The thing is, you can't get to a point where you can really critique the spend if its all just done on estimates.

Once a month, she or you need to read the meter and submit it - online or over the phone.

Once she starts getting bills with actual readings on, then you can really assess rates etc.