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.

Can you get the bill in front of you and call the company using her phone, basically impersonating her, and get to the bottom of it?

Not at all, just called my brother and he confirmed she is almost never putting the heating on. Very upset as she needs it on

There is an online chat function so I can impersonate her to her provider and have these conversations; my brother said she's adamant they must be right so won't look into it. I'm not going to let it go though, I'm sure you could heat a mansion for £7k a year even with the price increases!!

They do have a chat feature I'm going to go round on Saturday or Sunday, get her bills and log in details and see what I can do.

She did in fairness try to speak to them but the customer service person was adamant it wasn't wrong. What they may not have understood is that while the math might not have been wrong, it's probably based on dodgy figures because of the lump sum? I don't understand why else it could be so high.

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.

Bewith her when she calls and get her to say that she's old and vulnerable and can you speak to my daughter. They will probably talk to you then DH had to do that with loads of utilities* *etc for MIL as she couldn't hear,see or be mentally engaged with it all. They always spoke to him. I did the same with my mom with Virgin too.

It not necessarily old fashioned to have a boiler and a hot water tank. If the boiler is newish it should be a condenser type and fairly efficient. also the difference between having the water on all day or just for a few hours a day is minimal if the water tank is well lagged as it will only be heated once the temp of the water drops and it’s minimal power to get if from say 65 degree to 70.

As PPs have said, having a gas-heated hot water tank is not at all like an immersion heater, and can be very efficient - ours keeps a tank of water hot for a couple of days if not needed. Someone living alone would probably only need half an hour to an hour’s hot water each day, so that shouldn’t use much gas at all.

Good shout I'll go round and get her to confirm they can speak to me I did actually do that with my dad to Apple so sure it won't be a problem.

She is being extremely conservative with the heating. I am being liberal with mine as I have young DC and tons of washing, and I'm paying around £180 - £200 per month for a 2 bed maisonette. I don't see how someone with a decent sized bungalow can be paying what she's paying. Maybe if she had heating on liberally like I do, but she's scared to put the heating on because her usage seems so high.

I say how can it be so high what's it going on? But she assumes it's the water tank and she does have a gas hob. I just think it's mad.

My energy bills will be £600 December, January and February based on last year's usage. So this could be accurate if she has the heating on lots and lives in an energy inefficient house.

Get the meter reading from her last bill, read the meter then work out the use / cost.
Is she on the 33p kwh price cap rate or a higher fix?

I’m currently using around £3.50 a day of gas. Heating on 3 or 4 times a day up to 18/19 degrees plus bath or shower hot water and washing up twice a day.

I used 6 units of gas on my metric meter over the weekend so 1 unit is approx. 3.5kwh or £1.15.

Is she over state pension age? If so, get her to sign up for the priority services register and then she can make you or your brother her nominee to talk to the energy company on her behalf.

Has she left the boost button on? Years ago I pushed the boost button accidentally and called the housing association out because it was whistling i didn't rush because it was working just making whistling noises bit like a kettle they didn't rush because it was working turns out it was constantly heating water as I pushed the boost button and hadn't noticed

My bill dropped dramatically after I turned it off

Phone up and pretend to be your mum. Find out what's happening.

Has she got the hot water on constant rather than timer? That will eat through gas. An hour in the morning and evening should be more than adequate to keep the tank hot.

Who is she with OP? I heard the other day on a news report somewhere that a few of the energy companies were messing people around with vastly incorrect bills. And write to MP, this is not what she should be paying.

When you go round a) check if her hot water is on timer or if she switches it on manually when she needs it. Then B) if it is auto, check how long it is on for per day. C) take meter readings and submit them for her - you can usually do this online or by phone without needing to speak to anyone. D) check if the estimated readings on her bills roughly match her actual readings - if not are they over or under? This will give you a good idea if she is being overcharged.

It sounds like because she is paying, they are not worried!

cancel all future payments and send in the accurate reading when you go on Saturday, and everytime you go after, send a reading.

who is her gas provider, SSE have a phone app, and it updates very quickly once you put the reading in

Good Luck

It won't be because of the lump sum. Something somewhere else seems wrong. That sounds like your dad reduced the direct debit below their usage and then at the end of the year they owed money - they estimate the next year's usage off units, not money taken Jan to Dec.

I'd be having a look at the boiler with a google of the model number to see if she is somehow heating water all day every day.

What's she set her thermostat at and for how long? How long is water on for (family of 4 we have water on for 30mins morning and 30mins evening). What is insulation / windows like? Floorboards vs carpets?

Post a copy of her bill when you see her with her personal details hidden.

She's with EDF is this one of them?

Before anything else is done the meters need to be read. Can your Mum do this?

Compare the actual reading to the estimated reading on the bill.

That definitely doesn't sound right. I have that type of boiler and my combined bill is just over £100 a month. Ok, I have a different type of house but I can't imagine for a moment the gas bill alone being £600 a month!
Is that just what the company have decided to charge her? She really needs to submit meter readings.

Most systems with a big tank have a normal, non combi boiler fitted. The immersion heating is normally only for back up and not turned on. Yes, they are more experience to use but shouldn't be the main way of heating a tank up in my experience.

We have a non-combi boiler and just heat the water in the tank using our normal boiler. Don't think we have ever turned the immersion heater on in the 17 years we have lived here!

A normal boiler (non-combi) isn't more expensive to run.

Not all properties can have a combi-boiler. They aren't suitable everywhere.

Edf don't alter your billing if you give regular readings, then only do it 6 monthly - trying to get people onto smart meters..

That's really really helpful to know thank you.

I was looking online at this:

www.edfenergy.com/for-home/energywise/what-is-the-average-energy-bill-in-the-uk

Citing the average annual gas cost for a high consumption household is still only around £1800!

I'm just pissed off that someone spoke to her on the phone about this when she first enquired, and didn't think that it didn't sound right that a single woman in a mide sized house is paying £7k per year...