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.

Hell's bells. Is the 73000 kWh for the gas prediction, not electricity?
Even I am getting muddled now.

AND I am wrong with how much more it would be from what it was (??) before..... it will be about 30% ish more, if usage was the same.
Duh. It's late.

For it to be "acceptable" and the maths to work, she would have to have been paying £400 per month before price changes.

Yes the electricity charge and the gas charge were billed separately, and yes the annual predicted usage was just over 73k! Mum has forwarded me the email wih the bill so I can speak to them on the online chat but she can't remember the password 🙄 so it will be next Sunday now when I get that and speak to them.

She just keeps saying she's not bother about the estimates now that she is giving meter readings, but she's not realising that the direct debit they wanted her to pay (£718 for gas and electric) and "negotiated" down to £460 was based on that ridiculous estimate. She can afford to pay the £460 but she thinks that's her actual usage so isn't putting the heating on enough.

My brother has told her to put the heating on and if in Feb it comes to it he will pay any lump sums.

But unless she or I actually look into these dodgy estimates and usage I fear she could be scammed out of money rather than it turning out she's in plenty of credit come February.

I don't think they will/should ask for an online password to chat.... Maybe date of birth?
Even so, I would do a "forgot my password", if she uses email for that account, and (she) set a new one that you both know/remember. I find a useful way is to set the name of the company, so maybe EDF for example, and some memorable numbers.

Can you clarify for me ----
The 73K estimate is JUST for gas, or gas AND electricity (some do this, just to make matters more confusing)?
What is the kWh estimate for Electricity, if it is a separate figure?
Tariffs for both - I know you said about .10 for gas, what is it for elec?
What was she paying on her direct debit previously and did it cover the bils she got and finally, is there anywhere on her account any other annual usage estimate? They cannot call it usage if it is a catch-up.....

She's not going to be scammed out of anything. If the previous readings were estimates it will resolve itself when the actual ones are submitted

In the nicest possible way it's rather annoying reading all your reasons why this can't be resolved when many posters have told you have to resolve it really easily online or via the app

Why would you need a password for online chat? If you ring them up with the copy of the bill just say you are your mum, they won't know you aren't, download the app, reset forgotten passwords etc

If there's a rogue appliance you need to know asap

I am just watching an old Escape to the Chateau DIY - and it was calculated that to heat Chateua de la Londe (?) was costing about 900 Euros a month.

Just as a comparison.....

I think it is a bit bigger than a three-bedroomed bungalow.

Read the meters and submit the readings.

If it's possible get her to read the meter. Put the heating/hot water on for an hour, then read the meter again. You'll be able to work out how much her heating should cost.

This.

she won’t be scammed. If the estimates are incorrect she will get a refund.

there have been 6 pages of advice to submit regular meter readings and that will show whether the estimates are accurate pretty quickly.

the only other thing I haven’t seen is if your mum doesn’t have smart meters get them fitted asap. Then you can see how much she’s using hour by hour, and what it causing the biggest load.

Oh can't you piss off! If I'm annoying then don't post? Literally how helpful do you think it is to tell me it's annoying when I've clearly said I have no idea what I'm doing with all this and just venting a bit too.

Energy companies are scamming some people with wild estimates, it's in the news, and I've never once said it can't be fixed, it's why I posted in the first place because I'm sure it's not right and can be fixed?

It's just hard when the person who's account it actually is keeps telling you it's right and not to do anything. I have no idea how these bills work and I've clearly said or agreed, it's either the bill that's wrong or there's something wrong with the house which is playing on my mind.

The reason I've needed the password is because with EDF it's far easier and quicker to log in and use the live chat through there.

Again several people have suggested submit meter readings, also try and get meter readings from her for an hour when the heating is on

Bear in mind you would only have to have the heating on 10 hours a day to get to 600 quid a month.

She may have left the hot water on for 10 hours a day.

You wont get any more insight unless you go over there and examine the energy usage and submit readings to the Energy company.

I know, I've taken this on board and understand that. I have already clarified that my mum has been submitting meter readings but it's only recent.

All I've tried to explain in my update is that I'm concerned about the estimate as I don't get bills like this so the 73k figure was shocking. I've also just said that I'm worried that even if she's not overcharged, mum is paying loads a month and was thinking of increasing. Even if it turns out in Feb that it's loads in credit, she would still have spent the whole winter overpaying and being worried about putting the heating on. I'm just chatting/venting I don't know why people are starting to get aggy with me. If it annoys you just stop posting.

EDF is bloody useless though, the account page won't let me view the graph for gas only electricity, and it just says no one is available to chat come back later.

Ah right, so giving really clear helplful advice is getting aggro is it?

And you just wanted a chat about it dressed up as please give me advice.

Go over there and sort it out and stop wasting peoples time here.

Seriously FUCK OFF

EDF tried to increase my direct debit to £400. They insisted that this was correct. They were giving me a projected usage in £ value.

However, they had previously sent me an email with projected usage in Kw. I sat down and calculated the cost of those units and the standard charge and it was about £1800 lower than the cash value they were projecting.

when I copied and pasted the usage from the email and asked how they had calculated the projected bill from these projected usage figures they immediately agreed to reduce the direct debit. (It was actually reduced to lower than I was currently paying)

I was really shocked. It was only because I had an email of the projected usage and the ability/time to do the sums myself that they admitted the direct debit was too high.

I seriously considered reporting them to the ombudsman.

Oh no..... what's happening?

@Dreamwhisper You have probably reached the high water mark of general assistance and input, and how much you want to read it all, I guess.
But, as someone has said - and the maths of it has made me doubt my own ability to do basic sums - it would be scary easy to use that amount (again, depending on the heating set up and it's efficiency) and need to pay £600 a month.

But also, I do not think this is the case for your Mum, so do hope that, to stop the confusion and worry all round, meters can be genuinely read, the readings given to the supplier and it all resolved without her giving them money over the winter that she should not have to (if that's the case), and also that her fears about using he heating can be allayed.
I know that that is what I have been trying to do (but venting is always OK in my book), and probably most others who have posted xx

EDF are a nightmare to understand!!
The website is useless
Last month they were saying we were £200 in credit
This month it's £1000 in credit
We just keep paying £180 a month and send in actual readings monthly
Hope you get things sorted so DM feels happy to put the heating on

I think they rely on people not being able to so the sums, and call them out on it - and I believe it has been going on fo a long time. I have helped people in the past who did not understand their bills and saved them from going to CAB , or having to call their supplier and go through the blasted menus of confusion.

It s , as you say, better to have the info to hand, and the chance to talk to a human being who should also understand, as it is their job.

One thing that I have noticed that is in the VERY small print is that te conversion of gas unis to kWh has changed slightly (I am with BG - don;t know if this is across the board). This in effect means that the units become MORE kWh, without there being any additional usage. It makes avery small difference to the individual customer - but when multiplied by 8,000,000 (BG customers) it is quite a big sum of extra money that goes to them! (I am looking into the reasons why the conversion figure might change,.....)

I have always said (even when prices were lower)- and pardon the pun -
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Get a smart meter installed

I don;t think they are done immediately these days (hmm.....? I wonder why though) - and in the meantime, we can all be our own smart meters.

(I refused one many times, as I can think of nothing worse than the bloody thing sitting there haunting me, but I actually in my early years lived in a house where my g/ps had to put 10p coins in the meter, surprised we didn'tr get gassed, o blow up! From one extreme to the other.)

EDF is bloody useless though

Completely. I have had a bad experience with them, as did my parents. I don't blame you at all for not trusting them. If your mum isn't in arrears, I'd switch suppliers.

I would be wary about getting a smart meter. It's been in the news recently about them switching people to prepayment as they no longer need a court order as they don't need to enter the house to replace the meter.

I don't have a smart meter as when the installer came out he said we would need to resite our meters. I refuse to pay for that. Also check if the smart meter reads both gas and electricity. For me it defeats the point of getting a smart meter if I still have the hassle of reading the one next to it.

OP you ned to stop trying to resolve this yourself. Something is very wrong, there is no way your mum will be using that much gas.

There is a number in her energy bill for Citizens Advice helpline. Call that and emphasis this is acomplex problem and your mum is elderly.

They can refer you to a specialist unit of experts who will work with EDF on your mum's behalf to try and resolve this.