how much is your dual fuel bill?

[Hattie11]

We pay 76 a mth at the moment although I'm frightened once heating kicks in they'll put it up as always happened with previous company.

We are in 3 bed semi with gas central heating. I'm at home most days with 2 youngest. Currently don't have loft insulation, but just installing it hoping it will make a big difference.

So....does our bill seem high or low compared to yours?

Just been increased to £90 a month, with gas central heating. We have a dishwasher which is on at least once a day and a tumble drier that is on at least 5 times a week. Good insulation though - we draftproofed the sash windows which were blowing a gale and put proper loft insulation in, both of which made a huge difference. We have thick walls too - about a foot thick, made from cob, which helps.

£88 per month for 4 bed detached which has cavity wall insulation and loft insulation. Think we are about 1 month's worth in credit at the moment so that will probably even out over the winter.

"this year I think I'm going to try turning it down five degrees and see if the family notices."

Brrr! I would notice. I have my thermostat set at around 18 or 19 degrees. If the house was only 13 or 14 degrees I would feel too cold.

"When we got our dishwasher our water bill went from £50-£60 a quarter to £30"

A quarter!? Don't you mean per month? Where do you live that your water bills are so cheap? We live in South Yorkshire and pay about £110 per quarter to Yorkshire Water. We are on a water meter and aren't extravagant with water either.

My thermostat is set to 16 at peak times, 10 overnight.

I think we probably top the lot - £310 pm for dual fuel!!

Big, old, drafty house; heating (gas) will NOT go on til the end of Oct and if I have my way, off at the end of March.

I think its the elec which costs us - got a usage meter but cant make it work properly. we have 2 pc, 2 laptops, 3 tvs, 4 phones, prob all on standby the whole time - is this what's costing so much? HAY-ULPPPP!!

Why do you leave everything on standby? That is so wasteful. The only thing I keep on standby is my phone for obvious reasons.

Bunbaker, I live in Staffs.

Yes, thats a quarter not a month.

We had a water saving (or effiecient if I could spell today) dishwasher, shower, tap inserts in all the taps, water saving toilets.

Not sure about the washing machine, I will be getting a Bosch Logixx one when we buy a house so that will save more water.

Don't leave things on standby...ever! There's no need to heat rooms that you rarely use. Turn the lights off if no one is in the room. Don't leave your microwave plugged in (it's surprising how much some of them use). You only need to have your hot water on for an hour a day, the tank will stay warm.

If you have two water tank jackets a tank will heat in less than an hour.

Wickes had them for £5 a couple of weeks ago.

I have just received my September bill (phone, broadband, electricity, gas)

-£279.76

Solar panels are definitely worth it!

Around 70-80 pm but that was when no one was home all day, now I'm on maternity ill be home most days so no doubt it will go up

I don't see anything wrong in having the heating on all day if people can afford it.

Bunbaker, your meter isn't running backwards is it? That's not a good thing. The electric people can estimate the useage and charge you for it. It was on Radio 4 and is therefore gospel to me. I want solar panels one day do my ears pricked up when they mentioned it.

£58 for both. 2 bed eot. double glazing. me and dd.

online saver with npower, monthy dd. paperless.

going to go on to their fixed till jan 2014 when i can get thru on their website. will save me approx the amount they are putting it up by.

mines that price for the whole yr. i made sure they look at the yr and divide by 12. don't like shocks.

"Bunbaker, your meter isn't running backwards is it?"

No. I also know it isn't a good thing. Our meter can't run backwards anyway. I work part time and try and use things like the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer during daylight hours.

It is a big minus bill this time because of the quarterly FIT payment. We were jammy and got our panels up in February just before they reduced the FIT payments.

Also we own our panels so we get a bigger payback.

British Gas has set the DD at £67, also in a 3 bedroom house. Only have the HW on for 2 hours/ day unless bath nights when put the extra hour on. However last online bill was actualy only £25!?

Sometimes you dont need the HW on for more than 30 minutes, I saved £30 a month just turning our thermostat down to 55c (it should be 60 really).

I would LOVE solar panels. DH thinks they are ugly.

£125 for terraced modern house with double glazing. No tumble drier use, about 5 hours worth of heating per 24 hours in the winter. Usually get a small rebate on overpay just before Christmas!
Have thick curtains/blinds & I have a door curtain for the front door in the winter, as well as a draft sausage thing.

We're £180 for 5 bed house with double glazing. Try not to have heating on until kids come home, but I think our main cost is the electricty. Going to look into an energy monitor to see if we can get it down.

We have a 10 year old 4 bed detached with a north facing conservatory that kids use as a den. We pay £122 a month for both which I don't think is too bad though it had gone up. Last year we had cavity wall insulation fitted, we had always assumed that a pretty new house would have it but found out that none of the houses on our estate had it when built. It has made a big difference and this year we have topped up our loft insulation too. Our conservatory is a pain to heat but we need it so pay the extra, it has a radiator fitted so when house heating on it warms up.

Semi detached 1930s 2 bed house. We were paying £79 PCM, just changed and it will be £56 PCM based on what we used last year. Quite pleased with that. We usually have heating off during the day, quite good at putting on extra jumper etc. I really feel the cold so often have several layers on.

In Scotland, so our water rates are included in council tax.