£419 per month gas&elec….. around about right?

[BlueBunny23]

So I have a 5bed detached house…… lived here 6 years, gas and electric was £120 a month, went up to £270, now they want £419 as that’s now my usage apparently. I must invest in a smart metre very fast as I don’t think I could be using this amount of gas or electricity!! Does this sound about right for the price increases or waaaaay off?

4 bed new build detached, was £100 before now paying £200 (not including the £66 rebate) our usage is about average across the board (gas lower but electricity higher).

Surely you check your meters? You don’t need a smart meter to work out what you use.

We have a three bed and use approx 10kwh of electric a day and 11kwh gas a day. The gas being purely hot water and showers.

The gas maybe slightly wrong as it’s 1 meter unit then we used a bill that says 16meter units is 180kwh so 11. Something but close enough.

Standing charge gas is £8.55 and electric is £11.43 a month.

Submit a reading. See if you’re in credit. If you have a big deficit then pay it off(if you can) and then get them to adjust. I got a similar quote and it worked. Unfortunately, they dropped the price too low to £80 a month when I knew it should have been at least £250. Took some time to sort out but my 5 bedder is £288 a month now I’m in credit going into winter and I haven’t put the heating on yet.

I'm in a 5 bed house and my supplier wants £460 per month.

I took a meter reading, calculated my actual usage over the last 12 months and multiplied by today's prices and came to £250. PLus I know I am going to be using far less this year as ds and dd are no longer living at home (ds was at home 3 days per week plus several isolations from college and he generated a LOT of electricity).

You do need to calculate your usage over a whole 12 months so you get a true picture of summer and winter usage.

That's CRAZY. I'm in a 4 bed. My smart meter says I have used 30 pounds of gas and 68 of electric so far this month. I'm prepay as well which I believe costs more.

How many square feet is it? As pp said your house could be huge or fairly standard. Mine is 5 bed, 2 houses knocked through so effectively heating 2 houses, and I'm paying half that.

It’s perfectly possible depending on lifestyle WFH etc. Mine is predicting £250 for 3 bed older detached. I’m here all day but prices generally have doubled and the £66 per month for next few months is not going to cover it( I get it’s better than bugger all)
I have a fan oven that is quite old and this uses a lot of energy. It depends on stuff like this and not always one big thing sometimes lots of little ones add up. I would make sure as others have said that you are doing at regular meter reading and get a smart meter.

Meant to say I’ve not had heating on yet and there are only two of us most of the time.

On a fixed rate from last autumn thank goodness. Using approx £80 pm for gas and electric for last few months. When we put heating on it will double at least. Dreading next winter looking at all these prices, but keep a careful eye on our smart meter. 4 bed detached here.

We are in Northern Ireland where rates seem still to be higher. Also smart meters aren't available. I've been taking a gas reading daily this week though and worked out we are spending between £5 and £10 a day just on gas. We only have hearing on for two hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. It's ridiculous. I've turned down the boiler temperature this morning and hoping that will help.

For our 4 bed detached we’re currently paying £185 having negotiated it down from £225 (based on actual usage). £419 sounds high to me.

Do you owe them some money? Ours was £138 for a 4 bed Victorian mid terrace. We were just about even til last month because they effed up the DD's over the summer so it's now gone up to £270.

@Beautifulbeard thats pretty high, does it need to be on every morning and evening for that amount of time, is it cold now? It was 16 degrees here this week in South West Scotland so I haven't had my heating on at all this week. I think setting the heating to come on every day maybe uses more than is needed at this time of year when some mornings you may not need it.

Have you tried to save any through changes? We used to pay 249 month but when the first increase hit went down to 170 ish. Now at 210 per month - big old house with five people. Am aghast at what we have wasted.

I'm in a 2 bed terrace. Haven't had my heating on at all. I've just topped my meters up by £250 (£150 Elec and the rest gas) and I'm hoping it will last the month.
That's based on how much I've had to top up in the past.
There must be something wrong somewhere, surely? How is mine that high!

Beautiful beard - get some electric throws!

We are in a 5 bed semi (EPC rating D) and we are on £211 for duel fuel with EDF so your bill seems quite high unless you are absolutely caning the heating/hot water etc..

We are 4 bed semi with conservatory. 2 adults, 1 working from home with full office set up. 3 teens, 2 with air purifiers which are £££ plus all the tech including 2 Xboxes and a tumble dryer used daily as no room for airer and line currently broken. We haven't turned heating on yet but have brand new 35kw combi and radiators :

Our monthly bill from 1 Oct is looking to be £260 based on approx 550kwh electricity per month plus about 270kwh of gas. We currently pay £300 pm and have £900 credit and they have suggested we go up to £325. We are refusing this as getting the government top up also.

Friends with similar set ups seem to be in the same region.

We really can't afford to go higher 😕

You don't need a smart meter to see what you're using, you just need to look at your meter. If it's in one of those white cupboards outside, you can get a key for it from B&Q.

I live in a flat so likely less usage than you overall, but my supplier consistently overestimates my usage in between me supplying them with readings every 3 months (as per their request). The most recent one worked out at about £100 more than it should have been.

What do your meter readings say?

You don’t need a smart meter to know your usage, you can work out how many units you’ve used in a month, and you can check against your yearly usage on past years’ bills.

We’re using around £8 to £11 a day of both gas and electricity. Gas is hot water, not showers and heating, so at the moment we’ve not had it on much, but a couple of hours of the heating being on quickly sees it go up, about £1.60 ph I think. It’s quite a large house though, dh works from home with several computers on all the time, plus the usual appliances and gadgets. I’ve noticed using the hob and oven send it soaring.

we pay 162 gas 132 electric per month, 3 bed terrace

The change in your DD is nearly always based on their estimate of what you'll spend. Like others have said, work out your actual usage, multiple it by the kWh unit price, factor in standing charge and that'll show you what your bill should actually be.

I've got a smart meter but British Gas are trying to up my DD based on what I spent last year (WFH full time/pretty much had heating on all day) whereas this year I'm back in the office 3 days a week and I used a heated throw most of the time, with very limited use of heating. I'm not changing my DD. My calculations show I'll be spending way less!