Gas Bill - surely this can't be right?!

[FaceLikeASlappedArse1985]

Just had my bill from Octopus Energy and they are wanting to charge me £235 for a month's worth of gas - I know prices have gone up but surely this can't be right?! (I was in a lot of credit up to now so I hadn't really noticed as my payments had still gone up so presumed by the right amount but it was just using up the credit)

I am a single person living in a 1920s 3-bedroom semi. I am at home all day 5/6 days a week (working from home) but honestly the central heating is on for a maximum of 4 hours on any day, washing up once a day, one bath a day (occasionally 2 but maybe twice a month - period pains!) and use the gas cooker maybe 3 times a week - I try and batch cook and re-heat in the microwave

I'm genuinely shocked and just can't see how this can be right! It has been based on an estimated bill but I've just done a meter reading and it's almost identical to the estimated one!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

You may think that is clear but it's not really if you think about it.

eg This final bill - is it an estimate and tallied against a reading?
OR this final bill actual reading and based on a previous estimate ?

Isn't that only the time the boiler is actually coming on? We average less than that a day including standing charge with the heating timed for 5 to half 7 and occasionally put on for an hour in the morning. I would think with the OP's heating at only 13, it wouldn't be actually coming on for long. Before the most recent temperature drop ours wasn't on at all some days.

I have been reading these threads for weeks & 💩ing my pants.

Been paying £207pm (estimate from British Gas) for BOTH gas & electric for the last 4 months. 3 kids under 5, heating on all the time pretty much… set to 20. Probably 80% of the day most days, 2 showers a day, couple of baths a week for kids, use the tumble dryer, basically don’t care & just thought they’ll have to wait for their money if it’s extortionate!

Put my metres readings in yesterday I’m £76 in credit!! I can’t figure it out! We do have an air fryer we cook in about 5 nights a week so not using the oven much but surely that can’t be making that much difference 😂 still confused & relived.

Our bill is £374 this month 🤢 newbuild house, all carpeted etc.

This was watching the smart meter go up hourly whilst the heating was on 😂 new, efficient boiler. Our gas bill is extortionate for probably less than 4 hours central heating a day, set to a low temp.

As a comparision we are still thankfully on a fix from 2021. In Jan our gas bill was £179. However I also signed up to the loop energy app which shows my gas bill at the price cap rate. It is a very scary £461 so 2.6x 2021 rates.

Our heating is set at 18 day time and 14 at night and in Jan the boiler ran from 4 to 7 hours a day to maintain this. 5 bed detached house so a lot of space to heat.

Is that only the first hour? I'd expect the first hour to be high, but not the next three hours as the boiler would only be clicking on as needed.

Possibly, I’m not sure of all the ins and outs,
that’s our rough price though. We were spending £20 a day on gas on some of the coldest days in Dec/Jan!

Looking at my use for Sunday (random day), when my heating went from 18 to 21 in the morning til it went off at night, I used about 7kwh/hour for the first hour and a half, for the rest of the day about 2-3kwh/hour once it reached temperature.

If it’s taking 4 hours a day of heat to keep the property at less than 13 degrees, your insulation must be appalling. Is there anything you can do to insulate better? Maybe shut off any bedrooms or other rooms you aren’t using?

I’ve pretty much given up on using my living room except on weekends - the large windows let in a wonderful amount of light and air in summer but it also means that room is noticeably colder than the rest of the flat. I’ve taken to spending evenings in bed under a double duvet and with the electric blanket on. It means I can turn the heating right down.

Sounds about right

Prices have tripled so If paid about £80 last year a month will be £240
Now

You say you live alone but use the washing machine usually once a day

What do you wash ?

Sorry washing up

Not washing machine

My mistake

When we first moved, the boiler was old and on a lot. Turned out the gas pipe providing the boiler was too small, so I would say anything is possible

This is how much it costs. My bills have been250 plus a month since about October, twice that when there was snow in ground .

Sounds about right to me. We are also getting the £65 credit until March. It’s a bloody disgrace. Normal householders cannot afford it. Something has to be done.

You need to drill down in your bill - how many KWh have you used and what price do you pay per KWh? I think that's high - I'm paying half that for gas in a 4 bed detached house with 4 people and heating on for about 6 hrs a day. It's a modern house. But I pay 5.81p per KWh which is low at the moment so I expect this to be more next winter when my tariff is higher.

Yet the rest of Europe isn’t paying this.

it’s a disgrace. I was paying £70 a month 2 years ago. I always read my meter every month. Now I’m paying £300. How does anyone afford this. I’m using my savings to pay for energy.

That's half of what I pay

If you have chronic pain, can you apply for PIP? This is exactly the sort of cost it is supposed to cover.

That doesn’t change the price of gas I’m afraid - it’s still going to cost as a luxury does regardless of reason.

Crazy times we’re living in

I'll look into possibilities about insulation - the other thing that doesn't help is that I have an open chimney and original fireplaces so cold air comes in that way too. I also need to reseal the patio doors as there's a draught but at the moment don't have spare cash to do anything!

I spend most of my day/evening in my living room but don't have the radiator on in here as it's the opposite side of the room from the sofa and behind the TV so I just sit with a blanket on.

That's exactly the problem with this one - it's only 8 years old maximum but the couple who lived in this house before me did a full renovation but for as cheap as possible and the guy did everything himself. So he just chose the cheapest boiler with no regards to whether it was suitable for the house! I'm saving up for a new one next winter but obviously spare cash is few and far between right now - British Gas offered me interest free credit over 4 years but it added up to £4000!

Hello OP

Sorry the bill sounds about right. Have a couple of tips for you

• baths are expensive, but for chronic pain I use these microwaveable wheat heat pads. You can find them on Etsy or buy whole kernel wheat and sew one yourself. Throw a bit of dried lavender in there for a nice scent.
• for your chimney you need a chimney sheep. It’s a removable wool plug that blocks the chimney to keep the draft from coming down and your warm air escaping. www.chimneysheep.co.uk It will pay for itself the first month you use it. It has an attachable handle and dangling tag so you know to tug it out if you have a fire.
• patio doors, you can get secondary glazing film that costs very little. You stick plastic film covering the doors and then use s hair dryer to make it go invisible. Of course you cannot open the doors while it is on, but it stops all the drafts and condensation. They sell it at homebase for usually £15 per kit. Or on Amazon

I definitely wouldn't meet the threshold - I've got endometriosis and waiting for a hysterectomy so I'm hopeful it will improve afterwards. I'm still ok to work and be out and about as long as I'm dosed up on strong painkillers but I don't like to take them all the time so a bath is an alternative (although prescriptions are probably cheaper!)