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!

My electric and gas is £10 a day. That’s 5 hrs gas a day. 30 days a month it soon adds up.

My gas and electric have been £1300 in total for Dec, Jan & Feb, we have the heating on 2.5 hours a day and never higher than 18c.

Absolutely this. I now have a combi but when I had a tank, I had the hot water on only prior to using it, not all day. Constant hot water is a massive expense. If you are leaving it on all day if you can work out how to stop that, it should save you a fair amount.

I'm a bit worried that your boiler may actually be dangerous. When was it last serviced?

Are you on UC or any benefits? If you are, you can get grants for boilers.

Re the hot water, I assume it's heating a tank but the tank has a thermostat so the gas isn't on continually, only if the temp of the water drops below the 55. Check that thermostat is working, and if you've got any spare blankets or anything, wrap them around the tank and pipes to keep the water warm longer.

Why would it be dangerous? Lots of boilers are on or off. ours is brand new yet the easiest way to use it is just to press boost when we need it on.

@dementedpixie @Talia99 Mine is a combi boiler, I honestly didn't even think about turning the hot water off - I feel really stupid but I've just been a bit blasé about the bills up to now as they were always cheaper than most people I knew before the cost of living crisis came along!

@VanGoghsDog The boiler's been looked at by a plumber who fashioned the interim solution I have now (pipe into bucket, etc.) but he did say I need a new one. I'm not on UC or any benefits as I have a professional job which pays pretty well so I'm lucky to be able to account for the additional spending on bills...just not a new boiler as yet! I just got a shock when I saw how much it had gone up

If it’s a combi, there is usually still an ‘instant hot water’ setting (it heats a small reservoir in the boiler). Unless you use hot water constantly, you should make sure it’s turned off if you do have one (on mine, when it’s turned off, the display says ‘eco’).

You won’t save as much as only putting a tank on for an hour of so a day rather than keeping it at a constant temperature but it might save a little bit.

She said it was faulty. Obviously all boilers are on or off. But they usually have some method of setting that and setting the temperature.

The fact she has to move it from hot water to hot water and heating (not just on or off) just made me think it worth checking when it was last looked at, that's all.

If it's a combi you don't need to turn the hot water off. You don't have tank, presumably. It will be hot water on demand.

Do turn off any "pre heat" function though. That saved me about 50p a day, which is c£15 a month!

I've just checked mine for February. We are in a three bed detached house. We have the hot water on for an hour twice a day, and the heating is on for about 90 minutes in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. The gas bill was around £150.

We have electric radiators that we use if we are cold when we are working from home. The electricity bill was about £90 for the month but that also includes lighting, cooking, device charging etc.

A new boiler with a room thermostat will make a massive difference OP.

We have ours set to 19 degrees 7am to 11pm every day, down to 15 overnight.

Our gas bill for February is £152. January was much colder and cost £184. Once the room temperature reaches 19 it switches off, so not burning fuel all the time.

And we have been very comfortable throughout the cold periods.

Our Worcester combi boiler was supplied and installed by a local company for £2014 in 2014.

NB
The same company does an annual service in September which costs £8pm, which means the boiler is under guarantee for 25 years from installation. Well worth it.

Thank you. I’ve had a quote from a local company which is fairly reasonable and they do interest free credit but I’m wanting to save up over the summer so I can put a decent deposit down (and hope the bills come down in the meantime!)

I'm baffled as to why people have heating on overnight. I have my heating at 16.5 or 17 (no set hours, depends how I feel), but overnight it's off.

If it's cold when I wake up I put the electric heater on just while I get dressed for ten minutes.

I keep repeating this on threads, but mine's kept on at 18 overnight (and 21 when I'm up) because of a lung condition. I wouldn’t have it set to come on/so high otherwise.

But loads of people on here mention having their heating on overnight. In real life I don't know anyone who does. But even my mum (who does actually have a lung condition too, and has the heating on all day at twenty four, but off from 11pm to 7am).

Im just going by minimum temperature recommendations from the WHO and Asthma and Lung UK for my condition (COPD)🤷‍♀️ I only got diagnosed last summer, so asked A&LUK's helpline about what I needed to be doing heating wise this winter.

Yes, that's what my mum has. Though COPD isn't a condition in itself, it's a group name for a collection of conditions and it's very common. My brother has it too.

I'm not going to tell mum she is supposed to have the heating on overnight for it!

As long as you're not going to tell me to turn mine off, that's fair enough!
I have no idea what the temp would drop to overnight if it was 24 all day, but it would presumably take a lot longer to fall to 18 than it does from 21.

The heating is "on" but won't fire up unless the temperature drops below 15. Stops pipes freezing.

So if its above 15 inside it costs nothing to leave it on.

In summer the thermostat is just left at 15 degrees. The boiler is still on but it never fires up. No need to switch it off. Zero cost.

I put mine on eight degrees overnight to stop it coming on. At this time of year it's regularly thirteen or fourteen when I go down in the morning and was probably lower in the early hours.

The system has a pipe freeze prevention mode that you can't override anyway, at five degrees, so there's no need to leave it on fifteen for that reason.