does electricity or gas cost more?

[bumface]

Hello,
Sorry to ask such a dull question.
I pay £50 per month each for gas and electricty, a total of £100 per month. I have changed my gas and electric supplier and my final bills have come. The electricity bill is about right, £20 to pay on top and the gas bill says I have £175 extra to pay.
I am amazed. The only gas we use is for the gas hob, hot water and heating and the heating has been off for the last six months. I was expecting the electricity to be more. Does this sound right to you?
Thanks.

Don't get me started on gas bills.

I changed supplier and despite paying £90 per month by DD for Gas and not having the boiler on AT ALL since April (so only the gas hob and oven were used)

I received a final bill for almost £200.

So in my experience Gas is more expensive. I think I was paying £28 a month for electricity and the final bill was £67

Gas. Which seems the opposite way round to the way it used to be.

is your bill an actual reading, if so is it catching up after a number of estimates which were too low. If the bill is an estimate check your reading.

Gas is always the cheapest for cooking, but for hot water and heating it depends on your system.

Gas is cheaper per unit of energy. Your electricity usage will be fairly limited if you have gas ch & cooking.

Thank you. I took a meter reading and it looks like we have used more than they think.
I get really worried about it and stick my head in the sand.

Per unit gas is cheaper, but you consume more because of the central heating. The av annual gas consumption in 20500kwh two thirds of which is commonly used Nov to Feb, and ele av annual is 3900kwh. So though you pay less per unit of gas, usually the annual bill will be more. (i work in one of utulity companies, depressing stuff atm for everyone:( )

Gas is by far the cheapest for heating, since the cost per kWh is about half what electricity costs.

Most of the usage is for heat (electric lights and TVs use very little) so fan heaters, tumble driers, washing machines, immersion heaters etc with heating elements use most electrity, especially if they are run for many hours a week.

The reason gas bills are quite big, despite its cheapness, is that we use such a lot of it to heat our homes and baths. A typical modern gas boiler can have a max output of about 30kW, which is equivalent to ten electric fan heaters. Luckily they do not run flat out all the time. Modern boilers are much more efficient than old ones, but the installation cost means it takes some years for the savings to cover it.

A useful tip is to take your meter readings once a month or so and input them online (AFAIK all utility companies enable that now) so you will not get estimated bills, and you have the opportunity to notice if your usage is getting high.

Monthly paymnents can trick you, they are besed oin estimated usage, and if they have been set too low, then you will have a lot to pay at the end of the year. If they are too high, you are giving an interest-free loan to the utility company. So another advantage to you for inputting frequent accurate meter readings.