gas and electricity?

[lilly153]

not sure where to post thid but just want some general advice if possible im a lone parent and have a 3yr old
my gas and electric are currently billed but they are billing me well over £100 a month (this is not estimated) so im not sure if im paying for people before me or god knows how they come up with these figures anyways i was going to get prepaid meters in but im scared incase i cant afford to put in enough money if i am usin this much

HOW much do use use per month in your prepaid meters?

i have a 2 bedroom flat, just me and my son im out 3 times a week 9 till 4, i have gas central heating and gas hobs on cooker everything else is electric including shower, i dont have a tumble dryer and hardly ever use microwave and if i do its for 2 to 3 mins to heat up some beans so hardly ever use that

[LittleBeaut]

Flipping eck ILovedYou that is loads!! I put £15 on my electric on Sunday and still have loads and loads left on it and I was at home Tuesday and Wednesday all day because my elderst had an operation on Monday. I think I actually use more electric than they say on the statement if I'm honest or I think I should do hahaha. Like I say I have a 4 bedroom house, and there is always the usual on fride/freezer etc but there is always at least 2 tv's on in my house, the wii is usually on, things charging like laptop/DSi's/Psp go's/Mobile phones etc, the boys never EVER remember to turn lights off so bathroom light is always on and usually a bedroom light to as well as kitchen and lamp. I have electric oven so I defo dont think I being charged enough... unless I get a good rate when I moved and I signed to keep it at that rate for a while... I cant remember, but its EDF I'm with x

[SleeplessInLondon]

I've been having a nightmare with my electric bills and have been tracking the readings for over a year. Was due to have an insppector out soon as was convinced that I was being charged nearly double what I should be using. I had an electrician here yesterday to fix a broken spot light and he asked did I have an immersion heater. I remembered that there was one in the cellar when we moved in but that I'd never used it (gas heats the water).

When we checked - the damn thing was switched on. I think I had another workman in a while ago who must have switched it on by accident. So definately consider the immersion, its the biggest cause of sky high electric bills.

[ILovedYou]

pc on all day 8.30am - 12.30am

central heating from 9am to 11pm

fridge freezer - 24/7

small deep freeze - 24/7

large tv - 9am - 12.30am

portable tv, dvd player too - 4pm - 9pm - weekdays and 10am - 11pm - weekends

child bedroom lamp - 7pm - 11pm

bedroom lamp with eco bulb - 4pm - 12am weekdays

lounge lamp - 8am - 12.30am

virgin box/dvd player, telephones - 24/7

small wc eco light - on from 4pm - 8am

tumble dryer/washing machine - every 3 days

is it about right?

thanks

[ThisIsANiceCage]

The really big powersuckers are anything to do with heating or cooling, so hair straighteners probably use more than a DVD player, for eg.

Definitely recommend one of those little electricity monitors. Switch everything off and see if you're still using power. Then switch items back on one by one to find the culprits.

[smokinaces]

ILovedYou, ThisIsANiceCage beat me to it - one of those monitors should tell you whats what. I chucked £5 on my electric today as had £2 left from last week, and that will last me till next Thursday. Somewhere, something in your house is chewing through a hell of a lot of electric.

[ILovedYou]

Thank you both and thanks for the link.

Di i plug the montor into the socket? I'm confused...

[ThisIsANiceCage]

Ah, you can get ones that plug into the socket too, that you then plug the TV, etc into.

But I think the link is to one which clips round the mains wire near your Consumer Unit or Fusebox or whatever they're called these days and measures total consumption. Then the display communicates by radio so you can clutch it as you walk round the house going, Hmm.

We've had both, and they were useful in different ways. If you want to examine the consumption of an individual device, the plug in one is good. If you're chasing down a immersion heater in the cellar, the total consumption one is good because you can turn off all "known" devices and see if you're still using juice.

Oh the hours of fun that stretch before you.

[SleeplessInLondon]

ThisIsANiceCage Serves me right for moaning to IRL friends/family about my electricity problems. I should have asked Mumsnet and would have had it sorted much sooner.

Great advice!

[Lucky78945]

I've recently switched to Octopus energy and would really recommend them - has been really smooth so far - they did handled the whole switch for me and they are very competitive in terms of price.

And I did a bit of searching and found a £50 off link which was a huge bonus so if you want to sign up then use the link below for a discount:

share.octopus.energy/lucky-fish-619