Gas and Electricity cost

[changeoflife]

I recently had a smart meter fitted and am slightly obsessed with how much gas and electricity I am using each day. It's not helping that I'm currently at home all day self-isolating and paranoid that my bills are going to rocket as its so cold I keep ramping the heating up..

So my question is, how much roughly do people spend on gas and electricity? I know tariffs are different for everyone I was just looking at approximate estimates!

£117 per month dual fuel. New build 4 bed detatched, 2 adults, 2 teens and a dog. Hive thermostat set at 21°c. I do however own a plug-in hybrid car which adds around £30 to my monthly bill (but virtually zero petrol cost!). So with that accounted for £87 per month. I also give monthly metre reads so I'm on top of my bill.

This is what I used last month. My heating is generally off during the day unless I'm cold and the I'll boost it.

Heating on 6-10am and 5-10pm

It depends on so many things

The size of your home
If it’s a house or a flat
How well insulated it is
Do you have double glazing
Type and age of heating system
Do you have thermostats in each room
How many people live there are how much they are home
How much hot water you use
Where you live in the country

Where do you live that it’s so cold today ? I thought it was mild throughout the UK.

@dementedpixie, that's sky high!

@changeoflife, I'd also suggest you sign up to money saving experts energy club.

@OddsNSodsBitsNBobs Whats sky high? Are you looking at the balance on my account?

I paid £50.82 gas and £81.58 in electric. 4 bed detached in Scotland

Oops yes I was @demented pixie 😳, now that would be sky high 😂

@ALLIS0N its a high of 4⁰C today where I am in Scotland so not very warm

smart meter irrelevant. They aren't for your benefit.

what tariff are you on? Gas should be under 3p a unit, electric 14-18p, standing charges vary wildly.

fix now as prices are going up again.

If you are WFH could you just heat one room? And use a hot water bottle.

Also dress in layers - use a base layer like skiers do . You can get cheap merino base layers in Aldi / Lidl or uniqlo heat tech is great - they have tights, leggings and different types of tops. I also wear uniqlo thin down gilet under a fleece.

@dementedpixie I got my £50 credit from your referral link! Hopefully you got yours too!! So far so good with Octopus!

It doesn't matter what anyone else spends, get the cheapest tariff you can and then reduce your usage as much as you can and you'll pay the lowest £££ it's really simple, get on a comparisons site, other people's amounts are just random numbers as far as you're concerned.

Got to say that Octopus have been the cheapest by far for me for the last 3 years. Here is my referral code if anyone wants to use it and it gives you £50 credit towards your costs. share.octopus.energy/lotus-brook-711?utm_source=em

[quote SandysMam]@dementedpixie I got my £50 credit from your referral link! Hopefully you got yours too!! So far so good with Octopus![/quote]
I did get it, thanks @SandysMam 😊. Octopus has been great for me as you get an up to date balance every time you submit your reading so you know exactly what you've used.

Annual average for UK is about £1000-1200 per year, but obviously varies hugely due to many factors.

What matters is that you get the best price for your circumstances - if you are in a large, old house, at home all day with a large family and disabilities that mean people can't move around so get cold or need lots of extra washing due to continence issues, a healthy working family in a modern 2 bed flat is going to be paying massively less than you.

Compare at least once a year to get a good price and look at what energy saving measures you can take and/or if you are entitled to any grants.

Approx 1,000 - 1,400 litres of oil and 4,200kw of electricity a year.
Oil use varies depending on how cold the winters are, and has dropped since I replaced the boiler a few years ago.
Oil costs have plummeted since covid and I've just filled the tank at about half the cost of what I paid last year.

@dementedpixie I can't believe how high your bill is especially considering you don't put your heating on that much!!!

Large 4 bed, 4 of us, me WFH, £90 a month in the winter, £70 summer. Ish.

(And that's British Gas!)

[quote catsmother20]@dementedpixie I can't believe how high your bill is especially considering you don't put your heating on that much!!!

Large 4 bed, 4 of us, me WFH, £90 a month in the winter, £70 summer. Ish.[/quote]
Depends where you live and how cold it is I suppose. We have snow today!

Absolutely, £50 on gas seems a lot when you said your heating was mostly off though.

I boost it during the day if I'm cold. Its still on for at least 10 hours a day plus we have a gas hob that gets used daily. We could really do with a new more efficient boiler too as its 20 years old but that's on the 'to do' list

It's the electric that seems high on that bill, rather than the gas. I'm guessing a lot of tumble dryer usage, electric shower and cooking and maybe some inefficient lighting.

Our electric is consistently around £40-45 pm and I thought that was high.

demented. Depending on what type of boiler you have, newer ones might not be significantly cheaper to run. Ours is a 14 YO condensing combi boiler and last year I responded to one of those 'if your boiler is more than ten years old, replacing it with a modern boiler will save you so much, it'll pay for itself in five years' type flyers only to find that, when I plugged the numbers into their website, our annual saving was about £30 and it would have taken decades to recoup the savings.

Octopus energy - direct debit of £99 a month- august- September we spent £58 on gas and electric combined - winter will be higher And the amount stays on acc to cover it.

2 adults 2 children 3 bed terrace house.

Yeah we're heavy electricity users. Don't have a tumble dryer but I suppose showers, electric oven and console use all contributes.

We’re in the process of switching suppliers & tariffs (old company closed down) but we were paying £106 pm on dual fuel. Hoping to get on a cheaper deal for winter.

• 2 adults (both at home during day, as partner works nights and I work from home) 1 child
• very old end terrace, poor insulation and wood floors
• I cook all meals, so lots on gas (?)
• washer on several times each week