British gas have just told me that my £270 pm bill is average!!!

[cameleon]

..and I should start using my dishwasher and washing machine every other day to reduce the bill!
He also told me that if the average family(two adults and two children) used their appliances everyday like I do then their bills would be this high.
Please can you prove him wrong? How much is your electicity bill per month and how often do you run your washing machine/dishwasher/tumble dryer?
We have asked them to come and test our meter, but they are charging us £39 if it is working correctly.

I think electric is needed to power gas boiler but should be fairly minimal - main cost of central heating will be reflected in your gas bill. I strongly feel that this must be wrong - you can't be using this much electricty - unless you have your tumble drier on 24/7! mumfor1 made a good suggestion, jot down your electricity meter readings each day and monitor your use for a bit and see what it tells you.

We pay £75 a month for gas and electric. DH works at home, 2 computers going most of the time, dishwasher daily, washing machine/drier about 8 times per week, combi boiler for radiators.

Is the underfloor heating electric? If so, I would be tempted to turn it off and see how much difference that makes. (Is it on a timer or 'on' all the time?)

Dishwasher daily
Washing machine about ten loads a week I should think
Tumble dryer the same at this time of year.

£54 a month

gas and eletric about £160 a month. use washing machine everyday and tumble dryer. sometimes do 2 loads a day. no dish washer though(have a husband!!!)theres 2 adults 2 children in house.

Ours is about the same as you Cameleon. We don't have a tumble dryer, use the washing machine about 4x per week, dishwasher daily.

yes its electic, and on a timer
the kitchen is on all day and the bathrooms only come on in the evening for a few hours.
The reading is definately right, we took the second reading ourselves.
There was an old bungalow on this plot before we built our house and it is the same meter.
It is a good idea to write down the meter readings daily mumfor1, will start doing that.
I will also keep track of which days I am out/do the washing etc and see how much difference it makes.
Thanks all for the help, if anyone else has any comments then let me know

We're also paying over £50 a month for gas, which we use for heating and cooking. But that still only totals just over £100 a month for a fairly large 4-bed house, some of which has solid walls as it's old.

x-posts with you foofi, have you ever questioned your bills? they do seem high compared to everyone else.

Wow what an amount per month for electric. I am quite liberal with electric, and swapped all lights to energy ones, but my electric is 100 per month, gas is 50 per month. Equipment (TVs) on standby can use a lot of electric too.

Maybe having the kitchen underfloor heating on all day is the cause? I would try the following, switch off everything you can, and watch that meter for a minute. Then switch rooms back on, watching that meter. Find out what is draining so much electric. (simple x60 minutes, x24 hours, x 90 days).

Then also check you electric plan by going to uswitch.com - just in case you are on a wild plan.

You don't mention how your water is heated. When I moved house I assumed that my water boiler was gas as my heating was gas. I then discovered that I had a separate (electric) water heater which had been permanently on for a year.

Presumably you can compare your current electricity bill with your bill at your previous home and consider what could have changed. With hindsight I should have realised that we had exactly the same number of electrical appliances in our new home, and my pattern of washing etc hadn't changed. When wondering why my electricity consumption had doubled the difference was due to water and a huge number of spotlights (new home had over 150 light bulbs compared with 12 or so previously).

I am on card meters, 1 adult and 2 kids, washer on tumble drier on probably nearly daily, computer, 2 freezers, cooker, microwave, tv, dvd, etc

I put in about £70 pm on BOTH. BETWEEN them.

Yes, I live in a tiny new built mid terrace which is so fabulously easy to heat, but STILL ... you sound horribly over charged!

Defo get on a switch comparison website, they are charging you loads too much (I hope!) we are with sainsburys and pay 96 per month for gas and elecky, this is for 3 kids, two adults, washer on virtually every day, tumble dryer used a fair bit, dishwasher every day.

Ooh yes - spot lights eat electicity compared to normal lightbulbs let alone low energy bulbs. We really noticed the difference when dBIL stayed with us for a while and kept leaving the kitchen spotlights on all evening. We were having building work at the time and so the electric meter was exposed in the hall and it was very obvious when the lights were on because the disc was whirling around.

we pay about 100 a month for combined with gritish bass. No dishwasher but use tumble dryer and washer every day and have gas hob electric oven.

hink you are being overcharged. Managed to get ours down to abut £100 a month in summer when fully booked with B&B, that means washing machine on 5 times a day, dishwasher twice, tumble drier depending on weather so this year a lot, 3 electric showers plus all lights.

you should go to the elecricity regulator ( off wat?)

you should ask for a copy or their formal compaints proceedure and argue the toww at least about being charged £40 for them to test their own fucking equipment cheeky fuckers - whilst all this is going on you should save up a little more to pay off the debt - because they will screw you over and then tell them to get fucked and change supplier

remember if you change supplier in a huff they will immediatley send you a letter the very next day demanding the whole payment of £270 in full immediatley or they will take you to cout and kill your cat etc etc

Our gas is about £70 a month and electricity is about the same.

is it just electricity or gas aswell?
We live in a small 3 bed semi with DG and CH, tumble dryer,dishwasher etc. Our washer and dryer are on at least twice a day[although recently bought dryer balls from asda which has cut down the time dryer is on] and our bill is around £100 a month for gas and electricity..it has just gone down from £145. We never have fire on but CH at the minute is on all day but not night.

meant to add thats 2 adults and 3 oyung children and cloth nappies/towels at the min due to potty training..

we have 2 ads/ 5 children
dishwasher/tumble dryer/ washing mach all used at least once a day, usually twice.
2 fridges/ freezer and heating on about 7 hours total and our card meter uses about £85 a month but that is also paying off 5 a week as we were on wrong tariff.

That's for 3 bed detached

Switch everything off and see if the meter is still going round as it should be absolutely still.

£270 a month is not average. I would say £150 more representative.

How big is your house? The most expensive things are hot water and central heating so your use of these things makes a big impact on your bill.

There are 5 of us, and our gas/electric together only come to about £90 to £100pcm. And that's running the washing machine pretty much daily, as well as tumble drier, along with unfortunately a rather "non-green" tendency to leave things like the laptop, television, and lights on a lot.

4-bed Victorian terrace, 2 adults, 2 kids. Our gas is £55 and elec £70 - run d/w every day, w/m most days (sometimes twice), tumble drier maybe an hour a day average. We have a gas combi boiler for CH & hot water - use v little electric heat.

Def do what was suggested earlier - switch everything off and see if meter is still going round. This is not right.

this is scaring me - off online to check account