Help - we've had a £400 electricity bill! What gives??

[BettyButterknife]

I'm pretty shocked... since the end of October 2009 we have apparently used £400 worth of electricity (ie 3000kwh) - this is an actual reading not an estimate. I'm not entirely sure how we've used that much. Our household is me, DH and DS (who is 2). We live in a 3-bed terrace and have a recently-installed (2007) combi boiler.

Does this sound excessive to you? It feels like there must be a mistake, especially as the gas part is only £67 in the same period. I would expect this to be higher after such a cold winter.

We don't have an energy meter thingy, but I'm considering getting one now! Does anyone have any other tips on cutting down on electricity use please?

Go round the house and actually take the plug out for anything you are not currently using. Things like chargers use just as much leccy even with no phone attached.

its a bit buttery round here!!

tumble drier??

from end of oct to beginning of april is 6 months, so that's about £66 a month which, imo, doesn't sound too bad.

£67 for gas, is that really over the same 6 month period?, that sounds a bit odd for a winter period.

When last did you have a actual reading bill before this one? If they have been extimating for a while the catch up bill can often bite you quite hard.

Double check their numbers and check your previous bills to see what numbers they have used if meter reading seem wildly out. We had a huge bill when we first moved into our surrent house and discovered the twit reading the meter have pressed a number twice and our meter reading was no-where near the number he had taken. They sent out a second reader to double check and changed the bill.

No tumble drier, but we probably run either the dishwasher or washing machine every day.

Just double-checked bill and that gas reading was only for a week. Bit weird that they put 6 months of electricity on the same bill as 1 month of gas

The actual reading was in November, followed by one at the end of April, so that's probably not inaccurate.

Maybe £66 a month isn't unreasonable... when you put it that way! £400 just freaked me out a bit!

I just checked ours and we pay £55 a month for electric and £35 for gas and after the winter we owe them about £15 on each. Can you pay be Direct Debit? We have a good deal on paying by DD saves about £10 a month. Also if you start paying by DD now they may let you pay off your £400 in instalments as part of your DD.

Thanks, oops - so it's not so out of the realms of reality! We're already on a direct debit dual fuel fixed tariff. So our monthly dual fuel DD has gone up from £85 to £138.

We live in a 3 bed with me dh #7 2 dd's. Use on average £45 & use about Since the end of a month, less in summer, more in winter. Are you sure your bill is since October? that is 6 months & these bills are usually quarterly. My bill for The last 3 months was £155 (1305kwh) & before that £161 (1425kwh) so £316 since October.

We are fairly careful but tumble dry occasionally & I am a SAHM so are home more often than some.

not 72, just 2 dd's!!

Just reread my post - cutting & pasting whilst bf makes for a nonsensical post! Was trying to say we use about £45 a month on average more over the winter, less in summer.

You can phone and ask to pay over time, set up a dd and they'll tell you how much you should pay. It's also worth checking your own reading daily just to see if you can make any savings.

I would agree with above posters that £66 pm is not that excessive. we are 2 adults 2 children in a two bed and we use on average £65 pm on electric (was £120 pm when on a prepay meter!!!).

Why not find out about alternative ways to pay? I get 3monthly bills, but I pay 50-£60 per month onto a card at the post office, so when the bill arrives I have nothing/not a lot to pay. Its definately more managable when you spread the cost.

Have you checked the reading is right? I only ask because we got a gas bill for £1800 the other week. DH rang them up and said, 'er, I don't think that's right' and it turned out the meter reader had missed a digit off the reading so it looked as though the meter had turned and started running from zero again or something. Turned out we were in fact £130 or so in credit.

Does not sound that bad. We live in a 1/2 bedroom (2nd bed where DD is, is closet size)and our electric bill for the last quarter was £518.00 and that was with an accurate reading. I read the meter and submit every month online.