Huge gas bill, advice needed

[Jet888]

Hi all
Need some advice and comparison please.
Moved into 4 bed house, got direct debit set up with octopus energy for £80 per month. Got latest bill, based on a smart meter reading of £250!
Now I know it's winter but that seems insane! Apparently the gas usage was over 3000 kw (or whatever the correct unit is!)
So, my question is any ideas why it could be this insanely high? We have heating on 2 hours in morning and 3 hours in evening. Oven is electric. We had new boiler fitted this month so I thought ot would be more energy efficient, any ideas if it could be due to problem with new boiler and if so what the problem could be, based on people's past experience and expertise?
Could it be a smart meter problem? Or does 5 hours of heating a day for a month really cost around £170??

If any thing your electric seems high.
There are 3 of us in a 3 bed. We used 250kwh of electric in January. Which was £45.

There are about 11kWh in a cubic metre of gas.

The gas meter measures cubic metres, and the gas bill calculates how many kWh there are, and the cost.

So the meter readings at moving in, and now, are important.

So £103 gas and £120 electricity
That makes £223 for both not £250 for gas

You need a larger payment than £80 per month to cover your usage.

How much were you paying Scottish Power?

And yes, the electricity usage looks high. Mine is always around £80 and we are higher than average using around 500kwh per month (don't even have a tumble drier!)

Hi all, just to clarify as I seem to be getting confused, apologies.

my bill says this for gas for one month:
333.3 units used (m cubed)
Energy used for gas 3692 kwh

It was the bottom number I was referring to in my first post when I said the bill said I used over 3000kwh of gas in a month. 3000kwh still seems like a lot for one month or is it not?

Also, apologies if I gave the impression it was approx £250 just for gas. I re read my original post and I can see why a reader might interpret what I wrote in that way. It was £250 for gas and electric combined. It still seemed a lot to me for a monthly bill or maybe not?

I would expect my electric high - all electric appliances including a tumble dryet

Do you have a hot water cylinder or do you have a combi boiler? If you do, make sure your hot water is not on all the time. Mine is on for a couple of hours per day and that is plenty for us.
What is your room thermostat set at?

Given the time of year £100 of gas in 1 month is not too outlandish. It will be much less in warmer months.

@dementedpixie combi boiler. Will check the hot water times. Thermostat set at 19. That's good to know price doesn't seem as crazy. You've been so helpful, I appreciate it

It’s your electric usage that is high, not gas. 789 kwh for a month is massive. My 3 bed house used 185 kwh last month - I don’t use a tumble drier so no surprise it’s much lower but even that wouldn’t account for such a difference. How often do you use the tumble drier and has that changed since you moved house?

My tariff with another supplier is a bit lower than yours so looks like you could save a bit by switching but that isn’t your main problem here - you need to work out where all that electricity is going.

You won't have hot water times if you have a combi boiler. I have an old style boiler with water tanks in the loft and a hot water cylinder

I paid £89.20 for gas last month and you paid £103 so not a huge difference.

You should increase your monthly payment. You can do that online easily. I increased mine recently too.

That is not far off our usage for 4 months. We have the heating on a thermostat of about 14 downstairs (20 the past few days due to snow) and not on often upstairs. We pay about £60 a month max.

We always seem to use around 500kwh electricity per month and we don't have a tumble dryer. Costs us about £80/month.

I think December to jan we used about 250kw gas and 300kw electric.

It’s always about 250-300 for the electric but gas drops right off in the summer ( combi ).

14c!!!!!!! No wonder your only paying 60 quid , do you have penguins for pets 😂👍

OP, your bill seems similar to my 4 bed.

My old three bed was very well insulated, heated up quickly and cheap gas bills.

I was shocked at the increase when we moved here. Its a much larger and colder house that's harder to heat, more radiators etc.

14⁰C is baltic. My thermostat is around 19⁰C and on a timer

Thanks everyone. I'm was racking my brains re electricity usage then realised, I'm so dense! We had a hot tub going (on eco mode left by previous owners) until we managed to get it removed 17th jan! Be interesting to compare electricity bill next month...

Hopefully the hot tub being removed will make a big difference to your bill. Fingers crossed 🤞

@dementedpixie yes indeed!
Mumsnetters are so helpful! And my husband wonders why I spend so much time on it...