I’m a single person living in a stone end terrace

Full time work, so out all day, gas CH, electric oven, gas hob, LED bulbs mostly.

I wouldn’t say I was a big user of energy

My yearly bill is being estimated at just over a grand – £1030

Been speaking to my Mum, 3 bedroomed large house, 2 of them, both at home during the day, and they are paying the same. Same supplier – First Utility

Is my bill high, or theirs low?

sounds high to me but it’s just an estimate anyway

Sounds a lot to me. We have a big draughty converted stone building, in all day long, pay around 1200 all in I think (though some wood burning may save a bit). If we were out at work it would be a lot less.

It’s estimated from a few meter readings, so maybe it won’t be far off

I just don’t get where it’s going, I hardly have the heating on at all

What age of boiler? We were getting that on the prehistoric Baxi but the new combi is shaving £300 odd a year off our energy bill (screw you naysayers!) despite having never been arsed properly programming it.

Whose estimate is it? The provider’s? Are they using this estimate to calculate your monthly direct debits?

We’re electric only, 9 of us living under one roof, one daughter taking up to three showers a day, washing machine on every single day up to 3 loads, having to tumble dry a lot to keep on top of it, and we’re running at about £180 a quarter.

For heating we have a log burner running nine radiators and I burn about 3 cubic meters of wood a year so about £300.

For about a grand a year I reckon we manage very well.

Ours is around £900/year. 3 bed, second end terrace with a toddler and a four month. Mum and kids at home all day, tv on all day, heating on and off depending on weather, if they’re in/out.

We’re with GB Energy.

£400ish – £500 per year second floor flat subsidised by winter fuel allowance from old lady downstairs and good insulation. 🙂

Washing machine on all day, or it seems like it, lights left on all day, or it seems like it. Gas from a bottle, don’t use the AC.

Bills come to around 7pounds per month with water.

Sounds a bit expansive. Are you on a standard variable tariff? (Do first utility even do such a contract?) Try and get in the habit of sending regular readings in. It can take a couple of years for a supplier to work out a good usage based ‘estimate’ If you haven’t lived at your address long this may be a factor.

Edit:and I should just say, I have 27 kids and a boat load of illegal migrants living in a castle with no roof. The Missis has a core temperature 7 degrees above absolute zero so we heat her with directly with 150kw gas burners for 25 hours a day. SSE refund us £10,000 per month in cash so we feed our wood burner powered VW T7 on 20 quid notes.

Have you actually checked your account? We were paying about 108/month which I thought was expensive and I’d given plenty of readings. After 7 months (summer admittedly) we were £600 in credit. Nice refund as a timely bonus and the DD had been reduced to £60/month.

That sounds a lot. £480 on electricity for everything (cooking/hot water/heating and no gas) for 1 bed top floor flat. Not amazingly insulated but reasonable and triple glazing.

£84 a month for gas & electric with Spark Energy. Over the course of a year (giving regular readings,) I’ve overpaid by about £350 so will be getting that back imminently. 2 bed terrace for just me and the Cat.

Costs should drop now I’ve moved in with the girlfriend because she moans if I have the heating on too much….

I’m in a 1-bed flat (not great loft insulation and above garages which probably doesn’t help) my gas last month was £60 and electricity was £40 so probably works out about a grand over the year, I do need to shop around/switch though…

£45 a month with Flow energy (Gas & Elec)
1 bed ground floor flat, single glazed sash windows, in during evenings & weekends.

You’re seems quite high.

Costs should drop now I’ve moved in with the girlfriend because she moans if I have the heating on too much….

*narrows eyes suspiciously* Are you sure she’s a girl? 😀

£37 a month with Ovo, regular meter readings every month with their smart meter. We have been in credit for perhaps a year but winter slowly reduced is. Not fussed about the difference as its nominal. 2 bed semi detached with CH, double glazed and a broken drafty rear door.

*narrows eyes suspiciously* Are you sure she’s a girl?

She follows me around tidying up my mess, so it’s a pretty safe bet

Energy (and especially gas) companies are essentially just financial companies. Their business plan will be to over estimate gas use wildly so that they can play with the money (to make more money). We have just been credited £800 from our last company (and it took some doing getting it out of them). They are crooks.
What to do? Give a reading every month without fail. Accept that you’ll pay more in the colder season. Keep your money in your bank.

I’m with First Utility.

Do you submit readings each month to them?

Their tariff is pretty good, so if your readings are regular and correct then you’re losing a lot of energy somewhere.

What about getting an energy meter for electricity? You can then wander around switching things off and back on again working out if there’s anything using a lot.

If it’s solid wall you could well be losing a lot of heat through the walls, especially if it’s end of terrace.

£900 pa three bed semi, work from home.

Whats you cost per kw for electricity and gas? They make it complicated but that and possibly a standing charge is how to compare costs.

Is their house cavity wall (insulated?) vs your solid wall end terrace?
Are your windows older than theirs?
Is your boiler old and inefficient?
Are you in the same location, or are you further north?

Yours sounds high. Change supplier it’s easy. Ovo and Good Energy are both decent. npower awful.