Stiff drink needed please- latest fuel bills just arrived. Am I paying too much?

Gas: £150 for the quarter; Leccy: £100.

One person. Gas CH. Don’t have all lights on all the time, Mac uses less power than most PCs (250W or something like that), only thing plugged in permanently are the fridge, and router. Have about 3-4 10 min. showers a week, as I get a shower when I go swimming. ‘Working’ at home, so home most of the day.

The gas, I can kind of understand. Got to keep warm. But the leccy? Is that right? Seems to be 2-3 times higher than i’ve ever had before. Have fuel bills gone up that much?

If anyone with similar set up could compare their bills, I’d be grateful. I suspect my leccy meter may be faulty, because all the bills at this address have been ridiculously high (previous 6 months was about £110 a quarter).

Cheeze, wtf is going on?

For comparison, the last place I lived at, leccy was about 30-35 a quarter. Before that was in a place shared with 3-6 others, and quarterly bills were usually from £80-120.

I think something’s not quite right…

Thats not too bad to be honest.

Our leccy bill is about £100 a month, but thats for everything as it provides the heating aswell in a 3 bed semi

**** me, I live on my own with no DG, gas CH and elec oven. I’m paying 30 quid gas and 30 quid elec direct debits and I’m just about using the gas value but elec is about a quarter in credit at the moment!

is that a guessimate? or a meter reading?

3 bed mid terrace, tumble drier/washing machine on atleast once a day, 4 bodies in the house, atleast 1 person in the house at any given time! Tv in every room, PC, laptop, couple of X-boxes etc Gas £70 a month, leccy around £100 a month, so thats around £210 a quarter for gas and £300 for leccy!

I’m getting **** ripped off, here, aren’t I?

Bastard British Gas.

Not to mention that EDF want £150 leccy from me, for the previous place I lived at.

FOR THE 3 MONTHS BEFORE I LIVED THERE. (Never had any contract with EDF)

Apparently they are going to take me to court to make me pay it. I am quite looking forward to that…

Seriously, I got an estimated bill for £160, gave them the actual meter reading and they admitted they owed me £60. Well worth checking. 😯

Defo worth checking to see if they have estimated your bill, rather than a meter reading! Have you just moved in?? They maybe estimating using the previous occupants usage!

It’s based on meter reading, but I’m sure I can’t be using that much leccy. I’m really careful with it; turn lights off when leaving rooms, energy saving bulbs, etc.

It’s almost like someone else is tapping into my leccy or something.

Don’t look at me when you say that!

I have the finest electricity imported just for me.

Have you checked if the tenent before you had a bad debt they were paying off?

I remember something about companies jacking up the meter price based on the property rather than the tenent. First person runs up a big debt, power company double meter rate to claw back the money, first person leaves, power company does nothing, RudeBoy gets his wallet raped.

Bastards! Bastards! Bastards!

WCA- I bet that’s what they’re doing!

Bastards!

No, it seems that the actual rate I’m using leccy at is very high indeed. First, I thought it was because of some ceiling mounted spotlights, but I’ve stopped using the ones in the living room, and still the bill is very high. In fact, I’d say my leccy usage is less than half what it was before, as I’m deliberately trying to limit the amount I use.

Bastards…

That sounds like quite a lot.

You can tell what rate you’re paying – it’s on the bill, the cost per kw/h. Check whether it is something ridiculously high (like more than 20p).

Your mac is an imac or mac mini or something? It isn’t one of the big mac pros is it (they are one of the most insanely power hungry computers you can get – up to 1.5KW)?

Joe

It isn’t one of the big mac pros is it (they are one of the most insanely power hungry computers you can get – up to 1.5KW

Suddenly realises this might have something to do with the problem, tries to creep away quietly…. 😯

Phew! false alarm!

Check out the specs though – maximum of 6 amp at 250v which is 1500W. It probably depends a lot on what graphics card, how many hard disks you have in it, what you’re doing, what you have plugged in on firewire, how much memory you have etc.

Obviously that link you posted is for a quad core, not a dual quad core too – the dual quad core will use significantly more power.

It isn’t including the monitor either – if (for example) you had a 24″ cinema display, those aren’t low power – they’re rated at 212W, they should use less than that when you don’t have all the gubbins like a laptop plugged into them, but it’ll still be 150W or so.

On the plus side, those mac pros put out loads of heat, so you save a bit on the heating!

Joe

You could expect the same with your next bill if you do not get it sorted out, we are only half way through the winter quarter,
Just to piss on your blanket, 3 bed det – heating on a lot, leccy usage normal, £62 month combined ( also price freeze till Oct 2009) (Eon)

5 bed, 3 storey Victorian terrace
£3k/year for gas & elec

uplink,
The crem dont have a gas bill that high…

interesting thing on watchdog last night about incorrect charging on gas meters

evidently it is possible to be overcharged if your gas meter is metric (M) but the provider thinks its imperial (KM), if your gas meter has an M written on it its metric, and your gas bill should reflect this, with a conversion rate of 1.something, if it has km its imperial, and the conversion rate should be 3.something.

the problem happens when you change gas provider, they put in a metric meter, you change again, and you end up being charged 3 times the right amount.

to clarify if you have a gas meter with m on it, and a conversion rate on your bill of 3.XXX then you are being overcharged…..

Lloyds TSB Compare– Might be stating the bleeding obvious, but do a comparison to see if you can get it cheaper anywhere

joemarshall- the thing is, I’ve had this thing in the last two places I’ve lived, so I don’t think it can be the Mac. It doesn’t have a load of RAM, and isn’t really put through anywhere near it’s potential. CPU monitor shows there is minimal strain on it. Original 2xDual core machine. Only Firewire occasionally. Plus, I’ve switched to an LCD monitor from a huge CRT, which definitely used more power.

BG are sending someone to check things out. They’ve agreed my energy consumption is unusually high.

neverfastenstuff: **** off, you git!

Last place had lovely free communal heating. Leccy was just £26 one quarter.

3 bed Victorian terrace. Original roof, but plenty of insulation. D Glazing. Two of us in the house, energy saving LB where possible. £85 combined from Southern Electric/Gas, but juts got £500 back for the gas. Monthly payment too high! We had a new condensing boiler fitted two years ago now, its made a huge difference.

See, I’m convinced I’m being shafted, now.

S’not fair. Sniff. 😥

Joemarshall; paying more than 20p per kw/h for leccy, yes!

sounds a lot. Try uswitch.com after moneysavingexpert.com to find a better deal. Do check carefully for estimated readings along the way.

2800sqfeet, Victorian, 2 storeys £150/month combined. We’re a bit reckless with some things on standby & others not. And I need to get more loft insulation. 6cm of saggy old fibreglass at the moment. I expect them to pay me when I get that to 200mm and beyond.

we pay combined elec/gas £60 a month, 2 bed-semi……

timdrayton – imperial ones measure in cubic feet, marked as “ft^3”, whereas metric ones are measured in cubic metres, marked as “m^3”, but otherwise your point is valid.

A foot is smaller than a metre, and so an imperial reading needs to be multiplied by 2.83 to convert to metric, which is what the charge should be based on. If your meter is metric, and they think its imperial you will be charged 2.83x too much.

I’m in exactly the same situation as the Op and my last electricty bill was £86 for the quarter which is about what i was expectiong it to be.

£85 per month with EON. Price fixed last year and we’re in credit.

4 bed detached.

If you’ve got a tenner left have a punt on one of these:

Maplin power meter

You’ll soon work out where the leccy’s going. I used to get hung up on leaving some stuff on, but when it measured 1 watt I stopped worrying. Other stuff surprised me. A typical charger will be 7 watts while sitting idle, 8watts while it’s working.

At least we don’t have gas. I’ve just ordered some more oil today – £200 cheaper than it was in September. Phew!

mlc; that’s a very good idea. I’m going to get one of those. I’m terrified my Mac is using 1.5kw of leccy. I’m sure it’s
not, but it will be handy to see what is using the bloody leccy up so fast.

If I turn every single thing off, the little wheel in the meter still turns.

Why?

my gas was £150 for the quater and thats for me the missus and three kids but the electric seems about right

if it makes you feel any better our southern bastard electricity bill has gone up by £100.00 PER MONTH!

why? because we were paying by direct debit but they didn’t review it and we ended up not paying enough!

pfft. and we can’t change to a cheaper supplier (southern electricity are the most expensive suppler for our area) until the unannounced debt is paid.

so how would you check if your bill was normally about £60.00 and you haddn’t erected a personal street lamp?

god knows but we feel utterly stitched up! oh and the ombudsmen was hopeless. pfft.

Southern Bastard Electricity. That is actually their real name, isn’t it?Like Thieving Bastard British Gas.

Oh, and I think the above tag is a little unkind, if it’s aimed at me. I wasn’t aware I’d upset or offended anyone.

Cheap stuff. Here in Holland I pay 300 EUR PER MONTH for gas and lecky. Heaven knows what this cold weather will be doing to my finances 🙁

Do you live in a flat converted from a house? Turn your leccy off for a bit and see if your neighbours lights go out 😉 Or just turn all your stuff off then watch the meter for the tell tale flashing red light.

That Maplin meter is prob a good investment.

Not sure what our electric bill is, but I know it’s high. I know this as during the winter with the heaters on it wasn’t possible to turn the kettle on as it blew the trip switch – essentially we were maxing out our electric I think…

Someone thinks it’s a great idea to build houses on stilts, have gaps in the floors and walls made of pressed cardboard – without a central heating system of any kind.
And that’s in a climate that touched zero deg.c during the winter*

[/aus living]

* I know that’s not cold, but when your house has the heat retaining characteristics of an umbrella then it gets a bit silly.

I haven’t used £5/worth of 50:1 in the Stihl yet this winter.

mmm. log fire…