[Closed] What's your Electricity + Gas bill?

3 bed semi, 2 kids, 2 adults. Has been as high as 95, usually 75 and about 65 at the moment to reduce the amount they owe me. 1980 house, with cavity wall insulation and 300mm loft insulation.

3-bed 1st (& top)-floor maisonette near east coast. Think the average is around £40-50 but that's a brand new boiler and wearing jumpers indoors in winter etc.

I switched to an account with BG where you enter meter readings online each month and they bill you for what you owe.

currently at about £2 for leccy and £1 for gas. I work at home though so it tends to boost electricity usage during the winter as I have a small heatr in the office.

4 bed detached - 1 baby - 2 adults - modern house 2000. £140 a month for both at moment....used to be £110..

3 bed end terrace in an exposed location - around £100 a month averaged over the year. With two babies who we struggled to keep warm this winter - ended up with an extra heater in their room to keep it warm overnight.

2 bed flat - newbuild eco development £40 a month

Fair enough. Ours isn't too bad then, although we don't have kids which will help I s'pose. Or a dishwasher. Or a tumble dryer.

I'm expecing to drop the payment, as we've just had a new boiler and the shower is now off the boiler, and not electric.

Dishwashers don't cost that much to run (compared to hand washing) if used properly I believe.

I tell my wife off if I catch her using the tumble drier. Saying that, my cycling stuff has been on the washing line since Monday and is steadily getting wetter at the moment...

Dishwashers don't cost that much to run (compared to hand washing) if used properly I believe.

Go on then, show me the maths on that one, I'm intrigued as to how you can beat 2 bowls of hot water and 2 squirts of Fairy a day! 🙂

2 adults, 2 bedroom, top (4th) floor new build flat, 150sqm. Electricity only, no gas, and our monthly direct debit to Scottish Power is £69 which covers the quarterly bills with ease. So that's cooking, heating and lighting for £69 a month.

Go on then, show me the maths on that one, I'm intrigued as to how you can beat 2 bowls of hot water and 2 squirts of Fairy a day

Does your water tank heat two bowls of water at a time?

We have a combi boiler, so yes it does. 🙂

DW uses 12-15L of water IIRC. NO doubt there's info online re efficiency.

Don't you just love endless number listing threads?
I don't really care how much my bills are, I know I'm economical with my use of gas/electricity so just pay them when they're red, think they get a bit pissy if you don't.

Gas and Electricity - £181 per month.

When this was built in 1838 there wasn't much in the way of insulation (or foundations, or dampproofing). It hasn't even got cavity walls. Some walls are only single skin.

1930's detached, 2 bedrooms plus box room where the PC lives, just me, get both Electric and Gas from BG. Electric is £20pm and has been for ages, Gas was £35pm but they've just decided to increase it to £40pm. At the same time, they've also refunded me £120 on the 'leccy and £300 on the gas. Go figure... 🙄

Direct debit amount or actual usage? I'm using about £18 quids worth of gas and 20 quid in elec. Ground floor 2 bed flat, single glazed with a damp problem.

I'm on about 170PM it's an old house and I feel the cold, I feel a man should be able to walk around in his pants at home even when there is snow on the ground.

1900's ish 2.5 bed semi. 2 adults, 1 child - ours is approx £100 a month for both.

Partial double glazing, no cavity wall ins (as we don't have a cavity!), new combi boiler.

Dishwashers can be more efficient than normal washing up if you fll the dishwasher. They hardly use any water - perhaps not even two bowls' worth, and can wash more dishes than I could in two bowls.

FWIW we pay about 25 on leccy and 20 on gas in the winter. 3 bed newbuild 3-storey semi.

Re dishwashers: http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm

Scientists at the University of Bonn [pdf] in Germany who studied the issue found that the dishwasher uses only half the energy, one-sixth of the water, and less soap than hand-washing an identical set of dirty dishes. Even the most sparing and careful washers could not beat the modern dishwasher. The study also found that dishwashers excelled in cleanliness over hand washing.

Does your water tank heat two bowls of water at a time?

You're working with old hardware, very efficient combi boilers have been heating water on-demand for about 20 years now, rather than heating a tankful and holding it all day.

3 bed + loft conversion 1940ish semi, 2adults+2kids = £100 per month for both. The tumble dryer eats alot of leccy.

We were paying about £60 a month in our old house. That was for four of us in a 1990s 3-bed semi - combi boiler, full DG, cavity wall insulation.

Electric only (One bed flat)

£80pm with southern Electric.

It seems the biggest problem is the storage heaters.

I've calculated the switching to a new boiler would save approx £200 per year on our bills (approx 2-3 months of the year), but the payback period would be 10-15 years, so its not really worth it unless the existing boiler gives up the ghost.

£60/month and that's for a 2 bed end of terrace.
They were massively overestimating our usage and tried to put the bill up to £110, but we gave a reading and they corrected it back down to £60.
I think we are going to go massively into credit over the summer though, as £60 was fine for the winter with the heating on lots...

I've calculated the switching to a new boiler would save approx £200 per year on our bills (approx 2-3 months of the year), but the payback period would be 10-15 years, so its not really worth it unless the existing boiler gives up the ghost.

Have you included the £400 boiler scrappage rebate in that? (If yours qualifies?)

We're doing our kitchen next year, and had to move the boiler out to the garage anyway, so it was silly not to get a new, more efficiant, boiler at the same time

This is also why I'm interested in dishwashers (Thanks for the info Molgrips 🙂 ) because that would be the time to fit one. So from what I've just read, if you have a family and have a DW anyway, and use it carefully, you won't be out of pocket. But I don't think you'll be saving much, if anything.
So as Scienceofficer has worked out for his boiler we'd never get the money back if we bought one (on top of the DW price we'd have to buy more plates and pans and stuff, as well as more expensive detergent) so I don't think it's worth it in the long run, for us.

I'm slightly surprised though, it's not as expensive as I thought it was. 🙂

The missus' bill is over £130 a month for a 3 bed flat.

OK so its all electric but......
She never has the heating on (theres a shop downsatairs so heat riding up through that all day), the shower is pathetic, we go tot he gym regulalry to showering/bathing are taken care of elswhere anyway, so the only consumers are the TV, cooker, frige and freezer. Anyone got the foggiest how its so high?

tinas - has she recently read the meter & provided a reading or is it an estimated bill she keeps getting?
Our estimated bills were MASSIVELY off & as I mentioned they wanted to put our bill up to £110 from £60 until we provided an up-to-date meter reading.

The scrappage scheme would reduce the payback period by two years.

My dishwasher uses 15 litres of water and has a heating element rated to 2000w. I've got it connected to the HW tank to reduce its energy usage.

Anyone got the foggiest how its so high?

the shop are using yours?

I lived above a hairdressers at one time and I only paid £5 (one power card) for nearly 2 years. someone had obviously tampered with the meter (located in the hairdressers waiting area) before I'd moved in. eventually there was a problem with our electricity and an engineer was called out. (he wasn't best pleased but what could he do?)
I'd get someone to check yours.

SO - Just looking at your calculations -

[i]switching to a new boiler would save approx £200 per year on our bills (approx 2-3 months of the year), but the payback period would be 10-15 years[/i]

So you reckon a new boiler would cost £2000 - £3000 fitted?

If it's a simple direct replacement, it shouldn't be that expensive. (if there's more to it than that, please ignore me!)

We had ours moved to the garage, all the water and gas pipes rerouted, a new radiator (Different location) and the old rad installed in the garage, and one of these magnetic sludge traps installed for £3000 (4 days work) all in.... So £2600 after the rebate.

And that's a Worcester Bosch accredited plumber and a top of the range WB CDi boiler. This was about 2-3 months ago.

Just FYI, like! 🙂

I've calculated the switching to a new boiler would save approx £200 per year on our bills (approx 2-3 months of the year), but the payback period would be 10-15 years, so its not really worth it unless the existing boiler gives up the ghost.

I know of two boiler replacements recently, done DIY except for the gas bits, boilers were ~600ish (enough for a 3 bed semi) and gas chappy happily connected up for 50 quid. Ask a big firm to do it and they'll charge thousands

Ta!

We have a pretty old school system with some fairly shonky soldering - I reckon if it had a sniff of mains pressure from a decent high flow combi I'd be replacing the carpets and ceilings before I knew it, so there's a factor for pipework and lifting floors in my calcs, although saying that, I'd be inclined to do that myself.

Fair comment SO, is it possible to pressure test the system?

EDIT

Also, might it be a case of "A stitch in time?" 🙂

I'm on about 170PM it's an old house and I feel the cold, I feel a man should be able to walk around in his pants at home even when there is snow on the ground.

Amen to that.

Ours is currently about £80 for both, 1890's stone mid terrace, no cavity walls but 2 foot of loft insulation. Brand new central heating system installed 3 years ago from scratch (we had storage heaters before) with 8 rads and condensing combi-boiler for £2100.
Hanging stuff on the line to dry is not much of an option when you have an open back garden (people can pinch your grundies) and Yorkshire "sunshine". 😕 So we have a dryer......

SO - the pressure a combi voiler puts out is only about 1.5 bar IIRC. If the soldering is not leaking then it'll cope with one no problem.

Its possible. I should look at it again properly perhaps, although not right now, since as a 'man of leisure' my aspirations outstrip my means at the moment. 😳 😉

SO - a "man of leisure" should surely be wanting to walk around in his pants (and tweed trilby/sock suspenders obviously) all day if he wishes? You owe it to yourself to find out if the new boiler is possible.

That's what she reckons, new meter was fitted a couple of years ago which takes 3 readings (overnight, storage and daytime) but its still massively over the top.

They are actual readings.

Make sure she's on the correct tarriff, it can make a huge difference with the storage heaters. Setting them up right can make a difference too, they are never that good but if you can avoid putting on extra electric heaters by tweaking the controls it'll save loads.

That's a huge amount of elec TINAS, with similar usage to you/her I'm currently paying £8 a month elec as the £30 a month they started me on was vastly over-estimated. We have PVRs, computers,router, freezer, fridge, elec oven, 2 TVs.

Both now £94 a month, wifes at home 24/7 and there are two teenagers as well.
We always get a rebate at the end of the year. I argue with them to reduce it, but they always take the last three months useage to go on i.e December, January and February the dearest months.
We once got back over £600

£100 in gas £53 in electric

3 lads all with computers in a 3 floor terraced house that well old but has double glazing and walls nearly a meter thick

sounds expensive now i think about it... dont know why the gas is so high we dont use the centeral heating just the shower and cooker

Bugggggger meeee, £100 in gas?! do you leave a gas aga running constantly or something?

I've no idea.

The wife sorts all that stuff out.

TINAS, your bill is so high cos of all the welding you have to do on your knackered old car 😉

my car has never been welded, heritage re-shell :-p

And that lives at my house anyway.

works out at 150 per month

Isn't it pretty useless just quoting a monthly DD, when we're all on (presumably) different tarrifs?

FWIW I'll join in, <£70 gas & elec with BG on their fixed rate from 2007 - my fixed rate has just finished but as I'm in credit I'll stay with them for a quarter and see how it works out.

Good double glazing & cavity wall made a massive difference to our house, which is a modernish 3 bed semi. First time we've been through a winter without being in debit at the end of it.

Ours is £66 a month for both gas and electric with Eon. 3 bed terrace (approx 1900 build) with rooms in the loft that are not that well insulated. Eves are well insulated and have lagged pipes where i can see them. Had a new boiler a couple of years ago and that made a huge difference to the gas bill. Old one had no thermostat and so had to be on all the time, new one just clicks on and off as it pleases. Other bonus is that it doesn't have to heat a whole tank of water, just what you need.

Just under £200 a month here combined. Do I win? Bit more insulation still to go in before winter. 7 bed Victorian place with solid walls and rooms in roof so no chance of conventional loft insulation or cavity fill. Have lined a few rooms in high density slabs and Kingspan, and have a few more to do before next winter. With luck I can get the bills down to £150ish, but that's less of the issue than actually being able to feel warm in some of the rooms, and still keep or replace plaster features and the like.