Energy bill - £600!

[Abigail]

Hi guys,

I've just opened the bill from Npower, gas and electricity, and its just under £600 for 03/11/10 to 10/03/11. There's only three people living here. We're shocked that its come to that much, we were expecting £400 maximum. As a reference, and I know winter always costs more, mid August to 2nd November was about £90 for both.

We don't have central heating, just two gas fires downstairs and two gas wall heaters upstairs and a gas cooker. The gas bill is about £350. The electricity bill is about £250. The immersion heater has been on about three times since we've been here; we use the kettle to boil hot water to wash up.

Can somebody tell me if this is a reasonable amount for a mid terrace house or is there a mistake? The bill was worked out on meter readings, apparently they came round the other day whilst I was away. Is there a website where I can put the details in and see if there's a mistake? I can provide the exact units and tarrifs if anyone is good at working these things out. I'm hopeless at this sort of stuff.

Thank you

[thestud2k7]

i'll check martin lewis's website for an some advice

i hope you get it sorted

[Dazzle]

It does seem very steep, Abigail, but I don't know how much the gas fires and heaters use compared to central heating.

Was the previous bill done from meter readings too? If not, the previous bill may have been under-estimated, making the latest bill bigger. It's a good idea to always check your estimated bills against your meter to make sure it's close. If the estimated reading is far from the real reading, you can contact your supplier and they'll send an updated bill.

[Abigail]

The first bill was an estimated reading so I rang up and gave them the actual reading. This bill has been done on the actual readings. We need to check the readings taken last week are correct.

[Siobhan]

Abigail.. although very steep.. it might be correct.. you are using gas fires which eat the gas... I had that for a while in my place and you got to understand we had lots and lots of snow in November/December.. my brother had a similar gas bill for his place and my bill was a lot higher than usual too for the winter months as I was working from home and had the heating on a lot

[Abigail]

My housemate talked to an advisor at the student advice centre and he said there's either something wrong with out electricity meter or we have a faulty heater in the bathroom. Our electricity bill is more than the yearly average for the type of house and energy consumption and even taking into account the cold winter, it shouldn't be this high.

On top of this, our fridge has broken The landlady can't come round until tomorrow. That's fine, I only went shopping yesterday and have no way of keeping dairy produce cold

[Siobhan]

My sister had a stereo that every time she plugged it in, the electricity meter would got backwards.. she used to keep in on when she was cooking and her bills were no bigger than 10 quid a month.. do you want me to see if she still has it

[alan45]

My sister had a stereo that every time she plugged it in, the electricity meter would got backwards.. she used to keep in on when she was cooking and her bills were no bigger than 10 quid a month.. do you want me to see if she still has it

If Abigail doesnt want it I will have it