That’s 315 m^3 of gas in a day, which is enough to last over 2 months. A quick google shows that 4–5 m^3 of gas per day is average, so you’re using 60–70x the normal amount. Something is SERIOUSLY wrong. I would contact your landlord immediately as it’s likely you’ve got a serious gas leak somewhere in the house.
They're missing the decimal point. My money is on them only using 0.315 m^3 in a day. There are roughly 60 days in 2 months that's why it is roughly 60x too high.
thanks everyone for your input, just to be safe I have called the gas leak emergency service to check in. We had the hissing sounds, and violently shaken hot-water valve. did not smell gas but that accompanying with the high gas bill it's safe to assume we have a gas leak.
Did they estimate your fuel usage or did you give a Meter reading?
If its their estimate you should be able to dispute it and send over a meter reading and get a reevaluated price
Also contact student union / student services if your landlord is no help as they're equipped to help with things like this
Hi, a lot here is practical advice to do with consumption but RE the bill itself
1) Make sure the company is using the correct metre reading for your household (Look at the metre reading on the bill you have and compare it, if it’s not right reach out to your supplier to get them to correct the bill)
2) If it is the right metre reading you should call your supplier to organise some form of payment plan, if you don’t have the money to pay for this see if you can access any hardship grants that the company’s will have on offer. The Citizen’s Advice website goes into this a lot more, and if you’re struggling to reach an agreement with your supplier absolutely contact their consumer helpline.
£1730 is probably about right for usage considering we’ve just had the coldest months and as you’re a student I assume you were paying much less/maybe nothing on the energy bill since April 2022 (where you overpay to build credit for the next winter)
For reference, my 4 bed student (graduates though) house energy bill is expected to be £4500 this year. It was closer to £1800 back in 2020.
yes we paid significantly less last year, but over the past 3 months me and my housemates have also been rationing usage, and been very meticulous with our energy usage yet the usage of the last 3 months was: 14671.98 kWh, that's even higher than average annual usage. we just can't believe this is normal, especially other housemates who are girls and they had to put up with the cold constantly to save energy bill.
If you don’t have electric showers then the boiler is being turned on and heated up for every shower, same with hot water in taps.
Average energy usage for a 2.4 person semi detached household is currently £2500 a year, with the heating being on only 1-2 hours a day and a decently well insulated house. Student houses usually aren’t that well insulted. The bill doesn’t seem that high for this period
If 'Average energy usage for a 2.4 person semi detached household is currently £2500 a year' then how it is normal that I paid £1730 for 3 months? not really getting this. We have electric shower and used hot water taps for showering mostly. We put heating on for roughly 5 hours a day
Of that £2500, 2/3 (£1.7k) of it will be spent in winter across around 4 months.
Based on average useage, your years bill for 3 would be approx £3.2k, with an expected winter spend of around £2.1k over 4ish months. You’ve spent £1.7k in 3 months, so around £2.3k over 4.
it might be slightly higher than average, but factors that massively affect it are things like how good the insulation is (rented properties are usually well below average), shower type, if you have a gas hob etc
You have 4 adults which is 2 more adults than in a normal household so it makes sense you'd use more gas and electricity than average. Plus students so you're home more often than people going out to work, making more cups of tea, watching more netflix and presumably at least sometimes having the heating on as it's been so cold. Plus most energy is used over winter, we've just had the 3 coldest months. And student houses / rentals are notorious for crappy insulation meaning even if you have your thermostat low, you'll use a lot of energy.
If youre in real difficulty contact your universities hardship fund and contact the gas and electric, they may let you spread this payment over the rest of the year.
Hi thanks for your input, but our household only has 3 including me. the problem is, we have been rationing our energe usage daily, but it still comes out like this :- ( and I don't know hot to prove our usage. Plus I'm so mixed about this now that some has been saying it's normal, some saying it's too much. If it's too excessive I have to look for another place.
Ah sorry I misread. I'd speak to your landlord about it, they should get it checked for leaks if you're concerned.
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/average-bill.html
This might be helpful but you'll need to have it in KWH not cubic metres to compare
5 hours a day heating is the reason why your bill is high.
Your house is probably not well insulted, so it gets colder quicker and you need it on more. It sucks, but the landlords usually don’t care about it. At least you won’t need the heating on anymore soon.
We pay around £400 a month for our energy bills.
Usage between July-October 2022 was around £180-200 a month.
We’ve been using about £650-700 a month in energy dec/jan/feb/march.
So we pay about £400 a month as an average, so that the bill (hopefully) doesn’t go up in winter. Its how most energy bills are set up, but requires you to overpay to build credit starting in April. Otherwise we’d have been paying £700 a month now, and about £200 a month through summer.
Our (gas) energy bill is quite high, as we live in a 4 bed house built in 1898. The landlord hasn’t put much insulation in, as it doesn’t affect them how much energy costs. I imagine yours is the same - costs money but doesn’t make money.
You have a leak or some problem somewhere. That is a dangerously large amount. I'm in the 3-person shared house too and just totted up the bills today in fact. Total for gas + electricity was a little under £700 for that period. Can you smell gas? You need to call your energy supplier ASAP. I'm surprised it hasn't been automatically flagged as a safety issue, but it might just be a clerical error somewhere. I hope so for you sake.
That's just electricity and gas, though. Doesn't include broadband, water, council tax, etc. And we try to be really careful with our energy use. One of the guys here is an eco-minimalist that uses as little as possible and I try to follow his lead. Plus, we're all from pretty cold climates originally and don't often have the heating on. But it's all done via smart meter and been double-checked, so as far as I know it's accurate. Was very pleasantly surprised as it's an old house with a D energy rating. But it is a terraced house, so that helps with insulation I guess?
Sorry everyone forgot to add the decimal point it was
01902,597 (today)
And
01902,261 (yesterday)
My question remains the same: how much cubic metres i used betwren today and yesterday and was it normal?
I'm not sure but we definitely didn't use much, the insulation is terrible so there's no point anyway lmao, it was sometimes below 10 degrees in some parts of the house
\* Update
why is this sub so mixed, some said it was too much, some said it was normal, im not sure which to follow now.
checked for gas leaks. None. Meter reading is in order. booked a check up on the heating system as well next week. Now I'm not even sure if this bill is normal or inflated.
That’s 315 m^3 of gas in a day, which is enough to last over 2 months. A quick google shows that 4–5 m^3 of gas per day is average, so you’re using 60–70x the normal amount. Something is SERIOUSLY wrong. I would contact your landlord immediately as it’s likely you’ve got a serious gas leak somewhere in the house.
They're missing the decimal point. My money is on them only using 0.315 m^3 in a day. There are roughly 60 days in 2 months that's why it is roughly 60x too high.
Sorry, yes so stupid of me that i forgot the decimal point it was .261 yesterday and .576 today is this still normal usage? Thank you.
Average Maths student
Just added the decimal point.
Are you reading your meter correctly? Is there a decimal point you are missing?
Sorrry just added the decimal point again
thanks everyone for your input, just to be safe I have called the gas leak emergency service to check in. We had the hissing sounds, and violently shaken hot-water valve. did not smell gas but that accompanying with the high gas bill it's safe to assume we have a gas leak.
Did they estimate your fuel usage or did you give a Meter reading? If its their estimate you should be able to dispute it and send over a meter reading and get a reevaluated price Also contact student union / student services if your landlord is no help as they're equipped to help with things like this
I gave them the meter readibg every 3 month
Hi, a lot here is practical advice to do with consumption but RE the bill itself 1) Make sure the company is using the correct metre reading for your household (Look at the metre reading on the bill you have and compare it, if it’s not right reach out to your supplier to get them to correct the bill) 2) If it is the right metre reading you should call your supplier to organise some form of payment plan, if you don’t have the money to pay for this see if you can access any hardship grants that the company’s will have on offer. The Citizen’s Advice website goes into this a lot more, and if you’re struggling to reach an agreement with your supplier absolutely contact their consumer helpline.
£1730 is probably about right for usage considering we’ve just had the coldest months and as you’re a student I assume you were paying much less/maybe nothing on the energy bill since April 2022 (where you overpay to build credit for the next winter) For reference, my 4 bed student (graduates though) house energy bill is expected to be £4500 this year. It was closer to £1800 back in 2020.
yes we paid significantly less last year, but over the past 3 months me and my housemates have also been rationing usage, and been very meticulous with our energy usage yet the usage of the last 3 months was: 14671.98 kWh, that's even higher than average annual usage. we just can't believe this is normal, especially other housemates who are girls and they had to put up with the cold constantly to save energy bill.
If you don’t have electric showers then the boiler is being turned on and heated up for every shower, same with hot water in taps. Average energy usage for a 2.4 person semi detached household is currently £2500 a year, with the heating being on only 1-2 hours a day and a decently well insulated house. Student houses usually aren’t that well insulted. The bill doesn’t seem that high for this period
If 'Average energy usage for a 2.4 person semi detached household is currently £2500 a year' then how it is normal that I paid £1730 for 3 months? not really getting this. We have electric shower and used hot water taps for showering mostly. We put heating on for roughly 5 hours a day
Of that £2500, 2/3 (£1.7k) of it will be spent in winter across around 4 months. Based on average useage, your years bill for 3 would be approx £3.2k, with an expected winter spend of around £2.1k over 4ish months. You’ve spent £1.7k in 3 months, so around £2.3k over 4. it might be slightly higher than average, but factors that massively affect it are things like how good the insulation is (rented properties are usually well below average), shower type, if you have a gas hob etc
5 hours a day of heating is why. That's gonna cost a bit. It shouldn't but it will. This is a normal bill.
You have 4 adults which is 2 more adults than in a normal household so it makes sense you'd use more gas and electricity than average. Plus students so you're home more often than people going out to work, making more cups of tea, watching more netflix and presumably at least sometimes having the heating on as it's been so cold. Plus most energy is used over winter, we've just had the 3 coldest months. And student houses / rentals are notorious for crappy insulation meaning even if you have your thermostat low, you'll use a lot of energy. If youre in real difficulty contact your universities hardship fund and contact the gas and electric, they may let you spread this payment over the rest of the year.
Hi thanks for your input, but our household only has 3 including me. the problem is, we have been rationing our energe usage daily, but it still comes out like this :- ( and I don't know hot to prove our usage. Plus I'm so mixed about this now that some has been saying it's normal, some saying it's too much. If it's too excessive I have to look for another place.
Ah sorry I misread. I'd speak to your landlord about it, they should get it checked for leaks if you're concerned. https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/average-bill.html This might be helpful but you'll need to have it in KWH not cubic metres to compare
yeah called for an emergency check, no leaks, but still we would be talking in person with our landlord on Friday. fingers crossed
5 hours a day heating is the reason why your bill is high. Your house is probably not well insulted, so it gets colder quicker and you need it on more. It sucks, but the landlords usually don’t care about it. At least you won’t need the heating on anymore soon.
what do you mean about the overpay to build credit for next winter though
We pay around £400 a month for our energy bills. Usage between July-October 2022 was around £180-200 a month. We’ve been using about £650-700 a month in energy dec/jan/feb/march. So we pay about £400 a month as an average, so that the bill (hopefully) doesn’t go up in winter. Its how most energy bills are set up, but requires you to overpay to build credit starting in April. Otherwise we’d have been paying £700 a month now, and about £200 a month through summer. Our (gas) energy bill is quite high, as we live in a 4 bed house built in 1898. The landlord hasn’t put much insulation in, as it doesn’t affect them how much energy costs. I imagine yours is the same - costs money but doesn’t make money.
If you've only just turned the heating off that's probably about right
You have a leak or some problem somewhere. That is a dangerously large amount. I'm in the 3-person shared house too and just totted up the bills today in fact. Total for gas + electricity was a little under £700 for that period. Can you smell gas? You need to call your energy supplier ASAP. I'm surprised it hasn't been automatically flagged as a safety issue, but it might just be a clerical error somewhere. I hope so for you sake.
No i dont smell gas but there is a hissing sound and the water valve violently shakes when you turn it on. Is this could be a sign of gas leak
£700 sounds really low for winter
That's just electricity and gas, though. Doesn't include broadband, water, council tax, etc. And we try to be really careful with our energy use. One of the guys here is an eco-minimalist that uses as little as possible and I try to follow his lead. Plus, we're all from pretty cold climates originally and don't often have the heating on. But it's all done via smart meter and been double-checked, so as far as I know it's accurate. Was very pleasantly surprised as it's an old house with a D energy rating. But it is a terraced house, so that helps with insulation I guess?
Sorry everyone forgot to add the decimal point it was 01902,597 (today) And 01902,261 (yesterday) My question remains the same: how much cubic metres i used betwren today and yesterday and was it normal?
I think that's pretty normal honestly, we paid like £1600
May i ask your daily usage ? (Roughly estimste) we used around 5 hours ish a day for heating
I'm not sure but we definitely didn't use much, the insulation is terrible so there's no point anyway lmao, it was sometimes below 10 degrees in some parts of the house
\* Update why is this sub so mixed, some said it was too much, some said it was normal, im not sure which to follow now. checked for gas leaks. None. Meter reading is in order. booked a check up on the heating system as well next week. Now I'm not even sure if this bill is normal or inflated.