Electricity And Gas Payment

[Tilly2]

I have just received the quarterly bill and...the repayments have gone down from £72 per month to £65!

Considering that electricity prices have just increased, I am delighted with this reduction. Good innit!

[-SharonA-]

I am dreading my winter bills!!! A few years back my bill for gas heating alone came to over £300!!!!

[aelmpvw]

sorry about the lack of response Tilly, yes, i was talking about british gas

[Tilly2]

There was an article in The Guardian on Saturday, in the money section, which was primarily about British Gas and the price hike. It was encouraging people to change suppliers by pointing out how easy it was to do.

[Tilly2]

Sharon, that is a lot of money!

[-SharonA-]

It was cold!

[New Judge]

It's almost certainly nothing to do with price changes (up or down).

You will probably find that following your latest bill they have recalculated your annual consumption and adjusted your Direct Debit accordingly. You can keep an eye on your consumption quite easily by taking regular meter readings and calculating what you have used and its cost. You should do this anyway to make sure everything is in order.

[Tilly2]

According to the little graphs they have sent me, I have used only half the quantity of gas, this year, as opposed to last year. Was it very cold last spring/summer? I can't remember.

I regularly send in my readings but I don't actually do the calculations, NJ.

[New Judge]

"I have used only half the quantity of gas, this year, as opposed to last year."

So that's the answer, then.

Even if you don't do the calculations, it's easy to keep an eye on your consumption. A simple read of the electricity meter gives you your consumption in Kilowatt Hours (which is the unit they use to charge you). The gas is a little more complicated as the meter reads in cubic metres (sometimes cubic feet if you have a very old meter). In short, multiplying that usage by 11.1 will give you gas Kilowatt Hours (the units used for charging). But if you don't want to do this you can simply compare cubic metres used. Of course most companies levy a daily or quarterly charge so you'd have to add that in as well.