bills help!

[stroma88]

i was just wondering if you could look at this and tell me if it sounds right to you.

im living in a two bedroom flat(studying in edinburgh at the mo) with two other people, we have three laptops and one tv,along with general appiances and we use energy saving bulbs in all rooms. we switch everything off at the wall when its not in use and we dont have the heating on at all.

with hydro
our quarterly bill this time was £123 for electricity and £79 for gas

does that sound right?

my friends bill was only £39 for electricity and £51 for gas

2 people there at the mo,usually 3 and theyre with hydro aswell

i know ours should be a bit more but it just seems like its too big a difference.

i just want to get some advice before i phone up or pay

thanks!

[stroma88]

oh and i did check the meter readins and they were both right!

[skimeister]

Sorry to say but well done you :) That works out to be £22 each a month.

If I could even dream of having an energy bill of £22.44 a month, I would be deliriously happy - and thats with our heating off too!!

[telfordstar]

Wow me as well im at least £40 a month for gas and electric but im sure in next few months that will rocket up big time.

[stroma88]

yea, well i didnt think it was too bad i just cant understand why my friends is soooo cheap when were in the same situation! being a naive student whos never had to pay her own bills before i thought id check before i paid. :Razz:Razz:Razz

[Oddquine]

Stroma, have you checked out the difference in cooking/cups of coffee/washing/baths etc between the two flats?

I'm on my own, and my bill with heating and hotwater but not a lot of cooking for March quarter was £188..........but my bill this last time with no heating, but visitors and more cooking/boosting hot water etc was £128.

[stroma88]

the three of us usually eat together so i wouldnt say we used the cooker much more, and they have their heating on, we dont. we'll be using the shower and washing machine more though. i know our bill should be more than theirs but i didnt think it would be that much!
maybe they just walk around in the dark :Razz
we used 100 less units for gas this time as we had the heating off but it cost us ten quid more! stupid gas prices

[Gizmo]

Our electricity bills are up and down like a yo-yo at the moment, first quarter of this year was £186, 2nd quarter was £114, then yesterday we had a pre-pay meter installed and was told that for the last nine weeks we owed £141, and those prices are not for any heating or hot water, just for plain old electricty :(

[BRIE]

are you all using laptop computers as these use alot more electric than an ordinary computer.Suppose its all down to the amount of time you spend watching tv,on pc,etc compared to your friends too.

[EDDIE]

i was just wondering if you could look at this and tell me if it sounds right to you.

im living in a two bedroom flat(studying in edinburgh at the mo) with two other people, we have three laptops and one tv,along with general appiances and we use energy saving bulbs in all rooms. we switch everything off at the wall when its not in use and we dont have the heating on at all.

with hydro
our quarterly bill this time was £123 for electricity and £79 for gas

does that sound right?

my friends bill was only £39 for electricity and £51 for gas

2 people there at the mo,usually 3 and theyre with hydro aswell

i know ours should be a bit more but it just seems like its too big a difference.

i just want to get some advice before i phone up or pay

thanks!

I would say thats ok the problem u might have being in a shared flat if yous are all cooking seperatley for yourselfs that would up your electric But to be honest about you would be far better of setting up a monthly debit account so every month is the same because with the price of gas and electric its going to be costly when the cold whether comes in.If there is 3 people in the flat and say yous all put £20 month for electric and £30 for gas a month you should be able to live comfortably without worrying about gas or electric its a lot easyier to pay monthly than have a stinger of a month when all the bills come in at once?
If your friend is paying £39 a quarter for electric he is either never hardly at home or he is living in misery when ure paying bills u have to watch out for the estimate readings its ok getting cheap bills if its estimate reading but its when everthing catches up and u get the true reading in the bill thats when u get stung big time thats why u have to keep on telling them the true readings
Living in a shared flat its far better to pay bills monthly so everyone knows were the stand rather than waiting for the bill to come in and have a debate on why the bill is so high and stops any arguments about people using to much electric or people want the heating on at different times its worth thinking about and you would be better of as well with managing your spending money because every month is the same rather than having 2 good months and 1 really hard month

[EDDIE]

Our electricity bills are up and down like a yo-yo at the moment, first quarter of this year was £186, 2nd quarter was £114, then yesterday we had a pre-pay meter installed and was told that for the last nine weeks we owed £141, and those prices are not for any heating or hot water, just for plain old electricty :(

i thought all the prey pay meter you pay 30% more that was on the tv not all that long ago

[Gizmo]

i thought all the prey pay meter you pay 30% more that was on the tv not all that long ago

That's certainly not something i was aware of or made aware of by Scottish Hydro Electric, thanks for the tip, i must look into that.

[EDDIE]

Gizmo Have a look at this link below see what u think
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7514992.stm

[purplelady]

i have it from someone who works for scottish gas that prepayment meters are not going up as much as normal meters and do not think it is 30% more .

[saffy100]

Get someone in to check that your supply is not also connected to the other flat...i saw a programme about building that were originally one house and converted, but the power supply was still connected as if it were one house.

[Sapphire2803]

are you all using laptop computers as these use alot more electric than an ordinary computer.Suppose its all down to the amount of time you spend watching tv,on pc,etc compared to your friends too.


Noooo, it's the other way around :)
Laptops are very economical, Desktop computers use a shocking amount more electricity.

[TBH]

Noooo, it's the other way around :)
Laptops are very economical, Desktop computers use a shocking amount more electricity.How much electricty or other than that, how much does it cost to charge a laptop battery. Does it cost the same to charge a battery as it does to just run a desk-top off the mains?

[EDDIE]

Well the way i see it a laptop has one electric plug and has no clutter of wires than a desktop a desktop has a plug for the tower,monitor,speakers

[Sapphire2803]

A rough guess...
Average desktop PC at normal running - approx 150w
Monitor (Crt) normal running - approx 150w (A TFT would be about 30 -40w)

1 unit of mains electricity is approx 15p
1 unit = 1Kwh = 1000w for 1 hour

Desktop will cost 150w + 150w = 1/3 unit per hour = 5p per hour


Laptop = 40-50w max (note I didn't say max for desktop)
50w = 1/20 unit per hour = 0.75p per hour

I haven't taken a lot of things into account, like the effiency of the power supply - laptop chargers now run at about 90% efficiency - but you get the idea.

Now, I'm off to rest my brain and finish my coffee :D

[Sapphire2803]

BTW

By max for the laptop, I mean charging the battery from flat. Once it's charged all it needs to pull from the mains is enough to top it up. It's a negligible amount.

[EDDIE]

Saphire a lot of modern home pc especially gameing pc are 550 wats and above for the tower

[Sapphire2803]

That's the maximum power rating for the power supply. I quoted for an average home pc running at normal power. Not flat out.

[EDDIE]

BTW

By max for the laptop, I mean charging the battery from flat. Once it's charged all it needs to pull from the mains is enough to top it up. It's a negligible amount.

The thing u have to watch with a laptop if u use permantly connected up to the mains it halfs the life of the laptop battery your supposed to run down the laptop battery and then charge up to full again to get maximim life out a battery useless information for today

[Sapphire2803]

The first time you use your laptop, you should charge it fully and then run it completely flat. This is called conditioning. Lithium ion batteries are very resilient and do not have the same "memory" problems as the old Ni Cads.

[Welcomefamily]

It depends on what quarter it is as well, we have not had heating on for much of the summer so its only hot water for Gas. Electric lighting use also has reduced.