Gas and Electric bills

[Le_Jars]

I know this is like asking 'how long is a piece of string'? but how much should I be paying for my electric and gas per month. We have a 5 bedroom village house and we have just had gas central heating installed. When we first moved in we elected to pay our EDF/GDF bill by direct debit at €150 per month. We have just had the gas connected for our heating and we got a letter this morning saying that they've decide we should be paying €235 per month from now on!

Firstly this seems a lot and secondly we haven't even had the gas connected for more than 2 days, so how can they guess how much gas we'll be using?

Would we be better off just paying by each facture?

Or do I just not realise how expensive French power is??

[BJSLIV]

Have you been living in the house long enough to test whether the EdF estimate was accurate?

Were you relying on the EdF for all your heating?

If it is accurate, and you were relying on EDf then I would have thought that the charge should remain  broadly the same. Logic being that gas is cheaper but you may heat the house more.

If you haven't got a proven record, then the new charges may not be too out of line. I know that EDf quote about £1000 heating per year for a highly insulated modern house, and older places can cost more unless exceptionally well  insulated.

On balance I would opt for Pay As You Go, Its not as though they offer preferential tarrifs for Direct Debits, and you can still pay by Direct Debit  as each bill arrives.

[Teamedup]

BJSLIV, So how much are your combined bills. Both our GDF and EDF bills are £1000 a year.

I agree with you completely about insulation, having double glazing and well fitting outside doors can make a radical difference.

Maybe you should go with just getting bills for the moment and put away around 200 euros a month towards it. Also read you meters regularly as even when one gets bills every couple of months or so, it doesn't mean that your meter has been other than estimated.

Also it took me a year to get my gas heating just how we wanted it. Found some rooms were being over heated and others cooler than we wanted. Took lots of tweaking etc, but it was worth it and we got our bills down, when I had done this.

Also, if by chance you were on electric radiators before, I 'd get the EDF to come and check your usage now and perhaps reduce the KW'age you have coming in, a lower KW'age abonnement costs less.

[Le_Jars]

We've only been here 6 months and as I said, the gas has only just been put in. Will we get an actual bill every time though? We haven't had any type of bill showing how much we've used so far, just one with the amount we've paid out each month. Is there a way we can change back to bills by using their website? I don't ex[ect to heat the whole house cheaply, but this estimated amount seems excessive. The new boiler and radiators are all thermostaically controlled, so we shouldn't waste too much energy either.

[Teamedup]

Get in touch with your local office. Their location will be on the web site and discuss these worries that you have. I would also suggest that you have your meter reading, at least, for your electricity to hand too, when you contact them.

[Penny29]

Hi,

 

I have no idea if this will help you or not but we have been paying E80 per month for our electricity (we have no gas) for our totally un-insulated 4 bedroomed house (145 metres sq) & the recent meter reading has confirmed that this payment is pretty much spot-on.

I would say that we are heavy users - the washing machine and tumble drier are on at least twice a day, we are hopeless at remembering to turn lights off and the bedrooms and the bathrooms were all warmed by electric fires from October - April/May last winter. On the flip-side we cooked by bottled gas  and used wood burners in the larger rooms.

All things will change once the builders have finished renovating the house as it will be fully insulated (we have gone OTT on insulation), double glazed and have bought more efficient wood burners. I'm hoping all these changes will reward us with cheaper electricity bills.

 

 

[Hereford]

We are currently paying €177 a month (i.e. for ten months). Our house is old, 3 bedrooms but double glazed and well insulated. Only downside is ceilings upstairs which go up to the point in the roof.

We use electric heaters throughout, thermostatically controlled and very efficient. Occasional use of wood-burner in sitting room. Normal use of washing machine (just two of us), a dishwasher but no tumble dryer. Bottled gas for cooking at about 9 botles a year.

Certainly these costs are higher than the UK but more than balanced by lower property taxes. We feel it is the overall tax and utility bills that should be compared.

hereford

[Teamedup]

IF local taxes are cheap, ours easily compare to the UK. So for us it implies that our utitily costs are more expensive here and in fact they probably are.

[LesLauriers]

For a comparison, we have a 5 bedroomed house and pay 700€ a year for electricity and 1250€ for heating oil, however the cost of oil has now risen by 25% giving a bill for next year of 1563€ if the price remains at current levels (47.5€:ltr).

That gives a cost for the next 12 months of 2263€, so EDF's quote of 2820€ for your annual charge could be about right depending upon what EDF tariff you are on  (with gas heating Tempo should be better) the cost of gas compared to oil and how much gas and electricity you consume.

In short, in comparison to us, it,s not far out but could be less! Or indeed more, where is that string?

[Le_Jars]

Thanks all for your replies, I suppose after a year we'll know how right/wrong their estimate was!