A genuinely general thread about bills

[Graebob]

Hello everyone <bows>

I have a question. My electricity bill has just come through, and its a fookin whopper. We (as in myself and 2 housemates) now owe ~£169 for the period february - april this year.

Is that a lot? This being our first year managing our own bills, I don't know whether we're paying over the odds or whatever. Currently our house runs 3 desktops, 4 teles (which admittedly dont get used very often), 2 fridges, 2 microwaves and an electric cooker, amongst other smaller random appliances.

It brings up the question...just how much power can a desktop use?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Lee]

Well mine per 1/4 for a three bedroom Cottage, puter always on, large freezer and fridge always on, hall lights on 20 hours, we have gas heating though.

I do recharge a lot of batteries. Radio is on 24/7, mmm Tv on about 6 hours per day.


approx £84.per 1/4 gas half that per 1/4 btw.
I do use energy saving light bulbs also.

Maybe the neighbours have hot wired your circuits.

I know when I was a kid a neighbour ran his supply off the street light outside.

 

[Codasmd]

I once lived in a house with 3 other people and one month our electric bill was over $800 dollars. That is about 20x what it should have been.

Turned out the thermostat for the water heater was broken and just kept heating water to boiling point.
I would look for problems and talk to the landlord if you find a problem.

We didnt have to pay that huge bill....the owner took on most of it.

(My desktop is on most of the time and it doesnt use a whole lot of power.

 

[Vetrius]

desktops dont use that much... but i dont what your rate is/currency exchange, etc... It does sound a little high though... perhaps you should look for crossed wires, broken appliances, electricity rates on appliances?

 

[Abbadon2001]

if your using an electric cooker then yes that doesnt sound too huge - my house runs 2 desktops on most ofthe time, our server on 24/7, a laptop thats on most of the time, my stereo on 24/7 almost, and a big tv which is on bout 12hrs a day (my housemate is a tv addict). we have a gas cooker and hot water heated by gas. our quaterly bills for thuis year have been about £90 ish. so yours including electric cooker (and possible electric hot water if your house has no gas?) doesnt sound too bad as cookers tend to use quite alot and u have an extra fridge also and a microwave which we havnt bothered this year.

 

[Evil Marge]

Yeah most of that will be from the electric cooker.Theres 4 people in here and my bills don't come anywhere near that.
Mind you my gas bills are huge and I don't really use the fire or radiators that much as I have a mobile calor gas fire so god knows what I'm being charged for

 

[Lee]

Interesting, gas boiler comes on 8.pm. for two hours for hot water everyday of the week. Radiators we have on during winter, slow simmer, only 4 times this past month have we had radiators on.

Currently the bill is about 15 a month for gas (summer conditions) 25 during cold snaps and winter per month. We got a gas fire also.

Suprised why you have such high bills Margee and prefer to use a calor gas heater which in real terms must cost a lot more to refill.

 

[Evil Marge]

I've just had a new boiler put in that gives you hot water on demand with no need to out it on timer each day and new economy radiators that have a heat setting on so hopefully the bill should be lower this year.
I have the mobile fire cause the radiators make me feel ill and there's no other heating in this room.Costs me £10 a bottle and it lasts about 6-7 weeks.

 

[Lee]

Maybe you feel a bit icky from the build up of co2. I get that headache feeling too from the fire.
Just open a small window, air brick i think not big enough.