Maplease

Hi all,

We have just received our last quarter combined gas and electric bill and it is a staggering £670. We have a 4 bed house and there is myself, the other half and our 5 year old. The heating is off in the day for at least 3 days a week and the home scores well on those environmental survey things they do when you sell your home.

Anyway, just wondering how this compares to the bills over there. We are aiming to go to Nova Scotia and I know people often say that heating etc is expensive in Canada. Just interested in how it compares.

Thanks in advance for responding. Just off to put another jumper on now

ArthurBrit

Way too many variables but for me I am on equalised payments which I believe are $150/month (almost $2000/year).

Some big factors are where you live, how big your house is, which method of heat generation you have and how up to date this equipment is.

FYI I live in Winnipeg have a gas furnace which is about 6 years old and claims to be 93% efficient this is for a 1500sqft home.

christmasoompa

That sounds unbelievably expensive, have you had it checked? Our current house isn't a good example as it's a big leaky old farmhouse (off the charts on the 'environment survey thing'!), and we use ground source heat pumps to heat it (not on mains gas here). But our last house was a very standard 1970's 4 bed detached house, and we only ever paid £90 or so a month for gas & electricity, even though I'm at home all day.

cheeky_monkey

get billed monthly over here..anyway mine is for a 3 bed home built in 2011 in Calgary my eleccy and gas together comes in at about $200 per month or $600 a quarter based on Dec, Jan and Feb..so im guessing that's about 450 notes

Maplease

Unfortunately I think it's right as the other half has checked the meter readings.

Maplease

I never thought £450 would ever sound like a bargain! Thanks for the responses.

christmasoompa

Change supplier maybe? You're paying pretty much double what I used to for a 4 bed house and I was at home all day working from home (so heating on all the time etc). Obviously there will be variables and it might be a much bigger house than mine was, but it still seems v high to me.

jimmydean

We live in Nova Scotia and moved into our home almost exactly a year ago. It is 2300 sg ft 4 bed with basement plus two stories... hot water is oil fired boiler...heating is oil fired furnace (forced air) via ducting around the house. Wife does not work so heating etc is on every day of the year except when we vacation. Our total costs for 1 year have been $2100 in oil ..... average price has been 1.06 per litre..... our electric bill is paid every 2 months to NS Power and costs on average $190 every two months. A little lower in winter a little higher in summer because of the pool pump and air conditioning units.

So total for year $3180 for everything approx 170 pounds sterling per month. Hope that helps

PS I am looking to see how much a heat pump would save v installation costs just because of the benefit of cool air in the humid summers we have here.

Maplease

Thanks for the answers. Interesting stuff.

I agree about changing suppliers, but every comparison website says we are on the best one.

Oh well, what profit was it British Gas made ....erm.....£606 million.

RockiesFellow

It probably depends on where in Canada you are, but from my experience in Calgary, it is much cheaper than in the UK. Gas here is super cheap, but electricity is not, so weirdly the cost of blowing the air around the house is higher than heating the air in the first place! So for heating our 4 bed home we pay something under $300 a month in winter.

Animal

We find electricity expensive here compared to the UK and for our 3 (+1 in basement) house with 4 of us pay $240 a month in electric. We have a smart meter and can check daily on the usage and since doing that only put the washer etc on after 7pm but the usage is about right to what we pay monthly.

We have an electric water heater that is rented (still find that wierd but there you go) at $14 a month that we are having ripped out shortly and having a gas one put in or an 'on-demand' system in it's place.

The fitter who came out said a gas water heater would save in the region of $60-$70 a month in electric but add $10 to our $70 gas bill.

iaink

So far this year we are probably at $200-220 a month for oil plus about $600 for the wood we have burned this year that will have to be replaced (3 or 4 cord).

Plus an average of $125 a month for Electricity too.

Id love to pay only $4k a year for heat and electric!


And thats after replacing the windows and sealing and insulating the crap out of the basement and attic....


Costs will depend on location. Hydro is expensive in Ontario, but not in Quebec or NB Gas is cheap out west, but Im miles from a gas line. Propane might be cheaper for me, but then we would need to replace the furnace and water heater so no further ahead.

R I C H

All electric in my house, so the monthly bill (equalized payments) cover heat, hot water and light etc - it's my sole utility bill at $225 per month. That's for a 4,500sq/ft home.

MikeUK

Don't forget that in many places you'll need to account for cooling (Air Con) costs in the summer too..

mandymoochops

we run about $250 - $300 a month in winter and about $150 in the summer. (combined gas and electric)

We're in the boonies in Central AB. We have a 4 bed house but we do have a stock waterer that needs to be constantly heated in the winter, and as we are on well water then although you don't pay for water you add more on electric for the pump. Installed a programmable thermostat last year wich has saved us around $30 a month on the gas.