tinytears

This is prompted by Bear's thread and in particular this comment, which I wholeheartedly agree with:-

We have a four bed detached house which is reasonably small (new build so nothing huge in fact it is 1050 sq ft) in an OK area but again nothing fabulous.

This week we got our water bill which was £750!! On top of that our gas/electricity bills were a further £790.

We work and so are out of the house all day, the kids may have a bath twice a week and the showers are used once a day. Lights are turned off when we leave the room and the heating comes on just 15 minutes before we get up in the morning and goes off after an hour but is on for about four hours in the evening. The only thing that we do that is excessive is we have the dryer on maybe three or four times a week but it is impossible to get the washing dry otherwise.

The house is only 5 years old and has a good energy efficiency rating according to the HIP (translated into waste of bleeding money and yet another way for the government to tax us).

So that is £1540 on utility bills alone!

We are still paying over £1 a litre for diesel, despite wholesale prices plumetting.

This is no small contribution to the reasons for us wanting to leave the UK.

I am wondering how this compares to those of you already there?

MarkG

Is that annual, quarterly or monthly bills? Our water here is about $45 a month, and gas and electricity average a total of about $200 a month (more in winter, less in summer).

tinytears

Water was annual and the gas/electricity were six months.

MarkG

So with two adults and a hamster in a 1500 square foot detached house we have about 1/3 of your water bill and 2/3 of your gas and electricity bill. And we do run the washing machine and dryer a lot, you can tell because there's no snow anywhere near the dryer vent .

That said, the windchill temperature outside is currently -42C (-27C actual), whereas I suspect that the UK is a bit warmer than that!

tinytears

OMG -42 or even -27 are seriously scary figures, I so wonder how we will cope with the cold, although we are off to Toronto and whilst it is bad I think there are colder places to be in Canada.

I guess also we don't too badly then when you consider there are five of us in this house.

MarkG

Most of the time you're indoors, either at home, at work, or out shopping, so then you don't really notice; it's only if you're going to be outside for more than a few minutes, or if it's really windy out there, that the temperature really matters.

But it does seem odd that we spend less on gas than you do when the winter temperatures are probably 20-30C lower here; water will vary a lot with the number of people, gas for water heating somewhat, electricity less so, but gas for heating, which is most of what we use, should be related more to house size and temperatures than how many people are in the house.

tinytears

Absolutely, the problem with our gas/electricity is that most of the utility companies are now foreign owned (Germany predominantly) and so the government can do very very little to regulate them prices went up by 35-50% this year despite wholesale prices dropping drastically recently. It is amazing how quick they were to put the prices up yet they are refusing to bring them down and it seems there is nothing anyone can do. Same with petrol - prices there at least are coming down but very slowly compared to the price per barrell.

My brother says it is a different type of cold - we are cold and damp. Also we aren't prepared for it at all. The whole area became gridlocked over half an inch of snow because the roads weren't gritted (because the council sold off two of the four gritters in the area).

Oh heck I'm really having a moan tonight aren't I? Sorry.

Auld Yin

MarkG lives in Saskatchewan which experiences much more severe winters than Toronto, where you're going. During the winter months Toronto may have the infrequent bitterly cold spells but for the most part it's probably the mildest area other than coastal BC. At the moment it's -1C in TO whereas it's -28C where he lives.

sas-lou

I've only been in Ottawa since Monday coming from Leicester.. i was thinking i wouldnt be able to handle the weather but honestly it isnt that bad .. it -15 but feels like -22 now and i have just come indoors .. i wasnt wearing a hat and i didnt put my hood up on my coat .. like you said its a different kind of cold, it is only my fingers that seem to feel the cold.

Also the houses are so insulated here, i didnt put the heating on at all yesterday and it was warm inside ..

You'll be just fine ..

Tangram

2500 sqft home plus approx 750sqft finished basement. Water/sewage is $600 a year. Heating/lighting/everything else - all electric heat pump averages $210 pm over the year.

Auld Yin

2500 sqft home plus approx 750sqft finished basement. Water/sewage is $600a year. Heating/lighting/everything else - all electric heat pump averages $210 pm over the year.

Now that MUST be a lie. I keep reading on this site that it's not any cheaper to live here than in the UK.

dbd33

There's no contradiction between an energy efficient home in Canada being cheaper to run than a standard home in the UK and the overall cost of living being the same. Look at the price of beer in Canada!

MarkG

Not to mention the price of Ribena and Marmite!

Tangram

and decent cheese.

Tangram

Overall we are slightly better off. Less mortgage, less gas costs, lower wages, slightly cheaper outgoings barring food and beer.