With the winter beginning to creep in and the days getting noticeably colder, households across the country will be cranking up their heating.
With this increase in energy usage, most will begin to notice an increase in what they are spending on their energy.
While an increase in energy bills is natural for this time of year, you may begin to suspect that what you are paying is too high.
What should I do if I think my energy bill is too high?
Estimated bills
If you think the bill sent to you by your UK energy supplier is too high, Citizens Advice recommends that, if your bill is estimated, you send your meter reading to your supplier for a more accurate charge.
It adds that you do not need to pay a bill if it is estimated - something that is indicated in the letter.
You should send your readings to your supplier each month to ensure your bill is correct.
Direct debit
Energy bills which are paid for through direct debit are usually based on an estimate of the amount of energy you'll use.
If you use more than is expected, your payments will increase.
If you have concerns about the bill, you should challenge the increase and ask them to explain it.
They must then explain to you clearly how they reached the figure and give you the meter readings they used.
You should then check these meter readings against the meter readings on your bill to ensure they are the same.
If you're still not happy, you should ask your supplier to lower the bill to reflect your usage. If this does not work, you should make a formal complaint to them.
Things you should check
If the bills you have received are accurate but are much higher than you were expecting, you should consider looking at appliances like tumble dryers, plug-in heaters and hot tubs to cut down on costs.
You should also check if your supplier has put their prices up by looking at previous bills and checking if your 'unit price' or 'standing charge' has changed.
It is also possible that you've been billed based on someone else's meter readings. If there is a big difference between bills, there may be an error.
Finally, you should check to see if your meter is faulty.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here