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Original poster

Such an exciting topic but what is your monthly electricity bill? Ours is ridiculously high - I think- but nothing to compare it to!

96 replies

Bagelsandbrie · 05/04/2021 19:59

Family of 4. I’m a sahm, dh works outside the home full time and we have 2 dc, 18 and 9. To be fair of course with Covid we’ve all been at home a lot more etc, devices streaming, stuff constantly on etc but even so... our monthly electric is now £150. Shock We do have the tumble dryer, dishwasher and washing machine going a lot - both myself and ds are disabled and there is a lot of washing related to this.

(We have gas central heating, £60 a month for gas).

I’ve switched to the cheapest tariff I can find. It still seems very high.

Just wondered what others were spending?

OP posts:
Bordois · 06/04/2021 09:05

Combined gas and electricity has been about £250 month over winter, but with wfh, home schooling and so on it all adds up 😔

Hopefully it will drop now 🙏

FreeFallingFree · 06/04/2021 09:11

That sounds about right, I'm afraid, if you're running the tumble dryer, washing machine and dishwasher a couple of times a day. £150 a month is £5 a day, and if you budget maybe 35p for each of those things, then everything else on top it works out about right. Boiling the kettle and electric shower are the other 2 big electricity users in my house. I don't know if you have a smart meter - I know some people don't like the idea - but my supplier gives me usage and cost broken down by the half hour and you can see when usage peaks, when the kettle was boiled etc. Days when the washing machine runs are 20-40p more expensive, depending on the cycle, than days when it doesn't.

Profiterolegirl · 06/04/2021 09:13

£50/£60 a month for electricity alone. I am always in the house and my 3 children have also been in the house constantly for the past year.

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Cost of living
Humm1ngb1rd · 06/04/2021 09:25

£65/month for large 4 bed. We have solar panels so also get about that back each month with the feed in tariff, so pretty much free electricity now the solar panels are paid off (sorry!), but thought I'd post to encourage others to think about renewable investments if appropriate. You don't get feed in tariff now but solar panels fairly cheap and you can get some support I think with things like ground source heat pumps. Also worth noting location will affect cost due to the weather.

Humm1ngb1rd · 06/04/2021 09:26

£65=gas and electric

pabloescobarselasticband · 06/04/2021 09:29

6 of us in a 5 bed house. Our electricity is £120 a month and gas around £40.

FreeFallingFree · 06/04/2021 09:30

@FreeFallingFree

That sounds about right, I'm afraid, if you're running the tumble dryer, washing machine and dishwasher a couple of times a day. £150 a month is £5 a day, and if you budget maybe 35p for each of those things, then everything else on top it works out about right. Boiling the kettle and electric shower are the other 2 big electricity users in my house. I don't know if you have a smart meter - I know some people don't like the idea - but my supplier gives me usage and cost broken down by the half hour and you can see when usage peaks, when the kettle was boiled etc. Days when the washing machine runs are 20-40p more expensive, depending on the cycle, than days when it doesn't.
And the unit rate on that is 17.8p per KWh, so similar to what you are paying.
MarchingOnTogether · 06/04/2021 09:46

Mines £180 for both, but some of that is paying back a debt (their mistake not mine)
Once we are back to zero it should drop to around £125.
Previous house (new build) was paying £85 a month!

LBOCS2 · 06/04/2021 09:49

Our last monthly statement (which is done on actual readings) has us using £70 on gas and £70 on electricity.

There are between 4 and 5 of us here, 4 bed semi, using the tumble dryer probably 5x a week. I don't think it's too bad tbh.

blobby10 · 06/04/2021 09:53

small 4 bed detached and I pay £96 per month for gas and electric but generally its just me in the house with OH visiting 3-4 nights a week and eldest son at weekends. I'm stingy with the heating anyway but trying to reduce this monthly payment further if I can!! Don't use dishwasher unless the whole family is home but have used washing machine and tumble drier far more than I ought to have done - I hope that the tumble drier on for 50-60 minutes might be cheaper than having the heating on for the extra 3-4 hours it would take to dry clothes on the radiators!

Astridium · 06/04/2021 09:54

Gadgets generally are not going to consume a lot of electricity. Anything with a heating element is going to be far more power hungry - so washing machine, electric shower, immersion heater, dishwasher, tumble dryer etc.

murbblurb · 06/04/2021 09:55

With lots of tumble drying that will be it. You don't mention gas so if you are heating on electric only, also costly. The unit rate is about right for now, it will only get higher as we get more renewables (aka unreliables). Sorry!

Soothes · 06/04/2021 09:57

That does seem a lot to me. We have a four bed detached, four adults, three of whom have been wfh for the last year. Teen DS1 who can easily spend a hour in the shower Angry lots of tech and no one particularly careful about turning lights off etc. We pay £128 pm for gas and electricity combined.

MondeoFan · 06/04/2021 09:58

2 bed bungalow. Electric and Gas £150 month. I'm with bulb. I feel annoyed as felt like they lured me in with £70 month initially then said I'd built up a debt as monthly payments wasn't beeping, they put it up to £199 a month. Didn't even check I could afford it, just started taking it.
They've just put it back down to £150 a month.
No dishwasher or tumble dryer.
Washing machine daily, or EOD use.

Singlenotsingle · 06/04/2021 09:59

If you're on this budget thing where the utilities company tell you what you need to pay each month, they like to keep it high so that you don't go into debit - they don't want to be subsidizing you! They want you to lend them money, not the other way round. I pay £160 pm for a 4 bed house with 4 adults there

DIshedUp · 06/04/2021 09:59

Ours is 100, 2 bed with 2 adults. Both workoutside the home, no tumble drier but we have no gas so electric heating

Yours seems reasonable to me if you are using the tumble dier 3x a day and are home all day!

Lemonlemon88 · 06/04/2021 10:03

Driers push up your bill a lot! We have a utility room with an old fashioned pulley rack thing and it saves us a lot of money I think.

Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum · 06/04/2021 10:03

£208 a month for gas and electricity. Sorry don't know them separately

6 people in a 6 bedroom house with lots of extra downstairs rooms (office, gym, etc). So probably double the average family home size.

CyberPixie · 06/04/2021 10:03

2 bed bungalow, no gas. £130 in summer £180 winter. Was with bulb but they're getting greedy and putting prices up again to just over 19p day rate. Currently switching to neon reef just over 12p day rate! Expecting to save about £40 a month.

I only use one storage heater, hot water tank. Oil filled radiators. Air conditioning that also heats. Tumble dryer and washing machine on quite a lot with 3 small dogs who won't get in their bed if it smells even slightly stinky (of them!)

Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum · 06/04/2021 10:04

Forgot my drier does about 5 loads a week

RedPandaMama · 06/04/2021 10:05

God some of these prices are insane!!!

I'm with Octopus so it's done by monthly meter readings not a fixed tariff. Electric is anything from £19-30 a month and gas £70 a month in winter £15 a month in summer.

Large 2 bed terrace. 2 adults 1 child and cat. I WFH.

dementedpixie · 06/04/2021 10:08

I'm also with Octopus and my actual usage last month was £78 electric and £52 gas

4 bed detached, 2 adults, 2 teens

I pay £130 per month currently but can change it up and down online to suit myself

millymae · 06/04/2021 10:09

All electric here and our bill has gone up to £122 from £93 in the last year. When we were paying £93 we had a fair bit in credit but with home schooling etc that all disappeared and we’ve had to up our payments.
I’m hoping that now the children are.back in school and the warmer weather is coming we will begin to build up some credit again, which I have no problem with really as it’s all money in the bank.
Bearing in mind the cost of things generally I don’t think our electricity bill is too bad.

VikingNorthUtsire · 06/04/2021 10:12

Ours is high too for electricity (around £150/month) and I genuinely have no idea why. We don't run a tumble drier. Dishwasher and washing machine go on every second day or so. Hot water via gas boiler for showers. Oven is electric but not used every day - maybe 2/3 times a week.

CyberPixie · 06/04/2021 10:17

2 bed bungalow, no gas. £130 in summer £180 winter. Was with bulb but they're getting greedy and putting prices up again to just over 19p day rate. Currently switching to neon reef just over 12p day rate! Expecting to save about £40 a month.

I only use one storage heater, hot water tank. Oil filled radiators. Air conditioning that also heats. Tumble dryer and washing machine on quite a lot with 3 small dogs who won't get in their bed if it smells even slightly stinky (of them!)