Shit just got my electric bill!!

[2anddone]

Just got my electric bill it's gone up £200 compared to this time last year....it's going to get worse isn't it!
I have night storage heating which works on a thermostat and is set to low (17 degrees) plus a log cabin which I need to heat for my work (childcare so have to have heat!). I don't leave lights on unnecessarily, don't have my hot water heater switched on, only run my washing machine and dishwasher when they are full. The tv is on every evening but not in the daytime, don't have a tumble dryer.
I honestly can't see where I can save money on my electric bill (was over £400 this month)

what if you dont have an electric showe rbut have one that runs on the tank with a pump boosting it,is that expensive ?

many thanks

@whatsthestory123

what if you dont have an electric showe rbut have one that runs on the tank with a pump boosting it,is that expensive ?

many thanks

Do you have a Smart Meter in your house?

Honestly - they are really good at showing when you have a large demand for electricity or gas in your house. You can get a 'background' reading for electricity and see what happens when you run a shower.

Do you have a Smart Meter in your house?

Honestly - they are really good at showing when you have a large demand for electricity or gas in your house. You can get a 'background' reading for electricity and see what happens when you run a shower.

hi,no i dont i was told to avoid them but i doknow the shower uses lotsof water as its a power shower

quess i may have to limit them timewise with the teen

@kennykenkencat that is heartbreaking .

Have you tried contacting CAP and CAB?

I would also try any local churches to you. I am part of a church and we are very keen to help our local community.

We've just ordered a smart meter. We should have done it before. I've mentioned before that we are paying way more electricity that people in the same size house so we need to see what it is. My Son did point out that when it went up he had been at home because of lock down and was using his computer all the time. We are £500 in credit but our DD in April will based on the high usage. I'm so fed up.

My dishwasher run last night was 1.25 according to the smart meter.

I'm even getting suspicious that I'm paying for my neighbour's electricity and he is growing cannabis

@Leftbutcameback

Has anyone else worked out how much kWh of electric they use a day? I've just checked and ours is 26 -28. Various websites suggest average is 10, and I can't see why we are so far above that. Is 10kwh per day what people are using?

I watch mine like a hawk.

Summer average 7.5kWh per day not counting car charging.
Winter it’s more like 10-11.

I would start investigating where yours is going.

Currently we spend £110 -20 a month on electric and this time of year about £50 on gas , and we have 3 bed newish house so well insulated and keeps heat
I do have a timble dryer whiCh I use as I have to dry clothes , in summer or nicer days I can use the line but not in winter and having loads of wet clotes drying isn't great , I do have one airer up and dry what I can
Both me and DH currently wfh so thats put cost up a bit
I dread to think what April will bring but i suppose tumble dryer used less , lights on later but generally there is not much we can save on
Maybe we can fill flasks in morning with hot water instead of boiling kettle
, we shower quickly here or small baths
Food bill is up , petrol is up , pushing us into more and more debt, we have credit cards we use that hqve such high interest we barely pay off
Then to top it all tax credit have sent me £300 bill from an overpayment they supposedly made 6 years plus ago as we haven't claimed it since then

My unit rates are elec rate 1 £0.34.45 and rate 2 £0.20.35 and gas £0.021538 & £0.04.107 i think once i use a certain amount it drops to rate two
I don't know if a unit is equal to a kwh though ??
What is it likely to go up to as I have had nothing from my supplier

@Cappio I always though a dishwasher was cheaper than washing up multiple times with hot water as using both gas and electric and more water and if on meter aa we are thats expensive , i can get all days dishes and cups in one dishwasher load

@PuzzledObserver I thought you had to be careful of keeping boiler temp over a certain amount due to legionella ? No idea what temp it is though

@PuzzledObserver did you not teaf news the other day though they may be bringing in costs for electric cars like miles driven etc as they ate not going to just loose all the duty on petrol and diesel and swallow ii
Plus many cannot afford the car in the first place or have a drivewway and somewhere to charge , again is the poorer ones of us that suffer

[quote worriedatthemoment]@Cappio I always though a dishwasher was cheaper than washing up multiple times with hot water as using both gas and electric and more water and if on meter aa we are thats expensive , i can get all days dishes and cups in one dishwasher load [/quote]
I don't know the answer, but it's certainly true that a dishwasher uses far less water than washing up by hand - it's about 10 litres, which probably wouldn't even fill an average sink.

That's for a full load that could do a full day's washing up, or more, including pans for a cooked meal. Impossible to wash up effectively by hand with that amount of water, so while it's more expensive to heat water with electricity than gas, you're using less of it, and if you're on water meter, you'll save there too.

Most expensive house hold appliance is definitely the fridge freezer but there's no way to reduce that.

Depends what you're measuring. Kettles, electric showers and immersion heaters all use a lot of electricity, but you don't have them on 24/7 like fridges and freezers.

If you have a smart meter you can look at your current usage - you'll see a huge jump if you put the kettle on, mine goes up by 60p/hr. If I turn the fridge freezer off the current usage drops by 1p/hr.

The biggest problem with older freezers is the initial surge of power required to actually start the motor, that’s why you need a13amp fuse,once the motor has settled down you could drop it easily to a 5amp. But, inverter technology moved in & the surge is no longer required as the motor goes to rest without actually stoping ,it does make the running more efficient,but although on the increase it is at the moment only a few freezers have it

Most expensive house hold appliance is definitely the fridge freezer but there's no way to reduce that

Are you sure about that? Our fridge freezer is well over 20 years old and a few weeks ago I put an energy monitor on it for a week as I was concerned it could be using a lot of electricity. At current rates is costs around £10 a month to run, so a newer one is likely to cost less, but it is far cheaper than an electric shower, or any other form of electric heating.

Fairly conservative calculations illustrate that an electric shower is likely to cost a family around £30 a month to run - that is a lower wattage model, with everyone having a 5 minute shower every day. Higher wattage, longer or more frequent showers and that cost could easily double.

@Leftbutcameback. I had a mind blank. Rem why was higher now

Last yea we had heating on day but not night as too hot but had dd 3 who obv needed a warmer room. Would go to 16 with no heating

So we got a plug in radiator for her room

Oil rad would be on 7-7 so roughly 12hrs every night so using 9 extra da day

I do rem our bills going up then from dec 19 for winter

Think they said it was 20p to run an hour. Yah tho that’s 2.40 a night so an extra 70 a month or so

The smart meter overhaul that could lead to you being charged more www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10494535/Smart-meters-overhail-higher-peak-electricity-prices.html?ito=native_share_article-masthead

Beware smart meters

@BarbaraofSeville

Most expensive house hold appliance is definitely the fridge freezer but there's no way to reduce that

Are you sure about that? Our fridge freezer is well over 20 years old and a few weeks ago I put an energy monitor on it for a week as I was concerned it could be using a lot of electricity. At current rates is costs around £10 a month to run, so a newer one is likely to cost less, but it is far cheaper than an electric shower, or any other form of electric heating.

Fairly conservative calculations illustrate that an electric shower is likely to cost a family around £30 a month to run - that is a lower wattage model, with everyone having a 5 minute shower every day. Higher wattage, longer or more frequent showers and that cost could easily double.

Might not have been clear- I meant my most expensive appliance as obviously I only know my own circumstances well enough to know my usage and costs. I live on my own and usually shower at the gym so if 30 quid is for 5 people having 7 showers a week that works out as about 80p a week for the one shower I might have at home. Whereas even if I've been on holiday and absolutely everything else has been turned off the meter still shows at least a fiver (and that's before the hike) which can only be the fridge/freezer.

It is turned down as low as possible and fully stocked as advised to reduce costs but other than that can't reduce it further.

[quote worriedatthemoment]@PuzzledObserver I thought you had to be careful of keeping boiler temp over a certain amount due to legionella ? No idea what temp it is though [/quote]
Over 50 and it cannot survive, but the chances of it in a combi boiler are very low. It usually lives in air con units & dump towers,which have to be treated quite often so I really wouldn’t worry over that

@SquirrelG

The other way of thinking about it is that my supplier (Octopus) holds an account in my name which can have either a positive or negative balance - like a current account with an overdraft facility.

Each month I pay in via DD. Each month they bill me for the gas and electricity I’ve actually used, taking the money from the account. Over time, I pay for what I’ve used but my payments are smoothed so I don’t pay £50 in the summer and £200 in the winter.

I can also make one off payments, change the level of my direct debit and ask for credit balances to be returned to me. They (or rather, their software) keeps an eye on the level of the account and apparently if it’s too far away from zero in either direction they will do something about it.

Someone on another forum said he alters his payments so that in December and January he pays half the amount he does the rest of the year, so he’s got a bit of slack around Christmas time.

Thanks @Blondeshavemorefun - I've got one of those which I've not been using much this year (not as cold) so will keep an eye on use

@Billandben444

The smart meter overhaul that could lead to you being charged more www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10494535/Smart-meters-overhail-higher-peak-electricity-prices.html?ito=native_share_article-masthead

Beware smart meters

Pure scaremongering.

Time of use tariffs already exist. I am on one which gives me four hours very cheap in the early hours, in return for a higher rate the rest of the day. Works out much cheaper overall because I charge the car and put the washing machine and dishwasher on in the cheap period, and now I also have solar panels and battery so I largely avoid the daytime rate anyway.

The supplier likes it because I am using power in the small hours, when demand generally is low, and it’s a lot better for it to be used than to pay generators to turn their wind turbines off. I’m also making less demand during the day, when shops and offices are using power and at tea time when the whole country is cooking.

Octopus have a tariff called Agile which charges a different price for each half hour slot, linked to wholesale prices, and you find out the day before what they will be. The idea is to shift consumption away from the expensive (and carbon intensive) periods to cheaper (and greener ones). Until about a year ago, when the market started its current madness, the people who were on it absolutely loved it, they were saving a ton of money compared to a flat tariff. Some who had solar panels and batteries were able to force discharge their batteries during peak periods and get paid far more for it than they otherwise would, while helping the grid by supplying it with extra green energy during times of high demand.

The key point here is people CHOOSE to be on those tariffs because it is advantageous to them. They are not imposed. Most customers, even those with smart meters, are on standard tariffs, either fixed or variable, or Economy 7. That’s their choice.

Smart meters create choice. They don’t take it away.