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)

[quote worriedatthemoment]@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]
They’ve been talking about per mile taxation for ages. If it happens, it happens. While I am enjoying the lower running costs at the moment, they weren’t why I switched to an EV. There is effectively a per mile cost for petrol and diesel cars via fuel duty at the moment, and I paid that for decades without complaining. Or knowing how much it was, tbf.

Re the cost of buying an EV - yes of course some people can’t afford to buy one, but then many people can’t afford to buy a new petrol car either. So they buy 1 or 3 or 5 or 10 year olds cars, according to their budget and needs. The price difference between EV and ICE is coming down all the time, and as more are sold, there will be more available second hand.

Re charging for those without driveways, yes, that is an issue which needs solving. And is in the process of being solved through a combination of:

• Lamp-post and kerbside chargers in residential areas (ask your council what they’re doing about it)

• chargers in car parks at supermarkets, retail parks, leisure venues, workplaces, etc etc etc.

• Schemes/apps which facilitate people with home chargers making them available to be used by others

• charging hubs with cafe, retail and toilet facilities, with ever higher powered chargers - a few of these exist, more are being built.

Any technological innovation starts out expensive, but as time goes on, the price comes down, and then there is mass adoption. I got my first mobile phone - a Nokia brick - in 1997, because I was job hunting. They had been in existence for about a decade, but had been strictly the preserve of business people and those with more money than sense. Now - everyone has one, and a significant proportion of people seem to get a new one every year or two. In real terms they are far, far cheaper than they were 25 years ago. The same will happen with electric cars.

@ 2anddone it’s just too damn scary! My daughter has night storage heaters, they are new top of the range ones but are useless! The flat is always freezing cold and the other day I watched her smart meter charge £3.42 to half fill a bath, ridiculous! 😡😡

My gas and electric was £300 from 4th Jan to 4th Feb. Worked from home for most of it so had heating on more but still wowsers

No smart meter as when they came to fit it, they couldn't get inside the weird under house spider cupboard they are both in.

Put your prices up. All home providers will have to

I'm in Ireland, my latest bill is crazy too.

The government have agreed to give us all a €200 credit in April towards it which is something, but it must be serious for them to do that so it makes it more worrying in a way!

I was on estimates for whole pandemic as no one came to take readings and I didn't submit any, big mistake. I was underpaying for ages and then in January someone came over and took meter readings and I had a huge bill of about £500 just for electric. So I basically paid the new October prices for all the outstanding and am now skint.

Same here, paying double of last already so dreading even more in April. We're not excessive either and I walk about moaning about lights left on, heating on in middle of day when DH wfh. Just for too much! X

We have just fitted a private smart meter (just for our information not the energy company). It attaches to the main wires to the fuse board.

It tells me through an app;
Energy used
Energy generated
Energy exported.

Our dryer was drawing 4kw! I'm getting the washing line up tomorrow. It's a real eye opener.

I'm also trying to monitor when our panels generate enough energy for free appliance use. I'm hoping it will even out this hike in prices.
Today at times the appliances (washing machine and dish washer) were 80% covered.

We are in the fortune position of having bought a house with a decent amount of panels.

@user1481840227

I'm in Ireland, my latest bill is crazy too.

The government have agreed to give us all a €200 credit in April towards it which is something, but it must be serious for them to do that so it makes it more worrying in a way!

We are meant to get that in Oct

The. Pay it back at 40 a year fir 5 yrs

I lived in a 2 bedroom flat. With storage heaters. Which was MORE expensive than the 6 bedroom house I lived in

They are notorious for the price

I couldn’t believe it when I got my first heating bill some 10 years ago with those things.

Are you sure that's right. It shouldn't be going up until april. I would get a reading and call, find out what the hell is going on 🤔

i have a large debit with electricity, which is very odd

@AllOfUsAreDead

The Tory party are uncaring towards the situation and I don’t think they give a shit that this will ruin lives because if they did then they would be doing more about it.

Of course they don't care. They are aware the average person in britain is stupid enough to vote for them again despite them causing your poverty. Simply because they believe Labour will do a worse job. The only way Labour could do a worse job now is by emptying all of your bank accounts every month plus your savings and tell you to forage and hunt for your food now.

It's more than that. Remember Labour is responsible for the current situation too, because Gordon Brown destroyed the economy so badly that even twelve years of solid, responsible Conservative stewardship hasn't quite been enough to reverse his disasters YET. But stay with it . . . recovery is just around the corner.

At least we have Brexit to be thankful for.

Ours came yesterday. The proportional increases are much lower than some of these reported here: £863 gas; £326 electricity compared to £716 and 276 for the same quarter last year.

I can appreciate that double expectations is a hard and bitter pill to swallow. I don't know why ours hasn't doubled as we have bot been particularly judicious. We have had hive for a long time and rarely have the warmest spaces on more than 18. It has been a colder winter than of late I think and that has its own impact.

We are with British Gas so may have always paid a bit ott.

Well 25% of all bills is a subsidy to the renewable energy companies ,
That’s a disgrace
Why should a private company,making its own money get 25% of everyone’s bill

PuzzledObserver speaks a lot of good sense!

I'm locked in with a great deal until April, fuck knows what will happen then! I'd usually switch to catch the next deal but I'm guessing there aren't going to be any?

In Belgium- gas/electricity together gone up to nearly €800 a month !!! Large house but not excessively heated. It’s madness and not sustainable for me at all !! Scary stuff

@RestingMurderousFace

I'm locked in with a great deal until April, fuck knows what will happen then! I'd usually switch to catch the next deal but I'm guessing there aren't going to be any?

Same here. I'm assuming most companies will be charging at or close to the cap for the variable rates and I'd be surprised to see any good fixes sadly.

@RosesAndHellebores

Ours came yesterday. The proportional increases are much lower than some of these reported here: £863 gas; £326 electricity compared to £716 and 276 for the same quarter last year.

I can appreciate that double expectations is a hard and bitter pill to swallow. I don't know why ours hasn't doubled as we have bot been particularly judicious. We have had hive for a long time and rarely have the warmest spaces on more than 18. It has been a colder winter than of late I think and that has its own impact.

We are with British Gas so may have always paid a bit ott.

The current cap is much lower than the one coming in so I think that's when we will all see the significant rises if I understand correctly

while the oil and gas companies are making billions in profit.

That’s what businesses do. It’s the governments job to try to ensure that society works for everyone. Unfortunately we voted for the right wing English Nationalist Party (formerly known as the Conservatives) at the last two elections.

@Fifteentoes
Very amusing! Keep them coming!

@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

You missed the person from Octopus spinning it.

You can pay much less for power for EV's, house batteries, electric storage heaters by paying less in the night when demand is low.

I think it would be great to have a 'house battery' so it charges during the night when electricity is cheap and allows you to access it during the day.

HNRTFT (sorry) - bur I am failing to understand why anyone has a higher than usual (for time of year) bill, when the Price Cap has not changed yet and prices have not increased?. Any bills coming in now would surely be for recent usage and at the prevailing prices since the previous bill/reading..... (and direct debits cannot be changed willnilly in anticipation of hgher bills?)