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)

I'm with utilita and smart meter and obviously it's pay as you go, my has so far is around 50 a month and electric about 60, that's a three bed flat and me and four kids. Usual appliances plus gaming consoles and tvs, washing machine on every day and heating on every day after three untill 7:30 pm. Costs have gone up around £3 each but other than that fairly stable. Are these increases just hitting quarterly paying customers? I suppose pay as you go has always been and expensive necessity for me

@MibsXX that's not true and completely against the law, go online book whoever you want your supplier to be, they will come out install what they need to install and that's it, as an owner a renter a council tenant or whoever legally you can choose whoever you like to supply you and they have a duty to come out fit the correct equipment and then supply your energy. Don't bother calling anyone, go online see who supplies your area choose the one you want and book it online, they will give you a date to come out then that's it done.

@WhiteCatmas

Did you vote for the Conservative party in the last election? Because you have them to thank for these price rises.

And it wdnt happen if labour were in power, no price rises??

The problem is that UK energy security is screwed, through decades of mismanagement. And we have just alienated most of our closest allies. So we are now extremely vulnerable and at the mercy of global prices on this: insufficient self-generated power, insufficient Government ownership of what is generated and therefore ability to determine prices, and it will cost a HUGE amount to fix it.

It absolutely must be fixed given where we are and the geopolitical situation, and how that will likely develop as climate change leads to an increasing scramble for remaining resources, with higher prices and high international tension, less cooperation. But it will cost a lot. And somebody has to pay. Attempting to squeeze PAYE employees even more is impossible, they have nothing left. Harder options will have to be looked at, finally.

The same for food security. Energy and food security should be top of everyone's list when deciding who to vote for. Unfortunately, they are not even listed in voters' top ten concerns.

I am sure they will be, but only when it's too late to do anything about it.

@ChickenStripper

This is a global situation. We are also just coming out of a pandemic where many people were happy to take whatever handouts they were entitled to from the Gov. How can the Government subsidise all of this? Too many people expect and believe it is their right to have x, y and z while making little effort. Many people do not think ahead and spend willy nilly - we were just at the cinema this evening and were unable to get into any of the restaurants. Queues out the door. Several of these threads all tie together - dentists, pensions, utilities and yes even that takeaway thread. People expect to just get it all even if they make little planning towards these things. It surprises me the things that some people think they are entitled to regardless of their income and effort.

Rant away. Who are you annoyed with the most? I worked through it all. Can't I be annoyed with price increases?

I'm all for people contributing and not trying to hammer those earning a little but more than them but jesus. "Expecting" to be able to afford to have light and heating is unreasonable now is it?

It was the Government's job to ensure energy security. They are absolutely to blame for this. These threads show that this wasn't inevitable: despite the issues posed by the market citizens of other countries have had these very basics for decent living standards protected through a variety of Government measures: sensible levels of contingency in the supply networks and sufficient gas storage facilities, state ownership of a significant proportion of the energy generation, clear energy policy planning over decades, meaningful Government subsidies to help people struggling, building sufficient renewable/ nuclear resources... etc.

Blaming the people who are now being told a basic human need is doubling in price or more is pathetic.

@HootOwl

I'm all for people contributing and not trying to hammer those earning a little but more than them but jesus. "Expecting" to be able to afford to have light and heating is unreasonable now is it?

Heating on all the time regardless if you can afford it Then yes! Many people grew up with no heating.

Yes they did. And it was miserable. And it caused all kinds of health problems. This is not something to aspire to in a developed nation.

Have you read the thread? Many people are not turning their heating on at all. Some others only at very low temps and only for an hour or two per day. People saying they can no longer afford to use an oven.

I am in a very fortunate position like - based on your posts - I presume you are, where I can manage this ok. But many aren't. People who work really hard. So can you please stop being so condescending to people who are scared how they will keep themselves - and in some cases unwell family members and children - warm and fed?

Have you had an empathy bypass?

Not to mention those who can't work. They also do not deserve to be warm or starving.

If you're so concerned where the money will come from (as I am!) perhaps examine the billions being wasted by Government on Brexit/ "test and trace"/ fraud write offs etc that could instead be spent providing its citizens with a decent standard of living.

@HootOwl

Not to mention those who can't work. They also do not deserve to be warm or starving.

If you're so concerned where the money will come from (as I am!) perhaps examine the billions being wasted by Government on Brexit/ "test and trace"/ fraud write offs etc that could instead be spent providing its citizens with a decent standard of living.

COLD or starving. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It's late. I need to sleep. I am however, shocked by your lack of empathy.

So we get to pay back the £200 loan when prices are even higher, good thinking that.

EVs are about £60k+ unless you just want a small runaround so hardly affordable to buy in the first place, however cheap they are to run.

There are plenty of EV’s available in the £30-35K bracket and quite a few sub £30K. MG have a couple of models around £20K which are family sized cars - one estate and one SUV, I believe.

I’m also told that lease and PCP deals work out not much more than a similar ICE car, and with the reduced running costs people end up paying less overall.

What there isn’t (yet) is the equivalent of the sub £1K old banger. However, every new market starts with a small number of very high priced options, only available to the very rich. As time goes on, it gradually becomes available to more and more people. If an EV is out of reach at the moment, give it time.

My car prior to my current EV was a VW Golf, bought in May 2011. At that point, there were Tesla (ridiculously expensive) and the newly introduced Nissan Leaf - over £40K and with a range of less than a hundred miles. Neither of those was an option for me. When I came to change the Golf, it was a different world - so many more makes and models, a wide range of prices.

We looked at them for towing and there are very few suitable.

That bit is true - the ones which can tow are the pricier ones. It’s still a young market, developing all the time. Apart from which - the majority of people don’t tow.

It's not inevitable that the energy prices will only increase. There's an expected rise again in October but prices could start to fall from mid-2023.

@FourTeaFallOut

It's not inevitable that the energy prices will only increase. There's an expected rise again in October but prices could start to fall from mid-2023.

I thought they were expected to fall back before then, so the first £40 repayment in April 2023 coincides with the price cap being reduced. Based on Martin Lewis’s analysis a few weeks ago, anyway.

I popped into our bill coffee shop yesterday and got chatting. The owner told me about an older lady who was there the previous day, who had said she spent her days out walking around because she couldn’t afford to put her heating on at home. She’d gone into the coffee shop to warm up a bit. The owner told her she could spend as long as she wanted there, any time, and that she wouldn’t charge her for hot drinks… but how did it come to this, in 2022? And how many more people are in that position? It’s disgraceful.

Village coffee shop. Don’t know who this bill is

I didn't want to say April incase this three monthly review of the cap tinkers with it. I went with a vague mid to cover my ass.

@beautifullymad

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.

Dryers are notorious for energy consumption, trouble is you can’t insulate them

@FourTeaFallOut good point re the move to a 3 month review of the price cap. So the next one after October will be January (and we will know about it in November)

In theory, with Smart Meters, you could pay less per KWH if you use it late at night when power is cheap.

I would like an electric car. There is no way I can charge it from my flat, there's no street charging and if you charge in supermarkets etc, you could pay more than at home.

Oh - and £30k is a lot of money.

We have 2 electric cars now. Both second hand. My husbands we got on pcp for £170 per month and then the balloon payment was around 3k. It doesn't have a long range, is an early model, but is great for when he commuted to work and as a general run around. Our only costs now are insurance, mot and charging generally once a week which costs around £5. My car was £20k. This is very expensive for us, but I have a long commute and despite high monthly payments, the savings on petrol meant that it was still the cheaper option for us. We plan to keep both cars for the foreseeable as they are so economical to run. Incidentally, both cars are now worth more than we paid for them. I recognise that this is possible as we have a drive and enough income to get a massive car loan. I'm sharing to debunk the idea that you can't get an EV for less than 30k. There are increasing numbers of really good second hand EVs available. They may not have the long range that the newest models have, but you can fast charge them on longer journeys and are great for commuters and run arounds. It will cost you more to charge in a car park, but still far far less than the equivalent of refilling with petrol.

Our electric car - approx €5 to charge at home, €8 to charge locally in a car park

Our petrol tiny corsa cost €48 to fill at last refil

Electric would have to be x10 the price to even equal out if charging at home v petrol.

I have a Leaf, I got it for £7k about 4 years ago and it's worth the same now. So it has saved us a fortune in lack of depreciation and it hasn't given me any grief, so maintenance costs have been negligible.
Before you even get to the savings we would have made on fuel, it's been a good car.

But it's not perfect, we only have it as a second car, not least because it can only do 80 miles on a full charge on a warm day without the aircon on, but it works well for us. I love it.

Charge it at night and it will be even cheaper to charge.

Nice if you have a drive so you can just plug it in overnight

I can see a future with charging points that act like batteries. So they get cheap power at night and when when we have excess power generation when it's windy / sunny and then people can tap into that energy for charging points, home power etc.