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 tried using the eco modes on the washing machine and nothing came out as clean. I know other people get on with it but I wonder if it's because we use non bio and not too much of it because of skin problems in the house? I think we need more agitation in the cycle to compensate?

@Fedupbuyer

I’m probably a bit stupid but the price cap will be £1971 divide that by 12 is £164 a month or there abouts so why the massive bills?

My usage happens to be around the "average use" that is used to illustrate the price cap (however note that the price cap is misnamed - it's not a cap on how much you pay but on the amount that energy providers can charge for the energy - use more and you pay more, use less and you pay less).

The problem is that I'm currently on a fix paying £85 per month. The fix ends next week at which point I'll be moved onto the current price cap and will pay around £105 per month. Then in April I'll be on the increased price cap of around £165 per month. Yes in terms of actual numbers these bills are relatively small compared with the horrors that other posters are having to pay, but for me personally this is a 95% increase to my energy bills in just two months!!!!! Obviously my household income will not increase by 95% so that will mean cuts elsewhere. And then in October prices will probably increase further!

@Pinkflask agree with the 54% headline being misleading. On price per kWh, it is 33% on electricity and 75% on gas. 75!!!

I’m on a fixed EV tariff for electricity, but price capped SVR for gas. We’ve recently installed solar panels and battery, so the electricity bill will be going way down. There are no equivalent steps we can take for the gas - I’ve followed all my supplier’s tips for reducing gas usage, that’s as much as we can do.

We are fortunate that we made the decision a couple of years ago to buy a new build and moved in the summer. It’s not PassivHaus standard, but it is massively better insulated than anywhere we’ve lived before.

Our December gas bill this year was 19% lower than last year - but our usage was 40% lower. Next December it will be substantially up…. hopefully not the full 75%, as we’ve implemented the fuel saving tips since December.

By the way - I am on a monthly direct debit, but there is a bill generated every month so I can see exactly how our balance is standing up to actual usage. I’ve chosen to increase my DD before they tell me I need to, and I’m hoping that with that, the savings from solar over the summer and the £200 credit in October, I won’t need to increase it again.

@Bookmarket

I've recently increased my hours of work to cover costs of DC1 at university. That extra pay is going to be swallowed up by bills and NI. And DCs expenses are going up at uni and we'll have her high energy bills to pay towards when she's in her 2nd year.

We're fortunately not in the position of choosing heating or food but 11 years of a Tory government makes life feel like one step forward and two steps back.

Is your DC working part time ?

We pay 24.9p per kw = .47AUD

$180 for petrol I presume you mean $1.80 per litre
Where we live it is quite expensive at £1.489 per litre ($2.81 per litre) I have seen it in other areas slightly cheaper at £1.429

The U.K. might not be the most expensive place to live but it is always seems to be in the most expensive places to live.
It doesn’t even have nice weather. It is for most of the year just grey. If we are lucky we get a few weeks of hot weather where people start to complain if the heat before returning to the grey"

Oops yes of course I meant $1.80! Although it varies every day, depending on with garage you go too, yesterday my husband paid $1.65. which is 87.5p.

I left the UK in 2003 and feel now like I left at the right time as I see people on here earning the same as I did back then for similar jobs. Some things are more expensive here but wages are a lot higher too. I am shocked to see the electricity prices though, no idea why it looks like double what we are paying, although I am sure some clever person will be able to explain, surely it can't all be brexit related? I genuinely worry about my family and friends back 'home' when I read these threads, as I don't see how they will be able to afford this.

Born in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 so remember coal fire, hot water bottles, frosty windows and people knew how to knit 🧶. Lived on porridge, home made soup, stews etc.
We may be comfortable retired now (DH was 1 of 12)but old school still has uses.
Nobody has mentioned water bills. The energy used for water/sewerage will still go up.

Water bills have gone up but only an additional £7 for us per month from April. It's small beans compared to the other rises.

@FourTeaFallOut

I tried using the eco modes on the washing machine and nothing came out as clean. I know other people get on with it but I wonder if it's because we use non bio and not too much of it because of skin problems in the house? I think we need more agitation in the cycle to compensate?

I use the ECO mode on my machine and can't tell the difference results wise. It's worth checking your manual though as the ECO mode is not always the most efficient. It's usually only more efficient than the equivalent standard programme, eg the ECO 40°C cotton programme is more efficient than the standard 40°C cotton programme. On my machine, the quick wash is by far the most efficient (electricity and water) but obviously won't perform as well on stained clothes.

@Theunamedcat

It shouldn't have gone up yet?

May have done if a fixed term has just ended or if they've been moved suppliers after theirs has gone bust.

@WhiteCatmas

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

I'm not a Tory but it seems like all parties are obsessed with "Net Zero", stopping things like fracking for gas when instead we will be importing gas from abroad at huge cost and making our energy security extremely vulnerable. I think Labour and the Lib Dems would double down even more. It doesn't make any sense at all. Why does is seem like the Green party are dictating Tory energy policy?

Kitkat151
She's not currently working p/t. She's doing a science degree with high contact hours and extra study hours expected. I'm hoping she'll be able to pick up 3 months of work during the summer and do some tutoring in Year 2. She has friends who work and still struggle. The maintenance loan does not cover what it used to.

@Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase

The Tory party is doing FA about this and it makes me so cross! £200 loans is NOT a solution to this problem. It’s a sticking plaster and makes me question their motivation.

Of course this will further drive up interest rates further in order to counteract all the massive price increases. I think a lot of families will struggle and ultimately lose their homes. I think there will be a recession as well. People just won’t afford to be able to live!

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.

They need to address the route cause of the problem. Has anyone heard any plans to increase gas storage? Or plans to limit rises like France has done? No. Because they don’t care! 😡 Rishi Sunak is a multi millionaire this won’t affect him or his family!

And you can bet that just like at the petrol pump, once the prices reach a certain amount they will NEVER go back down again.

Unless the public take action and literally take to the streets then nothing will be done and it will be the end modern life as we know it. I feel so sorry for children of this generation. What kind of future do they have? 😢

This isn’t just a Tory party issue though, it’s the result of an incoherent energy strategy since the ‘90s, and the political short term-ism driven by the green agenda.

In 1997 more than a quarter of our power came from nuclear sources, but now it’s nearer 15%. The government then, and since, have shied away from new nuclear power stations. The strategy in France for energy security was heavily focused on nuclear. More than 70% of their power is generate that way, so of course rises in oil / gas prices haven’t lead to massive increases there.

At the same time, North Sea oil and gas has declined in profitability and so output is reduced, and we’ve closed down gas storage. We’ve effectively banned fracking, even though there are plenty of reserves - the US at least has that to supplement supply. Mind you, the US uses more energy to air condition it’s homes than the entire continent of Africa (1 billion people) uses in its entire economy.

And, at the same time, the green agenda has added around 25% to all our bills in the U.K. to subsidise wind and solar.

What a mishmash of un-joined up actions, with no coherent strategy. The current government just has the misfortune to be holding the parcel when the music stopped. Every Government since 1997 is to blame for this mess.

@Cocomarine

Well if there’s one good thing in all this shitshow, it’s people realising that they can wait until clothes are dirty before washing them 🤯

People wash clothes and bedding and towels far far far too often. I have heard many people say they wash all towels and even bedding DAILY. They don’t want to think that their face is touching a part of their towel their bum touched yesterday. Absolute insanity. Bedding gets washed every 2-4 weeks here and towels last at least a week. Clothes (except underwear) don’t get washed unless visibly dirty or actually smelly. Some jumpers are worn 20 times before being washed

Night storage heaters? Do you have a economy 7, economy 10 or other low overnight rate tariff? If not, then that is the best option. FIL uses Octopus Go at present (cheap rate from 00:30 - 04:30) but I think you now have to have an electric car to get that. There are other cheap overnight rates though. Worth investigating.

@LlamaLucy

Also, we could use the microwave more! I know we laugh at the Americans, but the electric kettle is ridiculously inefficient. We could heat water in the microwave, and use it for hot water bottles, and we could use the MW for cooking other stuff too.

My oven and hob are hideously expensive to run - so, I’ll try and cook several days food in the oven at one time, to save me turning it on more than once a week. Then, just use the MW to heat throughout the week.

Many people probably already do this - sorry if I’m stating the obvious!

I'm not sure that's true about boiling water in the microwave vs the kettle, and a Google search suggests a kettle is more efficient.

Mine already went up around December time (we had actually used less electricity in October/November/December as DH got a job which took him back into the office)

It has risen again since the crash and now with it going up in April I simply cannot pay my heating bill anymore. Not going to let my kids starve because the Government can't fucking deal with this shit.

I landed a brilliant job last year and for the first time in my life I could actually save money! All gone thanks to this shit and now I am back to a mediocre standard of living where I choose to feed my kids over being warm. I promised myself I would NEVER EVER be in that position again and now this has forced my hands. I am so fucking angry about it all.

I even budgeted in a decent holiday for us this year and it's only by luck I have one payment left or we would be totally fucked for the month. NOT compromising on that either, the goverment and energy companies can get fucked if I am giving up the one joy i've worked bloody hard for over the year because they all fucked up.

It shouldn't have gone up yet?

Why shouldn't it? Genuine question, but just because the price cap is due to increase doesn't mean prices won't increase before before that

So if it’s gas that’s gone up most in unit price, but hardly at all in the standing charge, priority should be to reduce gas usage. So where I have an electric oil filled gas radiator I’ll be using that to heat a couple of rooms and turn the heating off during the day. And definitely short showers not baths (we don’t have electric shower though). Thanks to @Pinkflaskfor sharing the figures - easier to see where to make the most savings.

As a percentage, gas has gone up more in price but it is still far cheaper per unit than electricity.

Now we are seeing the results of the relentless pursuit of net zero carbon, no matter the literal cost to us. It’s crazy.

Good point @fourteafallout - for some reason I thought the gas bit of my bill was higher, but in fact it’s the electricity. Back to the drawing board.

I’ve just been on the phone to my electric and gas company and it turned out they hadn’t bothered to read the smart meter. So that brought it down a bit! They seem to think there’s 18 people living in my little house, going by their estimates.

Our electric is sky high (got moved to Octopus, calculated we'd need a DD of £129 a month based on previous bills, got a bill of £189! and yes, we submit regular readings) but I'm looking at ways of reducing heating costs anyway. DH is working from home, and sits in the cold so I want to insulate more, and our boiler's just been condemned so we need to keep as warm as we can until that's replaced as we have no heating bar a living room fire, and only an electric shower for hot water.

We've hung a door curtain over the front door to stop draughts, repurposed DH's old shirt as a draught excluder and used draught excluder foam tape around doors. I've also just bought some draught excluder film for the living room / dining rooms windows, effectively to triple glaze them, so DH isn't so cold when he's working. That was £20 for 2 boxes of film, and the foam tape was about the same for 3 big rolls. Our heating is now set at 16 degrees; it used to be 16.5 until we had that last bill. I refuse to go lower than that.

It saddens me that, when I walk into our house after work, it's ok to take your coat off but you never feel "ah, isn't it warm" like I did going home as a child. We couldn't afford 18/19 degree heating.

When the boiler was condemned, I looked at the cost of a heat pump as I wasn't sure whether we could just replace the boiler or whether we had to go with a HP. Heat Pump starting cost £10k and you have to reinstall the hot water tank you got rid of when you fitted a cambi boiler back in the day. New combi boiler - £2k. Didn't take long to make that decision then... No government support to fit heat pumps as yet then.

Having actually done the maths now the gas and electricity increases per winter month are almost identical (up to £80 each a month)