My heating was on for two hours yesterday…

[AchillesLastStand]

My heating was on for two hours yesterday, on in the morning for an hour and in the evening. We had one bath yesterday which the boiler heats the water for. We shared the same water. I logged onto Bulb to see the energy costs for yesterday, £4.50 for gas, £3.50 for electricity. It’s unsustainable if it goes up again in October. My 8 year old DS is under his bedcovers with his tablet because the heating has had to go off.

About 28p per KWH for electricity AND a daily charge of about 45p
Gas - about 7p per KWH and a daily charge of about 27p

Thank you @cakeorwine

This is extortionate, but I have just converted using the exchange rate, but still 😳

Why is no one talking about the fact that while our bills are going up by 54% (and that’s just til Oct), across mainland Europe bills are rising by around 5%. This is a direct consequence of the privatisation of utility companies by Thatcher in the 80s. I daresay half the Cabinet have shares in these firms and they are getting richer as more people are plunged into food poverty.

Yes energy prices are rising across the globe, but the acuteness of the crisis in the UK is one of our own making. Get angry people - this is all avoidable.

^fuel poverty, not food (though that too, as a consequence)

DH has just come out of hospital, covid/lung infection, an extra throw isn't going to cut it I'm afraid. This is a cold house, the heating will be on all day no matter what it costs. About a third of our income will go on energy bills, can't be helped, we're still better off than many others.

There needs to be price controls (not a price cap) and windfall taxes on energy companies.

It cannot be right that energy and exploration companies make huge (unplanned for) profits whilst many ordinary people struggle, perhaps even die because they cannot heat their homes.

Across Europe the help given to householders and the taxes applied to companies far far out weighs anything our Govt of multimillionaires has done.

Clear divide now between the Tories and Labour on this.

@Ypsilanti

Why is no one talking about the fact that while our bills are going up by 54% (and that’s just til Oct), across mainland Europe bills are rising by around 5%. This is a direct consequence of the privatisation of utility companies by Thatcher in the 80s. I daresay half the Cabinet have shares in these firms and they are getting richer as more people are plunged into food poverty.

Yes energy prices are rising across the globe, but the acuteness of the crisis in the UK is one of our own making. Get angry people - this is all avoidable.

This is my theory. The greedy pigs probably have shares in these companies and stand to personally benefit from these huge price hikes!

We managed to get a fixed rate with Eon last year, it runs till October (!!) - if I put everything on all day it costs about £5/6: that's dishwasher, washing machine, as much heating as we want, shower, all the electrics plugged in all the time. We work from home and DD19 is housebound so everyone here all day every day. 3 bed semi but we don't qualify for the £150 as we are in band E.

So from what people are saying here I assume come October we are in for an almighty shock?

@RewildingAmbridge

I went down to the kitchen at seven this morning, boiled the kettle, the smart meter already showed £1.65 and there wasn't a light or electrical device in in the house, the heating wasn't on, the hot water had been on for half an hour (gas boiler not immersion)

Dont forget your fridge/freezer is on and more and more electronics goto standby rather then switch off, TV's, game consoles etc and if you have one of those Alexa things they are on all the time, and your smart meter itself is using money to power itself and it has a internet connection over the mobile network.

I must remember to turn the router off, and its snowing here right now.

@Ionsion agree we should not let our government off the hook. Other European governments are doing far more for their citizens wrt energy costs including countries that are warmer/drier than the UK.

Forgot to add we pay a fixed £155 a month in DD for gas and electric. Some days we use a lot less than £5/6 a day, but mostly when its chilly we dont.

Im sat here in a cold house as cant afford to put the heating on now, and basically leaving lights off in the evening and using candles only, this is shit .

I’m surprised asa nation that we don’t protest, we just seem to accept these things and complain in private. We don’t even protest at the ballot box and keep voting for more of the same

@Ionsion

We need to be proactive and start taking the government to task on this. They clearly don’t give a shit and are happy to sit back and let people freeze, starve and lose everything. Are there any protests planned?

thought we established that years ago with austerity lie, tories gonna tory.

Yes they are making it’s seem like it’s totally out their hands and not their fault. Not true. It’s just another thing they have no clue how to fix (social care, leveling up, labour shortage etc) they just don’t have and ideas or vision.

I’m not in the Netherlands I’m in Scandinavia. It really is -3, nice and sunny but bloody freezing.

@vickibee

I’m surprised asa nation that we don’t protest, we just seem to accept these things and complain in private. We don’t even protest at the ballot box and keep voting for more of the same

Yes as much as i feel sorry for people who cannot afford heating and or food, this country do vote Tory time and time again, including many very poorer areas.

So only really have themselves to blame.

TBH I think that 1.30 a day for gas was generous. People think nothing about ordering Just Eat meals, spending in Costas etc all the time, beauty treatments etc. However I am a bit 🤨 at a jump to 2.30 a day - but really when I think about it one pound a day for me for heat and hot water when divided with H. It is going to hit people hard though and certain groups moreso along with all the other increases - broadband, council tax, NI and the resultant increases from other things eg diesel on food in supermarkets.Restaurants are losing their tax break too so things will increase there too. It's going to be a tough time.

@RewildingAmbridge

I went down to the kitchen at seven this morning, boiled the kettle, the smart meter already showed £1.65 and there wasn't a light or electrical device in in the house, the heating wasn't on, the hot water had been on for half an hour (gas boiler not immersion)

That includes your daily standing charge. Which has had to go up as the NMW (minimum wage) has had to go up. So all the people who work for the energy company on NMW cost more to pay their wages.

This is not caused by the bloody national minimum wage.

I'm bloody freezing today but the heating is staying off until autumn. I'm sitting under my heated throw and DH has been well warned to buy some cheap joggers for around the house. He likes to swan around in shorts and a t-shirt with the heating on but no more.

A £9.99-a-month gym has opened up locally and I'm genuinely considering joining to access the showers. Exercise has never given me any joy but I'd watch Netflix on the treadmill a few times a week if it meant I could shower and blow dry my hair without imagining my meter spinning like Wheel of Fortune

@reesewithoutaspoon

I don't have the heating on overnight. the only thing running is the fridge and freezer which I use because I batch cook once a month then microwave the meals I eat daily. I have the heating on for an hour only if the house drops below 13 . wear thermal base layers, scarf, fingerless gloves and a hat in the house to keep warm. I boil the kettle once a day and put the water in a thermos for the day. . I have a heated throw. I do laundry 1 wash a week. I can't cut my usage anymore its still £90 a month doing that.. I,m on a fixed pension. My 77 year old mother is beside herself with worry. she is only on a state pension so even worse position.

@reesewithoutaspoon this is the problem. All the posters here going on about how selfish people have become and wasteful, don’t realise or rather don’t care that those at the very bottom will pay a very high price for this while the super rich can continue with their energy rich lifestyles uninterrupted. I’m not as badly off as you thankfully, but like you I do everything I can to save energy and I’m still struggling. My heating was on for an hour this morning, thermostat at 15, now my hands are like blocks of ice. My DS hasn’t emerged from this bed is wearing three layers of clothes. It’s really grim and I’m dreading the winter.

The government have to help people and not just with loans. They have to help people insulate their homes, use less carbon intensive appliances. There are things others countries are doing, building more insulated homes like Germany for example (German homes use a third less heating than us because they are so well insulated) but the government have no interest in doing them until people demand that they do them.

@TinasCrockeryPot

Our issue when it comes to heating is we don’t have radiators that can be turned off so when the heating is on every single radiator is on

You could invest in adjustable thermostats for each radiator - we've done this gradually room by room when decorating, but if you lack the DIY skills I'd imagine a plumber for a day could do it.

It just isn’t acceptable or tenable. My energy bill almost doubled yesterday.

@MrMrsJones

When I was a kid, we only had heating in the lounge.

People have got too comfortable with hot houses

I agree with this to some extent. My teenagers/ young adults think having to put anything more than shorts and a T-shirt on is terrible ! the problem I think with a lot of houses these days is they are a lot of open plan houses. We have quite a large area open plan kitchen/ dining, going round into small lounge area and it's really hard to heat effectively I wish now we had thought more carefully to have one lounge area which could be heated as one room.

@MyNameIsAngelicaSchuyler

The planet has limited resources and we’ve created a world where we take take take without replenishing. No one cares until it hits their pockets.

I know that we are in this position down to ideology (hint: don’t vote Tory) but maybe for once people will be forced to live more simply and less selfishly.

This. It's not all about money and politics. We have one world and we can't just carry on exploiting the planet's resources ad infinitum.

@trackerby

DH has just come out of hospital, covid/lung infection, an extra throw isn't going to cut it I'm afraid. This is a cold house, the heating will be on all day no matter what it costs. About a third of our income will go on energy bills, can't be helped, we're still better off than many others.

It's the long term ill that are the worry isn't it. I know they get extra from disability benefits etc but it isn't going to cut it with the price rises. At the moment we have thousands more pensioners on NHS waiting lists waiting for hip and knee replacements and with poor mobility, we have thousands suffering with covid and long covid and less mobile, we have people whose cancer diagnoses have been missed or going through cancer treatment not to mention all the other long term conditions which mean that people feel the cold so much more easily. There has to be some help coming soon for these people.