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Original poster

Holy moly my smart meter has hit 10 pounds

179 replies

Eyedropeyeflop · 03/04/2022 21:36

I’ve never seen my smart meter hit 10 pounds in one day.

We are a family of 5 in a standard 3 bed house. The heating has been on today from 3-7pm (and not on full).

Couple of showers, 1 bath. I cooked sausages in the oven, veg on the hob. Nothing too extravagent.

Few cups of tea.

Looking forward we will cope, but we will not have hardly any surplus.

Anyone else want to share their smart meter readings today?

OP posts:
Bedsheets4knickers · 04/04/2022 12:37

@EatSleepRantRepeat

We're not doing too bad at the moment, we tend to only have one lamp on downstairs in the evenings and only have 1 TV, which stays switched off unless we're planning to watch something specific (maybe an hour a day at most). I've got timers on the plugs I use for my phone chargers etc because I tend to use them overnight, so it turns them off after two hours & avoids overcharging them. Working from home puts the power bills up because of running 2 monitors, but I make sure I only plug in my laptop when it needs charging instead of all the time.

Tbh most of our changes had been done already for environmental reasons - low energy use, small home, small car. Greta and XR are getting their way, just not how we thought it would happen and all at once.

Sorry to say but that sounds truly miserable
WhatATimeToBeAlive · 04/04/2022 12:40

Funnily enough, I got up at 7.15am this morning. Heating had been on for 10 mins, I had a 2 minute shower and boiled water for one cup of tea and it was already over £1 at7.30am!

BonnyandPoppy · 04/04/2022 12:43

£12.78 yesterday! Never seen it that high before. We did a couple of loads of washing and I made a cottage pie so used hob and oven.

uncomfortablydumb53 · 04/04/2022 12:45

Live alone in a tiny flat
Today did one load of washing, Tv and a few coffees 73p electric so far
Gas 62
Standing charge has doubled

Hyperion100 · 04/04/2022 13:02

Honestly....pennies but makes me feel a bit better

SmellyOldOwls · 04/04/2022 13:20

Oh how my friends laughed at me for getting a 14.5 tog duvet a couple of years ago, I feel vindicated now I'm toasty warm for at least 8 hours a day!

Seriously though this situation is ridiculous. I bought a pre roasted chicken today in Tesco because it was only 85p dearer than a raw one and I thought we'll I'm going to use that putting the oven on anyway.

Ariela · 04/04/2022 13:26

Unfortunately ours is mostly washing machine and hoover. Not sure how much we can do without those!

I never use the washing machine without it being a full load, and using the economy programme.
Hoovering, as I'm currently battling clothes moths with parasitic wasps, I'm not supposed to hoover till 7-10 days after placing the cards with the wasp eggs. Obviously I sweep with a broom the hall and kitchen (hard floors), and dust the surfaces every now and then but tbh given we're all out most of the day every day, the dog is now older and runs about the house less it seems I can get away with hoovering less than I thought.... I may switch to a rechargable battery hoover.

EatSleepRantRepeat · 04/04/2022 13:29

Sorry to say but that sounds truly miserable

Why's that @Bedsheets4knickers? It's cosy, it's warm because it's a small mews house with others either side, and we prefer to read and craft. Plenty of people dont even own a TV because they have other interests. I don't know how most TV shown these days is supposed to improve my life?

We're really quite happy with our lot; we could afford more if we needed to but we're aiming for an early comfortable retirement. We also have a much smaller carbon footprint than most families, we're already only using 60% of the target that the WWF are pushing people to aim for. That's less chance of your kids having wars over water & essential commodities in the 2050s too.

LemonMuffins · 04/04/2022 13:51

We live in a rental with a 10ish year old air source heat pump. The bills have always been astronomical - I thought they were meant to be more efficient...

According to the pump people, we should always leave the hot water on and same for the heating when we're using it. The downstairs is all underfloor heating and takes 12ish hours to warm up from cold so we can't just flick the heating on for an hour or two. The only gas we have in the house is the hob. Aside from not using the dryer, there isn't really much we can do to cut back when it's cold. Heating will go off once we've seen the last cold day. I had hoped for the end of March...

Can't wait to move house.

LesLavandes · 04/04/2022 13:54

My ASHP is terribly expensive to run. I have been told the same as you - keep it on all the time. But Doing that, my bills have always been astronomical- my whole house is underfloor heating. I have turned the heating off and am freezing today

TerraNovaTwo · 04/04/2022 14:08

@SmellyOldOwls

Oh how my friends laughed at me for getting a 14.5 tog duvet a couple of years ago, I feel vindicated now I'm toasty warm for at least 8 hours a day!

Seriously though this situation is ridiculous. I bought a pre roasted chicken today in Tesco because it was only 85p dearer than a raw one and I thought we'll I'm going to use that putting the oven on anyway.

How do you manage to wash such a large duvet?
LowlandLucky · 04/04/2022 14:23

OP how many TV's, and game consoles have been on, what about internet, tablet and phone charging. Do you have a fridge freezer ? Everyone forgets about these. They all add up so much so my DS now charges his phone and tablet on the bus on the way home from work at night and before he leaves work he fills a Thermos flask with hot water to save money.

fussychica · 04/04/2022 15:15

No smart meter here, due to pipework issues apparently, but just worked out our usage for last 5 days since DH took readings. So far it's £11 electric and £17.63 for gas including standing charge. So average £5.75 per day at the new rate.

Live in a well insulated 2 bed detached bungalow in South West so ridiculously high standing charge compared to London and many other parts of the country but no one seems to know why! Our electric standing charge virtually doubled overnightAngry.
Just the two of us, at home all day. Due to how cold it's been over the last few days the heating has probably been on more than usual for this time of year.
Multiple kettle boiling, showers at 30p a pop, lots of oven cooking, dishwasher every other day and a couple of loads of washing. Don't tumble dry ever, though I have a little one for emergency use.
Hell and handcarts spring to mind!

TimBoothseyes · 04/04/2022 16:11

I'm on prepay so am able to see how much I've spent, without needing a smart meter. I topped up both the gas and electric on Friday. There are 2 of us in a small bungalow. I have just looked at the total on both...We cook with electric and have gas central heating. Oh and I did 2 loads of washing on Saturday. How on Earth are people getting to £10+ a day?

TimBoothseyes · 04/04/2022 16:14

Sorry I forgot to put how much we had spent since Friday it's £13 combined gas and eelectric.

TimBoothseyes · 04/04/2022 16:14

*electric

Original poster
Eyedropeyeflop · 04/04/2022 16:20

@LowlandLucky

Oh they were all on (console mad sons etc).

I will cut down to a degree but not prepared to live too frugally (as we don’t have much luxury but I’m not a nice person if I’m cold….or hungry for that matter).

I’ll have to up my hours. Sigh.

OP posts:
Paddingtonthebear · 04/04/2022 16:27

What’s the difference cost wise between shower and bath?

deadlanguage · 04/04/2022 16:46

@Paddingtonthebear depends on how long you are in the shower, whether it’s an electric shower, the shower flow rate and bath volume but on average I think a shower is about half the cost of a bath. You can cut the cost of showering further by getting one of those water saving shower heads as well.

JenniferWooley · 04/04/2022 16:56

No idea what the spikes in electricity usage are considering I was away overnight & switched everything but the fridge & sky box off at the wall.

Our usage has been around £75/80 a month for the last couple of months & thankfully I'm on a fixed rate until December but dreading when that ends.

I have a smart meter but live in a first floor flat & the signal was rubbish so I got rid of it & just use the app.

Holy moly my smart meter has hit 10 pounds
DinosApple · 04/04/2022 17:19

I boiled a half kettle this morning and had two cups of tea and put some in a thermos.

It just saves reboiling it again and again through the day. If I was really flipping on it, I'd get up and boil it at 5.55am as were on economy 7 so get a cheaper rate during the night (mostly completely useless!)

Bytrgrewd · 04/04/2022 17:25

PAYG - used £7.37 in 24hrs. Family of four. That doesn’t include heating or hot water!

Bytrgrewd · 04/04/2022 17:34

And heating is easily another £7 in really cold weather. We don’t have a warm house either. Someone mentioned it being April. We’ve had snow recently and sun zero temperatures. More snow forecast tonight.

Busy77 · 04/04/2022 18:13

I'm with eon next and I don't think they have adjusted the pricing since April 1st and we are on a variable tariff. Has anyone else had the same issue?

Busy77 · 04/04/2022 18:13

Sorry I meant on my smart meter