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Original poster

Fuck me, my energy bill has doubled to £150 a month!!

126 replies

notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:39

It's doubled.

I can't tell how much of it is the energy prices going up, and how much of it is because I haven't done a meter reading for ages and so maybe I'm paying off debt? I can't tell, it's not at all obvious (I'm with Bulb).

Is this the kind of rise the rest of you are getting on normal bills?

Does anyone know if I can find out from the Bulb website if it includes debt? If it's there I'm missing it.

OP posts:
whenwillthemadnessend · 03/04/2022 22:41

We already pay 220 so this seems cheap to me. Are you in a flat?

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:44

3 bed ex council semi.

OP posts:
DockOTheBay · 03/04/2022 22:44

Its been quite widely advertised that the bills would be increasing considerably from this month.

We were on a fixed rate in September - 10p standing charge, 15p per unit. Its now 43p standing charge and 28.5p per unit. Considerably more.

The main problem i have is that there's nothing we can do about the standing charge. Even if we had the heating turned off and didn't use a single appliance we would have to pay 43p per day.

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Bagelsandbrie · 03/04/2022 22:44

That’s very cheap compared to what a lot of people will now be paying - ours has gone from £170 to £360 (3 bed semi). I would say that’s good if they’ve based it on your usage!

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:45

@whenwillthemadnessend

We already pay 220 so this seems cheap to me. Are you in a flat?
Did your bill double?

£220 is insane!

OP posts:
Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:47

@Bagelsandbrie

That’s very cheap compared to what a lot of people will now be paying - ours has gone from £170 to £360 (3 bed semi). I would say that’s good if they’ve based it on your usage!
I'm not 100% sure they have.

I can see they've based it on my electric reading, that's on the system. But I can't tell if they've based it on the gas reading or not. The bulb site has lots of things about it that are user friendly - e.g. it just let me change my payment day to my payday at the click of a button, couldn't have been easier.

But I can't tell what they're basing this bill on, or whether it includes debt or not.

OP posts:
Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:48

@DockOTheBay

Its been quite widely advertised that the bills would be increasing considerably from this month.

We were on a fixed rate in September - 10p standing charge, 15p per unit. Its now 43p standing charge and 28.5p per unit. Considerably more.

The main problem i have is that there's nothing we can do about the standing charge. Even if we had the heating turned off and didn't use a single appliance we would have to pay 43p per day.

Yes, that's not news to me. I knew they'd increase. But I'm trying to make sense out of the information Bulb has, and I can't.
OP posts:
DockOTheBay · 03/04/2022 22:48

Yeah ours has more or less doubled.

The amount we used from August to October 2021 cost us £72. If we use the same amount on our new rate, it would be around £150

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 22:50

@Bagelsandbrie

That’s very cheap compared to what a lot of people will now be paying - ours has gone from £170 to £360 (3 bed semi). I would say that’s good if they’ve based it on your usage!
£360?!! Wow!

Although, I think my energy usage must be much less than yours as we were only on £77 before.

I'm worried they've not included the gas increase though.

What percentage of yours is gas? Mine's about 50%.

OP posts:
Quartz2208 · 03/04/2022 22:53

I would put in some readings and look into bills

Because yes that is the kind of increase you would expect

What you are paying is fairly low for a 3 bed semi - the figures you are expressing shock at sadly right now arent actually that surprising

Invisimamma · 03/04/2022 22:54

Ours has gone from £91 to £186. Also small 3 bed semi so £150 sounds not too bad.

Everyone's prices have gone through the roof.

RaininSummer · 03/04/2022 22:56

I'm with bulb. Sent my meter readings in a couple of days ago and they have now said I need to increase to 151 pounds a month from 80 so yep, practically double.

millytint44 · 03/04/2022 22:58

My d/d was £85 and now they want £242!!!

whenwillthemadnessend · 03/04/2022 22:58

No it's a four bed detached Victorian so it will be 220. I'm with a British gas duel fuel have a new boiler and a* rated windows and doors

Noclosure · 03/04/2022 22:58

I was already paying £150 pcm direct debit and it is just me and DC in a flat. So you may be in debt as doesn't sound like your previous direct debit would have covered usage for a family home

jelly79 · 03/04/2022 23:01

I'm with bulb and had smart meter fitted so I had a recalculation from estimated reads. I've gone from £125 to £180

Should be an extra 50% now and a further 25% in oct

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 23:04

I think we have relatively low electric usage. We don't have a dishwaher or tumble dryer.

OP posts:
Blimeyherewegoagain · 03/04/2022 23:05

4 bedroom bungalow with oil heating. We’ve been told our electric is going up from 100 to 128. We were already on standard rate rather than a cheap fix and I put in a reading every month so we didn’t have any arrears.
The oil ? Now that’s a different story. We filled up just before the prices went crazy. The next one’s going to be brutal.

TheBigDilemma · 03/04/2022 23:06

I think you are lucky if it just doubled. I’m surprised you have not seen this coming, it is plastered all around the news since months ago.

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 23:08

Oh, hang on a minute, this bill is starting to make more sense to me. The reason I can't see if they've updated the gas bill is that I can see the reading I sent was a fair bit lower than the estimate they've been using, for gas.

So, I think maybe I've overpaid for gas but underpaid for electric. And maybe that £150 is for electric ONLY plus any debt.

Perhaps I'm kidding myself about being low use on the electric then!

Fucking hell. £150 on electric only is huge!

I wonder how much gas credit I've built up, will have to call them to make sense of this I think.

OP posts:
Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 23:09

@TheBigDilemma

I think you are lucky if it just doubled. I’m surprised you have not seen this coming, it is plastered all around the news since months ago.
As I said upthread, yes I knew this was coming. That's not what this thread is about.
OP posts:
Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 23:10

@Blimeyherewegoagain

4 bedroom bungalow with oil heating. We’ve been told our electric is going up from 100 to 128. We were already on standard rate rather than a cheap fix and I put in a reading every month so we didn’t have any arrears. The oil ? Now that’s a different story. We filled up just before the prices went crazy. The next one’s going to be brutal.
What will you do?

If I had any money to spare I'd be getting solar panels.

OP posts:
Kite22 · 03/04/2022 23:11

That seems like a wonderfully low amount to me

My company (Octopus, having taken over from one of the defunct ones in Sept) have suggested a new direct debit, which I worked out was 350% of the old one.
100% increase seem very nice in comparison.

Shuuu · 03/04/2022 23:12

Ours was £90 I was paying too little so it went to £160 now it’s £280. I’m not paying it. Take the £160 and I’ll deal with the rest when I can. I’ve given up

Original poster
notwhatineednow · 03/04/2022 23:13

@notwhatineednow

Oh, hang on a minute, this bill is starting to make more sense to me. The reason I can't see if they've updated the gas bill is that I can see the reading I sent was a fair bit lower than the estimate they've been using, for gas.

So, I think maybe I've overpaid for gas but underpaid for electric. And maybe that £150 is for electric ONLY plus any debt.

Perhaps I'm kidding myself about being low use on the electric then!

Fucking hell. £150 on electric only is huge!

I wonder how much gas credit I've built up, will have to call them to make sense of this I think.

Oh no, that's not right. Ignore this!

Goodness, Bulb's website is hard to understand. There's no explanation of their decisions.

So, despite my reading for gas being very below what they've estimated, they're still charging me 50% of the bill (approx) for a gas estimate.

I'm confused. Confused

OP posts: