£854 per month gas and electricity

[vinoandbrie]

My fixed rate comes to an end on 31 May.

Scottish Power emailed me this morning to say your tariff is ending, click here to view options.

I have two options, one for £853.99pcm, the other for £854pcm. I’m going to attach screen shots as this amount is so unbelievable otherwise. We currently pay £285pcm.

I should just go to a default tariff right and not a fixed rate?

Gas and electricity will now be costing us more than our mortgage.

OP you will be better off on the variable rate but it is still going to cost you a hell of a lot if you don't do something to bring down your consumption. You house must be huge.

I can’t break my usage from last year down, but I think I used about 50% of your total- including the time we all worked at home and all 3 of us were doing live lessons for 6 hours a day plus online working and marking. We have a 4 bed detached, so not tiny.
Can they review your usage- check it is accurate? It’s almost as though you are running another house on top!

The house is really quite big yes.

Hi there,
We are also with SP and have a fixed tariff coming to an end in Dec 22. They have offered me a new fix after this at £568 per month. I have worked out the increase based on our last 12 months usage and it is DOUBLE what we would pay on the variable rate, which works out at a 53% increase. I would therefore not fix and just stick with the variable rate.

At that usage, your bills shouldn't be more than £6k a year on current standard variable prices.

We use 9k electric and 20k gas units and pay £370 a month.

Do you have your heating and hot water on all the time? >36000 kwh is an insane amount of gas. How big is your house?

>9000 kwh of electricity is also extremely high (mine is over 5000 kwh and I would regard us as high users)

I have always paid £65/70 a month for both.

During the LD it was going up a bit and I was paying £85.

For some reason in January when I switched from sse to OVO (this was just done as I'm sse) I went into debit £91 and I'm paying £120 atm.

I'm using about £85.

They've offered me to switch to a fixed rate deal for £178 a month for the cheapest deal

I think they are trying to capitalise on the fact everyone is told to fix.

I live in a not small house. Single glazed, high ceilings. I’m only at £280 a month now.

honestly I’m gob smacked! What the heck are you doing?

Not worth fixing atm. We pay £250 a month for gas and electric. Though currently £550 in credit and were offered £600.

We don't have a big house but its poorly insulated and there are 6 of us.

Do you have a gas hob? Our gas usage is the same as OP's, bog standard 3 bed semi, wfh a lot but heating not on all day. Two daughters so more baths and showers for one of them so not quite sure what we'd cut out without banning washing 😀

I suspect OP's house is 8 bed+ and 7,000 square feet with radiators on in each room to use that amount of gas! Not exactly comparable to most - even by MN standards!

@SwedishEdith

We have a gas hob yes and heating/hw on a lot and still only 12,000 kWh a year. How is your usage so much?

Sounds like you live in a stately home.

We do not have the radiators on all the time by any means. The hot water is on every day 4-5pm only, and then if we run out I put it on again later for an hour (we all bath or shower in the evening).

We do have a gas hob and I cook quite a bit.

It’s not a stately home!!!!

Our usage is high, although not as high as yours. We’ve just gone from £205 per month to £340 (fixed rate).
Don’t fix, and have some smart meters installed. There will be lots of ways to get your usage down.

The normal increase has been repeatedly stated to be about a 60%increase.
I too have a big old house with high bills even though we live in the cold a lot if the time and are wrapped in blankets and fleeces. We certainly don't even heat all if our rooms.
Our energy bill has gone to £550 from about £429. That figure went up from £209 two years ago. If you are on a fixed tarrif its possible that the gradual increases havent been allowed for so the company are essentially paying catch up on your charges at the moment (thats certainly the case for a friend of mine).
Definitely query it and provide your actual meter readings. With high bills we dont fix our tariff, it would cost us more.

Just checked and and it's 16,276 for gas kwh for gas - so within reason, I suppose but may estimated charge is 1294 so similar to OP's for gas 🤔And we have 2 rooms with no radiators at all other story.

For electricity, it's 4,064 kwh and estimated annual charge of 1292.

All EOn and have always been on variable rates, never fixed.

That's extremely high usage for both. We are a high electricity user at 7k a year and that's mainly as we have an air conditioning unit that's on a lot during summer and that uses loads of electricity. Without that we are nearer 4K for electricity and 16K for gas with gas heating and hob.

Do you have anything like that running?

I was going to ask if you have a gas hob. Make sure you are using it efficiently. Good batches maybe? And one the water is boiling you don't need as much flame to keep it boiling.

And lids on the saucepans etc

According to this a high user would be regarded as using 17000kwh of gas. Yours is more than double that so I'd say there's some sort of issue with your meter or the way you are using your heating

Challenge the direct debit, and don’t fix - with the price increases, unless I’m missing something it should be nearer £5-600 per month, not £800!

Last year we used 31000kwh gas and 5700kwh electricity so less than you especially for electricity but similarish ballpark. We’re paying around £400 pcm on standard variable rate since the April price rises if this helps set your expectations. Ofgen says a 5 bedroom house with 4-5 residents would use 17000 kWh gas so like you I recognise there’s good scope for reduction and thinking about this primarily to reduce carbon footprint. Also have big old house but we are too profligate - have basically had the heating on all day every day through the colder months of the pandemic. This still costs less than the commute and park used to but not good to realise we a disproportionate contributor to climate change.

Is it one of those immersion heaters? They use loads.