Anyone’s electricity bills not going crazy?

[ThatsNotMyCrown]

I want to start by saying this isn’t a boast post.

I keep seeing everyone saying their electricity bills are sky rocketing to exorbitant levels, but mine haven’t. I don’t have gas, I have oil (which has gone ridiculously expensive) but my monthly electricity bills have barely changed. Everywhere I look it’s in the press that bills are going to be thousands of pounds, people on Facebook are talking about washing clothes in their bathtubs room save on bills. People on here saying they make £60,000 a year but can’t afford the lights on. But is this for everyone? I can’t work out if I’m the odd one out that my electricity bills haven’t gone crazy, or if it’s just that the people who are speaking out are the ones who have the issue and most people don’t and aren’t entering the discussion?
like I said, I’m not boasting, I’m just trying to work out if I need to start panicking about my bills for the future?

I'm on pre-pay. Mine have been estimated to go up from around £750 a year to around £1025 so just over £200 for gas. I have just over £500 on my meter in credit so according to them I have 6 months worth of payments already on my meter. My electric is just over £5 pw extra and I have £90 in credit on there. So adding it all together I'm going from paying £98 pm for split equally between gas and electric (£49) each to just a little over £140 which will still leave me in credit each month. Pre-pay meters aren't the devil some people make them out to be.

Forgot to mention that the £98pm is the amount I pay all year round and what I have been paying for about 3 years now, so the extra £42 pm is ok with me.

@Bytrgrewd could well be!!

@TimBoothseyes yes couldn't agree more.

Yes, British Gas!

I'm in a similar position. Really hoping the prices settle down before my fix ends!

I gave meter readings on 27 August and 30 September and had used £56.68 gas and electricity combined between those dates. Two of us in a two bedroom terrace, we’re careful about things like turning lights off when not in a room, switching plugs off at the wall, use eco laundry cycles etc, but we aren’t stingy. I’m always genuinely baffled what people who say they were spending several hundred a month even before the last price rises are doing with their energy to get to that sort of level.

I don’t have a direct debit, just pay online in the app each month for what we’ve used. Even in Jan and Feb when the heating was on quite a bit we never went above £85 per month, so I’m not anticipating enormous rocketing costs this winter.

Quarterly does mean every 3 mths but there's no rule that you have to Energy bills produced for exact three month periods

Different suppliers do differnt things and the same supplier may not be consistent. You need to forget about the frequency of the bills and look at the average monthly cost each time which for you is consistent over the 6 month period.

Yep. My bill for September was less than my bill for August! Of course it is going to go up, but I built up so much credit over summer, Bulb had to give me £600 back, and now I am £700 in credit again!! Also just got the first £66 credit from the government. Very nice.

Anecdotal story from DH about Martin Lewis, who was recently booed out of a conference for energy consultants for being hysterical and feeding the media frenzy.

If you are on standard variable rate, the increase of 25% won't really have shown up yet as it has only been in place for a couple of days?

If you are on a cheap fix, count your blessings.

After submitting our readings on Friday we were £450 in credit on our dual fuel account, to be expected at the end of summer, we've also decreased our usage by upgrading our tumble dryer to a heat pump one and replacing an 20+ year old fridge freezer where only the freezer part worked to a new economical chest freezer and that's already decreased our usage by about £50 a month (that was a shock!), so we will recoup the cost in less than a year.

Despite this the direct debit manager is suggesting increasing our DD so I think in some cases people are just seeing that and panicking. We aren't increasing as we know our current credit (which will have increased further today as our DD went out) will cover any shortfall over the winter months. We're high users due to disability but cutting back where we can without feeling punished.

Mine hasn't but only because I'm on a fixed tariff until June 2023. My direct debit payment has gone right down due to the £66 a month from the government but I'm putting that away to cover the inevitable increase next winter. I did investigate solar panels but can't fit enough on my roof to make the installation cost worthwhile.

Same as me! Electricity on standard rate and they are predicting £150 extra usage. Gas is about £55 per month and we are more than £200 in credit.

Thank you @AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair, that's very true. The frequency doesn't matter.

Mines gone up by approx £4 -£5 a week
I’m on pre pay so pay weekly last month I was putting on around £20 a week electric now I’m putting on £24-£25

that’s electric
not sure about gas but last year my pre pay gas wash 7700 units and cost me about £450 for the year so I’m expecting to pay around ££700 this year if I use the same amount

Same here, also on oil. Managed to bag 1000l at 77p - this is cheaper than 2014 but not as low as last year (low 40s). Missed the covid 20p dip as I had a full tank from the previous summer couldn't squeeze even 500l min order in. I estimate won't need more till hopefully late Spring 2024 by which time we might have better prices again, but I'll look if we get a heatwave or the £/$ exchange rate improves next summer. Have barely used the oil as the Rayburn has been totally off since March and still not put it back on - we have a 600 series Rayburn, so cook and it does the heating/hotwater all on timers so far more economical than the old fashioned always on sort. We also have solar and have an iBoost, so as soon as we churn more than 0.2kw more than usage on the solar, it heats the hot water for free. I've been cooking electric all summer, and just thinking about reverting as we're still getting enough solar (just!) to cook most days. Luckily, once again our incoming FIT payments will pay for our entire energy use as we are sunny south of England and it's been the sunniest year for us yet!

Over the past 2 or 3 years we've upped the loft insulation, changed all lightbulbs to LED, remembered to turn stuff off, thought about the amount of kettle water, and washing machine/dishwashers only used when the sun shines rather than overnight etc, and I know we've reduced electricity usage by around 10-20%.

Have never fixed, as DH was sure that the standing charge would just be increased to those on fixes to get the costs back if electricity went up - turns out he was wrong as we ALL have to pay for everyone else's too cheap energy.

Am paying on estimates last month and this, as our energy co like to over-estimate usage as well as hold a full quarter plus a month cash in hand, so that's fine, we have used approx 20% less than they estimate but I'd rather pay in advance for actual units at the lower rate if they want to always over estimate as I'm not their lending bank! I will send a meter reading next time to rectify.

I have a smart metre so can see real-time/daily usage. It’s gone up a bit since the 1st but we’re talking less than 50p per day difference like for like to last week.

I am £600 in credit and currently using £140 p/m without heating. I have a DD for £275 and Shell want to increase to well over £300 (plus the govt top up). I can afford it but makes no sense and can see why people are annoyed.

I'm keeping an eye on our usage and am doing what I can to keep the usage down, but at present the huge increase hasn't hit and we've got a big credit to take in to winter.

Our last bill was early August (£285 for 81 days from May) and we're currently carrying a £800 credit.

We were paying £190 a month which used to keep us in credit to the tune of about £150 at the end of the year. They put us up to £220 a few months ago when prices started going up, so I've left it at that.

I'm hoping that being more careful and the extra £30 a month will see us through.

I will keep an eye on it over winter though and if the credit I've built up looks like it's going to be well in excess of what is needed I'll call them and ask for a refund.

I'm still paranoid though and will be watching the smart meter like a hawk!

We're on a fixed rate until January, so ours hasn't gone up.

We will be spending the first part of the winter carefully watching our usage and working out how low we can go with the heating before the house gets damp, and also making a decision as to whether it is worth investing in a second meaco dehumidifier.

We were overpaying on our direct debit (just because we prefer to be in credit and have a cushion) so when our new breakdown of the new bill with the new rates arrived it was the same as what we are currently paying (maybe £5 more per month)

I phoned to query it. Quietly, quietly happy with it.

For clarity, I'm not fixed, and this is for gas and electric. British gas.

Mine have gone up slightly but I don't pay by DD I pay as I go along. I also haven't noticed food prices going up much, yes some things have but so much food is still so cheap. If I see an item that has gone up such as Lurkpak I just get an alternative.

I do thing the media loves a crisis as it sells papers and traffic onto their websites.

when i ogged onto my Shell account this morning it actually advised me LOWERING my DD! I'm leaving it as is because it must be an error surely.

I pay by usage and am also on oil not gas. They've gone up a bit but not by exorbitant amounts. Oil on the other hand is quite expensive. Not looking forward to the next tank fill!

I'm very lucky in that I have a fix on my electricity that runs until May next year. We don't have a gas supply.

So no, this winter will cost the same as last winter (slightly less because we're being very careful), but after May I'm expecting a sharp rise and trying to save a buffer to help with that.

Mine was announced as going up £35pm (gas and electric) but that was before the price cap so I don't see it either. My DD currently roughly reflects what I use so hopefully this will be the same