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Original poster

Energy bills

35 replies

Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:16

Currently stunned by latest fuel bill statement. Paying almost £600 a month for gas and electricity. Just me and the DH at home as we are empty nesters. Admittedly we’re still living in our large family home but we’ve cut down on the central heating usage and bills still horrendous. Interested to know if anyone out there is paying more!

OP posts:
GrazingSheep · 01/12/2022 08:17

Are those bills for actual usage?

DogInATent · 01/12/2022 08:19

As above, there's a big difference between £600 usage and £600 of direct debit payments based on predicted usage.

Are you submitting meter readings? - how does the actual usage compare to the predicted usage?

Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:20

Yes!

OP posts:

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Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:22

Im submitting meter readings every month so god knows how we’re burning through so much gas. Admittedly we’ve got a largish detached house but I’ve switched off radiators and we’re not putting heating on during the day.

OP posts:
Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:24

I suppose I just really need to know if we are the least energy conscious people on the planet, or is this figure in the average range for a modern detached 4 bed home?

OP posts:
Afterfire · 01/12/2022 08:25

There must be some sort of error if you’re not using your heating much - either your meter is wrong or you need your boiler fixing.

We are in a large semi detached house, 3 of us, me always home, heating on 6 hours a day at 19/20 degrees and electric used non stop (tumble dryer, washing machine every day, gadgets etc) and we’re with Octopus and our monthly bill on actual usage is £315 combined.

Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:29

Ok thanks for that. We’re with Eon. I’m going to try and get through to them and give them some gyp, could be spending most of my day on this one but just can’t believe it’s an accurate bill.

OP posts:
Afterfire · 01/12/2022 08:31

It could be - just a thought- that you had a debt on the account and some of the payment being taken is to cover that as well? If you’ve not always given regular meter readings that’s a possibility.

Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:34

We’ve actually got a credit on the account- we pay a monthly DD of 370 and they are taking an additional 269 a month from the current credit balance which was 800 at the end of Sep but now down to 300 😫

OP posts:
Volterra · 01/12/2022 08:45

Yesterday morning when we had used £4 gas in 24 hours that would have surprised me. This morning after £9 in 24 hours on gas I am not so surprised. That’s for our downstairs, we have a separate meter upstairs and 2 electric meters as is 2 flats. I’m trying not to think about it …

Original poster
Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:51

It’s horrific numbers. Currently in a WhatsApp chat with an energy advisor from eon so they may shed some light.

OP posts:
janet0001 · 14/12/2022 12:36

Hi there just coming back to this! We have the same - 4 bed large detached house currently spearmint about 600 pm for gas and electricity- I'm shocked so I put it all into a spreadsheet to work out what is going on!
It seems like our daily kWh for electricity is around 10 which seems average
But our gas over the last few months to mid October has been around 140 kWh - this is with it on very low too and around 6 hours a day!!
Do you know what your daily kWh usage is?
All the best

Fidgety31 · 14/12/2022 12:55

My estimated bill for November was £490 for both gas and electric. My actual readings are higher so I’m not telling them.
This is a 2 bed small mid terrace
but it has an economy 7 meter which is a higher day rate and that is when I use more
landlord won’t allow it to be changed

BMW6 · 14/12/2022 14:41

But what's the point in not telling them the actual readings? The deficit is going to get bigger and bigger and you'll have to submit actual meter readings eventually, then you'll get a HUGE bill

BarbaraofSeville · 14/12/2022 14:58

Cotswoldmum70 · 01/12/2022 08:29

Ok thanks for that. We’re with Eon. I’m going to try and get through to them and give them some gyp, could be spending most of my day on this one but just can’t believe it’s an accurate bill.

But if you've been giving readings it's likely to be what it costs for a month in winter. There are several issues here:

Is the bill accurate?
Is your direct debit reasonable for your annual usage, the monthly cost of which will vary significantly, and could well be £600 pm in winter
Can you afford it/are you getting all the help you're entitled to?
Do you have any scope to cut down, energy efficiency measures?
Might it be time to downsize to a house with more sensible heating bills if you don't want to continue heating an underoccupied family sized home?

No point 'giving Eon gyp' if all they've done is billed you for what you've used and you've been taken by surprise that energy is far more expensive than it was last winter.

NewBootsAndRanty · 14/12/2022 15:00

Fidgety31 · 14/12/2022 12:55

My estimated bill for November was £490 for both gas and electric. My actual readings are higher so I’m not telling them.
This is a 2 bed small mid terrace
but it has an economy 7 meter which is a higher day rate and that is when I use more
landlord won’t allow it to be changed

Can you not just ask your supplier to bill you at single rate rather than e7?

3WildOnes · 14/12/2022 15:14

Based on last years usage and this years prices, I am expecting my bills for Dec Jan and Feb to be £600 each month. Our DD is £250pm and we have a credit of over £1k currently. Our bills were fairly low in the summer, under £100pm but heating our house is expensive.

SeatonCarew · 14/12/2022 15:23

NewBootsAndRanty · 14/12/2022 15:00

Can you not just ask your supplier to bill you at single rate rather than e7?

Show quote history

This is a sensible suggestion, I used to be on a single rate tariff with an E7 meter so it is possible. See what they say.

I love my E7 tariff, but that's because I steer a lot of my usage to the night rate. I bought some serious sized solar generators earlier this year. When there is sun I will generate electricity and when there isn't I load them up overnight with cheap rate electricity and use it during the day. They were a serious investment, but given I was being threatened with energy bills of over £8,500 a year I figured I'd rather spend some money on long term preventative measures than just keep paying up year after year. My day rate is currently around 40.4p and my night rate is 15.88p per kWh. In January the day rate will go up and the night rate down.

Washing machines and dishwashers can be set to come on in the early morning and use off peak, and fridges and freezers will use it during the night anyway. We have put ours on timers so they switch off for a couple of hours before the cheap rate kicks in, then give themselves a boost when it comes on. I also cook early in the morning if I am up, otherwise I use an appliance eg halogen oven, using my Bluetti.

ModeWeasel · 14/12/2022 15:30

OP can you see the actual charges for the most recent month on your bill? Is the £600 coming from an actual bill or the monthly DD Eon are taking or somewhere else?

What is your usage for g and for e according to the bill?
What are the overall charges for g and e for your bill?
Does it indicate an estimated or actual reading - which have they used?

NewBootsAndRanty · 14/12/2022 15:31

Can you compare your usage in kwh for each fuel to this time last year?

welshweasel · 14/12/2022 15:34

Ours was £500 this month. 5 bed house, heating set on 17 degrees.

redsky21 · 14/12/2022 15:50

Definitely don't need new meters. I have e7 meters but not an e7 tariff.

NoelNoNoel · 14/12/2022 16:15

i don’t check monthly usage as it’s obviously going to be sky high this month.
My monthly DD is £300, that’s for a large 10 year old house with four adults, 2 of which WFH and 2 are retired. We have an electric car and I have my heating on all day at 18, 19 in the evening. For the last few days I’ve kept it on at 15 at night to otherwise it struggles to get up to 18 in the day. We have a lot of gadgets, I use the dishwasher twice a day, do about 10 loads of washing a week, maybe use the tumble dryer once a week for sheets.

BohemianBoho · 08/02/2023 22:17

Horrendous that one has to cut down on keeping warm, barbaric and imho criminal what is being allowed to happen, our energy watchdog looks to be in the pockets of the most vile and corrupt people on this earth, you know, the ones that really rule us.

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 08/02/2023 22:19

We were £500 for gas alone in December. I really got a shock.
I just started back at work on January after being off on maternity so now at least we can have the heating off in the day.

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