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Original poster

Regretting getting a smart meter already...

134 replies

CinnamonSwirl82 · 10/12/2022 20:36

Has gas and electric really gone up this much? ☹️ Just moved house and got a smart meter installed, lost my fixed tariff as I couldn't bring it with me and nowhere offers fixed anymore.

We've been out most of the day, no heating on and all plugs are switched off bar the fridge freezer, oven, sky box and router. Currently it's sat at £10.30. Bloke had to install new meters as our old ones were prehistoric.

£300+ a month for barely using any gas or electric? Is this right and has it really gone up this much?! I only used to pay £100 a month and I'd not be minimising any of my useage. I'm hoping it's faulty meters because I'm never gonna be able to afford to put heating on and I'm on a pretty good salary!

I hate this smart meter already.

OP posts:
cakeorwine · 11/12/2022 08:10

PyongyangKipperbang · 10/12/2022 23:41

I had to go on prepayment smart meter as was in a lot of fuel debt. When the guys came to put it in it was late summer and I was watching it with nothing charging and just fridge on....I said "Are you sure this is a smart meter and not a fucking stopwatch?!" I didnt mean to swear, it just came out and the guy looked genuinely down and said "Everyone says that, I am paying my own bills by doing overtime doing this".

It was a sobering moment. But yes, smartmeter obsession is a thing, to keep that little green light on and avoid the red light of death is probably more important to me now than anything else.

The red zone is fine as long as it's not in there for a long time
OTOH, the green zone can be costly if it's too long at a certain level.

I think the zones are a bit deceptive - on my display, 1000 watts is green - but that's 1 kWh if it's in the green for an hour.

10,000 watts is red. But again, if used for 6 minutes, that's the same as 1000 watts running for 1 hour

I am not sure of a better way to do it. But the green zone can 'add up'

Ginmonkeyagain · 11/12/2022 08:12

Thing is - you seem to be using a lot of gas for someone who hasn't had the heating on!

We are in the default price cap tariff - yesterday we spent £5.30 on gas and electricty combined. We had the heating on for 6 hours, did one wash, ran a dehumidifier all day, had a shower each (two of us) and I used the gas hob for about two and a half hours to do some batch cooking. Obviously in addition the was tne normal lower level electricity consumption - lights, fridge TV, charging devices.

BarbaraofSeville · 11/12/2022 08:12

OP, your gas is heating something, you need to work out what it is. We've used a similar amount to you, and have the same display thingy. Our heating has been on around 6/7 hours a day for the last few days (we have a Hive system that shows when the boiler is actually running).

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Cost of living
Ginmonkeyagain · 11/12/2022 08:14

We have that display and it also glows orange when there is high consumption.

BarbaraofSeville · 11/12/2022 08:14

And yes, it 'has gone up this much'.

Your old fix was probably around 15 p for electricity and 3 or 4 p for gas.

Now it's 35 p for electricity (if you're paying 40p+ then check you're not on Economy 7, which is only worth it if you have storage heaters or have an electric car) and 10 p for gas, so well over double, especially as the standing charges have also gone up.

FourTeaFallOut · 11/12/2022 08:20

cakeorwine · 11/12/2022 07:59

The price of gas was 4p per kWh this time last year. Assuming you weren't on a deal.

Now it's 10p per kWh.

So 2.5 times more.

That's the reality.

These cold winter days are going to be horribly expensive for people. I suppose the thing to do is to look at the bigger picture and look at your usage last year and predict what your bills will be.

The expensive winter bills are counterbalanced by cheaper summer bills with lower gas usage

And that was just if you were lumped with the svr. This time last year I was running at 2.2p/kWh of gas and 16p/kWh electricity. Don't think we'll see that again.

cakeorwine · 11/12/2022 08:24

FourTeaFallOut · 11/12/2022 08:20

And that was just if you were lumped with the svr. This time last year I was running at 2.2p/kWh of gas and 16p/kWh electricity. Don't think we'll see that again.

Show quote history

Yes - my lovely deal collapsed with Pure Planet.

I think a lot of people who get monthly or quarterly bills are in for a shock when they get their bills soon.
And people on prepayment meters can see what it's costing.

At least Smart Meters make you aware. I think people who pay by direct debit and who enter their meter readings are going to see what people with Smart Meters already know

autumnboys · 11/12/2022 10:10

CinnamonSwirl82 · 10/12/2022 21:18

@cakeorwine thank you! Will have a look when I go upstairs.

It's a combi - 12 years old Baxi. We're thinking of getting it replaced next summer if a newer one will be more efficient.

Will also check if water is set to preheat... I don't think it is as it takes a few mins to come through as hot but will definitely check! Anything to bring the damn bill down

We heat our water with gas and and it’s in the hot water tank, still takes a bit of time to run hot through the taps. I think your hot water might be on a timer.

Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 11:36

Yabado · 10/12/2022 22:59

What tarriff are you on
is it economy 7 which is always a higher rate in the day time and should be less at night

if the house was on E7 when you moved in
it may be that the meters hasn’t swopped to the SVR of around 32 pence per kwh

i had this in Sept with EDF
I had a smart meter installed &
swopped to the SVR of 32.9 from the 2 rate E7
but my smart meter couldn’t accept the SVR so I was stuck on a single E7 rate of 45.9 when the unit rates went up on Oct 1

even though I had gas for about 5 years I was still on a E7 tarriff as I didn’t think to switch to a SIngle SVR rate

it took me 3 weeks of ringing EDf to get them to understand what was happening and it wasn’t until I made a formal complaint that they eventually 2 months later sorted it out

They did refund me the difference and gave me £50 credit as well

This actually might be it. I checked our tariff prices and they're above the government guarantee by about 10p per unit.

I'll speak with octopus and see what the deal is....

OP posts:
Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 11:38

chickencuddles · 10/12/2022 23:17

This is my smart meter at the end of today. I can't believe it. I'm not even warm, we got the house up to 14 degrees. It's a fairly big Victorian house, but last winter we were paying about £400 a month and were toasty warm. We've let it get so cold now that it just doesn't seem to warm back up, but I can't afford £40 a day, it's madness! We only warmed the house up today as we had guests for dinner. Sympathies to everyone who is an obsessive smart meter tracker.

Oh my god! 😔😱

OP posts:
ssd · 11/12/2022 11:46

Its truly terrifying the prices now. We paid £120 DD for ages. Its looking around £320 now. That spare £200 was wiggle room money. Now its gone. This is no way to live.

TERRRYsnotmine · 11/12/2022 11:58

@ssd I've been saying the same it's nice way to live. I bet those on quatrly bills will have such a shock!

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 11/12/2022 12:05

@CinnamonSwirl82 you might find Octopus have the high rate but then reduce it. We technically pay something like 50p per kWh but then get a reduction which is 15p per kWh that means we pay 35p per kWh. And then the govt £67 gets deducted.

Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:06

I wonder if they'll ever go down or if this is the new norm. Gas & electric is becoming a second mortgage

OP posts:
Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:10

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 11/12/2022 12:05

@CinnamonSwirl82 you might find Octopus have the high rate but then reduce it. We technically pay something like 50p per kWh but then get a reduction which is 15p per kWh that means we pay 35p per kWh. And then the govt £67 gets deducted.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate is that because you fixed at a rate higher than the cap so get a 17p reduction?

We were going to refix but was told it would be 64p p/kWh, which even with the 17p reduction was still astronomical. So we went to the standard tariff and it was 31p p/kWh (or whatever the gov cap is). Since we moved though they've put it up even though we apparently brought our tariff with us!

I've emailed them and they're asking if it's just what the display shows so maybe they think it's high too.

Or maybe the pets were having raves when we were out yesterday 🤣

OP posts:
IneedanewTV · 11/12/2022 12:12

My gas and electricity is around £10 a day without tumble dryer and heating for 5 hrs max. Today I’m having the central heating on all day as it is ffffing freezing in my house. So if it’s £20 * 30 days that is £600!!!!!! A Month. Yes I know that it will come down on the summer but £600 a month. I was paying £80 a month a few years ago, same house, same behaviours etc. It is a disgrace. Do MPs get their heating bills paid on both homes? I will be protesting in London soon just to keep warm!

IneedanewTV · 11/12/2022 12:13

CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:06

I wonder if they'll ever go down or if this is the new norm. Gas & electric is becoming a second mortgage

double my mortgage.

Lcb123 · 11/12/2022 12:15

That’s definitely wrong - we’ve moved out of flat and popped back yesterday; and the meter said about £1 a day - standing charges plus the fridge freezer is running

FourTeaFallOut · 11/12/2022 12:16

CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:06

I wonder if they'll ever go down or if this is the new norm. Gas & electric is becoming a second mortgage

For now although I think the mortgage might redress the ratio when we fall off our 1.5% interest rate next year. 😬

Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:20

@FourTeaFallOut oh god 😬 I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that rates start dropping again or that's going to be one nasty increase!

We were 'lucky' to get our new mortgage offer on this place just before they started to increase but kicking myself for only fixing at 2 years 🤦‍♀️

OP posts:
Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:23

IneedanewTV · 11/12/2022 12:12

My gas and electricity is around £10 a day without tumble dryer and heating for 5 hrs max. Today I’m having the central heating on all day as it is ffffing freezing in my house. So if it’s £20 * 30 days that is £600!!!!!! A Month. Yes I know that it will come down on the summer but £600 a month. I was paying £80 a month a few years ago, same house, same behaviours etc. It is a disgrace. Do MPs get their heating bills paid on both homes? I will be protesting in London soon just to keep warm!

Will it come down in the summer though? Don't forget the price cap finishes in March/April and increases to around £3000 so we'll all end up paying even more!

I know there won't be heating to pay for but what's to say electric isn't going to skyrocket as soon as the cap changes 😭

OP posts:
PastMyBestBeforeDate · 11/12/2022 12:24

@CinnamonSwirl82 no we haven't fixed at all. I don't know why the reduction is there!

crazy4cats · 11/12/2022 12:58

CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 12:06

I wonder if they'll ever go down or if this is the new norm. Gas & electric is becoming a second mortgage

I think this is the new norm. the increases would be manageable if wages also increased but for most of us they aren't, or not by very much. I think it's best case scenario is that next year is the peak and they stop increasing thereafter and hopefully wages can catch up a bit (if everything else stops going up too....)

Original poster
CinnamonSwirl82 · 11/12/2022 13:16

@PastMyBestBeforeDate I might be understanding it wrong but I thought that prices were capped at 31p/10p electric/gas, however, if you've signed up to a fixed rate that's above those caps then you get a 17p reduction per kWh.

That's how Martin Lewis described it, so I understood. Might be worth checking that you're being charged correctly...

@crazy4cats we're all going to be needing significant wage boosts if we're to keep up with these prices! An extra £300 on my wages each month would need a good 15% pay rise, which I doubt I'd get 😅 never mind paying the whole country an extra 15-20+%

OP posts:
Notanotherwindow · 11/12/2022 13:24

There's got to be an immersion switched on to use that much gas.

Most old houses have them but not all will be connected and functioning. I think ours still works but it costs so much to run, we've never tried it.