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Original poster

Smart meter reading shock

121 replies

Parkingt111 · 16/12/2022 22:03

We have moved to a new house two months ago and until now we're on a Direct debit with British gas of around a £100 a month. Finally switched on the smart meter and this is what it shows. Is this normal?? It seems incredibly high. We live on a 4 bed semi detached and have the thermostat set to 18 degrees. Today's daily usage is showing £12.50 for gas and electric which means on average the monthly bill will be £375? Is this how much most people are paying?

OP posts:
MeJane · 17/12/2022 08:47

RambamThankyouMam · 17/12/2022 06:36

This is why I was always suspicious of smart meters. Unplug it and throw it away! I felt a bit tin-hatty being worried about them, but it turns out I was right.

I've read this about eight times now and I still don't understand what you mean.

user2859453 · 17/12/2022 08:50

I would probably up your direct debit a bit as BG only bill twice a year, it will say you are overpaying but just ignore that, it will be a lot lower in Summer so allow for that. When is your bill due as you will have a better idea then. BG aren't the best for seeing how you are doing as you go along. About £200 a month is about what the 'average' household should be paying for the price cap amount, it doesn't sound like you will be a large amount lower than that

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

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Cost of living
C1N1C · 17/12/2022 08:58

Do the calculations and get a few smart plugs... they can be the cheapy clicky sorts or the fancy Alexa ones. Set them to be on from 6-9 or whatever and you'll instantly save a third or so of your bill for all those things draining power during the night on standby.

It's well worth it, if not a bit annoying when you're doing something at those times and it switches off!

user2859453 · 17/12/2022 09:02

OP, check on the website or app and you can adjust your own direct debit without ringing them, if you can afford it put it at £200 for now, you can adjust your DD each month if you want. BG are notorious for long phone wait times and will be particularly bad at the moment as they will also be dealing with boiler breakdowns.

userxx · 17/12/2022 09:07

I checked my usage for 31st December last year and it came to £2.23 for gas and electricity. It depressed me, don't do it.

Cassillero · 17/12/2022 09:08

You won't be paying 375 every month though. My summer bills are tiny so we build up a massive credit for winter, which is needed as December to February my predictions are 500-600 per month. I'm not trying to make out It's good value though, because it certainly is not, but at least the 235 pm direct debit seems to be covering usage. For now anyway.

userxx · 17/12/2022 09:10

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

No, it's really not. Everyone lives in different houses, I'd be melting at your temperature, it would make me ill.

cakeorwine · 17/12/2022 09:14

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

Do you know what this is costing you over the last few weeks?

cakeorwine · 17/12/2022 09:16

C1N1C · 17/12/2022 08:58

Do the calculations and get a few smart plugs... they can be the cheapy clicky sorts or the fancy Alexa ones. Set them to be on from 6-9 or whatever and you'll instantly save a third or so of your bill for all those things draining power during the night on standby.

It's well worth it, if not a bit annoying when you're doing something at those times and it switches off!

Which things are you turning off with your Smarr plug?

JustCakeInDrag · 17/12/2022 09:17

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

How can you not grasp how many people simply do not have a spare £70 lying around every week?

OxanaVorontsova · 17/12/2022 09:18

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

Our house is far too warm at 19, I’ve just turned it down to 17

cakeorwine · 17/12/2022 09:20

I think that this week will be a surprise to some people when they see the effect on their bills - and their Direct Debit might well change.

I hope it's not as cold over the next few months.

Mamamia7962 · 17/12/2022 09:26

Not everyone will be using the same amount of fuel as you OP. My energy bill for November was £195 minus the £66 help from the government made it £135. This month because it's been very cold will be more, but we are in credit from the summer months so I'm not worried. Next week temperatures are supposed to be 10 degrees warmer where I am so won't need the heating on so much. We live in a 3 bed semi and are not cold at all.

I would recommend for people to get the app from their energy company. I am with Scottish power and it shows on a graph how much gas/electric I use each month, whether that's high/low compared to other households, it tells me if my DD debit amount is too much/too little, and I can take meter readings every month which is a lot easier.

Unifolorn · 17/12/2022 09:27

I mean have you missed everything in the news about the price of fuel? Did you think people were just being dramatic or something?

BordoisAgain · 17/12/2022 09:32

Its reassuring, in a perverse way, that our £20ish a day spend isn't too far out of the norm, but it is still stressful knowing the bill that is looming. We built up £700 credit and it will be gone in the next month or 2

BordoisAgain · 17/12/2022 09:34

We're with Scottish Power and our smart meter still hasn't updated to show the correct tariff since the October rise so its pretty useless tbh

C1N1C · 17/12/2022 09:34

@cakeorwine

Well we work from home so one plug has a laptop, an akexa device, a printer and a monitor... easy one to turn off. Another hehind the tv... virgin WiFi hub, TV, media hub, another alexa, a few smart light hubs... don't need any of them overnight!

You could spend a tenner and buy one of those energy monitoring plugs. Plug that in to every plug for a few minutes and work out, when on standby, how much each gadget or multiplug is using. Using that, multiply up and work out whether buying a timed plug is worth it... they invariably are, a tv on standby costs an extra £25 a year... doesn't sound much but multiply that by 10 gadgets, and the cost of £20 or so on a few timed plugs is well worth it.

User963 · 17/12/2022 09:38

It will average out though. We have our heating on all day at 18.5. Don’t have a smart meter so not sure how much it’s costing us but in the summer months we didn’t spend more than £15 a month on gas.
our monthly direct debit is around £250 but in summer our gas and electricity was £100 a month so built up a lot of credit.

cakeorwine · 17/12/2022 09:40

C1N1C · 17/12/2022 09:34

@cakeorwine

Well we work from home so one plug has a laptop, an akexa device, a printer and a monitor... easy one to turn off. Another hehind the tv... virgin WiFi hub, TV, media hub, another alexa, a few smart light hubs... don't need any of them overnight!

You could spend a tenner and buy one of those energy monitoring plugs. Plug that in to every plug for a few minutes and work out, when on standby, how much each gadget or multiplug is using. Using that, multiply up and work out whether buying a timed plug is worth it... they invariably are, a tv on standby costs an extra £25 a year... doesn't sound much but multiply that by 10 gadgets, and the cost of £20 or so on a few timed plugs is well worth it.

A 1 watt device uses £3 a year on standby at current prices
Modern devices use that or less on standby.

Wi-Fi hubs - well not ideal to keep turning off the internet as that can cause connection issues.

They will pay for themselves at some point, I suppose.

cakeorwine · 17/12/2022 09:43

User963 · 17/12/2022 09:38

It will average out though. We have our heating on all day at 18.5. Don’t have a smart meter so not sure how much it’s costing us but in the summer months we didn’t spend more than £15 a month on gas.
our monthly direct debit is around £250 but in summer our gas and electricity was £100 a month so built up a lot of credit.

I wonder what the cost of gas will be this summer - currently it's 2.5 times more expensive than last summer

3WildOnes · 17/12/2022 09:44

Your direct debit won't be £375 though. The more expensive months are balanced out by the cheaper summer months.
Our usage is going to be in excess of £600 this month, our usage was under £100 for most of the warmer months and our direct debit is set at £270.

savoycabbage · 17/12/2022 09:47

This is why I was always suspicious of smart meters. Unplug it and throw it away! I felt a bit tin-hatty being worried about them, but it turns out I was right.

This reminds me of when Joey from Friends stops reading Little Women so Beth won't die.

Charlize43 · 17/12/2022 09:48

Boomboom22 · 17/12/2022 08:57

I think people have gone mad. 18 is still a bit cold but the minimum especially if you have kids, for daytime. 16 is too cold and likely to make you ill if you never heat above it. Personally 19 or 19.5 I find far better and actually healthy, still need a jumper and dressing gown but I do feel the cold. I'm not willing to get ill or my kids get ill for the sake of 10 pound more a day in a cold snap. Competitive underheating is the new undereating on mumsnet.

I've been keeping my thermostat at 15 and occasionally 16 and generally layering up.

I don't have a smart meter, despite EDF almost harassing me (emails, phone calls, etc) on a daily basis to have one installed. I don't really know why I am resisting but I have heard they can cut you off if you have one, also about incorrect readings...

You do get used to having it on lower.

WaddleAway · 17/12/2022 09:49

User963 · 17/12/2022 09:38

It will average out though. We have our heating on all day at 18.5. Don’t have a smart meter so not sure how much it’s costing us but in the summer months we didn’t spend more than £15 a month on gas.
our monthly direct debit is around £250 but in summer our gas and electricity was £100 a month so built up a lot of credit.

Your gas and electricity will cost a lost more this summer than last summer though.