Can I ask about power bills - shocked really!

[Ozgirl75]

So, my DH and I are currently in Australia and are moving back to the U.K. and renting at first. We’ve been asking about power bills and have been absolutely taken aback at how high they are and I wondered if this was just how it is, or if we’re looking to rent from people who just have the heating on all the time!

4 bed houses, normally 1-2 living areas, energy costs coming in at around £800-1000 a month? I knew they had gone up in the U.K. but this seems so high? We pay about £200 a month here, and maybe £300 in the hot summer months.

This seems to be the feedback whether there’s a mixture of oil and electricity, gas, or just electricity.

So are families of 4 mainly paying around £1000 a month on all power or does this seem really high? We’re not looking at mansions, just normal 4 bed family homes.

I wonder if they are confusing the units used with the cost? Or have given quarterly readings that someone has transposed to monthly.

I agree that considering the type of property in terms of insulation, decent double glazing etc is wise.

I'm a three bed 1940s terrace. No gas supply. I used £100 of electric and about £40 of logs last month. I am also in more than £600 of credit. They have put my direct debit down to £66 and the government are giving us £67 so mine is definitely no where near that!

As you are moving in winter and won't have time to get ahead in the warmer months they are perhaps just over egging the affordability aspect as you may well have high bills for the first quarter but not all year - and not £1000 high!

4 bed detached in a cold area of the country.

I pay £250 direct debit, get £67 allowance and dip into about £80 of the credit I’ve been building over the summer, per month.

actual usage therefore around £400

I have the heating on for 1.5 hours at 4pm and 30 mins in the morning. I’ve stopped using the tumble dryer but I do use dishwasher and electric oven. I’m constantly thinking about it but we can’t afford more than that. Our usage according to my app is about 30% less than this time last year when I used the heating more, but with the increased costs and hefty standing charges we are paying more.

sigh

People talking about bills going up when the price cap changes aren't relevant if you're getting oil.

We have a 5 bed detached and spend about £1500 a year on oil. We are careful with our usage, but it is still on twice a day for an hour when the weather is like this.

We pay that a month at the moment to have the heating on 2 hours in the morning and then again in the evening. House is still cold but its a huge, poorly insulated edwardian 5 bed. I can't imagine a regular house is anywhere near that.

Oil is currently cheaper than gas (and likely to remain so for a while). If they're using a tank full in a couple of months then either (or a combination of):

• The house is huge
• It is very poorly insulated
• They heat it to a ridiculous temperature
• They have an Aga
• The oil tank has a leak
• Their boiler is ancient

It won't cost most people anywhere like as much as that.

Sorry, I should have said, we live in NI so it's colder and wetter than other parts if the UK.

That's about £125 a month on oil, and we were paying £96 a month on electricity before we had our solar panels installed.

There are no standing charges on our electric tariff, it isn't a common thing in NI, so if you were on the mainland the same usage would cost more.

But, yeah, the oil consumption you quoted seems very high.

They're high, but nowhere near £1k. We're in a 5 bed, reasonably modern and well insulated. 7 people, home all the time apart from 4 kids going to school. Heating on permanently during the day, set to 18 degrees. Tumble dryer used regularly. No attempts made to save on gas or electric.

We've just paid £350 per month for October and November. Might be slightly higher for December as it's been freezing, but will obviously balance out a bit in summer.

Combined gas and electric for November was £160 (without the discount). We are pretty frugal though and £10/ day for us is unaffordable. Five bed house.

December our electric will be high, but the gas boiler packed up so only used that to cook. Hopefully it will even out. Was pretty cold though!

I can't comment on the oil, but that electricity usage is very high, probably around 4/5 times average usage. You'd only normally use that amount of electricity if you were running your heating and hot water with electricity, but this house seems to use oil as well.

Does it have an Aga or similar? Those things use shit loads of fuel.

I would have thought the annual cost of a 4 bed would be around £4/5k, but obviously depends on size and state of insulation/windows etc, as well as how much you use the heating/tumble dryer/oven etc. A large period detached that is single glazed and poorly insulated will likely cost more, but a smaller modern house with good insulation and double glazing could cost less.

We have a 3 bed house and pay about £50-£60 month for electricity. Our heating / hot water uses an oil fired combi boiler - we use 1000 litres oil per annum for this. Our last delivery of oil in November was £480 for 500 litres.
I heat the house to about 18°C, so cooler than some would, and I'm fairly strict with making everyone take short showers (4 mins max!).

www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/guides/average-bill.html
According to this, the average for a 5 bedroom house with 4-5 people is about £3500 a year. Add 20% in April.

I use 2500 to 3000 litres a year. Four bed detached which is difficult to heat. Most of that is used between October and April though. I will fill up in
April and not order any more until November.
So I had 500 litres delivered 5th Nov and I have 500 coming next week (small tank).

Oil is hard to judge as tends to be rural properties that may be old and draughty.

Also price varies massively.

In April 2020 during lockdown I paid 25p per litre. It peaked at 165p per litre in March this year and is now around 75p.

Is it an old house?

According to my ScottishPower app our December bill is £1000+ already. 4 bed, 2 reception room old cottage (approx. 2000sq feet). We have no gas so just electric heaters, water immersion eats up a lot. We were freezing last week when it got below zero. Trying to cut back but it's so grim.

We're about to our house on the market because we simply cannot afford this.

What I'm trying to say is that it's not impossible, those figures you gave.

Oil is expensive at the moment. I’m hoping it will come down at some point. I have an old farmhouse and 1000l of oil every 8 weeks in the cold months. I’ve got 2 wood stoves and have been using those a lot instead. Lots of wind fall you can have for free if you have time, storage and kit where I am. Conversely I don’t bother with oil heating 6 months of the year and I have solar hot water so it balances out. £250 electric a month.

That's absolutely not the cost. I have a house similar to what u describe 4bedrooms, 3 bathrooms , utility room, large kitchen diner and 2 downstairs living spaces. My heating is on a lot. We have thermostat set at 20. We pay £200 per month. I do expect this might have to go up soon as last months bill was £220 and heating had been on for maybe 3-4hrs per day. This month with the cold spell it's been on for 8-10 hours or more per day and putting on overnight if temp drops. I expect this months alone might £400 or more. Obviously I'm paying the £200 every month including summer where it's under £100 so it might even out a little.

U can expect another rise though in April. I expect then I'll need to be paying £300 a month as the cap is going up and no government £400 towards the bills.

Depends what tariff you're on. Although even if you're paying the top (capped) rate, that seems excessive. We're on a fixed tariff for another year in a 4 bed detached and at moment our actual usage is around £250 a month although direct debit is £175 (plus the government money of £66)

Mine (5 bed house, both working from home every day and running a tumble dryer and dishwasher daily) was £570 last month.

My brother lives in Australia and his bills are tiny compared to ours.