Just read my meters & I'm crying in the bathroom

[medianewbie]

In Nov, my combi boiler broke (& I had no heat or hot water for a week). Local plumber eventually fixed but must have left it turned up higher (test?) settings than usual settings (kicking myself I didn't check after). I just inputted my monthly meter readings. I'm with Scottish Gas & they are awful for comms but this is all the info I can get from my account. My house is F rated for energy efficiency but not Chatsworth. We hardly have the heating on, only shower twice a week, no tumbledryer etc but my combined bill this month was £598.36 !!! I can't pay it. I'm disabled so they can't cut me off but they can install a prepay meter. I don't know what to do. This isn't a begging thread, or even a sympathy thread really but I have 2 asd teenagers & I don't want to worry in front of them so I needed to 'say' it somewhere.

Speak to your local CAB and council. There is a lot of money floating around at the moment to help with this kind of thing - one off grants, top-ups etc. Also get put on the priority services register as is harder for them to switch you to pre payment meter. Pay what you can afford (don't stop paying) and see what help there is. National Energy Action might also be able to advise but get local info on grants etc first.

Can you access any previous actual bills @medianewbie ? They will usually have a breakdown in writing for your annual consumption in kwh for each fuel (and show your usage in kwh for that billing period too - is your electric always this high?).

And don't go on a smart meter as like a previous poster says they can switch you to pre payment remotely and without a warrant.

We had very high electric usage and it turned out to be the fridge freezer. It was a big American style one and was 20+ years old. I can’t remember the usage now, but it was the same as everything else in the house combined. It might be worth while getting one of the plugs that you can use to check electric usage.

A house that size is probably about right? Especially with high ceilings. If you're letting it get too cold your boiler has to work so much harder to get to temp. If its still cold you're likely to get mould. 2
Ours is a standard 3 bed semi and 400 this month. When it was - 7 at night it struggled to keep rooms at 17. I was averaging over £12 a day.

But definitely ring the council.
Maybe use the online chat or email to energy companies so you have a log.
Pay what you can afford

I say '2 circuits' - I am assuming as there as the elderly circuit breaker panel as above, but also this 2nd one in the downstairs loo as well?

2nd one ...

Could you get an electrician to come out and have a look?

That's just a separate fuse box, it won't make any difference to your usage or what you're charged.

Are you using electric fires or radiators a lot? Or using electricity to heat your water? A lot of long showers with an electric shower maybe? Your gas use in only average but your electricity use is over twice what's considered high use - higher than a typical household using electricity for all its heating and hot water

@ggrapehyacinthisactuallyblue
I logged my meter readings today & it generated the £600 bill. So yes I feel panicky & scared. Scottish Gas don't answer the phone or emails. My nearest CAB isn't open often. I can call the Council though. I am disabled & a Carer too. I claim what I'm entitled too but it still doesn't pay a £600 p/m bill.

@pigsonoodies thanks, that's reassuring about the fuse box.
My only shower runs off the mains boiler with 3 people taking 2 x 15m showers per week. We don't have any additional electric heaters except borrowed & ran some for 10 days in Nov when boiler broke but elec didn't seem Higher that month weirdly?

How much were your summer bills in comparison?
Has the amount of energy used monthly in kwh changed over the year for your electric?

Your annual usage according to that photo is over 19,000 kwh. That is a huge amount of energy. I live in a 2 bed home with one child, and I work from home. Just checked my bill and my annual estimate of my kilowatt hours for gas and electricity is not even a quarter of yours. Please see if you can arrange for your meter to be checked. Also, check every single item that uses electricity to see what is drawing so much power.

I feel for you OP. Must have been quite a shock to think you may owe that much.

But help is available. Please consider contacting Citizens' Advice. They have whole specialist energy sections who, by telephone, help people dealing with ALL of the queries and worries you have about your energy supply, boiler etc. They are highly trained and provide a lot of assistance - including dealing with the energy company on your behalf. My friend works for them so I know what they provide - and it's an excellent, high quality service. There's also a lot of info on energy on their website.

I have copied the following details from their website. Very best of luck in getting this sorted soon.

Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133

Relay UK - if you can't hear or speak on the phone, you can type what you want to say: 18001 then 0808 223 1133

You can use Relay UK with an app or a textphone. There’s no extra charge to use it. Find out how to use Relay UK on the Relay UK website.

Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Lines are closed on bank holidays.

To contact a Welsh-speaking adviser: 0808 223 1144

An adviser will answer your call as soon as possible, usually within a few minutes. Once you're speaking to an adviser your call should take an average of 8 to 10 minutes.

Calls from mobiles and landlines are free.

Chat with us online

You can also talk about your consumer issue with a trained adviser online. We’ll try to help you solve your problem or make good progress towards it.

Chat is usually available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

The advisers in the energy section at Citizens' Advice receive intensive training about everything energy related - from how a boiler works to everything financial. They really know their stuff.

@NewBootsAndRanty If the thermostat is set to 19 but the radiator is only on level 2, will the boiler keep trying to heat the room to 19 despite it not being possible? And therefore waste a lot of energy? I'm not sure if I've understood correctly. Thank you.

The thermostat (sorry there is an old one in the hall, I wasn't thinking straight in my panic!) is set to 10 so the pipes don't freeze if it gets cold. When we had the cold snap in early Dec I'd put it up to 16 them put it down as soon as we were watm. We do have modern electric blankets & a modern electric in the sitting room (to try to keep warm when the heating is off)

A modern electric what in the sitting room?
Aga?

Sorry, a modern electric heated throw for the sofa.

Oh, well that and the electric blankets are using nothing worth mentioning. Somewhere though you're using nearly 25kWh of electricity every day, compared to about 5 in an average household and 10 in a high use household.

I really don't understand, OP. Where I live, the temp hasn't really gone colder since Autumn, and since we knew the energy bill has been off the chart, I have been really careful. So there are no surprise spike in bill just this month. You say you pay monthly, so the bill must have been the same last month?

What has spiked just this month so much that you are panicking now but not in previous month? If you can't pay for this month, it must have been the same for last month too?

If you can't pay, then you can't pay. Seek help.

My thermostat goes by the temperature of the room it's in - mine lives in the hall, and the radiator in there doesn't have an adjustable dial - I'm not sure what would happen if I adjusted it. I assume it's set to maximum? as default, and will have been balanced.
Turning radiators up/down/off in individual rooms that aren't the hall will make a difference to the amount of energy used though.

Do your teenagers have computers? Any chance they could be mining cryptocurrencies (intentionally or cryptojacking)?

Did you miss the ten day or so period where the average temperature was below freezing a couple of weeks ago in many parts of the UK?

OP seems to pay for what she uses in a given month rather than a set monthly amount throughout the year. She will therefore pay less in hotter months and more in colder months