Spending £100 a month on electricity

[teapotter1]

I have no idea how I'm spending so much on electricity. I notice it as I got a £50 loyalty card from the gas company I'm with and it was gone in two weeks

I'm so mad at how much I'm spending on electricity, does anyone else have this problem and knows how to solve it?

I only have a two bedroom house with a toddler and baby

Thanks in advance

I agree with getting your details as much as possible and doing a comparison on a few sites. I use the Cheap Energy Club to keep an eye out and check the others a couple times a year.

I live in a 7 person, 4 bed house and last month we used £150ish for gas and electric last month and that's with a sleep apnea machine and the nights where my spouse isn't working all the living room stuff on most of the night night plus quite a few computers and gizmos. No tumble dryer or dishwasher

I'd also check any radiators, ours just eat through it seems but as it's a rental we can't do much about them so we shut them off except for at very exception times and use a couple strategically placed heaters instead.

I haven't heard of egas but on a very quick look their prepayment rates don't seem too out of line with others but I think you would save if you could change to a fixed rate direct debit tariff.

The amount of ££ you're spending if it's £100 as well for gas - is that right? is way too high, as others have said get your meter checked,something doesn't seem right

Slightly off topic- but I read the link about problems in new builds and it doesn't surprise me that they've found builders cutting corners and not meeting standards. I lived in a new build terrace and we could hear the next door neighbour urinating and sneezing, as if he were in the next room not the next house. I wish we had got proper testing done, to see if it met the soundproofing standards.

Prepayment isn't more expensive than paying your bill when it comes in (work for an energy company, these are the rules now)

Unfortunately that's simply not true and it's worrying that people in the industry are apparently ignorant of the facts.

In 2017 Ofgem capped prepayment tariffs - meaning they put a limit on what suppliers could charge, but they are generally still considerably more expensive than credit meters. In fact the cap was increased TWICE last year. It's actually pretty appalling because it's often more disadvantaged people that have pre-payment meters and yet they're paying more for their energy.

If you can switch to a credit meter it will almost certainly save you money.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/switch-prepaid-gas-electricity/

www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/09/energy-bill-hikes-following-ofgem-s-price-cap-rise/

I agree BailOut, @llovepuppies - can you tell us the actual tariff rates you're talking about - do you mean that a prepayment tariff isn't the absolute highest your employer offers?

It's a bit of a drastic solution if they're still working but when our old cooker/washer/fridge broke (in the same month! How is that possible?!) and we had to get new, our energy bills reduced considerably. We rent our washer because we couldn't afford to buy it outright but the monthly cost of that is less than the difference in what we're paying for our energy usage.

We pay £155 per month duel fuel on a large four bed detached with SSE (so I know it's not the lowest tariff, but I've been lazy) DH and DS(16) are complete gadget hounds, and DH likes to be warm (house at 21 and the living room fire on). That will put us in credit by the end of the winter, so just for the usage you've described, that sounds very high. We work, but each have at work at home day when the heating would be on all day.

I've just remembered every time we get a house inspection they say the boiler is very old and in need of replacement would this lead to higher costs in electricity to run it?

Is it a gas boiler? Mine is old (20yrs) and is inefficient. It uses more gas rather than electricity by being old

We have similar bills and also have an old boiler which I believe isn't helping, but we live in a very large, old, drafty house that really needs new windows so I always assumed that was why. Ask around your friends with similar size houses in your area, see who they are with and how much theyr on.

Is boiler gas or electric , do you use an immersion tank for hot water?

OP says she spends on gas too so I assume gas boiler/ hot water. Do you have an immersion heater that is being left switched on?

Mine has just gone up to £65 in total for both gas & electric combined.

(I give a reading on the 1st of every month)

I have a new build, heating on 4pm-8pm every weeknight. On all day at weekends.

Hall light on & security light on dim outside every night.

Dishwasher & washing machine on every day.

No tumble drier but I have a heated airer on a lot - 3p an hour.

In the summer I pay £45 a month for electric & gas in total.

Our electricity is £150 a month and as we're rural, we have to use bulk LPG that's another £150. 4 bed house with 4 adults living in it. We also use a woodburner so spend around £100 a winter on seasoned wood.

Can you ask the landlord about whether the loft is well insulated and you have cavity wall insulation?

Payg most definitely are more expensive, saw a huge increase and equivalent decrease when we went back to bill pay

As a tenant, you can change fuel supplier. Look on a price comparison site for the best deals. but, do check that you're not locked into your current supplier for a fixed term, as that might mean it's not cost-effective to swap.

Check your supplier is a domestic supplier. My rental property was with a supplier of commercial premises and the unit cost for electricity was nearly double the domestic rate.

Make sure the supplier knows when you took over the supply so you're only paying for what you have used.

Go back to the Energy Efficiency Report, which you should have been given a copy of when you signed your Tenancy Agreement. Are there any works outstanding, like increasing the loft insulation that might increase heat efficiency?

If you are in a hard water area, the boiler may be half-full of the limescale that furs up your kettle, which will make it run less efficiently.

If there is a debt on the account it will be difficult to move, especially as op has just received a voucher to tie her in for the year.

Could someone explain to me how debt is made on an account please? I don't think I have any

If you pay a fixed amount monthly by dd but your usage is higher, especially over winter, you owe money until your usage drops again in summer. If you payg that should not occur unless you use emergency credit.

Is it possible to have a debt on a prepayment meter? Is that what you mean by pay as you go? If so I don't think a previous debt will be the reason

i use 40-50 per week for elc and probably more for gas so spending more than you per month but we are not a normal average household

the house is up and running 24 hours as kids dont sleep and we have many appliances running the same time(4 tvs.4 fire sticks,lamps etc)we also cook many times in a 24 hour period as kids eat constantly(cooker is electric)

the heating is gas but needs ele to run

we do have the heating on very regular in a 24 hour period as have naked kids due to sen needs so have to keep the rooms/house warm

we also live on top of a mountain(litrally our back garden and and to the side) in the the welsh valleys of south wales and we have no natural lighting around so lights have to come on early and it does get cold here

house is a big 3 bedroom and does keep the heat good

Some of these fuel bills are shockingly high. I can't believe some people are paying £40-50 per week on electricity!

£160 on dual fuel a month on prepayment thanks to stupid huge single pane back room and bedroom windows

Have you done the energy comparison sites recently? I'm going to have another go today thanks to this thread.