Gas and electricity bills to soar

[Cosmos123]

This is worrying as it will push many into fuel poverty.
Rising food prices and empty shelves.
Is anyone worried?

We’re with bulb, pay £88/month, statements regularly less and they suggested increase to £115 most recently. £137 in credit and have cancelled DD due 26/09/21.

Could move to Sainsbury’s for £121/mth for 2 years but have to get a smart meter - do all the frequent fixers on this thread have smart meters?

We’re Economy 7 but shouldn’t be (recently changed boiler) if that makes a difference? We never got round to changing to a standard meter with bulb as it was £120 unless you changed to a smart meter and we weren’t sure we wanted one.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I was with People's Energy which just went bust last week. Paid £100 a month and am £250 in credit.
We moved to them in May on a 2 year fix.
Am I screwed 😔 ?

Yes just fixed with SSE and I have had to get a smart meter. Have resisted until this point, but otherwise believe that the deal is good.

Could move to Sainsbury’s for £121/mth for 2 years but have to get a smart meter - do all the frequent fixers on this thread have smart meters

I've managed to dodge one up to now. I didn't want one initially because the first generation become useless if you switch supplier so it just seemed a waste. I was also irritated by Eon? policy of writing to me to say 'We're coming to install the smart meter that you didn't ask for between 9 and 5 on some random day when you're not in.

We've been with Avro for the last couple of years and as well as being the cheapest, they also didn't require a smart meter, which today I've found out that is one of several things that they're in trouble with the regulator for.

So I think yes, unfortunately, we'll all have to get one sooner or later, although in our case, I'd be astonished if our mobile signal supported one, because we can't reliably make mobile calls in the house on any network.

But at least I'm WFH now so can cope with waiting in all day for a smart meter installer to turn up, but of course they'll do that when I'm on call and I'll still have to clear out the hall cupboard that the meters are at the back of.

Thank you

Smart metres have - for me - been such a waste of time and money and resources.

Bulb came to install one a couple of years back. Got the electricity one in but couldn't do the gas as couldn't unscrew something or other on the wall. Never bothered sending anyone back to look again (despite being asked). When I switched supplier the new one can't see the electric smart metre so I still have to do manual readings for both.

It's so frustrating because automatic daily/weekly readings would be a great insight into usage.

Instead the whole thing stinks of someone, somewhere skimming money off by enforcing something that isn't fit for function - like so many things

My energy company, Utility Point, went out of business last week blaming the rising costs. Apparently energy is over 150% more expensive than this time last year. What now I guess. Will we just be left with the big company's who's prices I considered to high? Will that become the norm now because the competition is getting pushed out?

@LeafOfTruth

Smart metres have - for me - been such a waste of time and money and resources.

Bulb came to install one a couple of years back. Got the electricity one in but couldn't do the gas as couldn't unscrew something or other on the wall. Never bothered sending anyone back to look again (despite being asked). When I switched supplier the new one can't see the electric smart metre so I still have to do manual readings for both.

It's so frustrating because automatic daily/weekly readings would be a great insight into usage.

Instead the whole thing stinks of someone, somewhere skimming money off by enforcing something that isn't fit for function - like so many things

Yes

Same here

And it's just blank!

I wonder why the daily rate goes up too ???

I am so worried about this

Yes it's worrying

@NothingIsWrong

Just invested in a hot water bottle for each of the children to preheat their beds, try and keep the heating to a minimum. We have two log burners and a shed full of wood, which will help with the downstairs

You may be better with those microwave heat bags rather than a HWB for young children. I always worry about them bursting

I've just switched to Eon from SSE. They were giving the best deal I could find. I checked the kw rates and standing charge and they were both cheaper. Fingers crossed. It's a joke!!

[quote PattyPan]@LakieLady can you get your house better insulated? I think it would really pay off for you. My bathroom gets down to that sort of temperature but it has no insulation at all (bad extension) whereas the rest of the house is much warmer and doesn’t get below 15. It’s 21 now - I’m in shorts![/quote]
Hard to think how.

The cavity in the external walls has been pumped full of insulation, the loft is well insulated and I had new double glazed windows and doors installed at the end of last year. All the floors are carpeted with underlay beneath, except for the kitchen and bathroom. They both have plywood fitted on top of the floorboards and laminate on top of that.

We are in a fairly exposed spot, almost at the top of a big , and it's very windy here. It's always a couple of degrees colder than down in the town centre, too. I don't know if that makes a difference.

But I am genuinely a chilly mortal. I'm not comfortable at anything below 21 degrees. I was even worse before my hypothyroidism was diagnosed and treated!

@SwayingInTime

We’re with bulb, pay £88/month, statements regularly less and they suggested increase to £115 most recently. £137 in credit and have cancelled DD due 26/09/21.

Could move to Sainsbury’s for £121/mth for 2 years but have to get a smart meter - do all the frequent fixers on this thread have smart meters?

We’re Economy 7 but shouldn’t be (recently changed boiler) if that makes a difference? We never got round to changing to a standard meter with bulb as it was £120 unless you changed to a smart meter and we weren’t sure we wanted one.

I've only just had a smart meter installed but they don't stop you switching - the first gen ones couldn't switch but the new ones can. I like being able to see how much we use every day.

Thank you
For the smart meter Input

I think my main question is now ‘should I be grateful to fix today for two years at
£33/mth more than I pay at the moment?!’

@StormyTeacups

I don't understand Bulb at all. They are telling me we are using twice the amount of gas as a normal 4 bed house, when the only thing we use has for is hot water/heating and the hob. At this time of year we don't have the heating on at all.

Last statement said we were using 10 times what we did this time last year, and of course I can't speak to anyone 🤦

Have you checked the meter readings they're using? If they're using the wrong readings, the bill will be wrong.

My late DP had this in the last flat he lived in. He kept sending in readings, but they never revised his bill, just kept estimating it. It took a year to sort out.

@Grellbunt Are you pushing the button on the smart meter to get it out of sleep mode ?

@RavenT

Yes just fixed with SSE and I have had to get a smart meter. Have resisted until this point, but otherwise believe that the deal is good.

Same. And realised today SSE are a subsidiary of Ovo so hopefully won’t go bust. So I had to agree to a smart meter but the cheapest non smart meter rate was £300 more!

In case it is of help Martin Lewis has made a video about the energy issues.

We had a smart meter with Eon for about 3 months, then we changed supplier and meter went dumb, went back to Eon a year later and got the smart meter out of the drawer, but no, it's still dumb even though it is Eon's smart meter. Now with BG on fixed rate until March (fortunately) using the dumb meter When asked when changing supplier if we have a smart meter I just say yes, it's not my fault it's crap and not smart any more.

Our energy company, People's Energy, went bust last week and we're waiting to be transferred to a new supplier by Ofgen. Assume they will choose the most expensive provider 🙄. Our bills are already topping £400 per month for just electric so lord knows what the new tariff will be. And we have an air source heat pump and solar panels! So much for energy efficient.

That’s a good point about air source heat pumps, etc. I believe they’re only meant to be efficient for certain types of housing. The govt are planning on banning the sale of normal gas boilers in the near future and forcing people to have these instead.

Which will cause my energy bills in a 100plus year old house with no cavity wall to rocket. Bad enough if electricity is cheap, terrible if the price per unit is through the roof.

My husband, who works in the energy market, has just told me that Utility Point and People's Energy customers are being transferred to British Gas. Bloomberg are just announcing it.

Highly predictable as they have some of the most expensive tariffs 🤦🏼‍♀️