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?

@speakout

4,000 is apparently high for electric (medium usage is 2,800) and 13,000 is about medium usage (they say 12,000 for medium, 8,000 for low and 17,000 for high) for gas.

Oh my word, I had no idea my usage was so high! I need to take stock!
24,000 for gas, 6.400 for electric.

My gas was 28000 last year!

Elec 3800

Very drafty old house. Not that much I can do about it that I haven't already.

@Pokhora

Does anyone know the price per kwh for the current price cap? I can only find the annual bill which is not very helpful.

This is really difficult to find. Someone posted a link to a calculator earlier in the thread which suggests it might vary very slightly regionally so that could be why. In terms of the much publicised price cap, it is based on the Typical Consumer Domestic Values. If you Google that you will get some info but the price cap figure that is being quoted everywhere is based on that. I believe it is currently 2,900kw electricity per year and 12,000 kw of gas. If you happen to use that exact amount then it's easy to see if a fixed rate is cheaper. If not then it's not straightforward at all. My assumption ( and I really don't know ) is that most standard variable rates will be at around price cap level and so checking that might give you an indication of the unit price cap.

My gas last year was 45443 kWh!!!!!!!

However we live in a largish granite, detached, Victorian house in northern Scotland that needs airflow underneath and in the roof space to avoid damp and poisoning from radon gas emissions (from the granite the house is built on).

Our thermostat sits between 18-20 oc.

This chart is based on .15p per kWh

We used 1095 kWh of electricity and 3216.5 kWh of gas in the year ending 31 August. I’m surprised we used so much more gas than electricity to be honest, I feel like with wfh we constantly have laptops and phones charging!

@PattyPan

We used 1095 kWh of electricity and 3216.5 kWh of gas in the year ending 31 August. I’m surprised we used so much more gas than electricity to be honest, I feel like with wfh we constantly have laptops and phones charging!

Wow that is really low! We use around 7,000kw of electric and 9000kw of gas! We don't have a combi boiler though so just having the water on for an hour a day uses about 6,000kw a year. Seriously need to cut down my electricity useage.

We are reasonably careful with our usage and there’s only me and DP. We do have a combi boiler but don’t find it very efficient at heating water, usually by the time you have finished washing your hands the tap still hasn’t heated up! And it’s annoying not having a warm airing cupboard as well. We only put the heating on for a few hours in the morning and evening even when wfh and set it to 19 if DP is home or 17 if it’s just me. We could probably stop using the heating in the morning if we got our bathroom insulated, and we have ordered a new front door which will hopefully make the rest of downstairs warmer as well. The downside of open plan living is that any draughts pervade the whole space!

I want to cut down our electricity usage too. We don’t use the oven very much and don’t have a tumble dryer which definitely helps, but I need to stop spending my free time on MN my phone or laptop and more time reading a book or doing something that doesn’t use electricity!

@justasking111

This chart is based on .15p per kWh

Whatever the unit cost, that list is really useful to know where to concentrate your energy saving ideas.

There's not a lot of point fretting about how many phones you're charging when a single shower costs so much more.

Better to not shower excessively or leave the water running while you're not in it like someone posted about not long ago, but if you're a family who can't live without multiple long showers each day, it's probably worth considering if you can swap to a shower that runs off the gas boiler as this is likely to be significantly cheaper.

We have a combi system in our newish abode. Tried running a bath once. Twenty minutes to get the stupid DBATH one third full. Gave up and showered after that. Electric shower is soo expensive

Having read on here members who will not use a towel etc more than once, I suspect washing machines being used daily are gobbling up electricity

Wash knickers socks daily spot clean anything else

I hate this direct debit nonsense I'm always way in credit and they don't let you adjust I'd rather just get billed quarterly for what ive used
This is what we do - you feel more in control but do need to budget for the winter bills.

Am reading Avro energy boss allegedly sent wads of cash from the energy company to other firms in the family's portfolio

The Administrators will be looking into those transactions.

@YodaiamsaidI

I'm never going to be able to pay £200+ a month!!!!

That's the leccy bill of someone who is getting their supply hotwired from the cannabis farming neighbours.

@justasking111

We have a combi system in our newish abode. Tried running a bath once. Twenty minutes to get the stupid DBATH one third full. Gave up and showered after that. Electric shower is soo expensive

Having read on here members who will not use a towel etc more than once, I suspect washing machines being used daily are gobbling up electricity

Wash knickers socks daily spot clean anything else

Or a 30 mins wash

That's the leccy bill of someone who is getting their supply hotwired from the cannabis farming neighbours.

Absolutely there is something wrong if you are using this much.

As you see from numerous threads here there are crazy washers and dryers and probably the same people are worrying about environment.

We’ve been told we have been moved from Avro to Octopus Energy any idea if that’s a good company?

My family are with octopus the taffif you get will decide.

I have just left Octopus as the new lowest tariff was too high and we could get a better deal elsewhere but that was a few weeks ago and prices have gone up loads (e.g. the rate we are moving to is no longer available for people to switch to)

My very cheap Avro deal was coming to an end and I was looking at where to switch and had settled on Octous as the cheapest option even though a 40% increase on my current monthly payment. Then Avro went bust.

The email suggested the rate we will be moved onto isn’t available to current customers I thought is that because it’s higher or capped lower 🙄stupid statement given the current rapid rise of rates. Money saving expert seemed to suggest actually staying on the variable rate which is Gov capped till April maybe the best option initially. This seems to be the case when I looked at switch rates all the fixed deals are2-4yrs and at higher level than the current variable rate.

Igloo has gone now

Oh dear. It's going to continue until there's only a few left at this rate

Symbio energy and Estroga gone too I see

I’ve been doing price comparisons this last week as we’re with bulb and I wanted to see what we’d be charged elsewhere. The most recent comparisons showed the only company who would save us money was Utility Warehouse and, as I wouldn’t be swapping phone and broadband as well as energy supply, only one of their 3 tariffs was relevant - and it gave the massive saving of £2pa!! The next cheapest quote was for BGas - and it was £700 dearer then we pay now!! Octopus was best part of £1,000 more expensive and Sainsbury’s/Eon Next have daily standing charges around 50% more per day than we currently pay as well as being more expensive per unit. Every other comparison site said not to bother changing.

We are high users with electric at 4570kWh pa and 20127kWh pa for gas; however, we live in a 170+ year old which is not best insulated and seems to eat energy. We are in a decent amount of credit on our account (I worked out that, with our monthly dd, and the credit we’ve built up over the summer, by Easter we should still be in credit even allowing for the price rise next month!!)

We rent so can’t make any changes to the house to increase fuel efficiency. We only have radiators on in the sitting room, our bedroom, the downstairs bathroom and the upstairs landing outside the bathroom, they all have their dials on 1-3 and the main thermostat is between 15-18c occasionally rising to 21c if really cold. We can’t have gas to cook as there is no connection in our kitchen.