To think they are lying? ... electricity prices won't be going up by 50% in April ...

[Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk]

Keep reading that electricity prices are going to sky rocket by "upto 50%"... so I worked mine out whilst doing some house admin . . I'm shocked at the actual figures ...

We currently pay 21p per KWh of energy used. (Viable rate.) . Predictions once the price cap ends are for unit prices in April is anywhere between 40-48p per unit. . (From googling / Martin Lewis ), I could be reading this wrong ...

Or

I can fix a rate today with my current supply eon for 38p.

Is this maths right? (Well, I know it is!)

Say hypothetically we use a slightly higher than average 9,000 unit a year:

21p x 9000 = £1,890 (£157pm)
48p x 9000= £4,320 (£360pm)

Doesn't include standing charge or vat on those prices either!

That feels like a crazy hike, more like 120% increase (?) - so why aren't we being warned a bit more .... We are a ridiculously heavy user, (big house, tumble drier happy, old inefficient freezers in garage etc, no gas so everything electric,,) so this week I've condensed some freezer space, losing a big old girl that leaked ice, and ordered x2 airers for the washing.....
I'm still looking at many other ways to lower my kilowatt useage - (I've warned the fish their pond pump may have to go on timer ... ).

But my AIBU is that I'm miffed at 50%, surely it's much, much more and we are in for a huge shock?
VERY HAPPY (relieved) to be told I've got it wrong and IABU.

I have ordinary youngish clients (not disabled, not elderly) who expect to live in t-shirts at 23C all year round

And yet it's the 'young people' who are preaching about not eating meat or having children, and a lot of them exhibit behaviours that look extraordinarily indulgent and wasteful to those of us in our 40/50/60+s who have been brought up by parents constantly on at us to turn the lights off and rationed immersion heaters.

See also new smartphones every year or two and fast fashion.

Just from my own experience, the average of 3700kwh per year bears no resemblence to any house I've lived in.

I don't think I am a very high user (no sex pond!, newish appliances and all LED lights) but I do wfh, do cook from scratch and do run two freezers due to needing to freeze allotment produce. My heating is gas, but I still have to focus to keep my electricity below about 6500kwh per year.

If I don't focus on it, then up to 9000kwh per year would be realistic.

@WhosThatBehindTheFlask

Just from my own experience, the average of 3700kwh per year bears no resemblence to any house I've lived in.

I don't think I am a very high user (no sex pond!, newish appliances and all LED lights) but I do wfh, do cook from scratch and do run two freezers due to needing to freeze allotment produce. My heating is gas, but I still have to focus to keep my electricity below about 6500kwh per year.

If I don't focus on it, then up to 9000kwh per year would be realistic.

I use 169kwh or so per month but I'm a low user and work hard to keep it low! Gas says I use 26 units/292kwh per month

That usage was 20th sept - 1st nov so a little over a month

We run at just over 7000 KwH in electricity. We have an electric car and a busy family home that I work from. I am trying to tame the usage but, well, failing basically. I see solar panels in the near future.

Jesus do some of you not worry about all the fossil fuels you are needlessly burning? I found the OP quite shocking. You know that you are hugely energy inefficient and it sounds like you also knew there were some pretty easy steps to take to address this - but only a price hike motivated you to do this. With these attitudes, I think energy is going to have to be more expensive, otherwise people will continue to waste it and the plant will continue to burn. Yes green energy will help, but people also need to take some individual responsibility

But obviously the energy used to charge the car is offset by lack of petrol costs.

I have a new fridge freezer, but a very old chest freezer. So that's being emptied out and turned off (again - it's been off for a month already pre Xmas)

Stopping the hormonal boys from showering will be a very last resort

Stopping the hormonal boys from showering will be a very last resort

Same, I'd say it was equivalent as cutting your nose off to spite your face but I that might be a possible solution

I currently pay £168 for dual fuel - I checked with my supplier as I'm on a variable tariff and the only option to fix out my bills up to £462. That is a huge hike and frankly it would be impossible to pay - there is no way we would be able to afford to heat / cook / light the house.

This. Does anybody know if there is an advantage to move tona fixed rate now or wait until April? i.e. are the fixed rate deals a good deal to lock in? Will fixed rates go up significantly in April?

Stopping the hormonal boys from showering will be a very last resort

But it is worth keeping an eye on how long they spend in there.

On one of the 'why is my electricity bill so high' threads, it arose that the OPs DS was spending 20-30 minutes in the shower every single day, far longer than is necessary for hygiene purposes.

If he wasn't in the shower doing what teen boys often do when alone, he was switching the shower on to run into an empty bath while having a leisurely sit on the the toilet on his phone. So money was literally running down the drain.

I'm astonished at your usage OP. I've just had a look at my last bill - Jan - Jul 2021 and we've used 1750 kW so approx 3500 annually. I run 2 fridges, 2 freezers, a dishwasher, a tumble drier (although I don't dry everything in it - just bedding, towels and underwear. There are 3 adults in the house. Adult DS puts lights on all over the place even in daylight! He also spends at least 15 mins a day in the electric shower (he's cut back from 30!) Do you heat the house by electricity ?

Can't believe all the people saying the media aren't warning about this and blaming newspapers.

Every single newspaper (especially the red tops) has been warning about this robustly for months. Including breaking down the exact cost implications for average households.

For instance - here's a selection in the Sun is December - Jan alone. This is by no means all of them (hundreds popped up).

But virtually every one gives an estimate of how much bills are expected to rise by, the causes, and what people should do. Extending the search back to October finds hundreds more.

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17272428/thousands-households-energy-bill-rise-in-weeks/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/16155186/energy-prices-increased-gone-up/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17224933/martin-lewis-explains-energy-customers-bill-rise-april-action/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17073034/millions-energy-bills-soar-april-price-surge/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17209957/energy-bills-price-hikes-regions-worst-affected/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17099342/energy-bills-increase-price-cap/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17243070/heating-expert-four-tips-slash-energy-bills/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/17126412/energy-market-crisis-suppliers-bills/amp/

www.thesun.co.uk/money/8540165/ovo-energy-bills-prices/amp/

The exact same search yields hundreds of hits across the Mirror and Mail as well.

Broadsheets cover as well - not quite thousands of articles but easily a couple a week.

Again - just a quick look at Times and Guardian showed a load. Some of these are more looking at what the government / opposition is / should be doing. But there are consumer personal finance ones too.

They are also increasing the standing charges. Mine went up 7p a day. So just for electric it's an extra £25 a year in standing charges.

Here's a table showing the cost of running an electric shower. The more powerful the shower, the more it costs. It can be as low as 24p for a 10-minute shower. But if you have a more powerful shower and two teenagers who are in the shower for 30 minutes at a time that could be costing you £15 a week (without your own showers).

www.sust-it.net/electric-showers.php

She has a hot tub. You can't keep a beast like that running at 36-38 (?) degrees with just an insulated roof between it and the British weather without some serious energy costs.

Energy costs have also been in the Moneysaving Expert weekly newsletter repeatedly over the last few months. It only takes a few minutes to skim through and is definitely worth reading unless you have so much money that you can just let your energy and food costs keep on rising.

@Pluvia - yes, ours is astronomical - but it's normal for us. (We don't have a standard house) have a smallholding, so animal barns to light / keep warm, heat lamps for the newly born animals are huge users of power, several fridges and freezers (I'm talking 8+) as well as a large worship. And of course the sex pond ... on top of all that, we don't pay for heating either as it's all from our own woodland. I know that I'm incredibly lucky. But even I'm feeling the pinch at future possible options - if it goes up to .48p a kw we are going to seriously have to economise on consumption. (Which I've already started to do, sitting here surrounded by clothes on an airer instead of the tumble dryer) ... luckily the log burners on. So whilst they may smell like an old bonfire they are at least drying for free ...

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Surely the government has to step in, you can’t expect the average house hold to spend hundreds a month!!!!!

Welcome to the real world. Some of us have been here before. Anyone who had a mortgage in the 80s/90s will remember interest rates rocketing. No government intervention then, if you couldn’t pay your mortgage you lost your house. We’re far too used to the cost of living being so low, this is another phase of the economic cycle.

@LalalalalalaLand123 - you sound just like me ... aware it was happening, but still shock - and that's exactly why I started this thread - I don't think enough people are aware and working out what they use. They just see a direct debit amount and have no idea it's going to sky rocket.

Tbh, the mse makes so much noise banging on about switch this thing or another immediately or you'll be overpaying £20 across the year that I was blasé about the warnings back in July/August assuming it would be the same-old drama about nothing and tuned it out in favour of enjoying the summer holidays.

Thanks for explaining (or even understanding what I said with all the typos )

Quote didnt work, ffs.

@bigbluebus - I missed your post, but my consumption is normal for us - see my post I've just written - I absolutely am not crying poverty about usage, it's all our choice, I'm just more concerned that the average house (my school mum friends for example) are going to see prices rise quite alot (which in fairness they can probably absorb) but they are going to be shocked.

[quote Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk]@LalalalalalaLand123 - you sound just like me ... aware it was happening, but still shock - and that's exactly why I started this thread - I don't think enough people are aware and working out what they use. They just see a direct debit amount and have no idea it's going to sky rocket. [/quote]
If people genuinely have no idea, they only have themselves to blame.

It's been very well publicised over the last few months.

People boast about 'not following the news' as some sort of badge of honour, but it doesn't mean it's not going affect them, whatever 'it' is - rising prices, covid, climate change, etc etc.

It was obvious that rising costs would happen alongside us having to become greener. There was a reason that we used fossil fuels - they were cheap and plentiful!

Rising costs are one way to get people to reduce their energy consumption because people simply can't afford it.

At the same time, supplies are more expensive as we move away from fossil fuels.

There's a reason that successive govts have been giving grants and subsidising the likes of cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, etc.

Anyone who thought there wouldn't be a cost implication of going green is deluded.