If this is correct, how can a family afford to pay then?

[InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest]

This is my latest electricity bill. I live alone, in a big (five-bed) house. I am very careful with electricity and gas usage because that's how I was brought up. I don't leave lights on when I leave a room, I use the washing machine every other day and same with the tumble dryer. I use a hair dryer/styling tools once every couple of weeks. Heating is gas and so is cooking. I have checked the meter and it seems to be working just fine. Does this bill seem correct to you? If so, do you mind sharing how much you use/pay and how many people you live with? AIBU in saying that this is not normal for a person living alone? Thank you.

Heating a large house is really the issue I'd guess. We are 3 in a similar size house and Bill is about the same. If you don't heat the house you are likely to have bursts and /or damp so that's not really an option. If you don't need a home that size then downsizing to a well insulated property is probably the way.

This has prompted a query for me if anyone has worked it out. I have 2 showers (one electric and one a mixer shower over the bath using the combiboiler) In an attempt to cut costs based on same length of time in shower which would be cheaper? We currently pay about 80/90 per month for gas and electricity combined. 1 adult 2 pre teens. Don't use the tumble dryer unless really desperate likewise with the heating too. Newish house so is really warm.

There is only me & my DS living in my 3 bed house at the moment, both of us work in the day, washer & dryer go on twice a week to wash uniforms, dishwasher only goes on when it’s full so again perhaps twice a wake, have showers everyday & a log burner, heating only goes on for an hour at night & hour in the morning, my fuel bill at the moment is £116 a month, it’s rising to £238 a month we hardly watch tv, I go to bed at 8.30pm to keep warm & my DS is out with friends most evening, I really don’t know how I’m going to pay the extra money, it’s more than we spend on food for 2 months!

Ask for a smart meter to be installed, then you'll have an idea of what's using up so much energy. If your fridge is 20 years old, I'd guess that's a big energy user (if you do get a smart meter, try turning the drige off for a day to compare), then the fact you're using a washer and dryer so often (we never use a dryer, have a hanging contraption thing set up to dry clothes).

@nyorks1503

Generally, heating water with gas is supposed to be cheaper than heating water with electricity.

I’m paying £200 a month in a two bedroom
Flat

1. Get rid of the tumble drier. Completely unnecessary and you can get used to towels that have been air dried.

1. Get a new fridge/freezer with a top energy rating - that is the most power-hungry appliance in the house and technology has improved massively in the last few years.

1. Switch your lightbulbs to LEDs. At least the ones in rooms you use the most.

Also, wash at 30 degrees. Clothes still get clean, and will last longer too.

Single mother of 1. I’m on a meter and use £50 per week electric.

(But I use plug in radiators as I have no central heating)

Get one of those electricity usage handheld meters off Amazon (£20). Then you can check if older appliances like your freezer are using too much electricity.

I know you said you don't have spotlights but you can change nearly all lights to LED's now. The previous owners were spending a fortune on electricity because they were using inefficient lighting.
Hope you find something that's causing it.

Do you have all your radiators on and how high is your thermostat? If all of them are on that's a big house to heat. You could only wash if you got enough to fill your drum. Don't use the tumble dryer use an airer and turn your heating down to 20

3 of us in a 4 bed pay the same for everything. (Electricity useage went up since we got Induction; but gas bills went down significantly since we got underfloor; both bills reduced when we got the insulation fixed).

Hey op, firstly contact your supplier for plausibility tests to see if there is any indication your meter is faulty. If it looks like it is, you can get them to book a meter accuracy test, if it is faulty (rare, most meters are fine) then they’ll adjust your billing once the meter is tested and they know the % it’s been overclocking at.

Can you check back thru bills this time last year to see if your usage has increased?

A fixed rate will cost you more atm, variable tariffs are capped and you’re paying less than it costs your supplier to buy your energy. It will possibly cushion you against the further increases to the cap later this year.

An electrician cannot touch your meter or test it, if the plausibility tests show the meter is fine, I’d recommend an electrician to test your appliances to see if something is using more than it should. And yes, your usage is v high. Low user is 1800kWh per year, high user over 4100kWh/year.

I work for a supplier so am used to handing out this advice 🙂

You can air dry towels and just put them in to finish drying and fluff up. It works fine.
Bedding is actually less creased if you airdry, you don't need to iron unless you're a fanatical ironer! Personally I just iron my pillowcases because I like that.

4 of us in a 4 bed house - we pay £70 a month for gas and electricity combined so that seems extortionate

I live alone, but in a much smaller house (2 bed semi). For the month starting 13 Jan, I used 133 kWh. Averaging both consumptions over the periods covered, you used using 6 times as much electricity as me!

I don't have a tumble drier, I use an airer, and hang stuff from the curtain rails, and I rarely use the washing machine more than once a week. But I WFH and boil the kettle a LOT. I also run the dishwasher every 4-5 days. And I'm obsessive about turning off lights when I'm not in a room, even though they're all low energy bulbs.

I once used a lot of electricity one month because I failed to close the freezer door properly. It's worth checking, I wouldn't have noticed for ages because I don't eat much frozen stuff and it was only open a tiny crack.

But I'd be seriously wondering if my neighbours were nicking my leccy and running a grow house with it.

That’s 4x our energy usage, family of 3 in a 5 bed

I pay that a month, we never use tumble dryer, are careful also. Have felt our bills have been too high for years considering what we use and now set to go up even more! Just me, dh and ds? Sure we've been supplying whole street since we moved in? X

8 of us in 4 bed house my gas and electricity combined is £125 what is going on with everyone’s bills to be so high?

Your electricity usage is very high, so either the meter or smart meter is faulty, or there is a/several drains in your electricity somewhere.

Your fridge freezer is very old, so probably inefficient energy wise.

Do you have an old TV? Things left on standby? Another freezer is fridge, perhaps? Do you use computers/laptops during the day or evening, and do they require a lot of energy? Second screens? Energy efficient? Just a few things to start with.

@Hertsgirl10

8 of us in 4 bed house my gas and electricity combined is £125 what is going on with everyone’s bills to be so high?

Well I guess it’s mainly the rate people are paying? The Op showed how much per unit she is paying and it’s literally half the current variable rate my supplier offers (and new 1 and 2 year fixes are quite a lot more than that). She is probably on a fix from a while back. This is why it’s irrelevant when people say “I pay £50 / £150 / £250” when prices are moving around so much. Based purely on consumption, it looks odd…

We’re 2 adults in a (large) 3 bed period terrace. I admit we’re not very careful with usage, whoops! £120 per month currently on electric. Looks like that bill of yours is for more like 6 weeks and so seems reasonable to me for a 5 bed.
This is the crux of the crisis isn’t it? I’m lucky to not have worries about paying bills but as you say, families will be very badly affected. I received a projection which said this year I’ll pay £1500 more than last year. Shocking really.

And yes, your usage is v high. Low user is 1800kWh per year, high user over 4100kWh/year. I work for a supplier so am used to handing out this advice 🙂

Two of us, 3 bed house, and like the OP we have gas for heating and cooking. I was thinking we must be very low electricity users, certainly we are in comparison to a lot of posters on this thread. Now I'm thinking we must have areas where we can save. Our monthly usage is around 230kWh in Autumn/Winter, less in the warmer months when we never use the tumble dryer (even today it was so windy that I got 2 washloads dry outside). We noticed that when our DD, partner and baby lived with us for 2 months our electricity usage doubled, which could only have been down to extra use of the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and shower, so these are the areas I'd look at cutting down on. Not that I'm advocating not showering , just not staying in there as long. You won't get any cleaner after the first 2 or 3 minutes.

I think these prices are something we are going to have to live with unfortunately. I live in a 2 bed bungalow, and was paying £80 a month for gas and electricity up until December 2021. I am with Octopus. I was given the option of going onto standard variable tariff of £120 a month, or, fixing until December this year at £170 a month. For better or worse I went for the fixed rate, as at least the unit rates can't go up, unless Octopus go broke, until December. The down side is they can't go down either. My unit rates are gas: 7.19p per kwh plus 26.10p per day. Electric 24.08p per kwh plus 24.08p per day.

One thing I haven't heard any comments on is the cost of filling up the car. Yes, petrol has risen by 20%. But it now costs of filling up an electric car with "fuel" has at least doubled.