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.

Usage will vary according to property type and things like what type of light bulbs they use - I just counted, there are 47 light bulbs in our house , I don't know what difference it would make if we switched them all back to old-style bulbs instead of the energy savers/LEDs we have.

Also whether they are using newer A-rated appliances or older less efficient ones.

@megletthesecond that's how I roll. If the weather forecast is for a dry day I put on sheets and towels regardless of the time of year and get them on the line early.

Bedding and towels for one person can all be done together, and still probably won't fill the machine, unless it's a smaller than average drum.
No chance, and it's the same amount of bedding for one person as it is for a couple! I have an average sized machine but have to split up the king sized bedding into 2 loads or it doesn't spin properly, although I add other bits to the 2nd load.

@InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest - IMHO, that is way too high for a single person. Given that heating and cooking is gas and everything else you've said, no way should it be that much for a little over a month for electricity only. Unless you are boiling a million kettles a night to run a bath or showering for 6 hours at a time. Even using the tumble drier a few times a week for washing for one person would not be that much - I'd definitely get it checked out.

"According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average tumble dryer uses roughly 4.5 kWh per cycle. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) estimated that in 2020, the average cost for electricity in the UK was 17.2p per kWh.
Therefore, working on averages, a tumble dryer could cost you:
4p per cycle
£40.24 per year, if you use your tumble dryer once per week" (blog.domesticandgeneral.com/articles/cost-of-running-a-tumble-dryer/#:~:text=to%20find%20out%E2%80%A6-,How%20much%20does%20it%20cost%20to%20run%20a%20tumble%20dryer,was%2017.2p%20per%20kWh.)

You do realise that if you put air dried crunchy towels in the tumble dryer for 5-10 mins with a tennis ball you get the same level of fluffiness that you would get from solely tumble drying them?

@Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase

Welcome to Tory Britain. This will only get worse and they don’t give a monkeys how much people will struggle and end up losing their homes, rack up debt and not be able to feed their families. That’s why they are pressing ahead with the NI increase and why they haven’t taken any meaningful action to counteract these price increases. If you don’t like it then vote them out at the ballot box. That’s what I plan to do.

The politics of energy bills is one thing but surely the whole takeaway from this thread is that someone is using 400%+ the amount of electricity as comparable households. ..??? So either the Op is just using a LOT of electricity or there is a fault somewhere and hopefully she’ll get it sorted.

@megletthesecond

Why do you tumble dry things? I have two dcs and use the tumble dryer a few times a year. I can still hang things on the line all year round in the UK.

not in the west of Scotland you couldn't! You do realise that not everyone lives where you do? There could be a lot of reasons the OP doesn't hang the washing out. I would love to have mine out every day but since we have rain most days since the start of the year, simply not possible.

@CaveMum

Usage will vary according to property type and things like what type of light bulbs they use - I just counted, there are 47 light bulbs in our house , I don't know what difference it would make if we switched them all back to old-style bulbs instead of the energy savers/LEDs we have.

Also whether they are using newer A-rated appliances or older less efficient ones.

The tungsten bulbs use approx 10x as much as LEDs. Changing all ours over made a massive difference. We had 6 x 50w halogen spots in the kitchen, so 300w per hour (& they were always burning out ); now have 9 x 5w, 45w per hour and no failures after 6 years.

@JoshLymanIsHotterThanSam

You do realise that if you put air dried crunchy towels in the tumble dryer for 5-10 mins with a tennis ball you get the same level of fluffiness that you would get from solely tumble drying them?

I did not know that! I rarely use my tumble drier and tend to dry in the house and have crunch towels - or exfoliating towels as I call them. I hate fluffy towels but the DC are always complaining they are too rough so I try to fluff them up a bit - but only when they are unwell

Ours is more than double that. In fact nearly triple. And we have smart thermostats, heating barely on.

I hardly think it should be a shock that living in a 5 bed home costs a lot...

Large 1930s house. Well insulated. North of England (I think where you are in the UK makes a difference.)

Two adults and a teenager.

£120 a month for gas and electricity. I thought that was high! Clearly not.

I work from home. Heating on approx 2 hours in the evening. Heat the room where I work with a log fire. Radiators off in most rooms. I Washing machine on x3 a week. Dishwasher x2 times. Both newish appliances so more energy efficient. Dryer only if absolutely necessary - I recommend a ceiling mounted rack. Lots of lights on timers, but they use a tiny amount.

pup I'm all about the good drying days!

I can't quite work it out. We live in a 4 bedroom house. We work from home. Oil heating. Our latest electricity bill is £71. Hardly use the tumble dryer. Tend to use the dishwasher and washing machine off peak. I was expecting it to be higher. It is a meter reading - not estimated

Jesus OP you are using more than twice as much electricity per month as I do and there are two of us working from home in an all electric house!

(That's my average usage, because my heating and hot water is electric my usage varies significantly depending upon the time of year)

3 bedroom house, 2 adults and 2 children under 3. We pay £100 a month for gas and electricity and we use the washing machine and tumble dryer at least once a day, often twice. And the dishwasher is on every evening.

They afford to pay by getting into debt. The debt props up the fiat currency system and prevents economic crash. It's necessary and by design that it's unaffordable to the working and middle class.

A significant proportion of the population have to keep taking out debt do keep the debt-based economy going.

In order to ensure few of them can escape you sell the idea of a mortgage as a necessity, this way they cannot stop paying, ever, or they lose their home, which is of course owned by the bank until retirement or just before.

Similar to you OP - currently living alone, 4 bed house, gas heating and cooking. Last 3 months ( so over winter ) my electricity bill was £173.
At a guess I'd say your dryer is gobbling up the units - I might use mine once a week.

Dryer only if absolutely necessary - I recommend a ceiling mounted rack

Do you have a high ceiling? I'm interested in this but the utility room ceiling is pretty low. Also the cats bowls and litter tray are in there and I'm worried the clothes might pick up the musty cat smell?

So I dont know my kWh usage for electric as we have a pre pay meter. I know that I’ve recently gone from about £80 a month usage to around £120 a month. I dread it going up again as we have 6 people in our 4 bed house and they are not energy efficient people! But I am trying to drum it into them to turn lights off.

Gas kWh-we used 7494kwh between 26th October and 2nd Feb.

I have just had a similar bill (much smaller house) - 2 of us, no electric heating, no hairdryers. Very careful with electric shower and don't use tumble dryer at all. I don't use my large electric oven - I use a small table top oven to cook everything.

In answer to your point, i don;t think ordinary families are going to be able to pay their bills (wealthy middle class people will, of-course).

Food is rocketing. I have been watching 4 supermarkets over the last 5 months and the prices rises of ordinary foods are going up fortnightly.

I don't use the dryer to dry clothes - just bedding, towels, bathrobes, that kind of thing.

I pay £138 a month. Me and my DS (9). We are all electric (no gas)

I live alone in a one bedroom house and my direct debit for electricity and gas is a whopping £162pm. I rang them last week and gave them a meter reading. They calculated my bill and said I was £550 in credit. I asked about a partial refund or if I could reduce my direct debit and they kept saying I had to wait until my next review date …..in June. By that time I will have paid another £480 on top of the £550 credit - surely I’m not going to use £1030 of electricity before June?

We live in a converted bungalow with three rooms upstairs. 1 Jan - 2 Feb, we used 136.1 kwh (meter readings taken so accurate), costing £35.79. Only two adults living in house at present time. We don't have a dishwasher, tumble dryer or use hair dryers, but do have an electric oven and electric fire.