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.

If I can air dry all the washing of 3 people including a baby in my tiny flat you can definitely stop tumble drying! Otherwise seems normal

This usage seems like a lot, probably due to putting washing machine on every other day? It's two of us and I put max 2 washes a week. We almost never use tumble dryer too.

I only do a wash every other day for 4 people so you are using the same energy costs as a family there.

Mine is 190 per month for a five bed house with 4 of us, sometimes 5. . I use the washing machine and tumble dryer every day. The hot tub runs all year. I thought we were paying a lot!

Our bill was £280 this month for a very small 3 bed bungalow

Some families afford to pay, because they forgo the luxury of deciding towels have to be tumble dried to fluffiness.

Have you monitored your daily usage? You don’t need an electrician to see whether it goes up as expected on tumble drier days.

Your bill is within one pound of ours for the same time period!

We're in a 5 bed townhouse. 3 storeys but we don't heat the top floor (radiators are off). Me and DH here only (kids have moved out).

We don't have a tumble drier. I put on about 2-3 washes a week at most.

It is really bad for the environment to waste needless electric. If I had many spare bedrooms one of them I would use totally as a drying room just hanging washing over those manual airers. Unless the weather was fine.

@Woahthehorsey

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

So around £350 just for electricity? What are you paying on gas and to run what size house?

Joddys and yard clothes don’t need washed every time. Hang them up somewhere to try and put them on again.

Ditto painting clothes.

@BlondeDogLady

Your bill is within one pound of ours for the same time period!

We're in a 5 bed townhouse. 3 storeys but we don't heat the top floor (radiators are off). Me and DH here only (kids have moved out).

We don't have a tumble drier. I put on about 2-3 washes a week at most.

@BlondeDogLady is your heating electric?Why do you think yours is so much? Lots of lights? fridges/freezers? (Am trying to work out why ours is so much.)

We use under half what you do with 3 of us in a 4 bed. It's most likely the tumble drier causing you the problem, which is a crazy expense. Use fabric conditioner and hang things to air, and replace it with a more efficient machine if you absolutely must use it.

@InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest

That is a high bill, but I can't give you any sympathy because you are one person living in a 5 bed house.

Downsize!

You've used 1246kWh over 46 days. This equates to an average of just over 27kWh used each day. That's high. The two of us in a five bedroom old house use roughly 15kWh a day on average. I use the washing machine and tumble dryer 3 times a week. Hairdryer every day. Am not particularly careful with lights. Don't use a dishwasher. Same as you, our heating is gas. Cooking is a gas hob and electric oven. So it sounds like our usage is pretty similar but your units are nearly twice ours. I think you're right to get somebody in to check your metre.

How do you use so many kwh?
I have a similar bill - I changed my bill day so went a bit longer between statements.
But only used 363kwh
2 bed house- washer on daily as we have a newborn quite a few devices some left to charge overnight.
We need to get better at turning things off.

We have electric cooker.
No dishwasher or tumble dryer.

I don't think OP was worried about paying the bills so downsizing and not using stuff is probably not what she would want to do, I think she wanted comparisons with others as she was worried her meter was wrong so was overpaying.

@GiantKitten thanks for that. We also had bulbs that would regularly need changing but now that they’re all LED/energy saving I can’t remember the last time one went.

I also found this handy table after some Googling, switching your lightbulbs over will literally save you £100s every year compared to the old style bulb. Yes it’s expensive to replace them, but don’t do it all in one go and spread the cost.

Just looked at our last bill which was 2/10 to 22/12. We used 1058 kWh. 5 bed house, me DH and two adult (still teen) DC. We use washing machine every day, but don't have a tumble dryer. Electric oven, but gas hob and central heating. Our rate is higher than yours, and that's on a fix until the end of May. 16.198p per unit and 34p per day standing charge.

I live alone in a 3-bed terrace. Gas heating, cooking and water heating. No dishwasher. Electric Shower (soak then switch off, soap & shampoo, then rinse off). 5 loads of washing per month (and often hunting around for stuff to make up a full load). Air dry laundry except nearly dry towels which get 20 minutes tumble (every fortnight). LED lighting throughout.

I use 1600kWh electricity per year. January bill shown. The rates shown are a variable (price capped) tariff, and are 28% more expensive than the OP's. I absolutely guarantee that OP is on a fixed tariff and has been for some time. If this ends after April (when the cap will rise by 54%) then OP will be paying twice as much for the same usage (1.28x1.54=1.97).

It must be your usage.
We're in a 5 bed draughty victorian terrace, 2 of us, both at home all day. We don't heat the two rooms on the top floor, heating, hot water and cooking is gas, we have a tumble dryer but it's only used to 'finish off' air dried clothes. No dishwasher, washing is OHs job but I reckon x3 loads per week, all the usual tech stuff. We are very poor at turning things off rather than leaving on standby.
Our usage for the 7 months between June and end January was 1284kwh, slightly more than you used in 46 days.

It really isn't down to a few loads in the tumble dryer a week. We use ours lots (yes, yes, I am the devil incarnate) and we're still no where near that with minimum one load a day.

I'm not sure on usage to be honest, but there are 7 of us in a 5 bed, washing and dryer on most days, TV and devices on everyday, oven and hob are electric and heating is gas. My combined bill is currently £111, and is meant to be increasing to £145 when the prices change.

@tara66

Give up fluffy towels? Not necessary at all! Buy better towels?

Tumble dry for 10-15 minutes to fluff - either at the beginning or end of the drying process. Hang to dry rest of time.

Currently 4 bed terrace house. Someone is at home during the day. All electric.
One radiator on in the living room. Regularly waking up to ice on bedroom windows. No tumble dryer. Washing machine and dishwasher go off late at night when electric charges drop.

£300+ per month

Previous property 4 bedrooms + 1 bed fully functioning annexe. Dual fuel

Lights left on, gas central heating on full blast (my body temperature feels the cold more than others), tumble dryer on.

Summer £75 per month. Winter £150 per month and we were regularly in credit.

Even if bills had doubled we would have still been warm and I wouldn’t have minded paying £300+ as long as I am warm.

Not £300+ per month to freeze.