Surely they can’t expect us to pay 240 per month for power!

[Ellie198712]

Just read Martin Lewis’s latest email and it’s predicting average bills of £2900 per year!! Surely the government will need to step in and subsidise this cost. Our current bill is about 100 per month, and this just seems untenable for the vast majority

Bizarre comment.
Even more bizarre response!

[quote StupidUsernameUnavailable]@bobbinHood

Is your 1st name Elizabeth and do you live in a very big house in Windsor??

£500?! Thats absolutely disgusting. That's my mortgage a month 🥺[/quote]
Unfortunately not! It is a big old house but I’m careful to limit our usage which is why £130 has been more than sufficient until now. I need to look into it properly because I don’t understand how a 55% increase in the cap (or thereabouts) can mean a quadrupling in our estimated monthly bill.

I must be really thick but how can the government afford to help Ukraine with the money they've donated, when their own people won't even be able to have a warm home?

We are very lucky to be fixed by chance until may 2023 but a quick comparison says we would go from paying £130 to almost £400 fixed if we had to change now. We have a big house but a very efficient boiler and many windows on the south facing side which is where we live (kitchen play room etc) so the sun really warms those rooms. But that comparison really shows the stark increase.

@rileyhaspiley I was also thinking the same

@RedPanda901

I am really worried about the price rises too. We have really inefficient heating downstairs and we've been toying with the idea of getting a stove burner in the lounge so we only have to heat one room during the winter and can switch the central heating off but I know that isn't environmental. But since our small gas/electricity company went bust over the winter we've ended up with one of the big 6 energy companies anyway.

There's a good article in the Guardian today by George Monbiot about how the government could use this opportunity to invest in greener schemes for insulation, heat pumps and renewable energy. I'm sure though that fossil fuel lobbyists are bending the government's ear to ensure that doesn't happen.

I wouldn't bother unless you have a free source of wood. I have a wood burner and wood is more expensive than gas. You'd be better off spending the money getting your central heating sorted out.

@rileyhaspiley

I must be really thick but how can the government afford to help Ukraine with the money they've donated, when their own people won't even be able to have a warm home?

They could do both. It’s a political choice to keep shafting the poorest

@TolkiensFallow

I’m on shell flexible 6 moving to 7. Our bill will go from £93 per month to £143 per month.

I don’t understand why everyone is paying so much more, I know the cost is rising but we aren’t particularly tight with our usage and aren’t cold either.

Dishwasher runs at least twice a day
Washing machine 3-4 times x per week
2 people shower/bath daily. Plus 3-4 extra baths for DD.
We don’t turn things off at night.
Heating on for an hour or 2 first thing and set to come on if the temp drops below 16.
We wfh do computers all day.

We do have led bulbs, turn lights off if we leave the room and reasonable insulation.

We are in UK. What are people doing differently?

We were paying about the same a year ago, so £93 to £120 now to a predicted £179 in April.

Don't have a dishwasher. Mainly wash dishes in cold water or boil the kettle if necessary (we have an immersion heater which I don't like to put on)

Washing machine probably similar. Usually on cold eco setting. Don't have a tumble dryer.

DH showers most days, I've cut back to every other day. DS won't use the shower, his baths have already been cut back to one or two a week and damp cloth and bowl of warm water the rest of the time.

Don't turn things off at night - that will be changing, have made a start with the easy to get to things. Considering wi-fi plugs so everything could be on a timer.

Heating on for two hours or less a day - an hour at the moment. Don't really use the thermostat as it never gets warms enough to click off (set to approx 18.)

WFH

Majority of bulbs are LED, we turn off lights, house is insulated.

But our boiler is ancient, as is our double glazing - a number of the windows have blown so aren't keeping heat in. But we can't afford to do anything about that.

@MiniDaffodils

Rural households who depend on heating oil are going to be very badly hit.

Too right. Oil has doubled in price in just 3 weeks. With them banning Russian oil I have turned the heating off as I'll need the oil for hot water. I know people who don't have the money for a minimum order as they have been caught up by such a rapid rise. And of course we have memes on FB saying don't moan at least you are not being bombed shared by those who can still afford it.

If that happens here in our house we'll have the woodburner on, candle lanterns everywhere and a camping stove to cook one pot meals on.
The gas and electric will be turned off except for once weekly laundry - no tumble driers or dishwashers.
I've lived like that before in the country and i'll do it again.

@Furries

I’d definitely recommend heated throws. It’s “easy” for me to suggest as I live on my own. But, maybe agree with other family members that, rather than buying birthday/Xmas presents this year, you all buy enough throws to suit your household. It’s made a big difference for me, keeps me comfortably warm in the evenings.

I’ve also got a few battery-powered large candles, means I don’t put lamps on in the living room in the evening - plus the light from the TV.

It’s crazy that we’re all having to think like this. But, as others have said, subsidies end up being paid by us anyway.

I wouldn't bother with the candles. Light bulbs cost a negligible amount to run - I think around £0.007 per hour. You probably spend more on batteries.

It's things like tumble driers which use a lot of electricity

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

the govt doesn't have a magic pot of money to pay your bills with

The=is government has lots of magic money for politically expedient projects and they positively stuff the pockets of their friends full of our cash, the cunts.

^ Completely agree. And they don't have to tax low or average earners more - they could... shock horror... tax the rich. There is enough money knocking around to pay for all of this - it's just in the wrong people's pockets.

As I understand it, the wholesale prices of gas/electricity are going up so the companies are passing on those costs to consumers.

I'm on a prepayment meter for electric. I signed up to a contract, was unable to renew it earlier without it being more expensive, until June 2022. I've managed to get a variable rate which is the best rate I could find.

Last night on the Martin Lewis show, he said that with prepayment to top up before March 2022 - and we are already doing this. However, given that my renewal contract starts in June, would I have extra time to do the top up?

My electricity is going up by £600 per year, approximately, variable rate capped, and I know I'm lucky in this aspect, but I did heed the warnings and adjusted accordingly. I fully understand those that didn't - life at the moment is difficult and now a war in Europe.

It's horrendous, will cripple families already struggling to cope and I think the utilities have to be renationalised now. Profits before people is no longer acceptable.

We can argue with how badly mismanaged this situation has been until the cows come home. I totally agree with what people are saying on this thread but there is nothing we can do about it until the next election. What we need now is a bit of imagination and practicality. My tips are shutting doors to keep the heat in. If you are handy with a needle line your curtains. Old fashioned draft excluders under the doors. Aluminium behind radiators. Heated throws. Layering clothes. Car pooling. Drying washing outside where possible. Keep at least one room warm if you are desperate. User lower wattage bulbs.

Just to add, my prepayment meter has opened my eyes to how much electricity we use. My gas is on DD - fixed until March 23 and isn't rising.

And some more use the eco wash on your washing machine and only do full loads. Switch off everything on stand by. Take showers instead of baths. These are all practical ways to cut your energy usage

I went to fix ours last week and it had gone from our current £80 a month to £280. I thought it was expensive so left it. Look again today and it’s now £340….crap!

Ironing and hairdryers use a lot of electricity. The television does too now.

One tip. Rearrange the internet connection - many of us are now out of contract. I no longer use a landline. Just about to sort this out now.

[quote TolkiensFallow]@BarbaraofSeville
yeah I guess we just wear fairly warm clothes I’m winter because … well it’s winter.

I probably should do more washing a week to keep properly on top of it but I’d struggle to dry it and find the tumble dryer wrecks clothes a bit. I did deliberately buy a washing machine with the biggest drum I could find though so can do quite a lot in a wash.

We have blankets and hot water bottles but that’s because we like them rather than need them. We also use a thicker tog duvet in winter.

Slightly mind blown by so many people heating their houses to 20+ is that all day? Do they not have jumpers?[/quote]

My heating is on 19 or 20 degrees all day because I work from home - and I wear a jumper too! I hate being cold.

I'm shocked by how little some people heat their homes. My bills have increased but they are not extortionate. Just signed up to a new fix at £137 per month starting at the end of April.

However I don't own a tumble drier (the house is warm enough to dry on an airer, or I put it on the washing line), and my heating is off at night.

I wonder whether letting your house get really cold is false economy, because the boiler then has to work extremely hard to get the house up to temperature when you do put heating on.

@JinglingHellsBells

I don't understand - forgive me if I am thick - but with Shell and others announcing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profit - why can't they be allowed to absorb the price rise?????

They already are. And they will use some of that money to use for green energy development.

Energy costs are a global issue based on the price of oil.
It's not just a UK problem.

Do you actually believe this?

@QuebecBagnet

Didn’t electricity and gas board used to be nationalised? So not in the hands of profit making private businesses? Maybe we need to return to that.

Yes they did. My suppliers were the Yorkshire Electricity Board and British Gas.

I cant remember exactly but in the mid to late 80's onwards until privatisation I think my Gas per quarter was approx £18.00, but for my electric I got a rebate each month, making my bill £5.47 per quarter - not joking, as that amount is embedded on my brain .

I had Gas central heating, and a gas cooker. Everything else was electric including an immersion heater which I could use as an alternative if I wished.

Wish I'd kept those bills !

These fixed deals are great if you fixed late last year or a month or so ago AND if your projected usage is the same as your actual usage but if you use more, you'll pay more.
Standing charges (per day) and rate per kw are so high now, I think a combination of using less and some of the suggestions above are the way to go for now.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

Ah you must be harking back to the Blair years No, I am talking about the government we have right now.

The Blair years are ancient history to anyone except pathetic "but Labour" whataboutists.

Though the thing with energy security is that’s it’s a long term game, and the downfall started with the Blair years because there were no votes in it in the short term.

Under his government gas storage capacity declined massively, the program of decommissioning of nuclear and coal fired power stations started and nothing was put in its place as a replacement. At the end of his term he admitted that was a strategic error, but by then labour were out of power and then opposed any reversal of that strategy because of their green agenda. Our obsession with zero carbon has meant that no government since has had the political strength to shift that position - and bar France that’s an EU issue as well. Combine energy strategy with its 20 year lead time, a political system that things short term and a woefully ineffective circle service and here we are…

Well energy must be fucking expensive here in Spain in comparison as my last 3 monthly bills for electricity were 189, 289 and 240. We don't even have any central heating, just cooking, lights, fridge etc and maybe a plug in heater here and there.