£760 per month for energy!

[Veuvelily]

Dear God
It was £323.
There are 2 people living in this house

There’s no way 2 people can be using that much energy. Ours has just gone up to £61 (there are also two of us). Do you have a smart meter?

How are you using so much energy for 2?! We are a family of 6 in a 4 bed semi, we used £100 of electricity last month and £63 of gas.

Do you have medical equipment that uses electricity?

Have you checked how they've calculated it?

I was told repeatedly that prices are going up, and that's just how it is. I had to really fight to get my energy supplier to listen to me, and to understand that their estimated use was garbage, and that's why I was complaining. My new estimated bill is still higher, but it's not as insane as they were quoting, because now it's based on what I'm actually likely to use...

Are you paying for all your neighbours?

That can’t be right unless you have the heat I Inc. on and the windows open and are floodlighting the garden all night long. Ours will be going up to £87 gas and electric combined - two of us in an average house and we’re reasonably careful but definitely not stingy.

I’ve been in this house 4 years
My last house was £250, 4bed.
This house is bigger, BUT, each of the 3 floors has its own thermostat, so I am only ever using one floor.
I have given them regular readings and my direct debit has risen accordingly. I never skimp with the heating, do a lot of washing and the hot water is on permanently, cos the timer is too complicated

Ive asked for a smart meter, appt has been cancelled 3 times.
I recently had a recalculation which I think has messed everything up. But this new amount is based on my predicted usage not any back pay.
But if I’ve given them regular meter readings, why the recalculation?

No hot tub
No medical equip

I’m going to print off all my online bills and see if I can make sense of it before I talk to them

Is it a fixed rate offering though?
And don't leave the hot water on

It depends where you live and what you live in. We're 2 people in a detached house on top of a hill in SE. Admittedly, we're both retired and at home, but we still pay around £200 a month (averaged over the year).

I umm-ed and ah-ed about fixing last August. Thank god I did. To fix now would cost £700! Even the new cap is better than this.

Might be cost effective to get in a plumber to give everything an overhaul and to explain the heating controls.

That's bonkers money, we pay £130 for a 4 bed detached and we have teenagers surgically attached to gaming computers plus DH works from home.

PS. we're on a smart meter

The hot water needs to be off! It’s cheaper to work out how to use the timer than it is to pay for constant water heating!

@FluffEverywhere

We've just switched to Octopus at £92 per month for electricity, with British Gas for Gas, we pay that quarterly, winter bill was £384..

We switched because OVO charged us £717 for 2 months electric (pay on receipt of bill), after SSE switched us to them when they were taken over..

Do you submit regualr readinga/can you get a quote based on actual usage?

@FluffEverywhere - can you please please please tell me how you managed to switch at the moment. I am desperate for other quotes with the possibility of switching, but everywhere is saying they are not taking on new customers at the moment. Thank you 😁

We just logged in direct with Octopus, entered our usage and got our quote - they were the only company we could get a quote from/switch to, though!

@Veuvelily

I’ve been in this house 4 years My last house was £250, 4bed. This house is bigger, BUT, each of the 3 floors has its own thermostat, so I am only ever using one floor. I have given them regular readings and my direct debit has risen accordingly. I never skimp with the heating, do a lot of washing and the hot water is on permanently, cos the timer is too complicated

Ive asked for a smart meter, appt has been cancelled 3 times.
I recently had a recalculation which I think has messed everything up. But this new amount is based on my predicted usage not any back pay.
But if I’ve given them regular meter readings, why the recalculation?

Sort out the water. Is it an immersion heater?!

No point in a smart meter if you can't be arsed to figure out the hot water timer! Are you really willing to pay hundreds of pounds extra rather than learn how to use it? Go and find the instructions NOW. I'm sure Mumsnet can help if needed.

Sounds like you can cut your usage massively if you use your heating more efficiently.

Pay a plumber to come out and show you how to do it if YouTube videos are not enough.

What is your actual usage in kWh? It will be on your bill.

For context, two bed house, two people who are keen on energy efficiency and wearing warm jumpers and our direct debit went up to £80. Hot water done once a day, heating is around 4 hours a day in winter, off completely now.

@Ohbuggeritsme

There's probably no point switching at the moment. Your choice is the capped rate, which is pretty much the same with all the suppliers, or a fixed rate that is likely to be significantly more expensive, possibly double what you'd pay on the capped rate.

Another option might be to see if your existing supplier offers a 'loyalty fix' but even those are currently expensive - we fixed at nearly 15% above the price cap with our current supplier about a month ago, but they've increased their prices on this deal at least 3 times since then and a couple of weeks ago it was more like 80% above the cap and only until the end of the year instead of a full 12 months.

Best you can probably do now is sit tight and if prices come down over the summer, possibly fix before we get to autumn/winter, but be aware of exit fees on the off chance that prices fall further. Also keep an eye on what Moneysaving Expert are saying, because they release regular articles/videos explaining the state of the market and the ins and outs of fixing at any particular time.

You have your hot water heating on all the time??
That’s beyond unreasonable. Dear God, you may as well stand in the street and chuck the contents of your purse out every day.

Can you post a pic of your heating timer and see if anyone here can help explain how to set it to come on and off? Honestly, you really are throwing away money needlessly heating the hot water constantly.

BUT, each of the 3 floors has its own thermostat, so I am only ever using one floor.

central heating works by convection. It warms the air around the radiator which rises, the colder air replaces it and round it goes. So if you have upper floors with the heating completely off your boiler is working overtime to maintain the temperature on the lower floor. You would probably benefit from having your upper thermostats a little higher.

You leave the hot water on because the timers complicated? You can’t just opt out of learning things because it’s hard, it’s really come back to bite you on the bum now.

Look your control unit up on YouTube, that’s what I do when I need to learn something practical.

@Veuvelily

I’ve been in this house 4 years My last house was £250, 4bed. This house is bigger, BUT, each of the 3 floors has its own thermostat, so I am only ever using one floor. I have given them regular readings and my direct debit has risen accordingly. I never skimp with the heating, do a lot of washing and the hot water is on permanently, cos the timer is too complicated

Ive asked for a smart meter, appt has been cancelled 3 times.
I recently had a recalculation which I think has messed everything up. But this new amount is based on my predicted usage not any back pay.
But if I’ve given them regular meter readings, why the recalculation?

You're complaining about your bill because you can't be bothered to Google how to change the settings on the timer and keep the heating on a lot?

Yabu. Google it, there will be instructions somewhere, probably even a YouTube video. Otherwise keep paying and don't complain.

@RagzRebooted

I don't understand how it was over £300 for 2 people before, never mind that increase! Definitely something wrong there, check their estimate of your usage and make sure it's not an inflated fixed rate.

I was thinking that! We pay £80 a month currently still on an old fix. That covers giving us credit for over winter too. We aren’t tight for heating ( before now!). Not silly temps all day and night but never cold. Two of us in a 3 bed semi with one working from home.