£760 per month for energy!

[Veuvelily]

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

Christ alive, how much weed are you growing in the loft?!? 🥴

@ssd

I have a bog standard ikea dishwasher. I always use the fast wash instead of the eco setting as i thought it was cheaper. Maybe im wrong?

Varies depending upon your machine (mine's Eco setting is only 1h). Check your manual.

My Ikea dishwasher doesn't have an eco setting unless it's the one at fifty with a little water fountain by the button which leaves scum all over the dishes .....

My post about eco cycles was about the washing machine. I've not noticed any problems with washing my clothes on a cold wash.

@isthatanotherbastardgrey

Christ alive, how much weed are you growing in the loft?!? 🥴

Or your neighbours. People nick it!

@dementedpixie

Paying on receipt of bill can cost more than paying by direct debit.

Remember fixed rates can be much higher than the price cap rates and you don't have to agree to a new fixed rate rather than the standard variable rate

Thankfully I fixed in August 2021 so before the price hikes. I know you get a discount if you pay by Direct Debit monthly but it isnt a huge discount to lose. I live alone in a tiny house with only 4 rooms so am currently only paying £53 per month and am £95 in credit. My heating is now off until at least October.

I told DH about some of these threads & he also instantly asked about weed farm in lofts.

So what you do, OP, is turn off/unplug everything in the house, fridge, cooker, clock radios, combi boiler (if that is safe?) everything. Check your meter, wait an hour, check your meter. If meter moves with everything off -- either you didn't unplug/ turn something off or someone's nicking your lekki.

If meter doesn't move, Turn back on the little things that shouldn't take hardly anything and again wait an hour to see what they used. After that get a smart meter to see what is happening about individual big devices.

@VariationsonaTheme

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!

I disagree with this. If hot water is in a normal insulated tank, then it will make hardly any difference to put it on a timer. The amount of gas used for heating will just directly correlate with the actual amount of hot water used. (I'm willing to be proved wrong on this, if anyone has any figures to show that tank insulation is less effective than I think it is.)

(Of course if putting it on a timer results in cold showers, that would make a difference, but I'm assuming that it's not the plan to change actual hot water consumption.)

I'm assuming it's gas heated water, with a tank thermostat, on an insulated tank. If OP has a an immersion element that's on 24 hours a day, heating an uninsulated tank regardless of the temperature achieved, that would be a different kettle of fish. Presumably no-one would have such a wasteful system though.

@VanGoghsDog

Not sure why people wouldn't believe us, but here are screen snips from mine - the top bit is what they changed it to at end Feb this year, the lower bits are what they were predicting last May - the rates have gone up (rates are also on the snip) but not by that much!

3 bed mid terrace with gas CH, one adult, WFH but only boil the kettle twice a day, I don't use the tumble dryer much, nor a hairdryer. My use will have reduced this year as I've been being more careful - shower at gym etc, but even with the old use and predictions this is ludicrous.

I see that they are claiming you used £200 a month of energy over a two-month period in the middle of summer. If they're extrapolating that kind of consumption to the whole year, that could explain why they think you will be using a lot. Presumably that consumption is not actual consumption, there's estimated or catch-up readings involved?

The other explanation I can think of is that the £466 rate is so that your arrears can be caught up in a month or two, after which the direct debit can come down. (I had a notice to increase mine this week, and it was because they wanted me to have a zero-balance in 7 months time, on the anniversary of my tariff start, so they do have target dates when they want you to be in balance, apparently.)

I don't understand the angst on here about direct debit being changed to wrong values, as far as I can tell, suppliers have always let me set my direct debit to any reasonable amount I think is right. They suggest what it should be, but I'm free to pay more or less if I think they're wrong.

Going through the bills, think I’ve figured it out.
Looks like everything for the last 4 years has been based on estimated readings. Last month they decided to recalculate 08/11/2019- 11/02/2022
So Feb’s bill is a list of the every bill refunded and then gas and electric recalculated.
So, because the turnover for Feb is so high, that’s what they’re basing my usage on!
Unfortunately I now can’t view any bills for last year.
I’ve got my bill readings, but they’ve not regular, so can’t really work out the usage per month

Have you never submitted readings?
I give mine monthly as I get email reminders to do so

Yes I’ve submitted readings
Not every month, but every couple of months or so.
It looks like although they have increased my dd accordingly, they aren’t actually reflected on the bills.

We've recently fixed at £280 for dual fuel, from £115. Two people in 2 bed semi but we do have high energy usage due to my DH's disability (he has medical equipment, and we also have to use a tumble dryer through winter / in bad weather because damp clothes hanging in the house exacerbate his health conditions.)

@Getoff

Thank you. I've no idea why I would suddenly have used so much in the middle of last summer. There was one day I left a gas ring on, very low hence not spotting it, for about three hours.

The arrears has literally just appeared from nowhere, but it's now only c£200, so by my estimate of c£200pm due, on £466 it will be gone in one month. But they won't allow me to adjust the DD at all.

I did take readings, and I submitted them, and I got emails saying they had got them. But Sept last year I suddenly noticed all my electric bills were estimated and the website said "you have never submitted a reading", and it turned out they had an old meter on my account, when I submitted readings they didn't make sense (against that meter, understandably) so they just ignored them and did a load of estimates, instead of wondering why I and their meter readers were sending in figures lower than the last readings by multiples of ten. Frankly, they're idiots.

So, they've apparently caught it all up now, which I think has skewed the figures. I'd happily pay off the arrears to get to a zero start point but I just don't trust them. And that was only on the electric, I can't understand how it could ever have made that much difference.

I'm taking fortnightly readings now to see if I can get it all back on track.

Ours was £103 a month for 4 people - just home up to £140

Btw,taking readings in my house is no mean feat. The electric meter is in a cupboard in the kitchen and behind a false wall.

I have to empty the cupboard, take the glass shelves out, remove the false back, and then the meter is in there in the dark so I need a torch. I always take a photo too, and as the Meyer is a bit below the lip of the false back I have to hold the phone carefully positioned behind the back, with one hand so I have a hand free to press the button, and be really really careful not to drop it because it would be stuck in the middle of the gap between the cupboards and the wall 🤦🏻‍♀️
And for this reason, I can't have a smart meter. Unless I pay Western Power about £400 to relocate the supply so the meter can be moved somewhere else, though I don't know where it could go.

Use less? Turn heating off. Water only needs heated once or twice a day. If you want lower bills you’ll have to use less electric?

Is that an estimate OP? I’m on prepayment meters (know they are more expensive but were here when we moved in and I like paying for what I use instead of big bills) electric going from £790-£999, gas £780-£1000 per year. The standing charge is a ball ache though going up to 57p per day electric and 37p gas

As another poster said I think people don’t realise they are being charged over the odds for estimates, submitting a reading monthly could bring it down?

Look at what other countries governments have done to halt this and what ours haven't done.

This country gets what it voted for.

We are 680 based on actual usage

@ITSupport

We are 680 based on actual usage

You use £680 per month? I don't see how that's possible unless you've fixed on a hugely expensive tariff or you have your gas/electricity running 24/7 on high energy appliances

3 bedroom house, two of us we pay £96 a month at the moment, how is your bill over £300

A friend of ours has a very large country Victorian house on the boarders (6,000 square feet) they have oil fired heating and their combined energy bills, gas/oil and electricity will be of the order of £24,000 per annum . Remember there is no cap on heating oil

They are going to close off a number of rooms and install heaters to keep off the risk of frost, and taking all sorts of drastic measure on insulation. Some rooms will have a sort of cling films across them from late autumn onwards

Their heating costs have gone up by circa £8,000 pa and unless they spend in the order of £150k on remedial works to improve insulation that is an extra outgoing they will be stuck with that cost

The cost of moving of course dwarf these additional energy bills

Sobering times

Why is the hot water complicated it really doesn't need to be keeping it up at heat 24 hours a day !

I suggest you Google the instructions and try programming it. I reduced mine to 1 hour x3 times a day ( as I'm WFH) family of 4. Evening and morning showers and baths, modern boiler.

Holy fuck - even £300 was a lot for 2 people?!

I highly recommend getting a smart meter fitted and creating an online profile with your provider - I am with Shell energy and can see usage and cost graphs and really track the month as it goes.

I have been terrified of this increase, I am expecting a second bubba and money is already soooo tight it is frightening, but doing the above has given me a certain level of control (control freak - me! Never!!), and it has really helped put my mind at ease.