Energy bill £850 per month?!

[SunshinePie]

My energy bill for 5 bed house has gone up to £850 per month! I know prices have increased but this seems ridiculous! It was £300 before. I called British Gas to check and apparently it’s correct…AIBU to think this is crazy?

What are your meter readings each month/week?

what is the daily charge?

what is the unit charge?

It’s your direct debit that is £850 that is different from your bill

YANBU. But, on average, everyone's bill in my social circle has doubled plus a bit. Were you not expecting this from all the headlines?

Sorry, should say monthly payment!

You need to calculate your usage, price per unit and standing charge. Energy companies will set your dd at the highest possible amount, to get your cash in their bank, don't just pay it, calculate your monthly usage and pay for that.

Old drafty house ? Underfloor heating ? Even then still seems a massive bill , what was it before?

Yes to the advice above. Check your actual usage and reduce your payment to reflect it.

Check your last meter readings. A few months ago, I transposed a couple of digits on the gas meter and the bill was enormous. I thought it was just due to energy prices. Then the next meter reading was lower than the previous one!

Most peoples bills have more than doubled, so if you were paying £300 beforehand then it could be accurate.

Are you in debt to British Gas?

That is massive! Is it a very big house? Very old? Not well insulated? How many people?
We live in a compact 5 beds and we certain don't pay that much. It's 6 of us here + nanny during the day with my youngest. Our house is a recent built and quite well insulated.

A lot of people have signed up to fixed price deals which were set very high because the energy companies need to cover their backs in case prices go up even more. Is this what has happened here?

I was paying £110 / month before April, the best fixed price offer I was sent was £330 / month but I worked out what we were using and how much that would cost at their standard variable rate and it was around £210 /month. So we're on that for now; paying significantly less than we would have been on a new capped offering but accepting the possibility of future price rises.

That is a huge increase! Ours has gone from £110 to £165 – but as pp have said, that’s the direct debit. When I gave my first meter reading after the price cap lift, it was more like £145 a month. I’m keeping my direct debit at £165 to build up reserves ahead of the next price cap in October, and winter bills.

Look at: insulation, drafts, how often you use heating, devices and appliances plugged in, are you big users of tumble drying, long hot showers, etc? Get a plug-in usage reader thingy to tell you what energy you’re actually using.

When I moved into this house the dd was set at £310pm. After 2 months I've reduced it to my actual usage + £30 buffer which comes to £220. I've set up an overpayment on the mortgage with the difference which will take 4 years and £14k off the mortgage!!

Have you signed up to an expensive fix?

But even just going onto the standard tariff would see your bill double if you've come off a fix set a year ago as you'd have to factor in price rises in October 21 and April 22 plus payment of any debt on your account, plus possibly more to 'get ahead' for further expected price rises from October this year.

You need to check your unit rates and compare them to the standard tariff. If your fix is massively more (some are nearly double the April 22 prices), you might want to cancel it if you're still in the cooling off period, but obviously that's a risk as we don't know what's going to happen next winter.

You could also look at what you can do to reduce your usage. Because if you're one of those Mumsnetters with a family having multiple long showers every day, washing everything after one use/wear on the quick wash and then tumble drying when you could line dry and heating the house 24/7 then you could have scope to cut down.

With a bill that size, it might also be worth looking at what improvements you could make to your home even if it means spending serious money for better insulation, less leaky windows and a more efficient heating/hot water system.

My DD hasn't gone up that much - I'm on the variable tariff with Octopus, was in credit and although my monthly charges have gone up slightly, they haven't changed the direct debit. It will probably go up when winter hits, but for now I'm alone in the house, the heating is off and I am being careful about electricity use. I'd assume you're on a fixed rate which is poor value for you.

Completely depends on how much energy your using really!

How much energy are you using? How big is your house in sqft/sqm?

That seems like an incredibly high bill. Our direct debit has increased from £120 to £200, though even that seemed high when we looked at our actual usage, I guess they are trying to make sure we have a good reserve before next winter when prices will increase again. We live in a 4 bed detached house, which isn’t well insulated, energy rating E.

Work out your actual consumption and reduce your payment accordingly. Our reasonably well insulated 5 bed with 7 people in it is costing £370 a month at the moment.

That does seem extortionate, but do does your original £300pm to be honest, was that accurate?

We are also in a 5 bed house, with 6 people. We are paying £270 a month combined now, at the new price cap (though fixed thank goodness as it's going up again later this year), and that is actually over our usage.

look at the variable rate.

I am paying £300 a month at the moment, & the fixed deal runs out in June. I’m with Ovo. They gave me quotes ranging from £550 for the variable, & £780 for a fixed rate.

Uswitch said I can’t beat Ovo’s quotes, & compare the market just said they weren’t quoting.

my husband works with someone who used to work for Ofgem, who are recommending moving to variable. So that’s what we are doing, especially as it’s £200 a month less.

we’ve invested on some timer plugs for the tellys, & am rather obsessed in making sure things are turned off. Kids are reminded 10 minute showers only, etc.

Ours is about £500 (based off actual meter readings) and I’m pretty ruthless about turning things off, not using the tumble dryer unless there are days of rain forecast, no heating. We do charge two EVs though and I do a lot of cooking so I guess that uses a lot of gas.

I have a large 4 bed property - an extension was added in 2005 and I had some 6" Kingspan insulation put in to improve insulation on a flat roof and in the loft so these house is far better insulated - it remains nice and cool inside on very hot days and warm on cold winter days - you can tell, compared to other similar properties in the street that the snow or frost stays longer on our roof because it is better insulated - what is your house like? Mine used to be incredibly hot upstairs in the summer and freezing in the winter - the insulation changed all that.

I replaced all the 50W halogens on the house for LED lights - you also have to change the transformers that drive them. That must have busy about £500 but it paid for itself in 2 years.

I used the wireless energy monitor to find out what was using electricity. I found a hi-fi system was using the same on standby as it was when it was on. Importantly I worked out that a 20 year old fridge freezer was using nearly 1/3 of all my electricity - I had noticed it was humming into life noisily on quite a regular basis. The refrigerant leaks out and do the compressor was running fast more often than it should have been to try and keep the temperature down... I replaced the fridge freezer with the cheapest Bosch one from John Lewis (about £250 I think) and it's brilliant and paid for itself in about a year.

We turned the heating down 1 degree to 18C - it took a while to get used to it but after a couple of months we are fine with it.

My bills before an the office increases were £77pcm and they have gone up to £170pcm although by being more careful about using the oven less, not doing a rinse on the dishwasher (by buying better tablets) I reckon our bill can be knocked down to £148pcm. Radiators are off on bedrooms we don't use (2 kids have left uni now and never coming back!)

We don't have a tumble dryer - haven't had one for 20 years - we use an airer hanging from the ceiling in the utility room where the boiler is.

I'm sure it will be possible to find ways to bring your bills down. We don't leave anything on on standby - e.g. the printer, laptops, radio, TV. Definitely check your fridges and fridge freezers out - of you notice them humming and making a noise regularly they could be using quite a bit of electricity - basically flogging themselves to death trying to compress a tiny amount of refrigerant gas back into liquid. We have an electric shower in one bathroom that we never use now. I think twice about cooking anything that needs the oven.

Obviously check your loft insulation including your loft access. Keep doors closed to reduce airflow around the house.

£850 does seem a hell of a lot. Does your bill say you are in credit or debit? If your electricity meter a smart meter that is read remotely and automatically or have you been supplying real readings? If your bills are just based on estimated readings the bill could be out by a huge amount.

5 bed house, and we are paying £300 ish a month. Family of six.

That does seem awfully high, even factoring in the price hikes.

That seems very high. We are a family of 10, large 5 bedroom house. We pay for what we actually use each month and our highest bill in the middle of winter was £330, in the summer it's less than £100. Obviously it will be higher this year, but even if we don't change our usage it shouldn't go higher than £700ish for our highest winter bill. £800 a month seems very high even to me.

@larkstar what is the wireless energy monitor

@SunshinePie seems a tad high but many peoples have doubled

ours was £140 then £160 now £275 a month dd

iim In credit (just) at the moment as spring summer and guess building credit up fir when sept oct onwards comes and heating is on

this month bill was £180 so kinda begrudge paying £90 extra but I also don’t want to get to winter and not afford heating

my bill says I used last month roughly a day

13 kWh units a day electricity £4.40 a day and sc .40p a day so on top extra £12 a month

23 kWh a day gas £2 a day and sc .26 a day so on top extra £7.80 a month

so thinking next month will be less as no heating on and assume slightly less electricity due to lights less on so will prob be another £100 over so guessing may June July august will be £500 in credit for winter

or something like that. I will check my bill next month to see if less /similar to this one in units