AIBU to be feeling bleak about bills?

[PocketRocket12]

Quarterly electricity bill arrived… am actually in tears. Could people possibly share what they’re paying at the moment, just for some sort of anxiety relief that we are all in this together?

AIBU to let it get me down so much? I can’t sleep through worry.

The thing I take comfort from is the fact that there is no way on earth the Tories will get in act the next election and hopefully things the new Labour government will take effective action to redress the balance. I’m talking renationalisation if utility companies, high windfall taxes on companies that profiteer at the expense of consumers. Measures to make sure that big corporations cannot get out of paying their taxes etc

Good luck with that!

@HairyKitty
whats not to understand? We just don’t use that much. - washing machine in a little as possible only use quick wash or hand wash, no electric shower, no unnecessary lights, no tv, no home broadband/WiFi etc., no carpet - floors swept and mopped, no tumble dryer, no freezer, no electric car or bike, no game consoles, no oven use (slow cooker, microwave or salads/sandwiches), no heating unless it’s the fire being lit, (mid terrace and all heat saving options used), kettle only boils exactly what we need, and just 2 adults. Computer used maybe once per month if that. Only charging a mobile phone (usually done at work) and occasionally a kindle.

We pay £100 direct debit per month. This month the gas was £15 and the electricity was £50. That's actual usage. We are with Eon, fixed until October 2023. I'm not looking forward to our fixed rate ending.

Should have said that's for 2 adults 2 children.

Ours is £360 electric and £200 DD for an LPG tank, it's filled around 3 times a year

You must recognise that you have quite an unusual set up.. not using any electronics and not having a freezer, it's great if it works for you but for most people it's not a helpful comparison.

5 bed house 2 adults, nearly always one of us in all day.
We pay monthly for actual usage not a random DD amount.

Gas water heating and cooking. £36 per month following last increase in April.
Obviously no heating at the moment.

£120 for electricity for everything else. 2 fridge freezers, water softener, burglar alarm, occasional tumble dryer. 2 TVs etc. PC permanently on .

Ours was 130 per month. Raised to 350. And we have nothing in credit at the end of the summer. Normally we are 500 or so in credit. And we just bought an electric car before all the rises

It’s so depressing. I’m 58 and cannot remember anything like this before.

We're paying £240 per month (up from £80) for two adults in a 3 bed house, who are both out at work for 8 hrs a day. Hoping we are building up some credit!!!

The £66 isn’t a discount though it just mitigates a small part of the October price hike. This posters bills won’t be anything less they will still be more.

5 bed house with 7 people living here, our last quarterly bill was £630

People wonder how usage can vary so much - so I answered.
No I don’t think our set up is that odd for two adults and no kids.
A questioned was asked and I answered - as did a pp who replied with a similar set up. It’s quite simple - if you want to cut the usage, don’t use items which use electricity.
our life is not any different to any other adults we know - except we don’t have a tv/dvd player as it’s far cheaper to watch on a mobile phone.

@redskyatnight same here I’m amazed at the prices people are paying

I’m on prepay with a card payment always had this way of paying for my gas / electric

I do have a hot tub but if I didn’t have that my electric would be about £20 -£25 max since the rise in April a week That’s what I put on the meter as I keep £100 on it and just put it back up to £100 each week

Plus about £6 In gas atm

The hot tub obviously put the cost up considerably to a extra £30 on top but at the moment my electric including the hottub is about £200 £220 a month

large 3 bed / 2 bath house with electric / GCH

My electric for the the house is about 7-8 kw a day
the hotub uses about 11-12 kw a day and it’s on 24/7 and we use it for at least an hour every day

however I never use the tumble dryer
always have used the washing machine at night as on Economy 7 so it’s so very cheap
Rarely use the oven prefer my George Foreman grill omelette maker and microwave

I have an area outside that’s covered so I use that to dry my clothes even when it’s raining

I don't have the hot water on anymore, I haven't for about 12 months. You just get used to not having hot water 'on tap'. We will when we need it, like a bath for example, but otherwise we boil. Kettle if we really need hot water. It's made a massive difference

Tbh modern tvs are really not an issue. Consumption of 50 inch smart tv is about 0.08kwh when on and 0.005Kwh when not on. Lots of modern appliances consume way less than people believe. That is also true forquite a few things like charging phones and idle charges.

Have to admit I would not survive without freezer. I am freezer person

As I said, I don't understand how some are so high! Would be really interesting to do a comparison.
We have 4 people in the house; DH works from home and at the moment there are 2 teens at home , so lots of computers, consoles, TV etc. on all day. DD also addicted to hair dryer/straightener. We cook a meal from scratch every evening and the teens might well cook up something like beans on toast for lunch. The hot water is on for an hour in the morning and and an hour in the evening which provides enough for our needs (and DD spends a LOT of time in the shower). DH also has a fan on pretty much all day. And there is a lot of tea drinking i.e. kettle on.

Whilst we try to turn things off when not being used (and the teens are not overly good at this) I would not say we are particularly frugal or skimping. We're currently using about £100 a week (gas and elec in total). It was a bit lower when the DC were at school. Obviously don't have the heating on at the moment.

We're currently using about £100 a week (gas and elec in total).

Should be £100 a month. £100 a week would not be low :)

@Bubblebubblebah but it is all the little things, nothing on its own costs a lot, lots of little things add up, even leaving it on stand by adds to the overall cost.

We’re paying £47 a month for gas and electricity combined… 2 bed house, 2 people with one wfh most of the week. If you switch from quarterly to monthly billing would it make it easier to budget OP? Or at least less of a shock only seeing one month at a time!

Alphabet1spaghetti2

I do agree with another poster, yours is a very unusual set up.

£260 combined. Detached 4 bed nearly £900 credit.

So it’s unusual to dry laundry outside, not to have an electric car or electric bike? To not use an expensive oven when a slow cooker or microwave or salads will suffice? To not have children? For adults not to have PlayStations, and to switch things off which are unnecessary or not in use? Even computers aren’t needed unless for work or school homework to be used daily. Banking and bills can be done once per month on a laptop easily or a phone or tablet. Mobile phones or a tablet are cheaper to use for internet surfing. We have no electric heating - no need to put the gas on when a fire is cheaper!
sorry, but everyone I know is exactly the same, with the sole exception of the tv and even that is becoming less rare to be without that it was.

As I said, I don't understand how some are so high! Would be really interesting to do a comparison.

Annual consumption is available down to full postcode level at

www.gov.uk/government/collections/sub-national-electricity-consumption-data#postcode-level-data

The attachment is a handful of LE6 postcode for electricy usage. It shows the number of meters in each postcode, the total consumption, them the mean (average) and the median - the difference between those is instructive.

The OFGEM average usage (quoted in price cap forecasts actuals etc) is 2900KwHfor standard electricity and 12,000 KwH for gas.

Gas data is here

www.gov.uk/government/collections/sub-national-gas-consumption-data

OFGEM average usage for electric and gas www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/price-cap-increase-ps693-april scroll down to para 4 in the notes for editors section

£299 a month. We have been cutting down and use a lot less units but because prices have gone up the next bill will be the same amount as last year even thought we are using less,

Usage varies massively…. which is potentially good news, because that means there is potential to reduce it.

We had a couple of nights away in May, and on the day when the house was completely empty, it used 3.4kWh. Before we went away for our main holiday, I turned off at the plug everything I could reach which didn’t have to stay on. The average then was under 2.5 kWh per day. So there is scope for us to reduce.

Here are a few ideas to help reduce usage.

Gas:

Turn down the flow temperature on your condensing boiler to 55 degrees, or lower if you can. This will enable it to work more efficiently, and could save 5-10% of your usage. May need to have it on for more of the time to reach a comfortable temperature, but will cost less.

Reduce the hot water temperature to 40. If it’s set at 60 or 70 (they often are), you will mix it with cold at the tap to get a comfortable temperature. Save energy by not heating it as high in the first place. WARNING this applies to combi boilers. If you have a boiler with a separate hot water tank, that needs to go to 60 for a couple of hours once a week to avoid the risk of legionella. But it can be lower the rest of the time,

Switch the hot water on your combi boiler from Comfort/Convenience mode to Eco. This means it will no longer fire up every 90-120 minutes, just to get hot water to the taps quicker. Saves you 1.5-2 kWh per day.

In winter: close curtains at dusk. Close doors and allow the temperature in the hall/landing to stay lower.

Electricity:
Change all lightbulbs to LED. If you’ve got a lot, start with the ones which spend most time on.

Wash at the lowest temperature possible - try 20, especially for stuff which isn’t really dirty.

Washing machine and dishwasher - check your user manuals to see which cycles use the least energy. Run them full as much as possible. Tumble dry as little as you can get away with.

When replacing appliances, look at the energy usage - lower is better. Heat pump tumble dryers use a lot less energy (but cost more to buy).

Use an energy monitoring plug to find out what your appliances and electronic devices use. Target the electron guzzlers for switch off at the plug or smart plug to turn them off on a schedule.

Draught proof.

Got a double oven? If temperatures of the things you are coming are within 20 degrees, see if you can just use the one oven and shorten the cooking time of the thing that should be on a lower temperature. Use a steamer to cook your vegetables over the potatoes on a single ring. Use the microwave and slow cooker more, oven and hob less.

Fridges and freezers - some people seem to have multiple ones. Do you need them all? Could you retire one? They will use about 1kWh per day each.