to think people who don't have Smart Meters and who pay monthly or quarterly are going to be in for a shock at their next bill?

[cakeorwine]

Gas has gone up from 4p a kWH this time last year to 10p a kWH this year.
Obviously people with Smart Meters can see this on their display.

But if you still give readings and wait till the bill arrives, I think there are going to be some real surprises. Gas use is at its highest over the next few months.

I know people will have the £66 off their bill - but it's going to be high.

At least with Smart Meters, you can see daily use. Submitting a reading and then getting a statement and bill is going to be a shock for some people.

Agree , it didn't come across as a helpful thread , it read as a " you're all gonna wish you had a smart meter when the shit hits the fan !" Vibe .

Oh and finally, smart meters are not the displays you look at in your house. Those are in-house displays (IHD) and don't need to be looked at or even plugged in. The smart meter is your actual meter, in your meter cupboard or wherever it is. There's no need to be looking at numbers ticking up or anything if you don't want to. Just put the IHD in a drawer. There are better apps anyway that can link to your smart meter and show usage if you're interested in that kind of thing. Loop is really good.

I don't trust smart meters. I give monthly meter readings. Have always done it in the last 32 years. Not a hard thing to do.

We pay by direct debit. 3 bed house always paid £150 for electricity and gas, consistently in £500 plus credit. Energy company insisted we needed to raise our direct debit to £238 per month which we did. Had smart meter for 2 months. £125 and £135 respectively. Now over £1200 in credit and they are still wanting to raise our direct debit again!

It's the ones that don't read their meters that will get a shock.

Gas has gone up from 4p a kWH this time last year to 10p a kWH this year. Those who don't have a smart meter will just just assume that their bills this year will be 2.5 times last year unless they reduce consumption.

I do a meter reading every 1-2 weeks.

Just because I don't have smart meter doesn't mean I'm in some kind of dreamland

Yes - so there are going to be people who have cancelled DDs and who now face very high bills this month or quarter.

I guess they couldn't afford the proposed DD. The winter bills were always going to be high

I'd bloody love a smart gas meter, but no one will agree to fit one for me

"... will just assume that their bills this year will be 2.5 times last year unless they reduce consumption".

Most sensible people would have already reduced consumption. 2.5x would be unbearable for most people but the question in how much the reduction in consumption will affect the increase in bills. That is where the smart meter comes in. I only managed to reduce it to about 2x. Knowing that during the first cold week of the year, I can now cut back on consumption even further.

If I got a bill at the end of the month that is over 2x or even 3x last December's (because of the particularly cold days this week) I would be shocked. It does not take much to tip the scale when the house is firing gas at this rate.

Smart meter displays do seem to make people constantly anxious in their daily lives though so I'm not altogether sure that is a good thing, there are a lot of anxious threads on here about it.

Yabu I can read my meter perfectly fine and convert it. I don’t want a silly smart meter last house we got one installed my bills magically kept going up and up and up despite being more and more eco. Back on a stupid meter and I’m using less in a bigger house magic.

From curiosity has anybody calculated how much a smart meter costs to run, I presume they are plugged in, I don't have one (and don't intend to despite constant letters and emails from eon! I have too few sockets & object strongly to the adverts telling you that you will save money by getting a smart meter as if it has magical abilities to reduce your bills).

I’d rather not have a constant, anxiety, inducing reminder of how much we’re being ripped off.

Personally, I find it useful to see what things are costing and the cost of heating. I know what my bills are looking like.
Others are comfortable with submitting a reading and adjusting accordingly.

I do have a spreadsheet with the costs of energy. Assuming I don't change anything my predicted gas cost in Jan 23 will go up from £70 in Jan 22 to £170 in Jan 23

And I am a low energy user.

*Yes - so there are going to be people who have cancelled DDs and who now face very high bills this month or quarter.

I guess they couldn't afford the proposed DD. The winter bills were always going to be high*

Or they could but cancelled the DD because they thought the protest would bring the energy cos to their knees over prices. Like I said, that worked well. 🙄

Op I don't think you are being patronising
To be honest i do feel a bit in the dark about it and we don't seem to have been affected so far but I know we will be.
I have no idea how to work out usage at all.

However I am bracing for it.
I think ours must have been low to begin with because we use an air fryer anyway, low watts lamps, heating on twice a day, electric blankets...

Supposedly energy saving oven.

It's colder so far this winter isn't it? If it continues then even with the same hours at the same temperature on the thermostat, the boiler will run for longer in that period if it's colder outside.

Octopus have predicted my Dec and Jan bills at about £130 but I'm not sure if that is based on last year and this year may be colder.

It's colder so far this winter isn't it? If it continues then even with the same hours at the same temperature on the thermostat, the boiler will run for longer in that period if it's colder outside

This is my prediction for January 23

In Jan 22, I used 1548 kWh.
If I used the same in Jan 23, then my bill goes from £70 to £163

And if January is colder and I don't cut my usage, it will cost more

That's the reality of the increased cost of gas

That's what I'm saying, it can be hard to predict no matter what you do on a spreadsheet if the weather is just colder so the boiler is spending two hours heating rather than an hour heating and an hour maintaining if needed.

Are predictions by energy companies based on the previous year or do they take into account expected temperature?

I won't be shocked because all I see on here is people talking about it

@Mossstitch

I assume you mean the smart meter display rather than the smart meter itself?? You don't have to even have that plugged in. I do because I'm a bit of a numbers geek. I tried running it on batteries as where I'd like to put it doesn't have a power supply. It absolutely chewed through AA batteries! So back on mains it went!!

but given my base electricity use is between 2 & 8p per hour, (including under counter fridge/fridge/freezer, tv on SB or in use, various other things in SB, iPhone& iPad on permanent charge etc. I don't think jnplugging the display is going to make even a teeny bit of difference!!

This. Give a meter reading on the website every 2 weeks at the moment. Takes less than a minute. Statement is immediately updated. Still in lots of credit so very happy. We can't get a decent enough signal here to safely have a smart meter so we do the next best thing. The world keeps turning

Smart meters don't cost anything to run. The in-house display (which is not your smart meter) costs pennies a year and you don't need to use it anyway.