Anyone else cry over their bills?

[insanegasbill]

Got our monthly energy bill this morning.

£525. For one month.

I honestly cried. I can't remember the last time I cried over a bill. How is this even possible?!

Last month it was £390 ish which was bad enough so we budgeted around £400 for this month and our usage seemed to be very similar.

We are both employed with good jobs and we are sinking with these ridiculous outgoings.

In January our rent will be £900 as it's going up.

So we are looking at £1400 ish just for rent, gas and electricity come January.

Heating is on a timer and we really do try to limit it, we've been using electric plug in heaters as much as possible instead.

AIBU that this just isn't sustainable? I just needed somewhere to get that out and scream into the void...... What's the actual point of working as hard as we do to be struggling like this? 😢

@insanegasbill if you have a smart meter you energy supplier may have an online app that allow you so see in graph from what your gas and electricity are costing you each day. You could run an experiment using your GCH one day and the electric heaters the next day to see the difference.

Are you sure those figures are right?

It is very high.

As everyone else has said, electric heaters aren't cheap. I don't have gas so no choice but I'm on an economy 10 tariff to offset it a little (generally only available/sensible on an all electric system).

But even accounting for that it is a lot. What's the breakdown between electric and gas and how many KWh are you using?

Does the smart meter reading match the meter?

Do you have an immersion heater or something eating your electric?

That seems wildly high to me.

For context I’m also in an energy inefficient house – timber-built in parts with no insulation, gappy windows, etc. Both wfh all day and have small DC so boost the heating a lot, use a tumble dryer and dehumidifier a lot, have a stupid fridge. And have two electricity meters so two lots of standing charges.

Oct-Nov bill was less than half yours; predicted to be a bit higher now it’s got colder but nothing like that.

I think it’s the electric heaters and/or a meter problem.

If you have a smart meter you can get readings broken down for every half hour if you ask the power company to do that.

I'd guess about third of that bill will be the electric heaters. We had to use them when our heating broke in January and they literally gobble energy.

Also don't use tumble dryer if you can avoid it.

If you have a condensing boiler (most people do) lower the flow temperature to about 50 or 60 degrees. See Flow temp. If you lower the temp and have heating on for longer you should save money.

This thread really shows how little people understand the current price cap and energy costs. There will be no cheaper providers to switch to so unless you are on a pre price increase fix we are all being charged roughly the same under Energy Price Guarantee - From 1 October 2022
Electricity

£0.34 per/kWh
Daily standing charge: £0. 46

Gas
£0.10 per kWh
Daily standing charge: £0. 28

electric heaters are all 100% efficient in that all electric used gets turned into heat but the cost and how much heat you get is going to be down to the wattage of the heater a 1kw heater will be 34p an hour for 1 kw of heat, 2 kw heater 68p for 2kw of heat. Oil filled or halogen makes no difference as it’s all down to the wattage. They just work in different ways. Oil filled is radiant heat so heats the air around you and if it’s high enough wattage the room. Halogen is directional heat so heats what’s in front of it not the air.
using electric heaters will always be more expensive than gas because electricity per kw is 3 times the cost of gas.
stop using the electric heaters and set you timer so it comes on when you need it as low as you can stand it or as high as you can afford. Put your trvs to 3. Don’t turn your flow rate down to low in this cold weather as your radiator s will never warm your rooms and the thermostat will never click off. The flow rate is the temperature of the water that flows around your heating system. You reduce that you of course Payless but you also get less heat. Turn it down if you want when this cold snap is over but not whilst it is -4 outside.
if you have smart meters then use your in home display to monitor your usage. Use your online account to track where you are using a lot and might be able to cut back. If you don’t have a home display then download one of the free appts like loop or Hugo and if you don’t have an online account make one.
smart meters very rarely go wrong. Usually if anyone has a problem it’s the in home display that’s not updated or not communicating but that’s not the meter so it’s very unlikely your bill isn’t correct.
I am using just over £20 per day of gas at the moment. Large house, 5 adults one of whom is elderly and disabled so I have and have always had high usage. This year I am using less but paying more as everything has tripled in price. Pay by direct debit so I build up credit in the summer when my usage is 1/4 of my winter usage so that the total cost is spread out over the year rather than having to find extra in winter. I also get a 5% discount on my unit price of energy for paying this way so might be worth doing but it won’t help you this year .

Note, price cap is average, it differs depending on areas, few p ul and down

It has to be your plug in electric heater. We pay less to use central heating in a 5 bedroom home. Also WFH and have the heating on all day.