To ask how I’m supposed to pay this heating bill?

[ye10000]

This month I put the heating on set to 18. It automatically clicks off when it’s got to 18 and it goes off entirely at 10pm until the morning. I’ve looked at usage and it says the heating has been on an average of 7 hours a day. This had meant a bill of 502 pounds. We are in a three bed detached. That is almost a quarter of my income and I have one dc in nursery, single parent. I am so worried about the coming months, is 7 hours a day average a lot? I thought I was being careful.

Its way too much. Are you up North, I on;y use it a couple of hours and the house is not cold. You put it on like it's full winter. SO that would be the same for next month and any other cold month I suppose. It's still to expensive I would call to tell them I am switching and wait and see if they can make an offer. Can you have it verified. We had something like that ( way less) and in fact they were doing an estimate and we were owed money we did not have to pay anything.

I put mine to 20 for 4 to 5 hours at most when it's cold, with the cooking and the dryer I don't need to heat. I also have good curtains and blinds.

Most British housing stock was never designed to hold the heat. The norm has always been to heat the rooms you are using because it's always been prohibitively expensive to do anything else.

At the moment we have the heating on 0-3 hours per day depending on how cold it is. I only put it on, for an hour at a time, if it feels very cold. We all layer up in the house and make use of heated throws and electric blankets. Have a look at tips from money savingexpert.com on heating the human for when you are working from home.

I'm not having a go at HER for Christ's sake. And I am not being insensitive. I'm sorry you didn't understand the point I was making, however I was sympathising with her. Read my posts.

I'm having a go at a system which allows energy companies to make enormous profits, while at the same time a country in which people are telling cold people that if they can't afford heating they shouldn't use it. Like one charmer did on this thread.

The country is a mess. There seems to be an agenda at play in which we are being persuaded that being warm enough is an extravagant luxury. And an immoral one, because you know, climate change.

If we are to tackle this as a country, there needs to be RADICAL rethink, especially as the population ages. Old people get cold. We can't simply be told "get a heat pump" when so many of our buildings are so unsuitable. We can't just chuck money at those on benefits and in social housing, because there are many many people who don't qualify for either of those things, who are still struggling for money. Climate change won't mean we won't need heating.

This is really important and needs addressing. People can't simply be charged more and more and more. Those who say they grew up with ice on the inside of the windows and THEY were ok conveniently ignore the fact that back then, coal was cheap and plentiful and many more homes had fireplaces. They weren't in poorly built modern houses with no means of heating them which doesn't involve chucking large and ever increasing proportions of their income at energy companies.

It should not be seen as a luxury to be "not cold" for more than three hours a day.

Clearly, we're all different, and our houses are all different too. Whether 7 hours per day is too much or not is very much a subjective question, and while it's genuinely interesting to hear how others heat their homes (I'm a bit of a nerd on the subject), the OP's problem is that she can't afford her heating bill.

So I think the best advice is that, longer term, better insulation may be helpful, so that the boiler does not have to work so hard to heat the house to 18 (subject to affordability, and any grants available). But in the short term anyone struggling to pay bills needs to contact their supplier and work out a payment plan rather than risking their health by not switching on the heating at all. I'm fortunate enough never to have been in that situation, but I imagine that energy suppliers will do all they can to help if customers are struggling.

I've just had my November bill and it was £182 gas for 24/7 20° heating. Although it was turned down a bit one weekend when we were away and also on the few sunny days we had. 3 bed ex council terrace for 3 people.

you are missing the point that the child isn't in the house for the majority of the time the heating is on, so isn't sitting under a blanket.

If OP could afford seven hours a day heating then it's nobody's business but hers. She's posted on here saying she can't, so the suggestions to prioritise using the heating when child is in the house, and just heating 1 room/OP keeping herself warm through other means when the child is in nursery seem like the most obvious solution!

A family keeping warm in winter is (obviously) a necessity.
Heating multiple empty rooms rather than just the 1 you are working in 8 hours a day is a luxury/waste of money. I don't think anyone has suggested that OP should just suck it up and keep typing until her hands freeze to the keyboard, just that she could consider cheaper ways of keeping warm rather than automatically switching on the thermostat.

Suggesting someone put an oodie on/use a hot water bottle isn't a fundamental breach of their human rights ffs.

It sounds like OP has had her boiler on all day, and out of those hours it's run for seven hours. Ours runs 1-2 hrs in morning if not too cold and then about an hour in the evening, set at 18c like OPs - our bill is a lot less - the length of time it's been on explains why it's so high. Only time no one is here is if we're out together, so probably using same amount of electricity as OP.

Can you set it a fraction lower at say 17.5c? It might help with the cost.

What do you wear when working? I have multiple layers (webcam set to only show from neck up) blankets, scarves, beanie, dressing gown combos.

Some posters swear by heated throws, sleeping bags, hot water bottles. I also wear knitted hand warmers and big fleecy slipper boots.

@Era I think you’ve misread there. That poster was not being insensitive. The opposite.

Are you able to work in a small room? It should be cheaper to get a fan heater and just heat that room up while you are working. Make sure that you get a heater with a thermostat so that it will go off once it reaches a warm enough t temprerature. You should also get heated throws etc to put over you when you are working.

And make sure that you wear lots of layers and socks and boots (not slippers as they are not as warm). It will make a big difference.

Ours is approx £600 gas and electric a month but we are in a large detached. We don't have all rooms heated, on for about the same time as yourself, hour or so in morning ,just over 5 hours in evening,longer at weekends . If I'm really cold during day I will put a convector heater on in room I'm in but largely I've found jumper and cardie and keeping busy keeps me warm, well that and the hot flushes 🤣.I'm sleeping under 3 quilts though. Your bills do seem a tad high if the thermostat is set at 18 and you're in a 3 bed, how old/efficient us your boiler? It may be cost effective in the long run to upgrade it to a newer condensing combi boiler if its old.
Trouble with not heating everywhere is that you can end up with a lot of condensation and damp if not careful.

@uncomfortablydumb53 makes a good point, OP. If the meter readings on the bill are estimated, check the actual meter readings. They could well be lower, as overestimates are common. If so, ring your provider and tell them, and they'll revise the bill.

Also, if estimated readings were used on the previous bill but actual readings used on this one, you may have been undercharged on the previous bill and the charges will be higher on this one as it's playing catch-up. (If there have been a series of underestimated bills, it will have an even bigger impact on the current bill.)

I may have overlooked it, OP, but I don't recall seeing if your bills are monthly or quarterly. If quarterly, £500 is a bit over £150 a month, so really not a huge amount for a family home these days.

Can I just take a moment to recommend a PIV unit (it stands for positive input ventilation so no sniggering at the back). This is particularly useful for those who have older houses with modern windows and good loft insulation, which can actually cause damp, because it means the traditional way the house has always"breathed" is no longer possible

They draw down dry air from the loft and decrease the humidity substantially. Dry air is easier to heat than damp air, and they decrease mould and condensation issues.

Re bills. A friend was getting estimated bills from British Gas for months even though they were able to get actual readings from the smart meter. No idea why that happened but her bills were absolutely ridiculous and that was when it hadn’t even got cold. Definitely check yours are all actual not estimated bills

I work from home too @ye10000 and agree it is utterly miserable trying to work in the cold. I dont understand these people who say dont put the heating on. Working from home generally means sitting at a desk so we dont move around to help us warm up.
I have my heating on all day - and it worry's me hugely but there's not a lot I can do about it.

I focus on keeping the room i work in warm - I wear warm clothes but in order to focus on work - the heating has to be on basically.

£500 per month still sounds a lot OP. Is that actually a bill - or your direct debit amount?? Are you paying off a debit balance? My last bill was about £160.

It may be worth checking if your boiler is up to date - check what insulation you have. Adjust the thermostats in rooms your not in all the time - get used to turning the thermostats down and back up again during the day as needed. If you can afford one - consider fitting a smart heating control system so you can set each room on a schedule.

I live in an apartment block in Italy, where the heating is for all the apartments and the city council decides how many hours a day (max) we can heat the building.
The outside temperatures have dropped below FIVE DEGREES C so now we have heating twelve hours a day (6-9 and 13-22)! We pay a monthly fee for all common services of €180 and approximately half of that goes towards heating in the Winter months.

Just to point out that 7 hours a day isn’t really that long.

I'm having a go at a system which allows energy companies to make enormous profits, while at the same time a country in which people are telling cold people that if they can't afford heating they shouldn't use it. Like one charmer did on this thread.

I totally agree with you @WestwardHo1 . It's fucking ridiculous that, in what is still one of the richest countries in the world, people are having to choose between heating and eating while energy companies make massive profits (SSE alone made over £2bn last year, ffs.)

I refuse to be cold. I feel the cold badly (combination of hypothyroidism and being old) and I refuse to cut back. I have the thermostat at 21* for a few hours in the morning, and again from about 5pm. And I'm WFH, so need some heating during the day when it's really cold. The last few days, I've had it on for just an hour or so in the early afternoon.

My house is well-insulated (cavity walls and loft both done relatively recently, plus the loft is boarded) and I had new windows and doors, to the highest thermal standard at the time, 3 years ago. I have thermal linings to the curtains and reflective foil behind the radiators. My boiler is less than 3 years old and is AAA rated for energy efficiency.

I feel so lucky that even with this cold snap, my bill this month, based on usage to date, is likely to be very close to the £80 per month I'm paying by DD. But even if it wasn't, I wouldn't turn the bloody heating down and suffer the cold. I'd rather get into debt, frankly.

Hi @eardefender is that just winter months or for every month of the year...

All year round £285, per month, The amount was recommended by our provider. We have cavity wall insulation and a fairly new loft conversion so quite well insulated.

That sounds pointless. It takes a good hour for my heating to get the house up to 18 (which is the very bottom of what is advised as a healthy temperature). You might as well save your money and not have it on at all.

@FuzzyPuffling 11 degrees is ridiculous. That's making you ill and damaging the fabric of your house. It's not sensible.

Not read the whole thread so apologies if these have all already been suggested...

You can't change what has happened, @ye10000 unfortunately you just have to pay it. Maybe have a clear out on Facebook marketplace/eBay/vinted to get a bit of extra cash?

Things you can do going forward...
Increase your direct debits so you build up credit throughout the warmer month and the winter bills are less of a shock to the bank account.

Put silver coated bubble wrap behind the radiators or on the back of the garage to reflect heat back into the house.

Put rugs down over any hard floors so your feet don't get as cold!

Thick curtains with linings.

Draught excluders.

Lots of blankets/jumpers/woolly socks, slippers, hot water bottles - heat the person, not the house.

Can you work in a local library/cafe rather from home so that you are out in the daytime so you can turn the heating off for more hours?

Use a teapot/thermos for tea/coffee so you don't have to boil the kettle as often.

I don't personally have one, but lots of people have recommended getting an air fryer instead of using the oven to save electricity.

Shop around in case of any good deals on switching providers.

Hope you are able to work something out with the energy company. It is a stressful time to have to find so much extra, especially as a lone parent.