How is my electric bill £150, is this normal?!

[wtfffffff]

Posting for traffic.

I previously lived in a one bedroom, one bathroom flat. I had a communal water tank and never had to pay the gas & electric bill as this was included in the rent (Landlord payed for my usage through his service charge). Admittedly, I’m quite out of touch of how much energy bills cost.

I recently moved into a two bedroom, two bathroom and it just so happens, I’ve moved into a property that doesn’t have a boiler yet again. I have a water tank which supplies the hot water but the heating is electric and supplied through these very old school wall panel heaters. I had a thought that my bills would be expensive if all heating comes through the electric but bloody hell.

OVO Energy estimated my bills to be £70 a month. I thought this was probably wrong so increased my Direct Debit to £90. Just got my bill for this month and it’s £150?! Last month it was £125. Is this just life then? Do I just accept that the prices of things have sky rocketed and my usage means expensive bills? Am I out of touch and is that not really an expensive bill for a 2 bedroom property?

I also submit monthly meter readings so it’s definitely accurate. I guess I can’t complain seeing as I went two years with only paying £50 or so towards the energy bills… sigh

It’s fine. It won’t be £150 every month. It’s probably £150 a month in winter with heating on, and £50 a month in summer without heating.
it’s just that you have just moved in so have built up no credit. And it seems like you aren’t actually on direct debit but just pay each month the actual usage. It’s often easier on direct as then they just take the average across the year, so £150 x6 months and £50 x6 months. And you can pay £100 a month to cover everything

If it helps, we have a larger property and pay £140 electric and £380 heating and hot water! ( it is a colder country where we are so no way you can’t heat). If you look at readings it’s more like £650 in peak January and £30 summer for hot water ( when heating off)

Wear layers, get some fluffy blankets, and cross your fingers. The cost of gas/elec has risen to eye-watering levels unfortunately.

Oh apparently mine isn't quite £120pm yet (that's usually my max in winter)

I’m on a Direct Debit and pay a set amount each month. It’s just that I received my bill today informing me of how much debt I’ll be in once the DD is taken. Luckily on the app, I can play around and adjust the amount of my DD quite easily

Electric heating is really expensive, unfortunately.

We pay less than £100 combined for gas and electric - two bed terrace.

Depends how much electric you're using. Heating on all day at 20c. 2x 20min showers. All lights on all day? Or 2hrs at 18c and 2x 3min showers? No one at home all day?

At home 24 hours a day.

Two bed, one bathroom.
All electric, no gas syupply.

Emersion heater on for 2 hours per day 9am and 9pm.
Heating is a 1kw carbon heater and one 400w bar on a little electric fire. About 10 full kettles a day for drinks and hot water bottles. Some telly bits on standby. Charge a few devices. Three 6w led bulbs and occasional couple more. Cooker hob on for 2hrs max per week for occasional bacon/sausage roll or soup. Microwave about 1 hour per week. Oven on for about 2 hours per week. 3 full laundry cycles per week. Don't iron. Don't hoover (hard floors to mop).
Line dry washing on balcony apart from one load of towels a week.

Ovo. Prepay smart meter.

£110 per WEEK in winter.
£60 per WEEK in summer.

I will admit there's £7 a week of debt to pay though, left over from when they refused to fix my broken and blank meter, that a power surge destroyed, because of Covid restrictions. More fool them, I has a very lovely warm winter while they couldn't count what I was using but they thought they were putting one over on me with the amount of debt they left me with by their refusal to come fix it. They estimated I owed em £1,500. I know I used about £4,000.

This is an anonymous forum. Fuck them greedy bastards.

We live in a two bed flat and gas + electric comes to about £150 in winter . Bit more if there’s a really cold snap. I think it sounds pretty normal!

Make sure your immersion is on a timer and not just on all the time with a thermostat.

I thinks that is very low if your heating is electric are you sure it’s accurate and not an estimate?

Electric blankets are great.

Two bed mid terrace cottage here, all electric, no central heating just wall radiators (but very space age ones). I rarely have the heating on (maybe twice a week in deepest winter) and only put the immersion heater on once a week (electric shower for washing and boil the kettle to wash up) and my electricity bill is around £70 per month. So yes, electricity is expensive. I just wear an Oodie and put an extra duvet on the bed.

Blimey! We haven't paid that small amount since 2018

Does your bill include vat and a service charge, you can buy lo cost to run eco electric radiators which are cheaper to run

Look first at your water heating. Start setting it for a couple of hours in the morning, and add a boost in the evening if you need it/ Make sure your tank is well insulated.

Hove your heating at a low temperature (or off) overnight.

Start doing all the other little things that we're used to doing, eg not boiling a whole kettle full of water if you only want one cup.

From what I remember, we didn’t have economy 7 so only turned the tank when we needed it. It’s worth experimenting in your case. Does your heating run off the tank as well? That could be the only reason to keep it on.

Sorry to sound dumb but what does this mean? I only have a water tank in the cupboard and from what I can see, there’s no thermostat attached?

Can you post a photo of your tank and the immersion heater, is there a dial anywhere. The heating sounds separate and is just wired in.

Excuse the mess but this is the tank! There’s two little square things but there’s no dial or timer or anything like that. The tank also doesn’t rotate so I doubt there’s anything on the other side. It’s possible it’s a communal water tank like my last place

When the greedy companies put their demands up an average winter monthly bill was over £300 for both, now a bit less but still expensive.

I would recommend applying for a free new boiler. If your heating is as old as yours, the government is supplying them free of charge, no matter if you work or don't. We got a brand new one 2 years ago, never been on benefits. Sounds like you will qualify. Xx

Do you have an electric shower or electric heating? That really hikes up your bill. We have a gas and electric shower and my gas shower costs about 12p per shower whereas my electric one is about 60p per shower. And I shower very, very quickly (military shower, water on to get wet, water off and bubble up, water on to rinse off, water off)!

I private rent so I doubt the Landlord would allow that! Thank you though:)

I live in an all electric house and have just upped our direct debit to £200.We are on an Economy 7 tariff with Octopus. The day rate is currently 30.87 kWh and the 7 hour night rate 13.45 kwh. Our account is currently well in credit but as the weather gets colder they may suggest we pay a bit extra.
Our emersion heater is thermostatically controlled and set to come on during this 7 hour period which is when our storage heaters take in electricity. We never turn the emersion heater off and I can’t remember the last time we had to use the boost - our tank is well lagged and keeps the water hot enough for the children to have baths if they want one rather than a shower.
I try and limit washing to one load a day and set the timer on the washing machine to finish an hour before the cheap electricity ends so that I can tumble dry on the cheap rate if necessary
I know a lot of people think electric heating is expensive but you have to bear in mind that we have no ongoing maintenance costs in terms of boiler servicing etc.
Being honest if we had the choice we would probably move to gas heating as it’s more controllable but our storage heaters are pretty good because the amount of heat they give out during the day can be regulated sort of

Is it an immersion heater cor hot water, if so is there a timer switch?