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My smart meter is £3.57 it's 8am!

91 replies

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:11

Omg first cool night last night and heating has come on

As the title says it is 8am and my meter is already over £3

Thermostat set at 18 degrees

Heating has now gone off Shock

OP posts:
KangarooKenny · 05/11/2022 08:15

My thermostat is on 15* and we wear layers.

BooksAreSaferThanPeople · 05/11/2022 08:15

We had a frost here yesterday and it remained cold all day. The heating is set at 18 from 7-8am then 16 until 4pm, then 18 until 5pm then back down to 16.

Cost me £6 yesterday.

What worries me, is that it is bad now, but next winter is likely to be worse. Terrifying.

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:21

I am becoming obsessed with looking at it ☹️

OP posts:
Iwritethissittinginthekitchensink · 05/11/2022 08:24

Do you really need the heating on at night?

Nowheretoogo · 05/11/2022 08:26

My gas bill was £88 for October,having the heating on from 7.30-8 am,it wasn’t even on every day!..new boiler as well

MorganSeventh · 05/11/2022 08:27

It's a lot of money, but does the house need to be 18 overnight when you are sleeping? I think there's probably more benefit to heating during the day when you're up and about likely to get cold, than when you're in bed and under the covers. Can you set the thermostat a degree or so lower overnight and see if it makes any difference to how well you sleep?

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:28

The heating came on at 7am Smile

OP posts:
AriettyHomily · 05/11/2022 08:28

Heating was on yesterday 6-8 and 1700-2300, whole day was £2.97 and that includes two loads of washing and the dishwasher a couple of times. Don't have a thermostat but heating was on on halfway between low and medium.

Today we are at 95p, heating on same as yesterday.

Bemyclementine · 05/11/2022 08:28

I have never had the heating on overnight, can you set it to come on for an hour or 2 in the morning?

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:30

At night the thermostat and heating are off, just to clarify!

OP posts:
cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:31

70p approx is standing charge

OP posts:
Nowheretoogo · 05/11/2022 08:31

@AriettyHomily are you on a fixed rate?

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:34

nowheretogo I wondered this too Hmm

OP posts:
MorganSeventh · 05/11/2022 08:34

So it's cost you approx £2.50 to run the heating for about an hour? Are you on all electric heating?

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:40

Gas and electricity

OP posts:
cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:45

It is the gas that is costing the most ☹️

OP posts:
Logoplanter · 05/11/2022 08:45

We have Hive and individual thermostats on each radiator. I upped the thermostat to 16.5⁰ yesterday during the day (it's normally on 15⁰ during the day) Individual room thermostats were no more than 18⁰ (bedrooms lower) Heating was on for 3 hours 39 minutes in total and we spent £7 on gas 😱 That included 28p of the standing charge, using the gas oven for about 30 minutes and two short showers.

I'm comparison, in the summer with no heating on we were spending no more than 75p.

Total spent including electricity yesterday was £10.69. Honestly don't know what we are going to do when it gets colder 🥶😥

Chersfrozenface · 05/11/2022 08:48

OP, when you say your smart meter is at £3.57, is that just for heating or for all electricity use?

LittleLlama · 05/11/2022 08:48

We are looking after my husband’s mother for two weeks - so the heating is now on (for a couple of hours in the morning and five hours in the evening). Based on yesterday it is going to cost us an extra £200 in gas alone for the two weeks! Fortunately we overpaid during the summer and have built up enough credit to manage.

Pigsinmuck · 05/11/2022 08:50

£3.57 minus 70p standing charge is around £2.70 ish on an hours heating? That can’t be right, look at what else is on, look at what you charge per unit of gas is and why your boiler is needing to use so much.

BooksAreSaferThanPeople · 05/11/2022 08:51

cantheydothisreally · 05/11/2022 08:45

It is the gas that is costing the most ☹️

It's the same here. Three bed detached house, new boiler, new roof and loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, thermal curtains up including on doors. Curtains closed as soon as it gets dark. Doors kept shut to reduce draughts etc. Boiler set to optimum efficiency settings.

Basically we have done everything we can and it still costs us £6 to have the heating on for a couple of hours a day at 18 degrees.

You'll get people on here feigning surprise etc. I don't know if they are wind up merchants or clueless. That's just how much it costs now on the price cap.

madnesss · 05/11/2022 08:55

For context, what does it normally read at 8am?

Soontobe60 · 05/11/2022 08:56

I’ve read somewhere - can’t remember where - that the greatest cost of the heating comes in the first hour when it comes on, as the boiler will be fired up constantly until the chosen temp is reached. Once it’s reached, the boiler fires up intermittently, so cost per hour is lower.
maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can clarify?

Hmmph · 05/11/2022 08:58

Had heating on for an hour and a half last night to warm the house up a bit as it was only 13deg inside. Managed to get it up to 17 deg. It cost £2.50 ish, give or take a few pence. It's the first time we've put it on this year. It's 15 deg this morning inside, so no heating here as we can cope in lots of jumpers!

WhatsitWiggle · 05/11/2022 09:09

I have heating on for 6 hours a day, it uses about 30kWh a day, costing me about £3.50 with the standing charge. I have only 5 radiators plus towel rail, and Honeywell Evohome so not all radiators are on for all 6 hours.

If you've hit £3 in one hour, how many radiators do you have? Do you need them all on? If not, look into a smart system - it reduced my usage by 20% last year and will be a bigger reduction this year because I've got stricter about what is being heated when eg only bedrooms/bathroom in the morning currently.