I haven't been able to put my heating on yet

[Anono2022]

I know I'm one of MANY, but I cant help be feel like a bloody failure right now!

I work full time in a school support role for SEN. I have a SEN child myself. I am a single parent with no help from father. Literally everything falls on me.
I'm miserable. i cant heat our home! My monthly electricity is coming in at 170 alone and I'm only paying 100 which is the maximum I can afford! After outgoings have all gone out I have very limited money to feed us on. How the hell am i meant to afford to put the the heating on? Any help available to me is limited due to me having a mortgage.
I feel ashamed and very lonely as everyone around me has a partner/decent two income household. No one understands how tight my finances are.
I come home from work and I often cry because I cant afford even a simple lifestyle. I'm utterly miserable and frozen!

This is just a vent really as I know I am one of very very many. But God I feel shit that i feel like im doing my very best and its not good enough.

We are so close to Xmas now and I've not even brought a single thing. How can I be excited for Christmas when I cant even keep us warm.

Do you have an immersion heater? They are big drains on electric.

No underfloor heating?

You may need to start monitoring your electric meter. Take a note at the start and end of each day.

The tumble dryer will add. Is that used dailly? Still seems a high amount so worth some investigation.

Hi go on your local council website. They may have a cost of living grant. I have heard of some people getting £700 plus.

Also Thames Water and British gas have charities to help people pay their energy bills.

Start charging your phone and laptop at work and minimise your tumble usage. You can throw bedding over doors to dry.

If you're out all day and you don't have a lot of perishables in your fridge o woukd also turn your electric off from the mains until you get home.

Charging a phone is about 1p a charge.

Playing fast and loose with the fridge is really not a good idea.

Are you getting Universal Credit?

Are you getting specialist help with the DLA appeal? If it's successful it will make a huge difference as you'll get the backdated DLA, plus the disabled child element and carer's element of UC.

Look up the Household Support Fund on your county council website; in my area people can apply directly, you can get help with fuel costs and supermarket vouchers, things like that.

Contact your local Citizens Advice (see www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/#h-find-your-nearest-citizens-advice). They should be able to help you with any or all of the following:

• Charitable grant applications eg for supermarket vouchers or energy grants
• Budgeting eg telling you about discounted tariffs that you might be entitled to for energy, water etc
• Appointment with an energy specialist to help make sure you are getting the best possible deals
• Help with DLA appeal (if not already getting help)

Another thing - sorry if this is obvious but make sure you are taking regular meter readings and reporting them to your supplier. This will ensure bills are based on actual not estimated usage. Are you on night/day rate for electricity? If your washer and dryer have timers you could try and use them during night hours as much as possible.

Someone at work had theirs on for the first time last weekend and it cost them £13. I fell through the floor!

No my usage last month was 316 electricity and 14 gas. I've just checked my bill again and it was just below 170 (25th to 25th). I run fridge and freezer, washer, tumble dryer, airfryer, oven around 4 times a month, electric shower. We have two tvs in the house. Rarely ever have two on at the same time and during the week neither goes on barely at all. My son games so spend his weekend doing that but has obsessions with keeping everything at 100 percent charge. He becomes really distressed when charge drops. He finds water calming to unfortunately showers for ages. Easily 30 minutes when he will just air there with the water running over him. Not ideal but he uses it to regulate himself. I do run an electric throw occasionally. But lights are mostly off, never left on and the only thing I leave plugged in are my large appliances and the router (as I damaged my line by turning it off at the wall so I learnt my lesson).

I'm going to have to take daily meter readings to start getting a real idea of what I'm using. But honestly I can't see how I can reduce anymore. I can help my son's struggles. Of course I'd love to reduce my son's usage but that I'm going to struggle with

Also see www.scope.org.uk/disability-energy-support/

Re the shower...is it standalone or over a bath?
Do use gas to heat your water other than the shower?

My child's DLA was declined based on a report submitted full of lies. I've proven it was lies but unfortunately they have used it as their reasons to not award and have gone against every one of his therapists, their reports and supports because of the old school. I cant see a way past their dishonest report as all his professional evidence were overlooked. None of them can believe he has been declined. Nor can I with everything involved but I got the pack the other day for the tribunal and it was school and a medical practitioner who has never met my child using the school report to base their medical opinion.

Are you on the WaterSure tariff? I think you should be eligible because of your son's medical needs (you mentioned incontinence). If you're not on it, you should apply.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/water/water-supply/problems-with-paying-your-water-bill/watersure-scheme-help-with-paying-water-bills/

Shower is over the bath but not attached to the bath tap. The boiler heats the water. Son obsessively washes and scrubs his hands and leaves taps running. This is not intentional but due to poor memory. Same with lights. But im constantly going round turning things off his left on

Watersure when I applied took into account his maintenance as income as I had to submit the annual review. So we wasn't eligible for help with water. Also as he doesn't have a diagnosis yet (due in next 6 months) and no DLA I don't get additonal help

Could you get a bath tap shower attachment to use instead of the electric shower, and use the gas for heating the water? It should be a lot cheaper that way. I understand that might not be possible for a variety of reasons

Re the laundry; your average dryer uses about 4.5kwh per cycle. If you're able to get any grants etc could you consider a dehumidifier? They will dry a load of washing in about 6 hours if you stick them in a closed room, and use about half the amount of electricity overall. If you're using a short hot cycle on your washing machine, that can also work out a lot more in terms of electric use.

It will be the shower that is making your electric bill so high, especially if your son is using it for 30 minutes.

Do electric showers use that much? I understand his shower time is a big issue but he uses it to regulate himself.

Depends how powerful your shower is.

A 7.5kwh shower uses 1.25kWh in ten minutes, a 10.8 kwh shower uses 1.80kWh. So thats 3.75kwh (£1.30) and 5.4kwh (£1.83) for 30 min respectively if your rate is 34p/kwh.

Electric showers are super expensive. When we run ours -10.5kw one - the energy display leaps up to £3.60 an hour (clearly no one is using the shower for an hour but it just shows how ridiculously expensive they are)!

Tumble drying is also super expensive. I get it though- we have a disabled child with incontinence issues. It’s not easy. Our electric is about the same as yours. We now hang everything up on metal trouser hangers in doorways until it’s nearly dry and then just do the last 10 mins in the dryer. That’s helped a bit.

Join this group, it’s very helpful-

www.facebook.com/groups/966754150512356/?ref=sharewww.facebook.com/groups/966754150512356/?ref=share&exp=9594

Please ask your energy company to check your meter. There's no way your bill should be that high. I use half that amount, and I use a fridge, two freezers, a washer and tumble dryer (which I use liberally) and a power shower, and the oven at least four days a week. Plus the obvious things like lighting, kettle, toaster etc.

I had the same issue, but with water. My apparent usage suddenly doubled, and I'd made no changes at all. The water company came out, checked the meter, made some adjustments, and my bills went back to what they'd been. And they kindly refunded the extra that I'd had to pay in the previous twelve months.

www.educationsupport.org.uk This charity might be able to help you? Also some of the unions are helping hardship wise if you’re a member….

my house is poorly insulated I too have had the horror of £70 a week bill for electricity and that before the cold snap.

I would contact your supplier and query that amount. I run a cake business from home and have two ovens on nearly every day as well as other equipment such as stand mixers and kettles running loads too. I have a PC on all day. My washing machine is on once a day and tumble dryer 3 - 4 times a week.

We are a three bed house with two adults and two kids and our electric last month was around 130

Idk if it's necessarily wrong @saraclara The Op's average use works out about 10.5kwh/day for the last month.

A half hour 10.5 kwh shower plus one load of drying works out at 10kwh..

I'm actually worried now why my usage is so high. Annually the most I've ever used is 3700kwh electricity and 8000kwh gas. However last year was 2100kwh and 5200 kwh for gas. I'm not sure what in at yet for this year.

I dont have a smart meter. I had to pay to get the gas line moved which I couldn't afford. Other than monitoring it daily how can I see what things are using?

^ should read average use of 10.5kwh a day

I am trying to type "10.5 kilowatt hours a day." Keeps going weird when i press post - sorry.

I'm paying about the same and my heating is on. I'll just have to be in debt to the gas company. No way I'm sitting in the cold after paying them £170 per month. Turn your heating on.
Assuming you're not on a pre pay.

I haven't read the whole thread, but if possible when you're not at school over the xmas break can you call CMS and get the ball rolling for Collect and Pay, where they take the maintenance directly from the parent?

I agree with others, your elec seems very high.