First big bill of the year....

[Tolkienista]

Like everyone on here, I'm conscious of the increasing price of gas and electricity as the year moves into winter. It's been bitterly cold for the last couple of weeks , so I knew my latest bill was going to break new boundaries. I set my thermostat around 16°C and I'm with Octopus reading my meters once a month....... this time last year my gas was £36 for the month, this year I submitted my reading yesterday and it's a whopping £120. Electricity is around £42 for the past month. Of course there's the £66 discount to be taken off.

What sort of figures are others coming back with, now we've moved into winter?

We've still got 3 days to go until the end of our month and we are at £312 so far. That's £96 for electricity and £216 for gas.

I'll be pleased if it's less than £350 for the billing period. Which is still £50 more than I'd hoped it would be at the start of the period, particularly given we've been cold for the majority of the month 🥶

My combined was £200 a month in summer so at this time of year I’m reckoning at least £400. That’s with the heating on 4 hours a day set at 19 in a well insulated 3 bed terrace. It is what it is.

Did the sums since our last bill this month
gas + electricity was £30 per day before rebates etc. and that was just turning the heating on a few hours in morning and evening. thankfully the snow is now gone

This was my November usage. Gas will be higher in December as its been cold

Yes it definitely is what it is.......I'm not a big user of gas, but that seems to be the one that's gone through the roof. It looks like it could be a cold winter, but I'm determined to stay warm and cosy while I'm in the house.

About £160 for gas, £100 for electric for the month.
We have solar panels though, so 4 months with zero energy costs (the solar iBoost heats the water) so we had £800 credit the start of October.

Mid Sep-mid December £500 combined gas and electric (before government payment). Figures were more or less similar. I think £240 gas, rest was electric. Normally I used to pay around £300 for the same period and we had higher usage.

We used £71 gas in November (including VAT). We'd already used that amount in the first ten days of December and has been colder here since then, so I'm expecting something like £160 for whole month - trying to hold onto the fact it's been an exceptionally cold spell here (ie we only get the night time temperatures we've had every 6-8 years) and we'd be unlucky to get those nighttime temperatures again.

Our heating in previous years has been set at 18.5c, but this winter we dropped it a little to18.3c when it was on, but when it was cold reset to 17.9c and the good news is that we're all coping on slightly reduced temperatures.

Last year gas was think £78. I love a hot house and was on all day

nov To dec was just under 190

bill over double but used 2/3 less

£195 due on 5th January for combined Gas and Electricity.
Me and DH are mortgage free, have 2 State Pensions and 1 smallish (under £1,000) work pension.
Compered with our DC's who have kids and large mortgages, we're quite well off.

I had my gas statement the other day for the period 18/11-18/12 and it was £583!!!

We live in an old draughty Victorian detached house which never seems to get warm 🙁, so we expected the bill to be high but nearly £600 for one month is well beyond what we anticipated. Luckily we have a healthy credit balance to offset this with but it's still eyewateringly high.

We have a good household income and we are very concerned at the size of this bill but how on earth are those on a single salary or benefits meant to cope? If we had been on a prepayment meter we would have had to put £145 a week into the gas meter alone!

These prices are unsustainable, people can't afford them and will get ill from lack of heating.

@Lavendersquare

People on prepayment meters don't tend to live in old draughty Victorian detached houses.

The bills are expensive, but I think it is worth noting that last week the weather was pretty extraordinary. I doubt whether we have had a week of such severe cold since Dec 2010 - it's actually quite rare for the temperatures in England not to rise above 0C during the day. Extraordinary cold is going to lead to extraordinary heating requirements.

@GasPanic

Our house isn't a mansion and is fairly modest where I live so actually plenty of people on low incomes could well be living in similar properties.

I know the weather was exceptional however those on prepayment meters would somehow have been expected to find an exceptional amount out of their household income to cover the cost - or just be freezing cold.

Wow, that is on another level.......but as you say it's a big house and I'd imaging there are high ceilings and spacious rooms galore to heat up. Good luck for the remaining winter months, my bill too was for the 18/11 to 18/12 and since that date it is thankfully a little warmer.

By comparison we live in a Victorian terrace, have our gas CH on all day 18-19 degrees so comfortable, and so far this month our bill is around £120. I expect Dec total knocking £200.

Electricity will be nil as we use less than the £66 credited by the Government.

The type of house makes a massive difference, as would single glazing compared to double.

Our billing date is 23rd, looks like we'll be just over £300 for the month ending tomorrow, that includes SC and VAT.

Looks like you're pretty sure of your figures, so no surprises for you when you receive your energy statement. I heard today that the reason everyone's standing charges have gone up so much Is to cover failed energy providers. They really are so much higher than a year ago. It's never ending coupled with car fuel price rises too.