How the fuck am I meant to afford this? Electric bill this month

[LadyFlumpalot]

My electric bill is £643 this month. SIX HUNDRED FUCKING QUID.

It's correct, I've checked and double checked. It was £400 last month. In the summer it was approx £180 a month.

I'm in a three story attached town house thing, fully electric. Two adults, two children. One fish tank. Usual tumble dryer, appliances etc.

I've got a balance built up of £450 so with my usual monthly payment I will just about break even this month. Next month will be a challenge though 🥶

And it's only going to get worse.

Not really looking for advise - just sympathy and solidarity. We are about to go full fucking Victorian. There will be no tumble dryer, no dishwasher, no charging appliances at home during the day.

I HAVE A DIRECT DEBIT.

Every month my bill tells me what my usage is and how much electricity I've used in a monetary figure. That figure is either covered by my direct debit or not. I deliberately chose a higher direct debit in the summer to build up a credit. I thought I'd built up enough of a credit to get through the winter. The credit will be wiped up entirely in one fell swoop this month. This means that next month (assuming the amount used is similar) my direct debit will fall approx £300 short of my actual amount and I will be in debt. I don't want to be in debt. I hate being in debt.

Yes my monthly payment will remain the same as I have a direct debit, but at some point there will be a reckoning when my direct debit no longer comes close to paying off the amount used.

I did find stopping tumble dryer usage helped tremendously with our electricity bill. I was actually surprised how expensive they are to run.

I have also reduced washing machine temperature a lot, so no more 60° washes. Ever. I do 40° wash maximum for towels but everything else on 30°, and have reduced running time all washes too, so eg no longer do a 3 hour cotton cycle. I'll use the 1 hour or 1hour55 cycle maximum. You find clothes actually come out just as fresh as they would on higher settings because actually it's the detergent that disinfects them not the 60° temperature that basically eats your money.
I'm beginning to wonder why 3 hour settings or 60° settings even exist.

Creating heat from electricity is the most inefficient way to create heat right now.

I feel sorry for people dependent on electricity for heat. You're being shafted and screwed at the same time. Sorry.

OP - I know how you feel - it's such a lot of money. My bill isn't as bad but still well beyond my means. I have already cut it to the bone but the building I'm in is not energy efficient. I'm not going into debt for fuel bills - I am cutting down further and further and now camping out in this building - We live in one room and it doesn't feel like a home any more and it's bloody freezing.

Oops. I know it's expensive but I consider it practical and good value - it does a full load quickly, we have a lot of washing & no capacity to dry it all effectively.

I think I 'waste' electricity in so many other ways (or my DC do! Endless lights on, devices in use and so on.

But that’s how the DD plan is designed to work! I think your past experiences are influencing how you are reacting to this. You are supposed to be in debit in winter, and in credit in summer. The whole idea is to smooth your monthly payments out by taking the estimated annual costs and dividing them by 12. It’s not really debt.

Our Gas and Electric DD is 197each month. Just had a bill for Oct to Jan (3 months) and it was just over £500 so I'm still around £300 in credit. By the next bill in April our usage will have gone down as it will be getting warmer and washing will dry on the line etc.

I keep reading about huge bills and wondering what I am missing? Genuine question as I am worried I am somehow not understanding our bill.

We are a 3 bed detached house, 2 adults, 1 toddler. I use the dishwasher and oven daily, have the heating on 2 or 3 times for an hour, morning, noon, evening) and I use the tumble drier a few times a week. We are a new build so I wonder if that's why I'm not having such a huge bill? (Don't get me wrong, it's a lot more than we've ever paid but we are managing it and I thought it would be a lot worse)

Bloody hell! Our gas and electric are only £160 a month. How on earth have they even been able to charge you that?!

If all your cooking is electricity dependent, switch to more stove top cooking or grilling, rather than heating the whole oven. Heating an electric oven right now is basically like cooking and eating your money.

Turn your refrigerator down to a lower setting.

I'm doing all this myself by the way. I read up on it. It's rubbish but you get used to it.

OP, do you have a microwave? I don't but apparently that's more cost effective.

The whole idea is to smooth your monthly payments out by taking the estimated annual costs and dividing them by 12. It’s not really debt.

I don't think you're understanding! OP's bill is much more than usual. Her credit, achieved by the 'spreading out' you are talking about are based on her costs last year.

With the increased cost, she has wiped those out. Next month she'll have a really big bill, no accumulated credit to offset it.

Her DD will rise to accommodate that, whenever that happens in OP's arrangements.

So she has a bigger cost than she can afford to pay!

How are you using £180 a month in summer?!? Our combined gas and electric in summer is about £50 a month.

Mine is 10% of my wage ATM and that's bad enough

DH and I have been brainstorming as the night figure for KWH is ducking astronomical. It's correct, as I'm religious with meter readings, but astronomical.

We had a issue with our heating where it was tripping out...but the heating pumps were still running, but sending cold water around the house. This meant they were on all night trying to heat the house sometimes. Also, DH has just told me he has been using the immersion heater quite often!!

Hopefully we can get it back down for next month, thank you all for your tips and for making me feel not quite so alone. The heating has now gone down to artic levels (my Raynaud's Syndrone is going to LOVE me) and I will be making full use of every single blanket I can find.

Same!

No, I do understand and it is quite normal to have your credit wiped out and you build up a debit in winter. You then wipe out your debit and build up a credit in summer.

When the annual DD is renewed, the DD amount will be adjusted taking into account her actual KWH usage vs any new price hikes and any debit/or credit will be rolled into the calculation.

It’s not at all a given she has a bigger cost than she can afford to pay. Its completely normal to hit zero credit at New Year because you’re halfway through the heating season of Oct-Mar.

Because we have a fully electric house. Electric for eating, hot water, everything.

Cooking/heating/hot water with electric is about 3x the cost of gas.

We usually fill ours and run it every second day if we can. Sometimes I might need to fish out a certain pot or knife.

Your usage is on the very high side if you're using 180 in summer!

For reference we're a family of 4 in a 3 bed detached 40yo house and spend 180 combined in winter.

We have no tumble, use a dehumidifier and heated airer. Electric blankets to heat the person not the house.

Perhaps a smart meter would make it clear what appliances are using the most energy.

Because the actual cost is way higher currently and is being subsidised by the government.

Right, cos what op needs right now is a 10k bill to fit panels which will take a decade to pay for themselves, can't imagine they're going to power an all electric house in January either

Its completely normal to hit zero credit at New Year because you’re halfway through the heating season of Oct-Mar.

Yes. But not with an exceptionally high bill, such as OP has.

So regardless of when the DD changes (my energy company do it in line with bill increases, not at the end of a period), it's going to be higher, and be a cost that OP has to bear, that she didn't have to before.

How could it be otherwise? She has to pay the increased bill at some point.

Power showers are energy hogs, I refuse to have any in my home. They can cost as much as 70p per ten minute shower. If you have any teens that love long showers like I do, you can’t afford £2 a day for them to have a shower!

How is your heat generated? Is it an air/ground source heat pump?

£1300 was mine (and £936 the month before)

If you own the house it’s worth looking at ashp, solar panels etc there are grants aimed at rural households.
we run an ashp as background heat and the entire electricity bill for December was £250.
If you have open fires or log burners use them
We also have a catalytic calor heater that heats a large area really quickly. For example if you put it near the bottom of the stairs and leave all the upstairs doors open it will warm it all up. We have a huge kitchen and I use the calor heater on very cold mornings to warm it up fast.
These options all need a CO monitor as well though.