Worried about low energy bills

[SoleSurvivor111]

Two-bed 1950s semi, poorly insulated. SAHM, two toddlers, one autistic... lots of mess, lots of washing, machine on once or twice a day, heating on from about dinnertime til 9pm most days. System boiler and tank, only on for heating and therefore hot water, immersion switched off. Dishwasher runs once a day. Electric oven and hob daily. TV constantly on. Fan heater in living room (radiator doesn't work) 2-3 hours a day. Lights often on all day (eldest has a thing about light switches, don't always notice he's flipped a few) and a lot of the night because he doesn't really sleep.

Certainly not being cautious because life's hard enough, instead been building energy account credit all summer (don't use gas March-September except for an hour a day to heat bathwater) in anticipation of end of fixed rate, in Oct last year. Now on standard variable, DD stayed at £130, plus the £66 credit, with about £400 still in account from summer. Only cut-down we've done different to last year is no heating/hot water left on overnight.

Last year's Dec-Jan bill was £170ish, so expected £250-300 at least - it's come in at just over £180...😮I always check and double check the meters (not smart: electric is digital, and gas is the dial kind), and take pictures every month before sending them, so I know there's been no errors at my end. But this seems... unrealistic?! Works out about £8 a day, very similar to what we paid last year.

Not sure what to do, keep seeing everyone's horror stories about energy bills, I didnt sleep for a month worrying about our fix ending and how we would manage, yet this is somehow just as anxiety-inducing as the bill doubling! I know it's the opposite problem to so many and I feel terrible moaning about it, but I'm so worried we'll end up owing loads down the line despite, as far as I can see, doing everything right re monthly readings and raising the DD to keep credit building up while our fix was low. Should I contact them? Or does this sound about right for our house and system and usage?

What is your kWh per day usage of electric and gas ?

So if you know your new rate (standing charge + unit price) there's quite a few websites that will work out your bill, use the photos of your usage and if you can't calculate it on your own just pop it into one of the websites and it'll tell you what your bill should have been. Then it it should have been more you'll know and can flag to them, or it might be right! Without knowing your rates and usage it's hard to say.

So bill period was 28 days, and works out 9.57kwh/day electric, 35.4kwh/gas... I think? The bill only gives the whole period but I divided by days and got those figures... Forgive me, maths NOT my thing, hence why anything with money and numbers sends me into a blind panic.

what was your usage in kW last Dec-Jan compared to the same period this year?
I'm on a similar DD to yours (£125) but last year is was only £52 on a fix that ended in September. If I compare December kW (gas and leccy) last year (well 2021) to 2022 it is similar.

What are you paying per kWh for both gas and electric? If you fixed you may still be on the fix.

The bill does break down the rate and the govt guarantee discount thing, so it says:

Electric:
Energy Used 238.8 kWh @ 62.19p/kWh £148.54
Energy Price Guarantee 238.8 kWh @ 31.84p/kWh -£76.04
Standing Charge 24 days @ 45.99p/day £11.04

Gas:
Energy Used* 887.1 kWh @ 16.14p/kWh £143.17
Energy Price Guarantee 887.1 kWh @ 6.42p/kWh -£56.99
Standing Charge 24 days @ 25.56p/day £6.14

So I can see that it's reduced a lot because of this price guarantee scheme thing (and therefore about to get brutal in a few months when they end that, I'm expecting that obviously). But all the numbers are just a foreign language to me. And how are other people's bills like, £500 a month if there's that discount applied to the unit rates, or should they not have discounted mine, or... I dunno, I can't understand it. I think we use a lot of energy but maybe we don't, it is a small house and we are mostly all in the one room together. I just can't imagine like, not having our heating on at all or panicking about whether we can run the kettle or use the oven etc, based on these bills, but maybe something has gone badly wrong with ours...

So same period last year it was electric 8.9kwh/day, gas 50.4kwh/day (like I say, heating was on overnight a lot last year because we had a newborn, so that's the one big change we've made) and overall the bill last year was about £10 cheaper to this year. I was just expecting, like, hundreds of pounds - obviously even £200 is rough, but some people are saying theirs is literally like a second mortage, upwards of £450, even though they've switched everything off, and I was braced for something like this to hit because with the kids we can't be that cautious... so I'm just worried there's been some almighty cock-up and they'll want mega-£££ off us in a few months.

Your gas heating seems a bit on the cheap side, but you are in a smaller house. Depends on how much you like the temperature. I guess it is possible that you are being billed on the wrong units on gas, which could increase your price by a factor of 3.

Your price cap prices seem some way below the Ofgem limits of I think about 35p per kWh for electric and 10.4p per hour for gas (?). The gas one would about double your bill.

If you are paying by fixed direct debit then your usage + standing charge is not that dramatically higher than the direct debit (£120). It comes to £150.21 if you sum everything up. It will go down come spring so should even out eventually.
I wouldn't worry yet.
Others might disagree.

Have a look and see if there is anything relating to the £66. This is the government £400 spread over 6 months. So you may be actually £236 with the £66 bringing it down to £170

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll try not to worry too much, keep as we are, and if it still seems low next month then I'll have to get in touch with them and ask them to double check - at least going into the warmer months, if they hit us with a backpay request then it'll spread out better. It's Octopus and honestly I've found them really pleasant to deal with but I still hate having to sort stuff out, stresses me out, much prefer everything to just, you know, run as it should!