January energy bill

[NewBootsAndRanty]

How was yours?

For me:

1 bed flat with just me in it. Heating on at 21 in the day, 18 overnight this year for health reasons. Tumble dryer used once a week.

Gas 1570kwh / £160.77 (last year 706kwh)

Electric 56kwh / £18.49 (last year 149kwh)

Standing charges £23.16

£202.42 altogether, so about what I expected.

£198 for a 5 bed with two of us.

I did at the first I was genuinely so shocked.
this was AFTER the £67 too!

I managed to get the second one down but I’m not using the dryer anymore which I would have done, and the thermostat is never higher than 19 which it would have been.

I don’t even think it’s been a bad winter!

£70 for gas in Jan vs. £102 for Dec due to that cold snap.

3 bed semi detached.

In a way it’s reassuring to see that other people have high gas bills without their house being particularly warm.

I get rather puzzled by those who claim to have their heating on but their gas at levels below £100.

£447.20 for both in January.

4 bedroom detached in the Scottish Highlands.4 adults and a teen. 3 people at home all day. Heating on most of the day at 16 occasionally up to 20 when dh is feeling really cold. 2/3 loads of washing and tumble drying daily and 5 showers most days.

An interesting comparison and as December was much colder than January it makes leaving heating on at 19° a much better choice, certainly more comfortable.

I had mine set at 19° last winter from 7 am to 10 pm, boosting it to 21° in the evening if I was cold. This year I reduced the overall temp to 18° and have been pleasantly surprised that I have still been warm enough.

The only time I had problems was when a window got left open during the freezing weather and the house was always cold despite the heating coming on all day! This will have skewed my January bill!

We live in a four bed semi, which is a 200 year old Georgian cottage. Definitely ticks the box for being draughty.

January was £186 for gas and £115 for electric (pre gov discount). We have a wood burning stove and I would say are very frugal with the heating. Many days it doesn't go on at all. December was the same for electric but £60 more for gas; we were unwell over Xmas so I went wild and had the heating on quite a bit as we weren't moving about very much.

About £290 for gas, £130 for electricity.

Large 4 bed semi and I'm frugal, out all day and gas used for a 10 min shower in the morning then heating on for approx.4 hours in the evening only.

Good job I'm frugal all year and had 4 figures in DD credit.

Can anyone explain why, when I submitted my last reading(via app) the credit showed as halved straight away, and then dropped by almost half again when I checked again a couple of days after?

3 bed detached, heating on all day

£87 electric

£21 gas (LPG)

£90 dual fuel. 2 bedroom semi. Heating on a few hours per day.

2 bed end terrace.

I pay £150 a month and get £66 back from the government. I was in credit by £22 in December but in January owed £2.77 so bill was obviously a bit more (probably due to me being off work for 2 weeks and having the heating on a bit more).

There's only me and I'm mindful of what I'm using. I can't imagine how some of you are managing, especially with young children or vulnerable elderly at home. 😢

£505 for gas and electricity in January, £410 in December. (3 bed old, cold, draughty semi) Heating was kicking in when the temp dropped below 15, so changed that to 13 (thermostat in the hallway) Changed the heating to come on 1 hr in the morning and 2 hours at night so I'm hoping the next bill will be cheaper! House temp is averaging around 14 when the heating isn't off.

How is it possible that your heating is only £21 per month?

The cap is increasing, but actual rates have been dropping steadily for months now

3 bed house.

£140 combined. That’s £108 gas and £32 electric.

It’s basically the same as December, although we were away for a week in December over Christmas. That very cold spell in Dec pushed costs up.

We are on a fixed 2 year tariff which ends in June. Therefore, same rates as last winter. We have reduced usage compared to then.

When it’s the extremely cold phases, if people are at home we keep the heating on from 6am at 16 degrees all day, increased to 18 degrees for an hour when people are getting up and 5 hours from 4.30. Otherwise we have it on at 18 degrees for an hour in morning and 5 hrs in evening. The extremely cold phases were about 9 days in Dec and about 6 days in Jan for us.

Because we are on a fixed tariff with same charges as last 2 winters, I’m saving the £400 government money ready for next winter. For us, that will be the time our bills see the big rise, as lucky for us, we’ve got away with it this year.

@Notcontent We live on an estate without mains gas, we are on LPG there are tanks that feed the houses.

We have a committee that deal with the gas company and they have negotiated a good rate as long as there are a lot of residents that buy from them.

We were paying £40 per month but were in so much credit that they wanted to reduce it to £2 per month, we said no and agreed at £21.

We are still in credit and up to date readings are given each month.

If I submit online readings for both fuels, the electric is usually deducted immediately but the gas takes a day or two to be taken off while they 'check ' my readings.

They have to check the calorific value as part of the calculation for gas from m3 to kwh. It's usually around 39.5 but it varies and has been over 40 recently.

Four bed end of terrace Victorian house, only moved in in November and discovering all the draughts/parts where more insulation needed. Two adults, 11 and 14yr old.

For January:

Electricity: £165 for 494 kwh
Gas: £269 for 2,740 kwh
Total: £434

I don’t know why it’s so high. No tumble dryer. Washing machine used only when full and not as often as I read on here some people use it. Almost always showers, and we don’t even all have one every day. Heating on a couple of hours in the morning and four hours in the evening. I WFH quite a bit but don’t have the heating on when I do.

In January we turned off the underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathroom completely as that was £££.

House pretty much still always feels cold, our bedroom never gets above about 14 degrees.

With Ovo Energy, rates are:

Electric: 33.38p/kWh and 37.08p standing charge
Gas 9.80/kWh and 27.12p standing charge.

I’ve done cost comparison websites and it says it’s not worth switching, are those rates really what most people are paying?

Ah, thanks, that would work if the gas is deducted before the electric in my case 🤔

@Wigeon yes, those tariffs are normal. I am with BG and mine are actually slightly higher (but not much).

My gas bill was very similar to yours for 3 bed mid terrace. So smaller but I do use underfloor heating (gas) in the kitchen.
Your electricity is high compared to mine (£65) but I have new appliances and e.g. don’t use my oven very much - probably 3 times per week but only for 30 min or so every time. I do use a dehumidifier to dry clothes but they seem to be fairly energy efficient.

That suggests your gas is about £1.50 an hour (£269/(30*6 hours a day)).

That's not outrageous. People coming on here saying its £5 per hour then unless they've got a boiler the size of the Titanic it's definitely suspect, but £1.50 an hour is pretty normal for a normal sized boiler.

You probably need to work on your insulation. Also check if the radiator in your bedroom is undersize. I am replacing mine because there are only a couple of rooms in the house where I really want high heat (living room and bedroom), and the bedroom one is definitely undersized. If it is not undersized then maybe get some TRVs and turn down the heat in the rooms that you don't care so much about, so hopefully your bedroom radiator should run warmer if it is later on the circuit.

So do you have your heating on for 6 hours a day? That could be why it's so high. We've just cut ours down to one hour in the morning and two at night as our December and January bills were so high. Could that be an option?
Tbh, I'm cold all the time at home, just warm up when the heating is about to switch off. (We're in an old, cold and draughty house) It's miserable but I'm hoping the weather will get warmer soon.

Insulation is definitely an issue and we’re working through the list:

Single glazed Juliet balcony door in our bedroom - getting quotes to replace

Single glazed patio doors downstairs - will replace

Have put up a curtain at the draughty front door, just made a draught excluder and that’s in place, have added insulation strips although the door is original and quite warped, so you can still see daylight…

Some other windows didn’t have curtains, so we are in the process of adding them.

Big thing is a side passageway under the house isn’t properly insulated, so the bedrooms above it are cold. Getting quotes to get that insulated.

There’s more but those are some of the big ticket things!

Bedroom radiator - it’s an old style Victorian sort, so is actually quite big, think the issue is probably the insulation points above.

Re TVRs - we use every room!

I think we do need to have the heating on fewer hours per day, and keep topping up the hot water bottles…

Your rates are slightly cheaper than ours but your bills significantly more, and we have our heating on constantly (well, it’s set to 18 so it isn’t ‘on’ constantly but it’s never entirely switched off).
We live in a 4 bed detached house, 5 people, 2 who work from home all the time and 1 child who is disabled so we have more washing than most. However our house is only 30 years old and extremely well insulated so that must make a big difference!