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Original poster

How are you coping with the rise in gas and electricity bills?

63 replies

SleepDreamThinkHuge · 05/03/2023 16:09

My provider owed me money so far I have not made any extra payments yet but from April or May they predict (looking at my current use age) my payments will be rise to just under £600 from £150 a month currently! That has really shocked me as I my use age is not that high. Tried talking to them but they said they cannot do anything about it.

Anyone in a similar situation? How much has your utility bills gone up by? How are you managing to afford the big rise?

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 05/03/2023 17:58

I hadn't clocked that the day rate was actually around the price cap rate @Kerfuffler . Its normally a bit higher than the price cap which is why I assumed it would be a higher cost.

Okunevo · 05/03/2023 18:11

Are bills going up? I thought it was expected to be announced that they would be kept at £2500 for another three months, after which the price cap would be likely to fall below that. Even if they do go to £3000 for three months, it's only on summer bills. I wouldn't expect any huge jumps unless people have been underpaying previously.

I don't intend to raise my dd from £75 as that will more than cover my summer bills and I'm hoping next winter will be the same or cheaper than this one.

KalvinPhillipsBoots · 05/03/2023 18:13

I pay only what I can afford and fcuk the debt

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2023 18:19

Last month we spent about £10/day which includes keeping a runaround electric car charged. The solar power will do more heavy lifting soon but, given the forecasted snow for next week, I expect it'll be a good while before the gas heating gets a break.

Caspianberg · 05/03/2023 18:30

Is that 4300kwh per month heating? Isn’t that massive? Like a medium hotel size

We used 445kw in February, that’s a 5 bedroom detached house, with home office and part holiday rental. Up to 8 people have been in the house daily February and it’s heated 20/21 daytime, and has been down to -10 with snow outside.

OnaBegonia · 05/03/2023 18:34

I'm with EDF; just moved and after a months use they've set it to pay £176 dd per month based on usage, which I was surprised at as I thought it'd be higher, so very pleased as was previously over £250pm

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2023 18:43

Caspianberg · 05/03/2023 18:30

Is that 4300kwh per month heating? Isn’t that massive? Like a medium hotel size

We used 445kw in February, that’s a 5 bedroom detached house, with home office and part holiday rental. Up to 8 people have been in the house daily February and it’s heated 20/21 daytime, and has been down to -10 with snow outside.

445 kwh in gas, have you got kwh and units mixed up? We used 1251kwh in February for a 4 bed detached. Given the average gas consumption is 12000 kwh and the majority of those are used during winter then 445kwh in February isn't usual, let alone for a large home

Calmdown14 · 05/03/2023 18:44

@Mummyoff3kiddies that is a mental amount of electric in 37 days

I am also all electric so I do understand it's my more but I have never been over 700kwh in a month and never more than about 150kwh on the expensive rate.

Are you using the heaters mostly at the cheap times or all day?
How is your water heated? Is the setting so the immersion in on the low rate?
In winter you'd expect much more of it to be on the cheap rate to gain value from the tariff

Caspianberg · 05/03/2023 18:46

@FourTeaFallOut - no, op says she’s all electric right? So 4300kw of electric per month, that’s a huge amount.
The average is about that per year ( we use about 7000kw electricity but large house).

Caspianberg · 05/03/2023 18:47

Our electric is 450-700kw per month by comparison, and we are high usage I think

JamBiscuitBun · 05/03/2023 18:49

I live without heating, that's how I manage.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2023 18:53

Caspianberg · 05/03/2023 18:47

Our electric is 450-700kw per month by comparison, and we are high usage I think

Ah, I thought the op was gas and electric, sorry.

CharlotteCollinsneeLucas · 05/03/2023 18:58

We thought the estimated use they gave us was higher than we would actually use and I resented the increase which was almost four times what we were paying two years ago (admittedly to one of the companies that went to the wall). So we've switched to paying each month's bill by direct debit. We're lucky we can afford not to spread it evenly throughout the year.

Okunevo · 05/03/2023 19:05

JamBiscuitBun · 05/03/2023 18:49

I live without heating, that's how I manage.

None at all? You couldn't use half of what you used before the rises, or were you already using minimal heating? We've more than halved our gas usage to 3300kwh to cope with the rises.

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 05/03/2023 19:35

Weve been ok until this month. I pay our actual usage monthly and this months bill for gas and electric has come in at £312. Thats with very very limited heating as weve been using the open fire to stay warm and being careful with electric but i have an autistic child who costs me a fortune in needing fans and other electric items on. Last month was higher than average because we had birthdays and i had the oven on making birthday cakes we usually use the airfryer (i dont like cakes made in the airfryer) i am going to pay what i can afford which is the usual monthly cost of around £180 for both and hope to pay it off over the summer. Theres not much else i can do

BishopRock · 05/03/2023 19:48

I pay £200 a month plus the £67.

Gas is minimal, about £40 a month and the highest electric has been is £240 in January.

From April electric will drop a lot.

Rowthe · 05/03/2023 19:52

But arent Bill's predicted to drop in price this year?

Okunevo · 05/03/2023 19:57

Rowthe · 05/03/2023 19:52

But arent Bill's predicted to drop in price this year?

I thought they were too. I heard that the energy price guarantee may be kept at £2500 for another three months, we will find out in the budget I think. Then the price cap is expected to drop in July.

Suzi888 · 05/03/2023 19:59

We have it’s on a fair bit. It’s gone from £150 ish a month to £300.
DM has hers on a lot, massive house, old, lots of rooms. She does have health conditions so needs it on, plus house may get damp if she didn’t, can easily afford it. £250 ish before £5/600 now. As pp state, it’s on high constantly so it’s to be expected.

bigbluebus · 05/03/2023 20:02

We're still on a fixed rate until end of this month, paying £93pm. They've estimated they'll increase our DD to £127pm once the fixed rate ends (we're only paying for electricity as we have oil heating). We've just installed solar panels and a storage battery so don't intend paying them anywhere near that amount.

Blankscreen · 05/03/2023 20:15

Ours was £248 gas and £171 electricity last month.

We had our heating on for a couple of hours in the morning, then again for an hour at lunch time and then again from 4-11 in the evening.

I've changed it so it's now on for 4 hours in the morning and then 5.5 hours in the evening and seeing if that will help reduce it a bit.

Overall cut it back by 3 hours a day. I figure it got to make a bit of a difference. One of us WFH everyday and it's is bloody freezing.

Our electricity has actually gone down from £200ish.
Looking forward to some warm weather!

NewBootsAndRanty · 05/03/2023 20:21

I was lucky enough to switch to a tracker tariff last month - prices around 24p for electric and 6p for gas per kwh at the moment is making March's bill look less terrifying.

Okunevo · 05/03/2023 20:39

@Blankscreen I'd say it would make more of a difference if you just drop it by even a degree. It doesn't use much energy to keep it to temperature once it's warm, and even less if the difference between the inside and outside temperature is smaller.

kitcat15 · 05/03/2023 20:41

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

This^
My bill last month for dual fuel was £82 ( that’s after the £67) was deducted….. I had the heating on maybe 4 times in the month ( we use a log burner as we get free wood from partners work) …..there’s only 2 of us for showers…..I DO use the tumble drier….but not excessively…..f I had the heating on every day and there was a family living here then my bills would be way way higher

bloodywhitecat · 05/03/2023 20:49

I am not doing too badly, our bills had been higher than usual last winter as we had the heating cranked up 24/7 (DH was on chemo and struggled with the cold). I've let them continue to factor last winter's high usage into this year's calculations, I think I have only had one month where our usage was higher than their prediction and I have continued to pay what I was paying before the price guarantee came into force. Income dropped by more than half when DH was at his sickest and now I rely solely on my income so I feel happier having a decent buffer for fuel bills. I have enough oil in the tank to get me through to summer when prices should drop and I can fill back up.