has anyone been shocked by their electricity bill recently?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

I was the other day - they've (Npower)put our monthly direct debit payment up from 58 quid a month to 83! Been trying to fathom out how come it's gone up so bloody much. We HAVE recently started using our tumble drier again. And they've also put their prices up recently too. But they've put a little graph showing our consumption now compared with consumption this time last year and it seems almost exactly the same.

Am still horrified.....83 quid a month for electricity in an average-sized 3 bed-semi.

Does anyone else pay this kind of amount? Want to get a bit of an idea what other people pay before I ring up ranting and raving. I think this could well be the dreaded credit crunch finally showing itself at our house...... Do I really need to forgo use of the tumbledrier just to get costs down? I get sick of condensation running down the walls above the radiators when I put stuff to dry on them. Will low-energy light bulbs make any difference whatsoever? Turning lights off? Turning things off standby?

i plugges one of those energy monitors into my tumble dryer at the weeked and shoked that is cost 0.5p oer minute to run

20mins cost me 10p ...

i never hardly ever use my tumble dryer as i line dry all the time but i was back much later than planned, and everything was on the line in the dark and got all damp again so i just did my small bits in the dryer...

Also i was shocked at how much my PC uses while OFF (yes off) so its now unplugged, same for my monitor.

my hair dryer / GHDs / kettle and toaster also all drink elecrity, but i guess they are only on for a few mins at a time

to get it in persective my toaster uses as much enery tasting 4 slices of toast, as my TV /DVD player / Sky+ and chordless phone use in a whole 24 hours!

Also my (very old) fridge freezeruses 4 times as much electrity as my sister brand new A rated one (2 units per day as oppsoed to 0.5) not to self get new frisdge freezer asap as it will pay for itself and not long at all!

Energy lightbulbs make a HUGE difference, as does taking stuff of standby

i meant mild curry... oopps.. what a typo...

u could get a whizzer and teach her to learn to like mince

no idea how that post got here.... sorry

nannyL - really useful post, thanks - where do I get one of those energy monitors from?

Very interesting fact about the toaster - i wonder whether it'd be cheaper to put bread under the grill?

no no NO! Don't put it under the grill! Grills EAT electricity! I've not got the same kind of monitor as NannyL, but one that tells you what your whole house is using at any particular moment, but it's still really helpful in working out what drinks the electricity. Here are some approximates:

Kettle: 25p/hour (but of course it's only on for a minute or so, and you make sure you boil exactly the right amount)
Toaster: about 7p/hour/slice (we can choose how many bars to put on)
Oven: 28p/hour (that's while it's heating, ie whenever the red light is on; it doesn't cost to maintain its temperature - still, is a big expense)
Grill: 28p/hour for the whole time it's on (doesn't cycle on and off like the oven).
Lights: well, basically an energy-efficient one uses a third or less of the energy of a 'normal' one. So for example if you had a 100w bulb on for 5 hours/day over the whole year it'd cost you something like £20 in electricity. Or £8 if it was energy efficient.
And as NannyL says, being fussy about turning stuff off at the plug REALLY pays for itself, it's amazing just how much money you literally throw away by leaving things that you think are 'off', 'on'...

I got my energy plug monitor thing from Lidl a couple of weeks ago

it was in there weekly offers and only £7 i think so a bargain!

Also my washing machine, plugged in, but "completely" off uses 0.01kwh per 2 days .... which over the year is nearly 2 kwh per whole year, so not a lot but even so....

also washing at 60 DOES use LOADS more energy than 40, which also uses a lot more energy than 30

apporx .5kwh for 30
.8kwh for 40
1.5 kwh for 60

(I didnt relaly believe it til s tried it out)

at all those bits of info!!

After seeing our electricity bill we HAVE gone around turning things off at the plug, actually. And trying to remember to turn off landing light when we are all downstairs etc (hard habit to break!). I think I'll have to start getting low energy lightbulbs to replace blown ones.

Oh.....didn't know how much extra energy washing at 60 used. Have been doing sheets and towels on 60 since the summer - not sure why, must have read a horror story about dust mites or something!

So, to recap, I need not only to turn things like TV off "standby", but I ALSO need to actually turn them off at the wall too? DH has got this habit of leaving his mobile phone charger plugged in and switched on all the time, whether his phone is charging on it or not - would that have been using much, do you think? Same for a rechargeable power tool thing... God, I am so uneducated about all this.....

Am going to scout around for one of those monitors, definitely! And avoid using the tumble drier if I can help it, as well as the other things you both mentioned. Thanks so much, you've both been v helpful!

Our direct debit has not been covering our full amount as we have had estimated bills for a while - have now adjusted the monthly payments but not before we settled the last bill which was £1400!! No, that is not a typo.

Turning things off at the plug is worth it. Apparently, it really lowers the fire risk rating of your house as well.

However, don't be afraid to quer the bill with NPower. They and Powergen in particular are known for messing up bills and depend on people keeping quiet for an easy life to get away with it.

Or even query the bill.

we were paying £70 a month for a 2 bed terrace, with powergen. we then got a bill for £1500 as it turns out the man who had read the meters had been reading the numbers the wrong way round so we were being undercharged, and even when i have given them readings over the phone, they suddenly have no records of this.
i had a big fight with them over it and got the bill down to £500, but they said i had to pay it all at once, which i refused ( who the hell has £500 spare at this time of year, if ever)so she agreed to splitting it over 3 months, i then spoke to someone else who said we could pay £50 till it was cleared off.
have now changed to npower, and pay £50 a month fixed for 3 years.

Powergen did that to us as well - even down to the meter readings being upside down. They threatened us with court and pretended for a while that they had taken out a CCJ against me, which they hadn't.