I need someone to unpick this fuel bill - something is wrong!

[Mykittensmittens]

Hot topic I know. Apologies for that.

Very conscious of rising prices to the degree that it will be unaffordable for us. Abbreviating as much as I can - when we moved into this average four bed house 12 months ago the fuel bill was just over £100 a month. Appreciating rises ahead I fixed the price for 12 months but despite that we did see an increase in the middle of the year to £160 a month. This is expensive to me and we became very conscious of our usage.

Our supplier has given us three options when our fixed deal ends in March . Option one switch to the variable rate which will increase the monthly payments to £190 and does not take into account the additional rise of 54% in April meaning after that it will be touching the £300 mark. Option two switch to a loyal customer deal which is fixed for a year at almost £350 a month.

Everyone I speak to pulls a massive face at this amount. And I’m sure everybody says this but the thing I can’t understand is that we are extremely low usage as far as I can see. I have attached two screenshots one of the latest bill which shows our annual usage predicted. And a second screenshot from our energy app which shows yesterdays usage.

We are cold. The average house temperature sits at 15c all day. It is only on for a short time in the morning a little burst at lunchtime and then for an hour or so after the kids get in from school. I run a dishwasher once a day on a 40 minute fast cycle. I use the washing machine perhaps once every other day. This is also on a short 40 minute cycle . I do not use my tumble dryer anymore and haven’t for some time. I dry my clothes on a clotheshorse and if they are still damp after about 16 hours I’ve put them in the dryer on a timer for five minutes.

I don’t overuse the oven, I use it very consciously. Lights are turned off and all bulbs are LED. Devices are not left on standby. I have one fridge and one freezer. My laptop is plugged in during my working day but I make sure I power down switch off and unplug the power connection in the evening.

So how the hell basically can we be a household that is using masses and masses above the average. I cannot work it out?

The house is extremely efficient and had a fantastic rating for efficiency when we purchased it. He has full cavity wall insulation, brand-new double glazing, extremely well insulated loft . In addition we hate using a wood burner so the evenings we have one really good warm room and the kids bedrooms above are also warm as a result.

I also believe that using Octopus Energy we are in a provider that is extremely competitive (even under the current market) and shopped around considerably to get onto the fix deal that the prices on the attached show .

What on earth can we do we cannot afford £350 a month for our fuel?

Normally they over estimate usage rather than under estimate. Can you have smart meters fitted then you will be able to see how much fuel you are using and you will only be paying for the amount you actually use.

High energy appliances are basically anything that heats up, so ovens, kettles, tumble dryers, dish washers, washing machines. The electric shower in our house is the most expensive.

The advice from Martin Lewis to NOT to fix.

I don’t know how the Government think that £150 off Council tax and a £200 energy rebate in October is going to even come close to helping most people.

My fix ends in June, I currently pay £70 for dual fuel, people I’ve spoken to seem to think that their bills will ‘only’ go up by 50%, they are in for a hell of a shock.
I’ve told my daughter to expect £250 a month minimum when her fixed rate ends in April, she currently pays £100 for a 4 bed house.

I’m on a smart meter waiting list - apparently months away.

Showers are limited to one song long on the radio, two with a hair wash!

I would honestly say we are very frugal. It really doesn’t make sense.

I can't help unpick the costs but I love the hourly breakdown of costs! How do you get this - do you have a smart meter with Octopus?

What does your usage look like on the year tab from your second photo?

The 100/month is average for when you took out the deal. Is it a moder or old house? 160 is the predicted average after the price cap rise, but I think 200/300 is not going to be uncommon.

All we can see from the screenshots you've posted are your tariffs, and the energy company's own estimations for your annual usage.

Without knowing exactly how much energy of either type you are using in a month or year, it's impossible to say what your bills should be.

Are you sure you are being billed on actually metered usage, and not just a 1/12th portion of your supplier's estimated annual usage? Are you actually supplying meter readings every month?

@roses2 no smart meter - this is on the octopus app. It’s fairly accurate - you can see at 6pm the oven went on for 20 mins.

@MaizeAmaze it’s a 1950s house that was totally gutted 5 years ago. It’s literally had everything done - efficient boiler, insulation (roof and cavity wall), windows and doors. EPC was brilliant.

I can’t see the full year and I’ve no idea why!

@XDownwiththissortofthingX yes - octopus ask for monthly readings and we do this without fail

Do you have any underfloor heating in the bathrooms/kitchen etc Op?

How old are your large appliances - like the fridge/freezer, washing machine etc? If over 5/6 years old you might find it’s using more electricity than you think….

I used to be on fixed with British Gas Years ago but that was an amazing deal because you fixed (so couldn't spend more) but if you spent less they refunded you. I moved and was no longer able to use them which I was gutted about. Otherwise fixed works by you overpaying most months (but having the reassurance of a consistent, if slightly higher, bill, so no nasty surprises).
£350 just sounds like a baffling amount of money and I don't know how you (or almost anyone me included) is going to be affordable. It's just not. It's a disaster. And not to be dramatic people will be starving or dying before long, depending whether they choose heating or eating to cut down on. It's scandalous that the government aren't trying to do something to manage it better.
As regards the bill it depends how risk averse you are. Personally I'm a really stress head about anything unpredictable bill wise, so would rather pay maybe a bit more for the reassurance of knowing exactly what it will cost each month. But the reality is that is probably paying for peace of mind and will end up more expensive, so if you're more easy going about fluctuating bills then go for that and you could save some money.

Are they bith just one month bills

The daily usage figures in your opening post actually work out not too far off Octopus' estimates. Assuming that's a typical day, they are slightly over-estimating your usage on both gas and electricity.

Having extrapolated your daily usage from the opening post across a year, you appear to be using roughly £130 of energy a month once you take the standing charge and VAT into account.

Suppliers tend to over-estimate your DD and charge you a bit more per month than you actually use, because they don't want people falling into arrears and being hit with unpayable bills, and they like to build up about a two month running balance anyway in case you hit a difficult point and can't pay your bill or you cancel the DD for some reason.

If they are all quoting you ridiculous DD figures, then you always have the option of going back to quarterly billing. You might lose small discounts for not paying monthly, but you can ensure you are only billed for what you actually use, and you won't be sitting padding their bank accounts with your money once it turns out you are using nowhere near what they have estimated.

@Henlie
No underfloor heating. Washer is 5 years old so maybe so.
Two showers - one electric but the other is just mains water (so gas not electric effectively for the hot water)

@MayThePawsBeWithYou that bill is 17/11 to 13/1 with readings given 20/11 and 20/12.

I don't think you even have to go quarterly if you cancel your DD.
I think you can still submit monthly readings and just pay it?
I think the time is coming where people will do this so the money is not sat in the supplier's account.

Is the bill for 2 months

Are you sure it's not a smart meter as with a normal meter you wouldn't get such intricate details about when your electricity was being used during the day.

Mykittensmittens

Give your own readings at the same time every week, you can input the reading onto the website.
This will give you either a weekly or daily reading and see how much electric and gas you are actually using

Then when you have a good 6/8 weeks readings you will be able to see an average of what you use

Obviously as we get into April & May this will decrease as the heating usage reduces

Yes, I pay monthly for the electricity I used the previous month (Scottish Power). The figures they wanted for a direct debit were absolutely insane - and when I monitored my actual bills over the year after moving off DD were several hundred off what I ended up paying them.

We're an all-electric property so already have high usage/bills - I can't afford to sub an electricity company even if I'll get the extra back eventually.

I’ve just done a price comparison on moneysupermarket : for a 2 year fixed rate with Sainsburys (8000 nectar points bonus) it’s £150 a month.
That’s for a yearly 2640kwh of Elec +
7500kwh Gas, my actual useage for the past year.
It’s also a bit higher than the forecasted price cap rates that I’ve seen.

Not as awful as I was expecting to be honest but still 100% more than I’m paying now.

Hi op, I can't answer your actual questions, but just so you know the fast cycles on dishwashers/washing machines typically use way more energy than then long or eco ones. This is because it requires much more energy to give the same clean result in a much shorter time. If you can find the manual for your machines they usually have a table showing how much energy each type of cycle uses, I looked at mine recently and it was shocking how much more the fast cycles use! They are there for your convenience, not for energy saving.

It won't be this making a huge difference to your usage, but thought I'd mention in case it helps

Not the whole answer but you need to check the energy use of the DW and WM cycles, as fast often uses more energy than slow.

Our dishwasher runs on an eco cycle that uses half the energy and water as the fast cycle, but it takes nearly 5 hours.

Cross posted

[quote Mykittensmittens]@roses2 no smart meter - this is on the octopus app. It’s fairly accurate - you can see at 6pm the oven went on for 20 mins.

@MaizeAmaze it’s a 1950s house that was totally gutted 5 years ago. It’s literally had everything done - efficient boiler, insulation (roof and cavity wall), windows and doors. EPC was brilliant.

I can’t see the full year and I’ve no idea why![/quote]
You've already got a smart meter. No way can Octopus show you this detail on a standard meter.

If you look at your original meter readings from when you moved in to 12 months on are the estimated usage figures correct? If so you can put those figures into a comparison website and see what the alternatives are. It sounds like you are doing everything you can to lower the amount of fuel you use so the only other option is to see if you can find a more competitive option but it's only worth doing that once you are have accurate usage figures based on a 12 month period.