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?

I'm in a 4 bed detached in Scotland and my actual cost last month (not the direct debit amount) was roughly £80 electricity and £50 gas. The electricity stays pretty much the same each month and the gas fluctuates depending on time of year e.g. last summer it was just over £20.

When you moved into the property, did you just take over supply from the in situ supplier, or did you supply meter numbers and readings to a supplier of your choice?

Short of the meters being faulty, the only other thing that I can think of that could possibly account for larger consumption than expected would be that the supplier has the incorrect meter numbers for the property, and you are actually being billed for the meter in one of your neighbours properties. I don't know how that squares with the App showing your metered usage though.

Can you take one of your bills to the physical location of your meters and check that the MPAN or Meter Serial Numbers printed on your bill actually correspond with those written on the physical meter itself?

I don’t understand how you’re getting hourly or daily breakdowns without a smart meter. You must have one already. And if you do, you don’t need to submit meter readings to Octopus as they take them automatically. I made that mistake once and my bill was messed up as I was double charged. They told me not to worry about submitting electric readings anymore.

@namechange30455

Heating is 40 mins in the morning. 40 at lunchtime. A short PM burst after the kids get in - think it’s 90 mins. Then by then the wood stove is lit which heats the living room. That has open doors to the kitchen which I keep open and so living and kitchen are warm. Above living and kitchen are kids rooms which also benefit. Our room is at the front and is cold. We don’t have radiators on in the kids rooms, living room or kitchen as no point with the wood stove. Thermostat regularly reads 14/15c during the day. My office is in the box room which gets sun, I keep the door closed to retain the heat and practically sit on top of the radiator during the lunchtime 40 mins. It’s currently 18c in here which isn’t bad. As I say the rest of the house will only warm up now with the stove going on shortly.

I never dry washing on the radiators. I use a clothes horse in the kitchen as the evening heat from the wood stove really helps. If it’s ever still damp I’ll do a 5 min burst in the dryer (like twice a week!) which also means no ironing. I never iron.

We don’t use an electric mower, we power wash slabs once a year. I have a lamp on a timer in the hall but it’s an LED bulb. Oven is a single average size oven which isn’t used every day by any means. I often cook with my slow cooker which I think is efficient.

🤷🏻‍♀️

I think you need to turn everything off for an hour and see if your meter moves.
Perhaps read the meter, turn off, go shopping, return and read meter again

@Sauerkrauted the meter itself is smart but I don’t have one of the indoor displays. We did in the old house and i found it very helpful as it’s instant to see which appliances are doing the damage as you can see when you switch them on! It also tells you a price per hour/day. So although the meter in the box outside is ‘smart’, we don’t have the indoor device. I’d like one.

Octopus ask us every month for the reading.

@Mykittensmittens right okay that makes sense. I also get the monthly email from Octopus asking for meter readings but they specifically told me I don’t need to submit a reading (except for gas). I’d get in contact with them and find out as I think there is a risk you’re being double charged due to two meter readings.

Worth pointing out that my supplier also takes my readings automatically and remotely from the smart meters, but they STILL insist on sending me an email every month asking me to submit readings

How did you set up the app on your phone? i.e. how did you link it to the smart meter. Again, you need to check that you are actually monitoring and being billed for the meter in your home and not one of your neighbours. I've seen this happen, especially in places where there are multiple meters at the same location, i.e. blocks of flats, or in properties where there have been multiple installations at similar addresses, so new build estates and streets where several properties were renovated all at once.

Just check the serials on your bills do indeed match those physically printed on the meters themselves.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX I will do that before it gets dark. Excellent idea.

When we moved in the seller was with British Gas. We moved in end of Jan, it took just over a month to sort it and chose Octopus both because of the green ethic, and their prices. Fixed March 21 - March 22. We’d been with Eon at the old house and just ended our fixed, so didn’t re-fix till we moved as it just made sense to shop around.
Our old house was a comparible size just moved to a nicer area.
Octopus based our predicted usage on our old house annual usage - as I say also a 4 bed - because they couldn’t use the prior occupants usage which is sometimes done. The last occupant was overseas 6 months of the year and when she was here she lived alone.
We are slightly in debt with octopus. I’m tempted to clear that debt now (£120) which should then bring the monthly payment down fractionally. I think!

@BarbaraofSeville she has the heating on for c 3 hours a day. That’s not “barely” that’s a pretty normal level of usage.

I currently pay £188 a month for a 4 bed house with Octopus. Our bills are estimated due to the meter being inaccessible to me. I'm terrified of the price hike

I also don’t understand how your house is super duper insulted and only 15 degrees when you’ve had the heating on / fire on in spurts.

Op a quick google tells me the average house uses 8.5-10kwh per day.

The average household size in U.K. is 2.4 so you are actually dead on average if you factor that in.

@Ohbotherpiglet the thermostat with that reading is in the hall by the kitchen door. As I said my office is more like 18 if I close the door and keep the heat in. Living room and kitchen get up to 21c with the stove on and it retains that heat all night but then rapidly drops during the day (it’s a decent sized kitchen diner with living room off it). Doesn’t help that part is north facing too so no benefit of sunlight during winter months.

Kids often moan they’re cold and without the stove on my mother refuses to take her coat off!

But that is a very sobering calculation so thank you.

At least we have the actual maximum prices now.

If my maths is correct, this works out at (for me in the Midlands and inc.VAT):
Electricity: 48.13p standing & 27.87p/kWh
Gas: 27.22p standing & 7.37p/kWh.

I’ve worked with the figures and get £125 a month for my useage.

That does seem high
My annual usage is 2208kwh electric, 5048kwh gas on my latest bill
I'm in a 2 bed apartment, heating set to 19c in the day and off at night. Combi boiler, shower daily, bath once or twice a week. No tumble or dishwasher. I'm cautious with usage but not cold if that makes sense! So things get switched off but I cook, boil the kettle loads and WFH and have a heated airer and the place is warm enough

[quote Ohbotherpiglet]@BarbaraofSeville she has the heating on for c 3 hours a day. That’s not “barely” that’s a pretty normal level of usage.[/quote]
But the OP says the house is freezing cold at 15 C unless they use the woodburner.

Plus there's the matter of using more than a typical days use of electricity on the day they were out all day and no cooking or washing was done.

You say you run the dishwasher and washing machine in quick cuticles - I thought the 'eco' ones were the long settings.

Don't know how much difference it would make though.

All that matters is the pence per kwh. That will tell you how much things will rise.

If your DD is too high they don't get to keep the money.

@BarbaraofSeville but surely that makes no difference- the boiler is either on or off. If I heat my house for an hour and the temperature goes from 15 to 20 I use the same amount of gas if it goes from 15 to 17. Unless it reaches temperature set at thermostat and the boiler turns off- which I don’t think is happening for the Op as I doubt she’s aiming for fifteen degrees? Although I suppose she could of set the boiler temperature low- would that save much?

Op my heating has been off since yesterday (an accident with the thermostat) and the coldest room in my house is 16.8 degrees whilst outside is 4. It’s a bog standard small house with not great insulation. Unless your house is huge I would consider whether the insulation is as good as it’s supposed to be!

If you think that there might be something not right with the meter/octopus thing then the easiest thing to do is to choose a block of time (eg when kids are at school) and turn all of the electricity off at the trip switch. Note the meter reading before and after - if it goes up even a bit you've got a meter problem, if it doesn't move then its definitely your electricity

Op some ideas:

Fridge and freezer- are these less efficient and using a lot? It would probably cost more than you’d save to replace them but these are obviously running all the time which could explain your high usage when you’ve had low usage days.

Boiler temperature- don’t turn it down really low because you can get bacteria below a certain temperature but check to see if you could turn down the hot water temp maybe?

I know you want to reduce your gas bill- but have you actually costed the cost of your fuel for stove vs turning the heating on?

Is your stove gas or electric? We’ve got an induction hob and it’s cheaper than our old electric one. But again- probably would cost you more to replace than you’d save a and I think you said you used slow cooker a lot anyway.

Is putting the dryer on for 5 minutes actually cheaper than heating the house and putting clothes near radiator?

Regarding your washer /dishwasher. Both of mine have “eco settings” and quick settings and the quick settings use much more electricity than the eco settings.

The UK government should dk this.

Everyone I speak to pulls a massive face at this amount

It's probably because they don't realise what's about to happen.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who are still blissfully unaware of just how much their own energy bills are about to rise.

I fixed my Electric at a circa 30% increase from the current cap a couple of weeks ago, adding about £40 a month to my bill. We were talking about it in work on Monday so I mentioned this.

Some of the comments people made were frightening. 'Oh I never fix, you'll definitely pay more' (even when discussing the coming expected price cap of over 50% increase).
'You pay how much?! Oh I'm with British Gas and my DD is £60 a month. It used to be £120 but then they lowered it, bad luck for them but worked out well for me LOL'.

Lots similar which really demonstrated peoples utter lack of awareness and understanding of how it works, unit prices, the cap etc - and especially the fact that the amount of your monthly DD is irrelevant to the actual cost of your energy.

These are all sensible, educated, professional people.

So many are going to be having a horiffic shock in the coming months.