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?

@SeeminglyOblivious I haven't fixed after my fixed rate ended as the rates they offered were much higher than the predicted new price cap level. And now that the new level has been released I was right not to fix

Thanks for all the replies.

Running the wood burner (it’s a multi fuel) isn’t bad NOW as DH is very lucky to have been offered cut hardwood from his employers land which we dried over the summer. We have enough for this winter. Next year we will have to buy. We use a small amount of smokeless coal (£22 for a delivery) twice per winter, max. This really brings the temp up.

I don’t know about the rest. My neighbour says her bills are about 30% lower than ours and she has her heating on more. The only discerning difference is our kitchen diner is north facing and has a cold tiled floor. Her house is at a different angle and her kitchen gets sun which she is convinced makes a difference.

Honestly I’m beyond clues. I’d like to all go out for a day and turn it all off, but basically we have plans to go nowhere anytime soon as we are watching money! Actually - we are due at my parents next Sunday. Perhaps I’ll try to work it so we have that as an ‘experiment’ day and stay out for as long as we can.

In some respects, it is what it is. But with that level of outgoing you’d think I’d be able to do a bit of washing without being quite so frugal, or put the dryer on a couple of times a week. As it stands I don’t dare!

@SeeminglyOblivious tell me about it. People seem to think it’ll be a £20 rise or something insignificant!

You need to insulate, April but lagging and add extra to the loft.

Draft proof internal and external doors

Make sure all radiators are turned off in rooms not used

Have a portable thermostat and take with you to the room you are in

@ivykaty44

All done. The external doors are very new. We didn’t pay for them they were part of the refurb before we moved in - I have the guarantees - they are very expensive, solid UPVC doors. The front door doesn’t even have a letter box.

We have portable or battery thermometers in most rooms. Tonight the hallway is 15c, the living room and kitchen with the door closed (after having the stove on) is 22c, kids beds above that is 19c, our room 17c, we open all the door to let the stove generated heat move about at bedtime. By morning no room will be above 17c, some below.

The loft is insulated and boarded throughout. Our walls have cavity insulation, all windows are recently double glazed. Our bedroom radiator is turned off, as is the downstairs loo.

It’s not the heating I’m disputing. It’s the electricity. My consumption on a 4 bed home when it’s not related to heating means the size of the home is diluted. We have a dishwasher, a washing machine, a dryer (barely used) , an under counter fridge and freezer, 2 TVs, an oven, hoover, a games console, a few lamps and LED ceiling fittings. Those appliances would be the same in a 3 bed semi as they are for us.

But my bill is massively massively above the average.

Lots of people don’t realise that a fixed tariff doesn’t mean fixed bills. It’s just the charge per unit which is fixed, but the usage itself will determine the bill.

As others said, use eco slow programmes for dishwasher and washing machine, not the short programmes. They cost probably 3-4 times more as use more energy to do the job fast. Don’t use tumble drier.

It is miserable if you feel you can only afford the heating on for a couple of hours a day. I can’t tell if you’ve been. over charged or not. All you can do that’s within your control is to really limit consumption, wear lots of jumpers and hope it’s a mild winter.

Sorry you’re going through this.

Oh, and a final thought….go on the MSE website and look for OTHER areas to save money in. With fuel bills rising people. Need to save elsewhere. Look at how you can reduce your supermarket bill by £25 per week. Etc. It all helps.

I've got no useful suggestions about what's causing it, but 6500kwh seems a lot for a year. My octopus estimated annual amount is 2500. 3 people, 2 pets, I WFH full time. The washing machine/oven/dishwasher are all original 1990s, so not eco (we're refurbing slowly) but we do have led bulbs throughout.

Definitely turn everything off and see what happens

That sounds too much. We recently down sized to an average size house BUT it has a gas Rayburn (god knows why and we will be taking it out as soon as we get our kitchen done) and it runs all the time. Our bills are £339 a month with Octopus through the winter. But the Rayburn accounts for this and is on 24/7 because it's our only cooking source.
And we have a gas fire which we use occasionally and gas central heating which we have at 18 during the day and 21 evenings.
Yours sounds very high