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Original poster

Has your electricity bill gone through the roof like mine? [shock]

41 replies

smallgoon · 29/08/2021 11:03

My monthly electricity bill has gone from £14 to £71 in recent months!

Granted, I'm now permanently working from home and appreciate cooking etc from home is adding to this cost, but I don't have a home office as such, it's simply me and a laptop.

Any tips on what I can do to lower my bills? I read that I shouldn't keep my appliances on standby mode as this continues to draw electricity. Does anybody else switch off their washing machines/dishwasher when they're not in use? Is switching off enough or does the appliance need to be unplugged too?

For context, I'm in a smallish 1 bed flat. Fairly new build so retains heat pretty well. My gas bill on the other hand hasn't increased from £14 a month since I moved in over a year ago.

OP posts:
readytosell · 29/08/2021 11:08

Wow, that's quite an increase. I pay 75 quid a month on average for a 3 bed detached combined electric and gas! And I work from home and not stingy on the heating, leave things on standby, have fairly normal usage of things.

Wholesale prices have gone up recently again so some will be due to that, but it seems a massive increase. Is that based on actual or estimated? Have you changed tarriff recently? Maybe worth shopping around on uswitch or the like.

earsup · 29/08/2021 15:43

look at unit cost on bills and standing charges and compare....yes prices have gone up...i recently fixed for 3 years and it never goes down !!

CampaignToo · 29/08/2021 16:06

Surely £14 pm was too low and part of the reason for the increase is to pay back previous under payment?

Akire · 29/08/2021 16:08

Mine is about £15 week for one bedroom flat. Not sure how you could only be paying £3.50 week in electric that’s bearly standing charge.

Sparklfairy · 29/08/2021 16:09

yes I was going to say £14 seemed low. I don't have gas and am in a studio, but am here 95% of the time (wfh, lazy, antisocial Grin) and pay about £75/quarter.

Akire · 29/08/2021 16:10

£71 is £16 a week if working from home pretty standard. Extra fans and everything on in day and night?

CrimeJunkie01 · 29/08/2021 16:14

You really only paid £14 a month before? Surely you were underpaying? This sounds like you are paying arrears.

forfucksakenett · 29/08/2021 16:15

@readytosell

Wow, that's quite an increase. I pay 75 quid a month on average for a 3 bed detached combined electric and gas! And I work from home and not stingy on the heating, leave things on standby, have fairly normal usage of things.

Wholesale prices have gone up recently again so some will be due to that, but it seems a massive increase. Is that based on actual or estimated? Have you changed tarriff recently? Maybe worth shopping around on uswitch or the like.

I'm amazed at this!
purplesequins · 29/08/2021 16:15

electricity has been fine for us. a little incrrase but not exsessive.

our water bill though Shock
I guess 5 people not using the loo at work/school for some time...

dementedpixie · 29/08/2021 16:17

£14 is hardly anything for electric.
I use about £80 electric per month and then the gas varies depending on time of year

MorganSeventh · 29/08/2021 16:18

It's not going to be items on stand by which are making a difference, it will be heating appliances. Either something like an immersion heater has been knocked to a permanent on position; or you've been underpaying your electric (£14pm is very low, I was paying twice that in gas heated a modern 1 bedroom flat a few yrs ago); or there's a fault with your meter.

CampaignToo · 29/08/2021 16:30

@purplesequins

electricity has been fine for us. a little incrrase but not exsessive.

our water bill though Shock
I guess 5 people not using the loo at work/school for some time...

For us the water increase, I think, is that no one had a reason to rush out of the shower. Now we've DS1 has gone back to work and have social commitments to get to it's starting to reduce again.
trappedsincesundaymorn · 29/08/2021 16:33

I have pre-pay meters for both gas and electric.
I put £49 pm on both (£98 total). Currently I have £87 credit on my electric and £338 credit on my gas. My total DD's before I switched to PP was £132 for a 2 bed that was empty all day, I was constantly told that the DD would have to increase on both gas and electric as I "was not paying enough". It was at my insistence that PP's was put in because I knew I was being overcharged. Turns out I was right. I have paid the same amount for 3 years now and would never go back to credit meters.

Noseylittlemoo · 30/08/2021 06:49

@smallgoon I don't think that £14 sounds unrealistic for a 1 bed flat in summer- we've just paid £18 for 6 weeks for a small 2 bed house. It sounds very obvious but have you seen the figures the bills were based on? Is there an estimated meter reading that's too high? I have had this happen and been in touch with the provider to rectify it. Or could a formerly good deal have come to an end and you've been switched to the standard tariff which is more expensive? I would contact the energy provider to double check

RampantIvy · 30/08/2021 06:56

Does anybody else switch off their washing machines/dishwasher when they're not in use?

Of course I do. Why wouldn't you? I never leave anything on standby. I agree that it sounds like you have been under paying. We "pay"* £48 per month for electricity for a 4 bed house and two of us WFH.

*We get a lot of it back from our feed in tariff from our solar panels.

dementedpixie · 30/08/2021 06:59

No I never switch the dishwasher/washing machine/tv/oven, etc off at the plug unless we are going on holiday.

RampantIvy · 30/08/2021 07:03

I don't switch them off at the plug because I would have to pull them out from under the work surface but I don't leave them on standby.

Ariela · 30/08/2021 07:04

@RampantIvy

Does anybody else switch off their washing machines/dishwasher when they're not in use?

Of course I do. Why wouldn't you? I never leave anything on standby. I agree that it sounds like you have been under paying. We "pay"* £48 per month for electricity for a 4 bed house and two of us WFH.

*We get a lot of it back from our feed in tariff from our solar panels.

We pay very very similar - £49/month - they put it up in Feb to cover the increase of bills despite the fact the entire 3 month bill was in credit BEFORE the bill arrived, I haggled them back down to £49.

We also have solar and get enough back to cover our electricity and oil bill too. (on initial tariff)

dementedpixie · 30/08/2021 08:04

@RampantIvy

I don't switch them off at the plug because I would have to pull them out from under the work surface but I don't leave them on standby.
My dishwasher and washing machine switch themselves off anyway. They don't have a standby mode.
RampantIvy · 30/08/2021 08:17

Actually, I don't think ours do either.

BlueMongoose · 30/08/2021 09:00

Are you on the same tariff as you were before? Prices have shot up in the last few months because the government allowed the energy companies to put their prices up.
Your previous costs seem very low. Are you paying back previous undercharging? You could always ring your energy company and ask them what they think is going on (if you have an hour or so to spare on hold, in some cases).

LCDP · 30/08/2021 09:25

Look at your statements, you should be able to work out if you are paying back credit, if the tariff changed, or if you really did use more electricity. Now is a good time to shop anyway around as prices are increasing due to a change in the cap. If your electricity use has shot up and you think it is unrealistic look into it further e.g anything from something major being left on to another apartment using your electricity.

tanguero · 30/08/2021 10:54

EDF has increased its prices by 12%, from 1st October. The rest of the 'big six' suppliers can be expected to follow.

MorganSeventh · 30/08/2021 12:29

Yes, but a 12% increase from 1 October with notice is not the same as the >500% increase without notice that the OP is reporting. If electricity prices were going to increase more than 5-fold acrosd the board for all domestic consumers I think we would be forewarned.

Original poster
smallgoon · 30/08/2021 12:59

Thanks for the replies.

To answer a few of the questions; I'm with SSE and moved over to them last October from British Gas. Am on the same tariff - their standard online. Their own projections at the time I signed up was that for a flat my size and based on past usage/meter readings etc, my gas would be £13 a month and electricity £17 a month (I made a typo in my first post). I provide them with meter readings every 2-3 months so they're not based on estimated readings.

So from October until May I'd continued to pay £17 a month but for the last 3 months, I've paid £68 a month and as of next month, will be paying £71. Just checked my bills online and my electricity is now in credit but gas is in debit.

I'm sure my usage has increased since I'm home a lot more. My neighbours are also with SSE (we're on the same tariff) and they're in a two bed flat with both of them working from home. They say their electricity bill has also increased but to £51, so I still can't figure out how mine is now going to be £20 a month higher than theirs.

Yesterday a friend of mine mentioned that she joined the Big London Energy Switch and suggested I do the same. I signed up for it yesterday so will see how that goes. She did mention (and I've read the same) that energy prices were scheduled to increase quite drastically.

OP posts:
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