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Help! Why are our energy bills SO high?

62 replies

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 07:49

I know that energy bills have been going up for everyone, but from talking to friends I really feel that our bills are crazy high - and I’d love some advice about how to work out why.

Last year we used 11,700 kWh. This year we’re already at 3,500 kWh. Last month’s bill was £612. This is just electricity, we have a heat pump, no boiler.

We live in a 3 bedroom semi detached house. We have an electric car, but it only gets charged during the cheaper rate times (we’re on a heat pump optimised tariff).

Neither my husband nor I work from home.

This is a baffling amount to spend on energy, right?

I’m wondering if there’s some problem with wiring somewhere in the house that is causing huge amounts of power to get used for some mystery reason…

What can we do? Would an electrician be able to work out what’s going on? Is there a device or technique we can use to investigate?

thank you in advance for any advice

OP posts:
SarahMused · 22/02/2026 08:05

What supplier are you with and have you got a smart meter? You can usually see when the highest rate of use is if you have an online account. On Octopus ours is broken down by half hour so it would be easy to see what is on at that time. You can also go round and turn everything off and see if the meter is still moving. Larger than expected bills are usually down to heating as this uses the most electricity. Have you mistakenly switched an immersion permanently on or changed the heat pump settings?

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:14

Thanks for replying. We’re on Octopus too and have a smart meter. The usage is highest in mornings when we’re having showers/getting ready to leave the house for work/school, and evenings as you’d expect, but we’re not doing anything beyond having the oven and TV on, and a few lights. (I go round switching off lights). Have checked the heat pump settings.

Our bills were much higher than friends’ who I’d ask about it before we had a heat pump too, so I feel like there’s something else going on.

OP posts:
Tortephant · 22/02/2026 08:18

How long have you had the heat pump? Is it the right spec for your home? Are the pipes the correct size to work effectively?

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:19

Since the summer. They did a very thorough survey to make sure we had the right spec, installed all new radiators etc. Bills were high before we had it, too.

OP posts:
KatiePricesKnickers · 22/02/2026 08:22

Lights are very cheap to run.

OhDear111 · 22/02/2026 08:23

@WibbleVonBibble You are using electricity at high tarrif times. It’s that simple. Try altering the heating times to off peak. A lagged tank should help. We now have solar panels and batteries. Big difference. Don’t charge the car on anything other than your lowest tarrif. I’d get advice on your settings because this usage sounds high.

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:26

@OhDear111We only charge the car at the cheapest times, same for the heat pump settings. Got a new tank when we had the heat pump installed, all well insulated. When you say to get advice on settings, do you mean from Octopus (our energy provider) or should we get an electrician round?

OP posts:
Toodaloos · 22/02/2026 08:28

Wow. We are considered high energy users (defined by our energy supplier when doing a survey for solar panels), have an 4 bed house and we use 600kwh per month in a high month. So approximately £100-130 per month. We also have an electric car we charge overnight every couple of days.

We WFH and constantly have washing machine/tumble dryers on the go, kids leaving light switches on, everything turned on and left so I am truly shocked by your bill. I would definitely get this investigated as it didn’t sound right.

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:33

@ToodaloosHow would you go about getting it investigated? I’m genuinely not sure who to call about it! Our energy supplier?

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 22/02/2026 08:35

If you have a cheaper tariff at night then the daytime tariff is much higher. We use a lot of electricity as we also charge a car. We have electric showers used by 4 people plus the electric oven. Anything that heats or cools will use a lot of electricity .

I've switched to Home Energy as they charged 5p less per kwh for electricity than Octopus.

LoveofSevenDolls · 22/02/2026 08:37

Toodaloos · 22/02/2026 08:28

Wow. We are considered high energy users (defined by our energy supplier when doing a survey for solar panels), have an 4 bed house and we use 600kwh per month in a high month. So approximately £100-130 per month. We also have an electric car we charge overnight every couple of days.

We WFH and constantly have washing machine/tumble dryers on the go, kids leaving light switches on, everything turned on and left so I am truly shocked by your bill. I would definitely get this investigated as it didn’t sound right.

Thats impressive - who is your supplier?

Keroppi · 22/02/2026 08:39

I thought heat pumps work best with solar panels, perhaps you could invest?
You can try turning things off and watching the meter to see what uses the most kW
Old appliances etc
There's a heat pump octopus Facebook group I'm in that have some really helpful people in, I'd definitely post in there too

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:41

@dementedpixieWe can look at other tariffs, but we’re three people, all out during the day, just having a normal amount of showers, using the oven max once/day (sometimes air fryer), I do one load of laundry a week. Our usage is abnormally high. Our house is getting heated to 17 - 18 degrees, not overly extravagant.

OP posts:
busyd4y · 22/02/2026 08:42

I know someone who had horrendous bills after having a heat pump fitted, I don't know the full details but it did turn out after a lot of very high bills that there was something wrong with the heat pump.

If the rest of your usage is normal everyday stuff and you dont have the immersion heater on 24/7 I'd start with investigating that

I don't know much about them, can you turn if off and take some meter readings ?

Harrietsaunt · 22/02/2026 08:43

There’s something wrong here. Definitely explore it with your supplier.

GoldbergVariations · 22/02/2026 08:47

Assuming you have low energy bulbs, lights are not the problem, so don't let yourself be distracted by that. (If you don't then get them changed, fast).

Yes, you are an extremely high user, though obviously a lot of that will be down to the heat pump and the car (January is a very high month for heating costs).

You need to learn how much energy the appliances in your home cost to run, ie how many watts/ kilowatts they use. A kilowatt hour ( kWh) is the standard unit of measurement for electricity, and is the amount an appliance drawing a thousand watts consistently would use in an hour. You will see on your bill that you are charged per kWh you use. (Sorry if you understand that, but a lot of people don't and it's good to get back to basics on these matters. Something is causing this).

You can buy a smart plug that will measure the energy each appliance is drawing down, that sounds like it would be a very good investment in your case.

Things that generate heat are the things that use most electricity, followed by things that create motion.

I am not an expert on heat pumps, someone else will be along to advise you on that, but you state that your oven is on in the evenings. Is that every night? Are you one of those families who cook things at different times for different members? Do you put it on just for one item? If so, that needs to stop if you want to reduce your bills.

Get yourself an air fryer, or even a couple, if you would use a small one just for individual items, and only use the oven when you will fill it. Eg if I put my oven on, I might put in a pizza for tea, a batch of baked potatoes for the next few days, 24 sausages for the freezer, a batch of roasties or a big M&S cottage pie for the next day, and so on. It saves a LOT of energy (and time) if you do it consistently.

Do you have an electric shower? They also use a lot of energy.

Start researching how much your individual appliances use ( that particular model). Do you have a lot of fridges and freezers? After the energy crisis of 2022, When we were being threatened with gas and electricity bills of £9,000 per annum, we did a thorough energy audit of our house. We were able to cut our consumption of gas and electricity by 50% during the winter of 2022/23.

As part of that we cut the number of fridges and freezers we had from five to two. That alone cut 10% of our annual electricity usage. Fridges and freezers don't use a lot of electricity per hour if you look at them individually, but they are one of the few appliances in your home that are run 365 days a year 24 hours a day. It adds up. Also, old fridges and freezers use a lot more energy than more modern appliances.

As others have said, check if you have an electric immersion heater on 24/7.

You need to turn detective, OP, to get to the bottom of this. The good news is, you have an awful lot of slack to cut into. Good luck.

Toodaloos · 22/02/2026 08:49

LoveofSevenDolls · 22/02/2026 08:37

Thats impressive - who is your supplier?

Eon. Think our tariff is 27p kWh during peak times and 6p overnight (when we charge the car). I was trying to do washing, dishwasher overnight when it was cheap, but I’m rather lazy and have slipped back into doing it when needed. We also looked at more efficient appliances when they needed renewing. For example, heat pump dryer now costs 20p per cycle as opposed to our previous one which was about £1. It’ll all add up eventually I hope…. We did get our electrics updated recently (swapped halogen spots for LED (we literally had 40 to change!) and I thought we’d see a saving as they are so much more efficient but hasn’t really taken a drop so I’d suggest things like lights are very low energy suckers regardless of what you’ve got)

We do have an additional heating bill for our oil on top of that so I appreciate that should also be taken into account - it’s approx £60 per month. We are quite warm
people so thermostat never goes above 18 degrees.

We've just installed solar panels as we were considered such high users that the payback for the cost was 3.5 years. Most people expect a five year payback….. I can only go on what we were told though, maybe we aren’t exceptionally high users,

GoldbergVariations · 22/02/2026 08:51

Cross post, I see you have an air fryer. You need to use it a lot more, and efficiently.

WearyLady · 22/02/2026 08:52

It does indeed sound like a heat pump problem as suggested above. If you can see past usage, can you compare usage for the year before the heat pump was installed and the same period afterwards?

firstofallimadelight · 22/02/2026 08:54

I’m with octopus, we have a 4 bed house around twenty years old so well insulated. We have the heating on, dryer few times a week. We have an air purifier. Dh works from home 3 times a week so computer on all day. Washing machine, oven and dishwasher used daily . Ds games so his computer on several hours a tend. Long showers for ds and dd. Pay £280 per month for gas and electricity

cateringday · 22/02/2026 08:54

This sounds very wrong. I have electric car and three bed house. Our bill is £135 per month

SarahMused · 22/02/2026 08:58

What Octopus tariff are you using? Intelligent Go gives you 6 cheap hours between 11:30pm and 5:30 am which is good for charging an electric car but I would guess you would have your heat pump running outside of those hours to keep your house warm in the morning and evenings. That will be expensive if the outdoor temperature is cold as the heat pump has to work harder. The alternative is Octopus Cosy Home which gives three cheap periods in 24 hours but is more expensive during the evening peak and isn’t so convenient for electric car charging. I think you need to look at your tariff and make sure you understand what is cheap at what time.

Toodaloos · 22/02/2026 08:59

WibbleVonBibble · 22/02/2026 08:33

@ToodaloosHow would you go about getting it investigated? I’m genuinely not sure who to call about it! Our energy supplier?

I mean if my bills were as high as yours, I’d be looking wherever I can - how new are your electrics? Ours had a fault that were leaking electricity so we fixed that. I’d be looking to a heating engineer again to check the heat pump again and yes, your energy supplier. I’m a bit tenacious when something doesn’t seem right and look at all possibilities.

Do you have a smart meter you can see and monitor the usage? You might have an appliance that is costing you a fortune. Unlikely though going by your usage. It might be the car - to be fair we have a small battery on our car so costs like £2 to charge. You might be pulling much more electricity to charge yours.

McSock · 22/02/2026 09:08

If you have a smart meter it should be fairly easy work out what appliances are using electricity, by a process of elimination.

OhDear111 · 22/02/2026 09:15

@firstofallimadelight I’m assuming the op is all electric. We have no gas and have heat pumps so are all electric.