My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?

[story]

I treated myself for Christmas. And we had that cold snap. But jeez.

Ah well. I guess it proves how much I can save by diligent scrooging. But my god, the difference to all the metrics for things being good is very apparent. Sleep, mood, comfort, capabilities, physical welfare, all have been so much better with a warm flat.

And I’ve not been profligate. I’ve not had the CH on all day. It’s not been blasting at top temperature.


It’s very clear that I need to prioritise insulation and upgrading the CH system before next winter.

 

[gentlegreen]

I happened to look up French electricity prices (EDF) today.
They have a standing charge that varies according to a power limit on the system.
So Bulb's SC of £16 a month would be about 11kva or 45 amps...
So domestic users are heavily subsidised as we haven't seen prices like that since 2021.

I only realised recently that all my electricity currently goes through a single 13 amp fuse in a switched spur... plus the immersion heater is on a second one so I could just about manage on their 6kva service ... (since I realised the fuse was only 13amps I have been careful not to use the hob and the kettle at the same time ..)

In my future life I will have a washing MC, but I will be aiming to use it at an environmentally friendly time.

 

[MickiQ]

Mrs Q is back at school, Youngest is back at Uni and i am once more alone in the house. The CH has been set to go off at 0830 (I have allowed myself the luxury of a whole extra 30 mins on account of it being winter after all)
The despised Primark hoodie is on the hook on the back of office door just waiting to leap into action when needed. Time to save some cash and strike a blow against being exploited by the energy companies.

 

[friedaweed]

Energy bills: British flat dwellers with communal heating could sue operators

Exclusive: Hundreds of thousands of people are not covered by price cap and have faced huge rise in costs

www.theguardian.com

This development might be worth keeping an eye on for anyone on a communal system.

editor

 

[existentialist]

I happened to look up French electricity prices (EDF) today.
They have a standing charge that varies according to a power limit on the system.
So Bulb's SC of £16 a month would be about 11kva or 45 amps... so domestic users are heavily subsidised as we haven't seen prices like that since 2021.

I only realised recently that all my electricity currently goes through a single 13 amp fuse in a switched spur... plus the immersion heater is on a second one so I could just about manage on their 6kva service ... (since I realised the fuse was only 13amps I have been careful not to use the hob and the kettle at the same time ..)

In my future life I will have a washing MC, but I will be aiming to use it at an environmentally friendly time.

View attachment 359628

We used to stay at a cottage owned by friends of ours, who were on a temporary 3kVA supply. It took some time to learn to remember not to switch on a hairdryer while the oven was on...

 

[purenarcotic]

I treated myself for Christmas. And we had that cold snap. But jeez.

Ah well. I guess it proves how much I can save by diligent scrooging. But my god, the difference to all the metrics for things being good is very apparent. Sleep, mood, comfort, capabilities, physical welfare, all have been so much better with a warm flat.

And I’ve not been profligate. I’ve not had the CH on all day. It’s not been blasting at top temperature.


It’s very clear that I need to prioritise insulation and upgrading the CH system before next winter.

This is such an important point though. Being cold is just so mentally miserable. And even if you can keep warm under a duvet and with a hot water bottle, breathing cold, unheated air in all the time isn’t any fun

 

[cupid_stunt]

And, OVO is off again!
'
I am still paying just £67pm, and in credit by £80, which will certainly cover the shortfall on my Jan (only 4 days left) & Feb bills, and probably March too.

Yet, OVO wants me to increase by DD to £107pm NOW, and will do it themselves if I don't in the next 2 weeks, so, I'll be back to cancelling the DD and setting up a new one for £67. I want to get to the end of March, so I can see how much extra I've spent on winter heating and work out my annual usage and cost, adding 20% for the price raise coming in April, and only then increase it.

I am in charge here OVO, not you!

My estimate ATM is I'll need to pay £110pm from April for the next 12 months, so at least their estimate is not too over the top, whereas at peak madness they wanted £191pm, and that was before the last big increase!

 

[gentlegreen]

Bulb / Octopus are being very sensible, but then I'm over £300 in credit and have cut my electricity use down in the winter to under half my year average ... so my most recent bills have been hardly any more than the £67.
It remains to be seen if they change their mind once the subsidy dries up and I start eating into the credit.

 

[story]

I treated myself for Christmas. And we had that cold snap. But jeez.

Ah well. I guess it proves how much I can save by diligent scrooging. But my god, the difference to all the metrics for things being good is very apparent. Sleep, mood, comfort, capabilities, physical welfare, all have been so much better with a warm flat.

And I’ve not been profligate. I’ve not had the CH on all day. It’s not been blasting at top temperature.


It’s very clear that I need to prioritise insulation and upgrading the CH system before next winter.

Woke up this morning to the sound of the radiator ticking away. I‘m currently running the thermostat manually and I‘m turning it down about an hour before I go to bed, so I woke up thinking “fuck I forgot to turn it down!” but it’s because the outside temperature has plummeted overnight.

Either way, it means the CH has been on overnight and I’ve cost myself more £££

In the recent mild weather I’ve been turning the thermostat down to about 10 or 11, not been giving it much thought. I’ll be sure to make sure that I’ve made sure that I turn it down to 6 overnight from now on. Or check the forecast more diligently.

Don’t want to set the thermo to timed cycles cos my own routine is irregular. I’m good at remembering to turn it way down as I go out the house, only once have I left it set to 12 as I went out and found it on when I came back.

Fortunately I was in credit with the fuel company but this bill has eaten up the entirety. I was hoping to get through winter without having to find money for fuel. Now I’m fucked.

 

[MickiQ]

Woke up this morning to the sound of the radiator ticking away. I‘m currently running the thermostat manually and I‘m turning it down about an hour before I go to bed, so I woke up thinking “fuck I forgot to turn it down!” but it’s because the outside temperature has plummeted overnight.

Either way, it means the CH has been on overnight and I’ve cost myself more £££

In the recent mild weather I’ve been turning the thermostat down to about 10 or 11, not been giving it much thought. I’ll be sure to make sure that I’ve made sure that I turn it down to 6 overnight from now on. Or check the forecast more diligently.

Don’t want to set the thermo to timed cycles cos my own routine is irregular. I’m good at remembering to turn it way down as I go out the house, only once have I left it set to 12 as I went out and found it on when I came back.

Fortunately I was in credit with the fuel company but this bill has eaten up the entirety. I was hoping to get through winter without having to find money for fuel. Now I’m fucked.

Modern boilers have an anti-freezing function, if the temperature gets down low enough (7C in the case of my Worchester Borch) then it will come on anyway regardless of what the thermostat is set too. the only way to stop this is actually turn the boiler itself off and that isn't a good idea if it is really cold.

 

[two sheds]

And, OVO is off again!
'
I am still paying just £67pm, and in credit by £80, which will certainly cover the shortfall on my Jan (only 4 days left)

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have twenty one ...

 

[donkyboy]

My EDF bill has been emailed. Yet when I click on download, i get error message

 

[AnnaKarpik]

My EDF bill has been emailed. Yet when I click on download, i get error message

I think they have the shittest IT ever. The website is forever offline, or unable to cope, they have removed (or hidden) the 'change your direct debit' function, and I have to download a csv file for every fucking day to find out how much leccy we're getting though. That's without the days they get no info from the meter.

 

[ska invita]

Just read that "Wholesale Gas has crashed to a new low. Just 149p per therm compared to 702p in August."
Is that true, and how come?
Presumably bills will follow suit

 

[cupid_stunt]

Just read that "Wholesale Gas has crashed to a new low. Just 149p per therm compared to 702p in August."
Is that true, and how come?
Presumably bills will follow suit

There's been a lot of coverage recently about gas prices going down, the forecast is for the OFGEM price cap to drop to £2,200 from July, £800 less than the government's energy price guarantee from April.

The OFGEM price cap at present is £4,279.

UK energy bills to fall to about £2,200 from July as wholesale gas costs drop

Mild weather in Europe reduces gas demand but bills will remain higher than 2021 energy price cap

www.theguardian.com

 

[Elpenor]

Perhaps not if providers have bought futures they can’t unwind at higher rates

 

[kalmatthew]

I'm on the priority services register and just got an email from UK Power networks telling me that there may be load shedding this winter and advising me on how to prepare. This seems a little late in the winter. Is this just crap comms timing or are we entering another high risk period?

 

[gentlegreen]

I learned this morning the French have an app so they know to switch stuff off to try to avoid actual outages.

 

[teuchter]

Do you have a relatively modern tumble drier? Have you stopped using it recently, drying clothes indoors on an airer instead?

If so feel free to set out your thoughts on how much energy you reckon this is saving you.

 

[BusLanes]

I learned this morning the French have an app so they know to switch stuff off to try to avoid actual outages.

Hate to think what Truss and Kwasi would have thought of that back when they refused public education

 

[Chz]

Do you have a relatively modern tumble drier? Have you stopped using it recently, drying clothes indoors on an airer instead?

If so feel free to set out your thoughts on how much energy you reckon this is saving you.

A decent modern tumble dryer is a spinning dehumidifier (they call them heat pumps, but they've more in common with a dehumidifier than the sort of heat pumps people use for hesting) and not really worse than air drying in terms of total energy wastage. You'd need to turn to heat up to deal with a the moisture. Unless you're already heating the house excessively, in why case you might as well make use of it.

I hate feeling damp more than cold, so I'm excessive and run a dehumidifier and continue to use the dryer. Fwiw, a heat pump tumble will easily pay itself back over its lifetime vs. a heated one, even if you only use it in winter. They are massively more efficient. They do take twice as long, but the energy use is something like a fifth. (added bonus they're a lot less likely to go up in flames, too)

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Presumably bills will follow suit

how amusing...

 

[MickiQ]

Do you have a relatively modern tumble drier? Have you stopped using it recently, drying clothes indoors on an airer instead?

If so feel free to set out your thoughts on how much energy you reckon this is saving you.

We don't have a tumble dryer at all. If it isn't raining or freezing then we hang clothes outside in the garden. If we can't then we have an airer.
We used to have a washer dryer using the dryer element for emergencies such as school uniforms or kids karate suits.
But we discovered that we used it so little that when it needed replacing it was replaced with just a washing machine.
It's a lot more cost effective to have a few extra clothes than a tumble dryer.

 

[CH1]

Apologies if this was noted upthread - but Paul Lewis (BBC Moneybox) put this up on Twitter for the benefit of those of us who can't afford The Sunday Times.
Go-Centric never took a single call apparently - I wonder how much of the £700,000 they got?

 

[CH1]

Octopus customers - were you aware your energy supplier might also own your doctors' surgery?

Octopus Property lends £6.4m to new distributor

Octopus Investments today announced that it is expanding its healthcare business through the acquisition of MedicX Holdings Ltd

octopusgroup.com

 

[rubbershoes]

Apologies if this was noted upthread - but Paul Lewis (BBC Moneybox) put this up on Twitter for the benefit of those of us who can't afford The Sunday Times.
Go-Centric never took a single call apparently - I wonder how much of the £700,000 they got?

And what due diligence was done on them before the grant?

Go-centric had been around since 2010 so may have been on the financial brink when they got the grant . Due diligence should have spotted that

 

[Riklet]

£246 quid for January. Most expensive bill so far. So glad for the gov £67 bung to reduce that....

At least theres 3 of us paying it. Its still imo a bargain compared to being cold and miserable for 31 days. I would rather cut back in other areas...

 

[sojourner]

£125 for gas and leccy for us for Jan, only £20 more than last year (when we had the heating on a lot more, and were regularly using the tumble drier).

 

[cupid_stunt]

I am doing OK maintaining my target to reduce gas use & cost (inc. VAT) by 50% compared with what it would have cost if I had used as much as last year, I need to save another £102 during Feb & Mar to hit my target, which would ne nice.

 

[Saunders]

My friend says those of us who use kerosene and/ or lpg are due to get a £200 payment from the gov at some point in February, which will be paid into our electricity account. I don’t understand how they will know who uses oil and which electric provider we are with.