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

The key advantage is not needing air intake or exhaust so you can deploy a hundred watts here or there ...
 
Yep, cost wise you are always better (right now) using gas rather than electric - unless you have a heat pump which are vastly more efficient than standard electric heating. Though the balance is likely to shift towards electric in the coming years.
 
cupid_stunt said:
I am not surprised you are flabbergasted!

The electric heaters are probably not very cost effective compared to gas TBH.

But, that still just doesn't sound right at all, have you double checked your actual usage and worked out what that should cost?
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I think we will have to limit using the electric heaters.
 
Aladdin said:
There is €200 due from the government and there was €200 before Christmas.

We have gas fires but they've only been on once in 2 months
The heating is gas boiler and again its rarely on. When dad was unwell we had the heat on but only from 7pm to 8pm to take the chill out of bedroom.
We have two electric heaters running from 9 am to 9pm. But they are supposed to be energy efficient.
I cook on the gas hob but I also use the slow cooker which is energy efficient.
I do two washes per week for clothing, bedding, towels. And the tumble dryer has been on because there's been no drying out.

My battery lights are used all the time. And we have electric blankets on for 45 mins before bed. But they're turned off then

I dread to think what the bill would have been if we heated the house every day.

I've been boiling the kettle a lot more recently. Well since Christmas. I needed boiled water for cleaning operation wounds. And again this past 9 days

But we don't use the electric shower every day. And the microwave gets used maybe twice a day.

I'm flabbergasted ...
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I'm entirely on electric not gas..... what sort of electric heaters have you got(what rating in KW or W if you know?) , i would highly reccomend buying oil filled heaters. That's what I've used all winter and I'm paying 6 pound a day.
lazythursday said:
Yep, cost wise you are always better (right now) using gas rather than electric - unless you have a heat pump which are vastly more efficient than standard electric heating. Though the balance is likely to shift towards electric in the coming years.
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Depends on the heatpump. I've no doubt efficient heatpumps (if installed correctly) exist but mine is absolutely horrendous and an HA down south had them all taken out cause they were costing people as much as Aladdin is paying now pre hike.
 
HoratioCuthbert said:
I'm entirely on electric not gas..... what sort of electric heaters have you got(what rating in KW or W if you know?) , i would highly reccomend buying oil filled heaters. That's what I've used all winter and I'm paying 6 pound a day.

Depends on the heatpump. I've no doubt efficient heatpumps (if installed correctly) exist but mine is absolutely horrendous and an HA down south had them all taken out cause they were costing people as much as Aladdin is paying now pre hike.
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They do have to be installed correctly ideally as part of a project that addresses insulation first. But they should then be about 300% efficient compared to 100% for standard heating like oil filled radiators.
 
lazythursday said:
They do have to be installed correctly ideally as part of a project that addresses insulation first. But they should then be about 300% efficient compared to 100% for standard heating like oil filled radiators.
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My particular model has bad name regardless of where and how it is installed, and on every thread on every forum in the land dedicated to this heatpump there's a dude telling us how good they are, while the rest of the thread dies of frustration :)
 
Aladdin said:
I think we will have to limit using the electric heaters.
Click to expand...

Do you have the option of smart meters being installed?

I know some on here resist them for very strange reasons, and I know you can buy meters to plug various electric appliances into to measure their consumption over a 24 hour period, then move it onto the the next appliance, but that seems fiddly to me, and as High Voltage found his wasn't very accurate anyway.

I had major problems with OVO over estimating my electric use, which took about 9 months to resolve, and very stressful it was at times, so I took the plunge and got smart meters installed at no cost, and the little monitor has been a God send in reducing my use.

Starting on the electric side of things, it reports actual use by the second, you can see the difference as soon as you switch the kettle, toaster, etc. on in real time. I just switched off & unplugged everything that was normally constantly on, so it was showing zero use. I then plugged in & switch on appliances one by one, and could see exactly how much each was using, so I could find some small savings there.

But, the big one was the 20+ year old fridge-freezer eating over 2.5kwh per day, I spent £220 on a new one using about 500 watts a day, that'll will pay for itself in well under a year and continue to save me for years to come, overall I reduced my average electric use from over 5kwh a day to under 2.5khw.

The gas meter only reports every half an hour, but that's enough to work out the best way to heat this place, i.e. it's cheaper to heat slightly higher than your deserved temperature in the morning & let the temperature drop slightly lower than your deserved temperature over a period of time before having another blast, rather than leaving it on all the time at your deserved temperature. That one change in use has been saving me something between £30 & £45 a month during the winter months.

Those that claim smart maters can't help you save on energy use are frankly talking out of their arses.
 
HoratioCuthbert said:
My particular model has bad name regardless of where and how it is installed, and on every thread on every forum in the land dedicated to this heatpump there's a dude telling us how good they are, while the rest of the thread dies of frustration :)
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What's the model? I'm hopefully having one installed this year...
 
Aladdin said:
I think we will have to limit using the electric heaters.
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If the atmosphere is damp in the house (you're in Ireland? It's bloody damp here in Cornwall) you might be good getting a dehumidifier. I'm using a portable desiccant dehumidifier (cost me £100 a couple of years ago) and it takes 300 W so 1/3 the consumption of a 1 kW heater. It blows out warm air which makes the place easier to heat because you're not having to heat up water vapour in the air. Needs to be a desiccant type though. It's also just good for the house to be drying the air out assuming the room is reasonably airtight.
 
marty21 said:
Our utility companies were hassling us to put in a smart meter , so we arranged for them to come & do it. The meters are in the basement are , which is in front of the flat downstairs, accessible either through their flat, or via a 5 rung ladder 🪜, it seems staff at both companies can't climb down ladders but insist that I do , to send them readings. I don't mind climbing down the ladder , I could arrange for them to access the meters via the lower flat, but I can't be arsed 😎
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There is a bit of variability here. When I was with Ovo I used their chat boards, and people were often complaining that either the gas or the electric smart meter didn't work.
On the other hand I have a friend living in a house which had been put back to a house from two flats.
When they had a smart meter installed in the cellar it did work and also saved one standing charge on the bill.

I guess I just object on principle. There is nothing wrong with the existing gas & electric meters which are in a cupboard under the stairs opening off the kitchen.
I certainly don'r fancy going on a regime of estimated bills if the new smart gas meter is a dud!
 
CH1 said:
There is a bit of variability here. When I was with Ovo I used their chat boards, and people were often complaining that either the gas or the electric smart meter didn't work.
On the other hand I have a friend living in a house which had been put back to a house from two flats.
When they had a smart meter installed in the cellar it did work and also saved one standing charge on the bill.

I guess I just object on principle. There is nothing wrong with the existing gas & electric meters which are in a cupboard under the stairs opening off the kitchen.
I certainly don'r fancy going on a regime of estimated bills if the new smart gas meter is a dud!
Click to expand...

They are installing second generation smart meters nowadays, which are much more reliable, with the added bonus they continue to work if you switch suppliers, whereas the old ones became 'dumb' meters until the new supplier installed their own new smart meters.
 
I have an old dumb one - it went dead when I switched from npower to octopus - but then some time after it came back to life, because a lot of the old ones have now had a software upgrade to make them portable between suppliers. So I think that issue is now mainly historic.
 
I believe my one is a first generation dumb meter. While I like the idea in principal, I am still not convinced I’m being billed correctly, I think I’m paying too little. So saying nothing!
 
Elpenor said:
I believe my one is a first generation dumb meter. While I like the idea in principal, I am still not convinced I’m being billed correctly, I think I’m paying too little. So saying nothing!
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I'd try and get it sorted so you don't get a surprise big bill sometime in the future. :(
 
existentialist said:
I get regular invites to "upgrade" to a smart meter, but it's not something I feel I need. And I am uncomfortable about the ability to remote disconnect - not that I think I am likely to find myself in that situation, but...nope.
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Why on earth would you feel uncomfortable about it? I mean we've only had ours one day but it is interesting to see how a load of washing or a long shower actually costs.

The only downside I can see is members of the household arguing a bit after someone does take said long shower :D (which is usually me)
 
So how/when/will bills go down considering last I heard gas prices were down below Ukraine invasion prices? :hmm: What are the means by which they're allowed to keep these elevated prices, as it's not like they can claim their profits are suffering?

My other half refuses smart meters - I'm not that bothered by the idea, but he really hates it.
 
I imagine the electricity producers are currently still locked into long term price agreements for their inputs, which they likely put together last year. If gas prices stay suppressed, that will allow for cheaper deals as they renegotiate their supply.
 
existentialist said:
I get regular invites to "upgrade" to a smart meter, but it's not something I feel I need. And I am uncomfortable about the ability to remote disconnect - not that I think I am likely to find myself in that situation, but...nope.
Click to expand...

As I said on another thread when the BiB came up, if I ever find myself in the position of being forced onto pre-payment I would be happier if they switched me remotely rather than turn up when I am out and force entry to physically replace the meters, with all the additional costs involved in that.
 
Cloo said:
So how/when/will bills go down considering last I heard gas prices were down below Ukraine invasion prices? :hmm: What are the means by which they're allowed to keep these elevated prices, as it's not like they can claim their profits are suffering?

My other half refuses smart meters - I'm not that bothered by the idea, but he really hates it.
Click to expand...

As kabbes says the energy suppliers commit to buy in advance, so price drops take a while to filter though to lower bills, having said that, the OFGEM price cap is dropping from the current £4,279 to £3,280 from the 1st Apr, and the forecast is that will drop to around £2,100 from the 1st July, so it is actually happening now, it's just not been reflected in bills because the government has been paying the difference between their price guarantee and the price cap.

* Also remember the actual energy suppliers make fairly low profits, hence so many have gone bust, it's the energy producers that have been making crazy profits. Although some suppliers are owned by producers they have to run them as separate businesses, otherwise a supplier owned by a producer could have an unfair advantage over those that are not.

Much like BT have to keep their retail business separate to Openreach, to ensure they don't have an advantage over other companies that use the Openreach network, such as Sky, TalkTalk, etc.
 
I've calculated my gas and electricity usage for the month to 7th March today. I managed to use 21% less gas than the equivalent period last year even though the average temperature was about 1°C colder this year. I still couldn't get my electricity usage much lower than last year though (insignificant drop of just 1% on last year). But I think that's down to using the fan heater occasionally to boost the heat when the GCH hasn't been on long enough to bring it up to the desired temperature.
 
cupid_stunt said:
I thought you were mainly using an open fire for heating,
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we had planned last May to take out one gas fire and either put it back to open fire or a stove. But then dad got very unwell and all plans went out the window. It's been non stop hospital visits and different operations since then plus my own health has taken a hit.

On a positive note..I ran the gas heating yesterday. One hour in the morning and 90 mins in the evening. It warmed up the house well and rooms retained the heat quite well.
So the advice to run the gas boiler was received and thanks to those who mentioned it would be cheaper than running electric heaters.
 
Petcha said:
Just got a smart meter (which is pretty cool actually). Me and my flatmate seem to be doing about ten quid a day between us. Is that normal? I had the heating on for a bit but didn't take a shower as I'm working from home today and couldn't be arsed. Is ten quid good? Genuinely no idea as I've only just taken over the bills.
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You are paying to much in my opinion for a flat,Get in touch with your supplier.
 
Aladdin said:
we had planned last May to take out one gas fire and either put it back to open fire or a stove. But then dad got very unwell and all plans went out the window. It's been non stop hospital visits and different operations since then plus my own health has taken a hit.

On a positive note..I ran the gas heating yesterday. One hour in the morning and 90 mins in the evening. It warmed up the house well and rooms retained the heat quite well.
So the advice to run the gas boiler was received and thanks to those who mentioned it would be cheaper than running electric heaters.
Click to expand...
I know that there’s a temptation to look at how much money you’re spending on heat but try to look at the amount of electricity you’re using in kilowatts. I’d be horrified of our usage for the two of us in a two need detached house was over 15kWh per day or something like that level. We don’t heat using electricity really out at least anything that uses electricity to heat/warm is either off or seriously monitored so I know what’s being used and when
 
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