MSE News: Energy bills topped £500 over winter

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"A mixture of bad weather and energy firms' reluctance to cut costs before the cold snap has led to records costs ..."

Read the full story:

Energy bills topped £500 over winter

karatedragon

My Gas is £10 a month and £15 a month for electric. I would be having kittens at £500 a year let alone over one quarter

Premier_2

karatedragon wrote: »

My Gas is £10 a month and £15 a month for electric. I would be having kittens at £500 a year let alone over one quarter

I would suggest you check your account statement rather than what you pay per month ... and ensure the statement is based on actual meter readings, not estimates.

What you pay per month may only be a fraction of what you've consumed.

The report relates to costs over the winter quarter based on a standard tariff. Whilst mine was not as much as £500 for the quarter, it was certainly a lot more than £75!
During the very cold period, it was not uncommon to be spending about £20 per week just to heat a property.

Mind you, I'll obviously be paying much less in August, but you won't be.

pretzelnut

My electric bill for december the 14th to january the 11th was £420. As we were on a key meter when we first moved in as thats what our landlord left in. it also cost me an extra £150 to have the key meter replaced with a credit meter, after a 3 week long battle with scottish power, because of the type of meter we had no other energy supplier wold touch it, so now we are tied into a 12 month contract with scottish power or we will loose the £150 deposit we paid for the meter.

Then my electric bill for the 11th january til the 11th april was £637.00 as we have no gas and only have convector heaters which are wired into the wall.

These are actual meter readings not estimates.

We are seriously struggling and before you say turn your heating down, we cant, we had to have it on full as we have a small baby and DF suffers with pnuemonia, even then with the heating on as we had it on we still froze and spent all december, january, february and the most part of march with reoccuring chest infections. As it was still bloody cold in our house.

kjsmith7

My electricity bill was £75 and my gas bill was £160 for the last quarter, in a 2 bedroomed flat. I was pretty pleased with it, was expecting a shocker!

kenrob

I think I've done well over the winter months, I'm with Scottish Power on an E7 tariff. Currently paying £65 per month via DD, I input my meter readings online monthly (as recommended here) and I'm currently £31.53 in credit, however I'm very disciplined when it comes to 'high load' appliances. Dishwasher, Washing machine, tumble drier, electric shower, heated towel rail and one large storage heater are only used during the off-peak period, practically everything is on a timer. When the weather gets milder I switch off the storage heater. Still think I could reduce this a bit more though. One bedroom top floor flat.

Forgot to add I do not use my immersion heater, no hot water in this house !!

karatedragon

Premier wrote: »

I would suggest you check your account statement rather than what you pay per month ... and ensure the statement is based on actual meter readings, not estimates.

What you pay per month may only be a fraction of what you've consumed.

The report relates to costs over the winter quarter based on a standard tariff. Whilst mine was not as much as £500 for the quarter, it was certainly a lot more than £75!
During the very cold period, it was not uncommon to be spending about £20 per week just to heat a property.

Mind you, I'll obviously be paying much less in August, but you won't be.

That is how much I put onto my Prepayment meters every month so don't really need to check my consumption. I get an annual statement for them.

tripled

Premier wrote: »

I would suggest you check your account statement rather than what you pay per month ... and ensure the statement is based on actual meter readings, not estimates.

What you pay per month may only be a fraction of what you've consumed.

The report relates to costs over the winter quarter based on a standard tariff. Whilst mine was not as much as £500 for the quarter, it was certainly a lot more than £75!
During the very cold period, it was not uncommon to be spending about £20 per week just to heat a property.

Mind you, I'll obviously be paying much less in August, but you won't be.

My electric works out at less than £20 per month, I don't have gas. It is possible, and still have a nice warm flat.

And yes (as you may/may not remember), I used to be one of the people who could promise a fantastically low dd, so I'm not deluded either. However, in all fairness many people do fall for it...

dannymccann

Are you in a top floor flat tripled? They are great for keeping warm and not turning your heating on

I lived in a 3 bed semi over the winter quarter and used £60 gas and £60 electricity

Joyful

karatedragon wrote: »

That is how much I put onto my Prepayment meters every month so don't really need to check my consumption. I get an annual statement for them.

It would be fantastic for you if this is correct. Just in case your meters are not set correctly ( in which case you can run up a bill) please check for the price per unit you should be paying with your Supplier and then check the same on the meters. If they are the same you can rest easy.

KimYeovil

If anyone only paid £57 more this winter quarter than last winter's winter quarter then they should be worrying and concentrating on the money they were wasting previous years. Say that's only an extra £7 over the eight (of the thirteen) coldest weeks over the quarter - no way should you have been spending only an extra £1 per day. What the blazes are people doing when it is mild? Are others really so wealthy they can spend money with such abandon.