So Im lazy with meter reads and barely submitted any before March 31st

Bhavv

I was looking through my energy bills and my electricity estimates for last year were actually crazy, up to £135pm and a couple at £75 and £95 (living alone).

After submitting my meter read and my electric smart meter finally starting to work, all my bills since march have been negative credit, up to £75 back for the over estimates.

I'm not even sure if this will somehow save me any money with the current prices, and its the same with my gas bills, each month since march and a recent meter read submission at the start of June and its negative each month.

I am accidentally not paying for my gas / electric since the costs went up.

Coffeekup

Bhavv said:

I'm not even sure if this will somehow save me any money with the current prices, and its the same with my gas bills, each month since march and a recent meter read submission at the start of June and its negative each month.

It will save you money especially of you write down the units used each month in a diary or even better a spread sheet. You'll look on last year's usage and wonder why it's up or down on the usage, then start to think "if I turned that off it'll save me that much a day/week/month".

In a nutshell your just taking ownership on what your using, the sooner we all do this the less energy we waste, lessen impact we the grid and reduce the amount of CO2 released in to the atmosphere.

Broomstick

I, too, live on my own and am having to be very frugal for a variety of complicated reasons right now. I had to get my bills down before the price rises came along. 

I keep a torch, pen and paper to hand and take actual meter readings first thing every morning for electricity, gas and water.  It's now ingrained as a habit and only takes seconds - so easy.  When I have a moment later in the day, I pop the numbers into a spread sheet.  I have four months' worth of data and have got all my utility bills down massively, way below what they were before the price hikes. It's easy to remember what might have used more energy or water in the previous 24 hours and I make a note of that too - I found it impossible to remember if I'd only been taking readings weekly or monthly.  Bit by bit, I've made changes to my consumption and it works.

Although I can now predict very accurately what my next bills will be, I'm going to keep on with daily meter readings.  It's keeping me on track and feeling very much more in control.  

Mstty

Broomstick said:

I, too, live on my own and am having to be very frugal for a variety of complicated reasons right now. I had to get my bills down before the price rises came along. 

I keep a torch, pen and paper to hand and take actual meter readings first thing every morning for electricity, gas and water.  It's now ingrained as a habit and only takes seconds - so easy.  When I have a moment later in the day, I pop the numbers into a spread sheet.  I have four months' worth of data and have got all my utility bills down massively, way below what they were before the price hikes. It's easy to remember what might have used more energy or water in the previous 24 hours and I make a note of that too - I found it impossible to remember if I'd only been taking readings weekly or monthly.  Bit by bit, I've made changes to my consumption and it works.

Although I can now predict very accurately what my next bills will be, I'm going to keep on with daily meter readings.  It's keeping me on track and feeling very much more in control.  

Could you not use the bright app? Unless you have a dumb meter.

Broomstick

Never had a smart meter. 

Bhavv

Mstty said:

Broomstick said:

I, too, live on my own and am having to be very frugal for a variety of complicated reasons right now. I had to get my bills down before the price rises came along. 

I keep a torch, pen and paper to hand and take actual meter readings first thing every morning for electricity, gas and water.  It's now ingrained as a habit and only takes seconds - so easy.  When I have a moment later in the day, I pop the numbers into a spread sheet.  I have four months' worth of data and have got all my utility bills down massively, way below what they were before the price hikes. It's easy to remember what might have used more energy or water in the previous 24 hours and I make a note of that too - I found it impossible to remember if I'd only been taking readings weekly or monthly.  Bit by bit, I've made changes to my consumption and it works.

Although I can now predict very accurately what my next bills will be, I'm going to keep on with daily meter readings.  It's keeping me on track and feeling very much more in control.  

Could you not use the bright app? Unless you have a dumb meter.

The gas meter is dumb. The electric was only just updated to SMETS 2.