Am I on track? Usage / DD

Mrs_F_2017

Thank you for everyone’s help so far….I wanted some opinions / views on my usage and direct debit amount if anyone has any thoughts?

Actual usage for last 12 months:

Electric 2853 kwh
Gas 7236 kwh

I have set my direct debit to £135 a month. And will have the £400 grant/credit on top. I am on the price cap variable. 

I have reason to believe my usage will be less than last year (unless we have a very cold winter!) as I have been making economies on usage at home. 

Ie in May and June v last year electric usage has halved and gas approximately a third down.

I just don’t want to get to winter and be cold or go into debt. We do have a log burner which will heat downstairs. And have got individual radiator controls which we didn’t have last year. 

Maybe I’m overthinking it all (and yes I give you permission to tell me I’m overthinking it!) 

Thanks
Mrs F 

pochase

I am afraid £135 would be not enough purely based on the usage data.

See below and explanation after this.



You have not given any rates or region, so I am using the ones from the last calculation, so there will be small difference.

For electricity I have assumed that the usage is the same each months. So 1/4 in the next 3 month at old  SVT and 3/4 at new SVT. For gas I have assumed 1/8 for the 3 summer months and 7/8 for the rest of the year.

Total cost for the year would be £2472.79 - £400 = £2072.79.

So you would need to pay £172 per month

If you believe you use 20% less, deduct the 20% from the £172.

QrizB

Mrs_F_2017 said:

Actual usage for last 12 months:
Electric 2853 kwh
Gas 7236 kwh
I have set my direct debit to £135 a month. And will have the £400 grant/credit on top. I am on the price cap variable.

On the current cap, that's about £1600/yr so £135/month is about right.

On current predictions it'll become £2300-2400/yr from October, almost £200 a month - but *if* the £400 is paid as 6x£67 your remaining bill will still be around £135/month for the 6 winter months. You could have a big defecit come April and find you still need to pay £200/month for 6 more months to clear it.

Mrs_F_2017

Hmm thank you both for your comments - lots to think on! 

June my usage was £67. So when my direct debit shows on my account I’ll be just under £100 in credit. 

I think I’ll have to hope I can continue to slash my usage. June was 100 kWh for electricity & 220kwh for gas. I know I can reduce gas further for hot water usage but don’t think there is much more to squeeze on electricity! 

We are fortunate in that we can afford it if necessary. I’d just prefer to ‘trim the fat’ as my grandmother would have said now! 

Thanks 

pochase

I think you will be able to reduce your energy use if you really want to.

But we can only do the calculations based on the usage figures you are giving us. SO with that usage you are not paying enough, with just 20% to 25% which you seem to manage you should be fine.

Mrs_F_2017

I completely agree. We can definitely reduce from last winter.

We had another adult living here then, and had the heating in more than I would have done because they were here.

Also their they had a TV in their room which was ALWAYS on - even if they were asleep in front of it. 

They moved out end of April so it’s only two months I’ve been about to reduce hard - but until winter comes I can’t quite judge how much impact I can have that time of year if that makes sense. I’d rather be prepared for worst case scenario! 

Coffeekup

Mrs_F_2017 said:

I think I’ll have to hope I can continue to slash my usage. June was 100 kWh for electricity & 220kwh for gas. I know I can reduce gas further for hot water usage but don’t think there is much more to squeeze on electricity! 

100kwh for electric for June seems pretty good without knowing too much about your household. So trimming the fat off this will be hard.

The gas 220 kWh for June seems a tad high, again without knowing your household it's difficult to say

Mine June usage as 80kwh for electric and 112kwh for gas. It's just me and my daughter in my house and we have a 5 minute shower everyday each, a bowl of washing up a day. 1 TV with a tv box, HiFi, usual kitchen stuff and a gas hob which hasn't got used much in last few months because we been eating salad and sandwiches mostly.

The gas would have been 30 units less but I filled the blow up pool with water from the boiler one day which cost me 94p to fill fortunately I'm still on cheap fix till October. This time next year it'll be over £3 to fill. 

wild666

Come October if the price per kWh increases to 42p then you will pay £1,198 for electric alone then another £811 for gas then another £300 in SC's if there is no increase in the SC's that's £2008 per year or £167.40 per month and this doesn't include the £400 you will get from the government.

If you include the £400 then your £135 will make your present £135 DD just viable but that assumes there is no increase in Jan if they move to 3 monthly reviews of the pricing.

Mrs_F_2017

Thank you everyone - really good to see all your comments and thoughts.

Gas I’m still working on - for example not having hot water everyday as we offer shower at the gym etc. The final week of June we only used 23 kWh so can definitely improve on the 220 per month. 

Electric - we currently have builders in so have power tools etc being used.

I am going to stick at £135 for July & August and then reassess I think. I used £67 in June and aim to get July a bit lower so should be building my credit. 

I really appreciate all the feedback and workings out. 

Mrs_F_2017

Hi all,

after seeing @Mstty post on another thread…,

should I be considering the Green Energy Sparklkng v6 2023? 

Screenshot attached of details. 

Looks like the prices are competitive against the newest October forecast unless I’m missing something? And no exit fees? 

Thanks 

QrizB

Mrs_F_2017 said:

after seeing @Mstty post on another thread…,

should I be considering the Green Energy Sparklkng v6 2023? 

Looks like the prices are competitive against the newest October forecast unless I’m missing something? And no exit fees?

It;s the most competitive open-market fix the forum hivemind has found recently, even though it hasn't made it onto MSE's official list (and I emailed them about it a week ago). If you want a conventional fix it's probably your best bet at the moment.

Plus there's no exit fees.