Oct price cap increase likely to push energy bill to over £10k... for a family of 4...

PosterBoy77

MariaAH said:

I feel sick. I have just submitted our latest meter readings, and our estimated annual cost is £5,885...if the price cap is 82% that could put our annual bill at over £10k. How can this be?! We are a family of 4 (mum, dad and 2 adult children) in a 4-bed property. Our monthly energy direct debit is £545 and after submitting the reading yesterday, it says that is not enough. We use energy efficient light bulbs, wash at 30 degrees, only use tumble dryer when necessary etc. We need to significantly reduce our energy usage but don't know where to start. We are with British Gas since our previous supplier, People's Energy, collapsed and have been asking for a Smart Meter since then, but they initially said we were not suitable (even though we had one with People's Energy) and now say there are supply chain issues. We switched Electric Vehicles in October, but cannot switch to British Gas's EV tariff without a Smart Meter. What we really need is professional help to assess our energy usage and make recommendations - and this is a service we are happy to pay for if you can please make some recommendations for a company that can provide this service?

One the ways people with EVs will be able to save money is to buy an LPG generator and some bottles of gas to charge them up. Generating your own electricity is going to be cheaper now than buying it from the grid!

Jibber123

No need to get a smart meter. Get one of these after market plug in monitors.  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125475173372?hash=item1d36e733fc:g:TdEAAOSwTGRjAgXk&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoNaox9%2BG%2BzYzsOjnVQGTREEV9XFC5QRA%2BrpOjCYxtE%2BDGbXTxNrYgdug4x5BZmvWgUkDXptA4Er0%2BDky6XvP%2F0hGmoyY9mfOstfNGoyg4tseALT866ahpq0H%2FW4z4chxFPv40kdk162W0szWWc1RkThkQAsUOue3gcbMICVHeaLWU4RL3l0Bmh1wg%2BnGwyZEkJn48JY6%2FjBxS8sdEWl4RAk%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR47L7ujbYA  Just put batteries in and clip the little thing around the cable near the meter/fuse board (you don't need an electrician its safe to do if you follow the instruction). Then you can go around the house turning things off and see how much the cost goes down. I did this about 5 years ago and I got our yearly spend down from £1800 to less than £900. Unfortunately with prices rises this is now back up to over £4000 and looking to rise more still. You can also try a plug in reader like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384715899031?hash=item5992dac097:g:BRMAAOSwaRRizSLS&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4BY0RQuwSKg2dgpb6RxY7T6buslczzsoX56cJ6PCp%2B4EX23vMSuRV1OjZkQWbZjHeH5SkhJPcE0%2Fd8Xr2ogg6CDllp814qzsMsrcwcI%2BYlt4wTFW70WHECNHjEMeuaOnyLne%2FfF9BPKvB%2Fq%2FmYgGPGqy4b2NkEACLFmv9pZEvxoBtheLIa292Jpvi9EhLDXMVlhkHf65lXSnTmwYg39gvglkqPptO4vlqADjVKfAtzVlOSuCkAgSaSZKCvtytqEbIrHW1ajEAIwBK%2B6ogYlqW3kgMBGi4og6OH2n8tpyG83h%7Ctkp%3ABFBMgIqm6dtg    for say the tumble dryer, leave it on for a week or two and see how much it really uses. We never use the tumble dryer now only on cold for removing pet hair from blankets, and only on the cheap rate. Washing goes outside on a sunny day or we wait. prolonged wet weather and we use the airier by the log burner. Saving energy is about lifestyle changes, we've all got used to having things easy, energy was cheap. It was even flouted back in the 60's and 70's with our new nuclear power, electricity would be too cheap to even bother metering it. It would be free to all. Oh how things have changed !!

QrizB

mikael said:

One the ways people with EVs will be able to save money is to buy an LPG generator and some bottles of gas to charge them up. Generating your own electricity is going to be cheaper now than buying it from the grid!

I'd like to see your costed analysis for this claim, considering that even in 47kg cylinders LPG costs about 15p/kWh and you'll need to burn 3-4kWh of LPG to generate one kWh of electricity.

Don't forget the cost of servicing of the generator every 100 hours, and amortisation of the generator purchase price over maybe 1-2000 hours of operation.

strawb_shortcake

This had been an interesting read thank you. 

I'm expecting our electric bill to increase from £90-170 a month, whilst this won't put us into "fuel poverty" it is a significant increase, coupled with our mortgage increasing by circa £50 a month from January. 

My eldest is moving to into halls of  residence in 3 weeks, he's the gamer in the family so it'll be interesting to see how our usage falls when he's no longer spending 30 hours gaming a week! 

I'm already thinking about the small changes I can make before the new price cap comes in. So far I plan to make my Christmas cake and pudding in September, then come the winter I expect we'll go back to using candles for a bit of light rather than using the big light every night. Will also be ensuring we have LED lights in all fittings 

I need to work out if my slow cooker is cheaper than my electric cooker to use. 

Brewer21

annabanana82 said:

This had been an interesting read thank you. 

I'm expecting our electric bill to increase from £90-170 a month, whilst this won't put us into "fuel poverty" it is a significant increase, coupled with our mortgage increasing by circa £50 a month from January. 

My eldest is moving to into halls of  residence in 3 weeks, he's the gamer in the family so it'll be interesting to see how our usage falls when he's no longer spending 30 hours gaming a week! 

I'm already thinking about the small changes I can make before the new price cap comes in. So far I plan to make my Christmas cake and pudding in September, then come the winter I expect we'll go back to using candles for a bit of light rather than using the big light every night. Will also be ensuring we have LED lights in all fittings 

I need to work out if my slow cooker is cheaper than my electric cooker to use. 

Buy the cake and pudding 👍

Yes the slow cooker will always be an whole lot cheaper than the electric hob/oven.

Alnat1

LEDs are cheaper than candles.

Even the "big light" can have LED bulbs and will probably cost you 3p all evening.

MariaAH

annabanana82 said:

This had been an interesting read thank you. 

I'm expecting our electric bill to increase from £90-170 a month, whilst this won't put us into "fuel poverty" it is a significant increase, coupled with our mortgage increasing by circa £50 a month from January. 

My eldest is moving to into halls of  residence in 3 weeks, he's the gamer in the family so it'll be interesting to see how our usage falls when he's no longer spending 30 hours gaming a week! 

I'm already thinking about the small changes I can make before the new price cap comes in. So far I plan to make my Christmas cake and pudding in September, then come the winter I expect we'll go back to using candles for a bit of light rather than using the big light every night. Will also be ensuring we have LED lights in all fittings 

I need to work out if my slow cooker is cheaper than my electric cooker to use. 

Slow cooker definitely cheaper than oven…added benefits of mouthwatering smell filling the house, and a warming hearty meal in a cold winter day. We also recently bought a Ninja Airfryer that daughter uses to cook with all of the time instead of using the oven…again very economical, and cooks much quicker than oven.

strawb_shortcake

Brewer21 said:

annabanana82 said:

This had been an interesting read thank you. 

I'm expecting our electric bill to increase from £90-170 a month, whilst this won't put us into "fuel poverty" it is a significant increase, coupled with our mortgage increasing by circa £50 a month from January. 

My eldest is moving to into halls of  residence in 3 weeks, he's the gamer in the family so it'll be interesting to see how our usage falls when he's no longer spending 30 hours gaming a week! 

I'm already thinking about the small changes I can make before the new price cap comes in. So far I plan to make my Christmas cake and pudding in September, then come the winter I expect we'll go back to using candles for a bit of light rather than using the big light every night. Will also be ensuring we have LED lights in all fittings 

I need to work out if my slow cooker is cheaper than my electric cooker to use. 

Buy the cake and pudding 👍

Yes the slow cooker will always be an whole lot cheaper than the electric hob/oven.

But homemade tastes so much better

Magnitio

Alnat1 said:

LEDs are cheaper than candles.

Even the "big light" can have LED bulbs and will probably cost you 3p all evening.

But the recent trend, especially in kitchen/diners has been for large numbers of downlighters. Even at 4W per LED, an array of 20 lights can be costly if left on for several hours a day. Then there's the cabinet lighting, floor lights etc. For someone who still has halogen lights at 35W each, that will work out to be very expensive!

Alnat1

True Magnito but not many spend all their evening in the kitchen.

20 downlighters in a kitchen? Ours is a decent size (4m x 4m) and only has 6.