What is going on?

SPlatten

We are with EDF, like everyone our electricity bill has gone up, but the bill we got in January was ridiculous, at £784.  Its made more confusing because when I look at the bills they seem to start in the middle of the previous month then a month laster into the actual bill month.  According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

Our bill use to be around the £100 a month mark, as Martin Lewis advised we have regularly switched providers to the cheapest.  EDF started us off at £145 per month, this dropped after 4 months to £114, then after 3 months they switched us to readings taken from the smart meter and bill us based on that.  The question is why did they come up with such low direct debits in the first place and why is the smart meter now so much higher?

GingerTim

Could you post your actual usage in kwh for the last twelve months, and someone here will be able to tell you what your monthly direct debit should be.

Spoonie_Turtle

SPlatten said:

According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

Doesn't matter, it all costs the same on the energy market.

Mobtr

If you kept chasing low fixes you must have come off a fix in the last 6 months then automatically went on the standard variable tariff which is probably about twice the price for your electricity & up to 3 times the price for your gas. 

EDF only review direct debits every 6 months but if you come off a fix during that time they would have sent you a letter/email telling you they won’t change your direct debit until the next review, however, it would be advisable for you to increase it & to call them/go onto your My Account to do this. If you didn’t you’ve been massively underpaying over the winter, hence the high balance 

[Deleted User]

According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, ……..

If only that were true. Your energy is a mix of what the generators put into the Grid. There are only three suppliers that are truly Green and they are exempt from the Ofgem Cap: they are Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy UK.

What follows is worth a read:

sheramber

SPlatten said:

We are with EDF, like everyone our electricity bill has gone up, but the bill we got in January was ridiculous, at £784.  Its made more confusing because when I look at the bills they seem to start in the middle of the previous month then a month laster into the actual bill month.  According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

Our bill use to be around the £100 a month mark, as Martin Lewis advised we have regularly switched providers to the cheapest.  EDF started us off at £145 per month, this dropped after 4 months to £114, then after 3 months they switched us to readings taken from the smart meter and bill us based on that.  The question is why did they come up with such low direct debits in the first place and why is the smart meter now so much higher?

EDF would be the people to answer these questions.

chris1973

SPlatten said:

According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

No unless you have your own solar panel or wind turbine or a diesel genny in your shed then, if you are buying your energy then your energy comes via the National Grid network exactly the same as everybody else's. You should probably be thankful for that, if you were reliant on a wholly green energy supply, you would be getting a lot of power cuts.

But that said, Green methods of Electricity generation aren't free. The UK as a whole has invested over £35 billion into building Wind Turbines alone. If you are an advocate of Green Energy, you should be happy to contribute every penny into the roll out, whether that costs you an extra £1000, £2000 or £5000 each year on your bills. All in a good cause isn't it?

Lots of people seem to confuse Green energy with cheap energy. Surely the fact that historically we have the greenest energy ever, and also historically we have  the highest energy prices ever, should surely prove that theory wrong?

BUFF

SPlatten said:

We are with EDF, like everyone our electricity bill has gone up, but the bill we got in January was ridiculous, at £784.  Its made more confusing because when I look at the bills they seem to start in the middle of the previous month then a month laster into the actual bill month.  According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

Our bill use to be around the £100 a month mark, as Martin Lewis advised we have regularly switched providers to the cheapest.  EDF started us off at £145 per month, this dropped after 4 months to £114, then after 3 months they switched us to readings taken from the smart meter and bill us based on that.  The question is why did they come up with such low direct debits in the first place and why is the smart meter now so much higher?

Seasonal differences in demand in your house? How do you heat it? Do you have lights on for longer in Winter etc.?
You were on fixed direct debit & now are on variable dd?

markin

SPlatten said:

We are with EDF, like everyone our electricity bill has gone up, but the bill we got in January was ridiculous, at £784.  Its made more confusing because when I look at the bills they seem to start in the middle of the previous month then a month laster into the actual bill month.  According to EDF out energy is supplied by renewables and Nuclear, so why have they gone up so much ?

Our bill use to be around the £100 a month mark, as Martin Lewis advised we have regularly switched providers to the cheapest.  EDF started us off at £145 per month, this dropped after 4 months to £114, then after 3 months they switched us to readings taken from the smart meter and bill us based on that.  The question is why did they come up with such low direct debits in the first place and why is the smart meter now so much higher?

How many kwh is on this bill?

Robin9

@SPlatten -  you've posted on this before in 2021.# Has anything changed ?

Then 

18-Oct-20	8357.7
18-Nov-20	11076.0
18-Dec-20	13913.0

This was an all electric large house, ASHP      - larger houses +electricity = large bills

Spoonie_Turtle

Robin9 said:

@SPlatten -  you've posted on this before in 2021.# Has anything changed ?

Then 

18-Oct-20	8357.7
18-Nov-20	11076.0
18-Dec-20	13913.0

This was an all electric large house, ASHP      - larger houses +electricity = large bills

Holy moly that's a heck of a lot of electricity!  How big/hot is this house? 

We have ASHP, keep our 3-bed semi EPC D at 18℃, 4 adults (3 at home most of the day), electric shower, old fridge and multiple freezers, = we used to use just over 1,000-1,200kWh in the coldest winter months back then, before we made tweaks to cut down.

Edit: just thought, electric car.  If that's the case, I retract all of the above.