Energy bills OTT

AfterDark

My energy bills are through the roof at the moment. I've got a 2 bed semi, I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost . My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260. I think this is crazy for a 2 bed house.

Has everyone else jumped up this much ? Its just about £200 extra each month.

Dolor

Your quoted amounts are meaningless without any context. At the time if your first DD did you have a credit or debit balance based on an actual meter reading? What has your actual usage been in kWh for the last year. You can check this by looking at your meter and finding a bill from 12 months ago.

CSI_Yorkshire

Don't get fixated on what is happening to other people.  You only need to work out if it is correct for you.

Do you have accurate meter readings?  Are they the same readings that are on your bills?

Gerry1

Are the bills based on actual meter readings or merely estimates?

Robin9

AfterDark said:

..................................., I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost . ..............................

If that means you have switched the gas heating off and are using electric heaters - convectors, fan heaters, oil filled  ..........  instead, then you are shooting yourself in the foot. Gas remains the best option.

£260 implies a mix of two things - £97 was never enough and you have been building up a big debt that needs to be paid off - plus a high electric consumption.

Give us those annual consumptions please

frugalmacdugal

Hi,

AfterDark said:

My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260.

 You say 'my bills' do you mean your monthly Direct Debit?

BUFF

Robin9 said:

£260 implies a mix of two things - £97 was never enough and you have been building up a big debt that needs to be paid off - plus a high electric consumption.

or potentially also has come off an old fix to discover the current reality ...

dunstonh

I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost .

Most people will stop using their heating around April-May time as its not needed after that.

 My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260. I think this is crazy for a 2 bed house.

What you pay per month and what you actually use are two different things.   
For example, £97 sounds very low for a 2 bedroom house for gas & electric.   Certainly possible if its one person who is frugel.   
It could be that you were not paying enough when it was £97 so the increase to £226 is partly catching up your arrears and your current use.

Talking in pounds per month doesn't tell us a thing about your use.    Its all about YOUR use and that is the unit count on your meter.    Tell us what your meter readings have been (ideally over a year) and whether they are actual readings or estimates.

JSHarris

dunstonh said:

I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost .

Most people will stop using their heating around April-May time as its not needed after that.

 My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260. I think this is crazy for a 2 bed house.

What you pay per month and what you actually use are two different things.   
For example, £97 sounds very low for a 2 bedroom house for gas & electric.   Certainly possible if its one person who is frugel.   
It could be that you were not paying enough when it was £97 so the increase to £226 is partly catching up your arrears and your current use.

Talking in pounds per month doesn't tell us a thing about your use.    Its all about YOUR use and that is the unit count on your meter.    Tell us what your meter readings have been (ideally over a year) and whether they are actual readings or estimates.

There's a massive variability in energy use/cost, that isn't directly related to the number of bedrooms, or even the size of the house.  As an example, our house has a net floor area of 130m², about the same as a 3 or 4 bedroom estate home.  There are just two of us now, although the house has 6 habitable rooms, 2 bathrooms, plus a utility room.  We are currently paying £68 per month for all our energy, heating, hot water, cooking, even charging the car.  We are over-paying slightly, as my tally of energy used so far this year suggests our DD should be around £64 per month.

Obviously this is a lot lower than for a poorly insulated home of a similar size, but it does serve to illustrate just how challenging it can be to estimate energy usage based on something as ephemeral as the number of bedrooms.

Spoonie_Turtle

JSHarris said:

dunstonh said:

I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost .

Most people will stop using their heating around April-May time as its not needed after that.

 My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260. I think this is crazy for a 2 bed house.

What you pay per month and what you actually use are two different things.   
For example, £97 sounds very low for a 2 bedroom house for gas & electric.   Certainly possible if its one person who is frugel.   
It could be that you were not paying enough when it was £97 so the increase to £226 is partly catching up your arrears and your current use.

Talking in pounds per month doesn't tell us a thing about your use.    Its all about YOUR use and that is the unit count on your meter.    Tell us what your meter readings have been (ideally over a year) and whether they are actual readings or estimates.

There's a massive variability in energy use/cost …  We are currently paying £68 per month for all our energy, heating, hot water, cooking, even charging the car.  We are over-paying slightly, as my tally of energy used so far this year suggests our DD should be around £64 per month.

Obviously this is a lot lower than for a poorly insulated home of a similar size, but it does serve to illustrate just how challenging it can be to estimate energy usage based on something as ephemeral as the number of bedrooms.

Do you have solar/battery, I assume that's the only way charging an EV plus normal domestic use is possible at that low cost?  Usually things like that are mentioned in the context of comparing usage/bills.  If that's the case, the cost of your energy imported from the grid is not reflective of how much energy you actually use.  Whereas if you compare kWh then yes there's still wide variability but at least then you're comparing the same thing rather than two different things.

JSHarris

Spoonie_Turtle said:

JSHarris said:

dunstonh said:

I dont use the central heating anymore due to the cost .

Most people will stop using their heating around April-May time as its not needed after that.

 My bills went up from £97 per month for both gas and electricity. I'm now paying £226 per month and had an email to say they want to put my monthly payments upto £260. I think this is crazy for a 2 bed house.

What you pay per month and what you actually use are two different things.   
For example, £97 sounds very low for a 2 bedroom house for gas & electric.   Certainly possible if its one person who is frugel.   
It could be that you were not paying enough when it was £97 so the increase to £226 is partly catching up your arrears and your current use.

Talking in pounds per month doesn't tell us a thing about your use.    Its all about YOUR use and that is the unit count on your meter.    Tell us what your meter readings have been (ideally over a year) and whether they are actual readings or estimates.

There's a massive variability in energy use/cost …  We are currently paying £68 per month for all our energy, heating, hot water, cooking, even charging the car.  We are over-paying slightly, as my tally of energy used so far this year suggests our DD should be around £64 per month.

Obviously this is a lot lower than for a poorly insulated home of a similar size, but it does serve to illustrate just how challenging it can be to estimate energy usage based on something as ephemeral as the number of bedrooms.

Do you have solar/battery, I assume that's the only way charging an EV plus normal domestic use is possible at that low cost?  Usually things like that are mentioned in the context of comparing usage/bills.  If that's the case, the cost of your energy imported from the grid is not reflective of how much energy you actually use.  Whereas if you compare kWh then yes there's still wide variability but at least then you're comparing the same thing rather than two different things.

Yes we do, but then we don't know if the OP also has these, do we?

My point is that making suppositions about energy usage based on something as ephemeral as the number of bedrooms is a deeply flawed strategy.  Without a lot more information, about things like house size, insulation level, pattern of use, solar panels, battery storage, etc it's near-impossible to estimate energy use to any useful degree.