23 year old bill and a question for the spreadsheet keepers.....

brewerdave

I had a quick look at my old spreadsheets - forget the price/kwh - the huge difference was in my usage between 2004 and now.
Electricity down from 6500kwh/pa to 3400kwh/pa and gas down from ~ 18000kwh/pa to 14000kh/pa. New TVs, fridge/freezer, better boiler energy efficient lighting etc etc
Bills have still gone up tho' ! LOL

Grizzlebeard

Spreadsheet goes back to 2008 but equations don't work prior to format change in 2012.

2013

Elec  £153.07 = 861kWh

Gas  £191.73 = 2681kWh

*Aggregate cost/kWh = 9.735p

2025 (365days to today)

Elec £267.07 = 310kWh

Gas £123.99 = 240kWh

*Aggregate cost/kWh = 71.102p

(*Gas+Elec, unit costs with standing charges spread over total kWh)

Same house, occupancy & general power arrangements. Consumption reduction driven by eco considerations, not cost. The largest part of my current bills is the standing charges because I'm a very low energy consumer. The average user would not see such a big rise in the last 12 years.

mmmmikey

Thanks for the various responses. All I actually (think?) I said in my opening post was:

1. I randomly came across a very old energy bill that had been mis-filed and realised that the amount I am paying for energy then is much the same as I am paying today.

2. Despite the constant complaints on this website (particular from some posters who endlessly catalogue the same complaints) my actual experience is that I'm paying much the same today as I was 23 years ago so maybe everything isn't as bad as these "serial complainers" make out.

3. I know from other posts that there are a number of folks here who have kept spreadsheets for a number of years and I was interested to know how my experience compares.

I think the caveats / explanatory notes I should have added are:

1. This is not intended to prove any general point at all (and clearly doesn't). It's just a snapshot from one person at a point in time that lead to my question about spreadsheets. It is obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that energy prices have gone up massively in that period. I did not mention this because I thought it was so obvious and didn't really need saying. It is also obvious to me that the size of the increase will cause a lot of people real challenges. Just because I didn't state these obvious things explictly doesn't mean I think that prices haven't gone up and/or if they have it's no big deal. They clearly have gone up and it clearly is a big deal for a lot of people - but not for me and presumably not necesarily for everyone.

2. Saying things "aren't as bad as some people make out" is not the same as or intended to imply that I beleive "everything's good". When I refer to "serial complainers" I am talking about people (on this forum and in real life) who just whinge on incessantly about the same issues to the extent they have come to believe their own excessively negative rhetoric and seem not to stop and think about what they're saying any more. It is my view that sharing concerns about the state of the energy market on this forum is constructive where it leads to a discussion about what can be done about it. But when it degenerates into endlessly whining about the same points (be it in relation to Ofgem, green energy, standing charges or whatever) it just creates so much noise that it becomes (a) tiresome and (b) difficult for anyone who has recently engaged to make sense of where we're at. I don't personally believe that telling people "yeah, you're right, doomed, we're all doomed" and looking for someone to blame is particularly helpful.

3. I think this one speaks for itself, and thanks to those that have replied.

For the record, for the most recent full year when my bill was £600ish, and based on a quick back of an envelope calculation if I didn't have a battery it would have been about £850ish - more than it was 23 years ago but still less in real terms (allowing for inflation). Most of the savings come from a reduction in usage and making the most of TOU tariffs without significant capital expenditure over and above what you'd normally expect to do. More specifically, the savings come from increased awareness of what I'm using through the purchase of a £30 pre-smart meter energy monitor and taking steps to reduce it, a reduction in usage from replacing appliances with more energy efficient models as and when the old ones reached end of life and making good use of TOU tariffs (with the biggest TOU saving coming from heating and hot water). Bottom line - the whole "it's all very well for you because you got loads of spare cash to spend on a battery" line is a red herring (as well as being untrue).

I hope this provides some clarity.

Moving forward, any more spreadsheet keepers with figures to share, and/or comments on what you've done over a prolonged period to keep your costs down?

Edit: as an afterthought perhaps complaining about people who complain does have a certain irony

LoopySnooker

Just had a quick look out of interest. Oldest I have is Feb 2005 and prices were as follows:

Standing charges 
Gas - £45.99
Elec - £44.08

less £43 discount for Direct Debit !

Unit Prices
Gas - £0.01628
Elec - £0.0608

Consumption has dropped considerably since then, same property but many changes of appliances and also much more careful about things being turned off when not in use.