Your energy bills

I am with octopus and they are very transparent and fair. We pay £79;per month at the moment up from £68;as we are in credit. We put our £200 winter allowance into our energy account. Plus we build up our balance during the summer. We are in a 3 storey, 4 bed inner town house. I hardly use the tumble dryer now. Heating is at 18 from 8.20-9.30 and 3-7.30pm. We wear extra layers if doing nothing .I use my slow cooker a lot plus cook from scratch practically every day. I am tempted to look at the air fryer if it saves using the oven . Great advice.

Pepper, I was told that a small slow cooker uses the same electricity as a light bulb. I’ve just bought a heated throw and we’re very pleased with it.

We are in a 2 bedroomed newly built super insulated bungalow that only has electric to heat and cook etc.. I use the washing machine for three or four loads per week and I have to use the tumble dryer as there’s nowhere to dry the washing. If I don’t switch the immersion heater on for a couple of hours a day there’d be no hot water. My bills range from £110 up to £160 per month and that’s with only having the heating on for four or five hours a day. It’s never on in the morning and only gets switched on round about 3 or 4 o’clock, when it starts to get chilly. The thermostat is on 18 degrees. I dread to think what our bills will be like from April onwards and we doubt we’ll be able to afford to have the heating on every day. Fortunately the warmer weather is on its way.

I've always been thrifty with energy. I rarely use the oven, and fill it when I do. I don't have a dryer or dishwasher. I keep the blinds and curtains drawn all the time, in winter, except for living room and kitchen. Living on my own means I don't have a lot of washing, but I wait until I have a full load.
I wrap up warmly, but have my heating on a thermostat which keeps it at 20C during the day. I think it's more economical than re-warming a cold house. I don't heat my bedroom, but the bathroom radiator takes the chill off, and
I pop a hot water bottle in my bed on extra chilly nights. I have an electric shower, which I use economically.
I live in a 3-bed semi. It's well insulated, including cavity walls and double glazing. I was refused planning permission for solar panels because they had to go on the front of the house, which gets most of the sun.
My fixed rate dual fuel deal with Shell comes to an end this month. I have been paying £60 a month, and haven't heard, yet, what my new price will be. I expect it to rise considerably, but I'm hoping to spend 3 months in Australia from April ??which would save me a fair bit on my bills, while I'm away. Luckily my needs are few. I hope to be able to comfortably cope with any increases from my pension + pension credit.

We live in a 3 bedroom end of terrace stone cottage on the south coast. It's well insulated and holds the heat overnight. We're an all electric house apart from our heating which is a solid fuel boiler. As there is no gas in the village our only other options would be electric or oil.

All lighting is LED bulbs. We use the oven (sometimes both of them), microwave, kettle, coffee machine, dishwasher and TV every day, and the washing machine and tumble dryer every other day. We don't turn things off at night, I was told it was counter productive, and it would drive me nuts doing that every night and morning!

We were with Peoples Energy who went bust and were transferred to British Gas. With Peoples Energy we paid £130 pm on dd and had built up a credit balance of £760. We're waiting for that to be transferred to British Gas.

We started on a fixed tariff with Brit.Gas and our first quarterly bill was £460 which we paid. Then we set up a monthly dd which has been calculated at £140, so only £10 more than we were paying Peoples Energy. The fixed tariff we're on ends in June so then we'll explore the alternatives available.

In addition to electricity we average £600 a year for solid fuel bought at summer prices. We don't have the heating on every day, it hasn't been cold enough, perhaps 8 or 9 days since before Christmas. When it's been on the house stays warm for the next 2-3 days, you can feel the difference as you enter the house.

Tina49 Your tariff for dual fuel sounds pretty reasonable to me. We all use energy in so many different ways and live in very different homes and areas, that it's difficult to compare one person's bills against another.

I cannot believe that anyone can live with the heating on a couple of hour twice a day between 16 - 18. I have my heating on 24/7 summer and winter, summer at 21 winter at 23 and I am still cold. I have a thyroid deficiency & Raynaud's so suffer the cold terribly, but still, it sounds pretty inhuman to me. I would rather economise on my food bill than on my heating, I am really alone here?

Our combined gas and electric is £200 a month. (4 bed detached) No heating on upstairs but as we both work from home we have heating downstairs. We’ve been told it will be £310 from April, so will need to economise somewhere. The increase is scary for many young families

win. No, you're not alone. It must be terrible to feel that you have no choice but to live in a cold house, but some people seem to do it when they could afford to keep warm. I think that all the dire predictions of rocketing bills have frightened them to death.
I try to help myself by wearing layers, and putting a rug over my knees, but I would never risk my health by letting my house get too cold.

At the moment, I am still using my tumble drier, although considerably less than I used to. Somebody mentioned the wool balls which you put in with the damp washing, and they they reduce the drying time? I was looking at them online, any feedback from users? The plastic things are useless, and very noisy, but I am interested in pure wool ones

Some very useful advice in this thread! We don't use a tumble dryer and run dishwasher only when full thus twice a week. We use a woodstove as well as gas CH. Our house is midterraced 5 bed and stone walls. Survey for air source heat pump said £15k but also recommended about £10k for insulation! Not viable and a lot of hassle. On a good fix till Oct 2022. Government needs to do a lot more!

Wow that sounds very reasonable compared to some people I have heard about so it might be worth sticking where you are for now. I keep hearing microwaves are cheaper to cook with than ovens because they only heat up the food and now the air around it or the plate. I think so many people have already cut back energy use in an attempt to do their best for the planet for generations to come and to keep on top of their bills, you do wonder how you can safely cut back any further. It’s not pleasant or safe to be fumbling around in the dark is it?

Twenty percent increase eon

I am sitting here with my jaw on my chest! Can’t quite take in that you were declined solar panels because they would be on the front of the house. Was this when they first came onto the market? Do you think things would be different now?

Gosh it sounds like you are paying more than people who live in older properties that are not so well insulated? Could this be because rates for energy are different in different areas? Though I never know why, it seems strange.

Do you ever put your washing machine on a cold wash for clothes etc?

I was on a fixed price with Utility and had just managed to get my direct debit down to 51 pounds a month until this October. Feeling over joyed and pleased with myself on reducing my bill, They were the first to close down the very next day.

That sounds awful! It’s like going back to the 40’s.

What is Martin Lewis’ rationale on not fixing? Is he predicting that things might get better later in the year.

2507C0

What is Martin Lewis’ rationale on not fixing? Is he predicting that things might get better later in the year.

He said that nobody knows what the future prices will be, so any company offering a fixed tariff is going to go quite high to make sure they don't get caught out

I live in 2 bed bungalow. Don't pay British gas monthly, just tell them the gas/electric figures and wait for their bill. I use a heated throw (lovely) during day and turn heating on 5pm. British Gas have made an appointment for them to come to install smart meters and will charge £30 if I'm out! What a cheek! Had to mess about contacting them to say I do not want smart meters (took 2 hours to contact them as they're working from home!

2507C0

What is Martin Lewis’ rationale on not fixing? Is he predicting that things might get better later in the year.

The general consensus is that all bills will go up in April

Pepper59
I believe a slow cooker is 25p for 8 hours.

I live in a three bed semidetached house. Late Victorian. Insulated,
Gas central heating.

At present paying £68 per month, which will be going up to £136 per month on a three year fixed tariff This month.

Not happy, but trying to shop around now seems to be pointless.

Our dual fuel bill for a farily large house has been £92 a month for a long time; the new rate is £145 (ouch) or we could have a fixed rate for £245 a month - that seemed like madness, unless of course the charges become so hysterically high that we end up having to burn the furniture to keep warm. I did attempt to see what British Gas might be offering as we were with them some time ago, but they are not taking new customers. Evidently they are having to take on those whose energy companies have collapsed.

Last month we had a letter reducing our direct debit....I'm guessing it will be back up again soon!!