Frightening power bills

Daftbag, it is dreadful that you are facing these worrying heating costs due to your inefficient heating system. Maybe you should consult AgeUk to see if there is some kind of grant or help you can get, I do hope so.

Daftbag that is terrible, are you able to get any help to have central heating put in. A friend of mine knows someone in her village who had storage heaters and they were replaced for her with central heating. I will ask how it was done and get back to you if it helps.

We are in receipt of Pension Credit, we are lucky enough to get the warm home discount which credited our account £140.

We have (old style), storage heaters and use economy 7 rates so basically the heaters charge up overnight during the cheaper rate and then give out the heat during the next 18hrs. That's the theory anyway. In reality 2 of our 3 heaters give lots of heat in the morning and have run out of heat by lunchtime. One of these ,3 has a boost function. So this one is turned off and we just use the boost for an hour or so to take the chill out of the room. We have turned off the other two as just one heater costs around £7 for an hour. When we had them all on it was costing £25 per day just for these three.

We don't have any heating on in the bedrooms too expensive to use them, so we go to bed in heavy duty PJ's socks. And if it's very cold I have hat (remember that advice from a notorious female MP)?

We do not use hot water but boil 2 kettles and strip wash. This is 2022, and despite all the things we try, it costs us £50+ per week. Fortunately, I receive PIP and we are putting it to one side for the electricity.

I should add, we don't smoke, drink or have sky etc It's not unusual. I'd love to see Boris live our lives for a couple of days.

My £60 a month fixed term contract with Shell Energy finishes next month. I usually shop around for a better deal, but not much chance at the moment. I'm wondering how much my direct debit will go up.
I live alone in a fairly large semi with a 24 sq. m living room. The house is quite well insulated. I never heat the bedrooms. I just let the bathroom radiator take the chill off my room, and keep the doors closed on the other two. I pop a hot water bottle in my bed if it's a cold night.
I try to cook meals that are economic on power, and batch cook. I 'layer up' rather than turn up the heating, and put on a hat, scarf, and a lap rug, but make sure that I don't get cold. I hope that my bills don't rocket, and am fairly confident that I will be able to pay them. My winter trips to visit the family in Australia every two years used to provide a good saving on that winter's bills.
Anyone on a really low income, with young children or age/health related problems must be terrified of what may happen to their household budgets, if they are already struggling. The Government must do something to help them, or the death rate will be going up because of hypothermia, not Covid!

We are lucky that we have a multi fuel burner in the sitting/dinning room, so we have the heating on in the morning for an hour while are dressing, then downstairs into the sitting room which is still lovely and warm. We are out most days so don’t need the heating on and we collect wood and buy some coal. At the moment we are on a budget of just under £2 for gas and the same for electric, we unplug everything we are not using as this it seems saves electric and we are just about able to keep our head above water. I also use hot water bottles a great deal.], love them. I think it’s dreadful the way it’s going with our energy costs and it would certainly help if vat was taken away, even if it was just for 6 months every year.

Its an awful time!! We don't put our heating on unless someone is visiting or our grandson is here. We are relying on extra layers of clothing and hot water bottles. We go out more and sit in cafes with a coffee, using someone else's heating and not ours. I am using my slow cooker a lot more and also my pressure cookers. I make a lot of soup which helps to keep us warm. My daughter tells me to put the heating on and not to be cold but she doesn't have the worry of paying the bills so i don't tell her we don't have the heating on. we live on pensions/benefits so don't have any spare money or savings to dip into. Its certainly a very worrying time.

The senssible thing would be to increase the value of Pension Credit. This would help all those on the smallest pensions and those just above the PC level would then qualify for it.

Just heard today that Johnson is not going remove VAT on energy bills because there are people who can afford it. You couldn’t make it up

My house has a lot of glass, in fact about a quarter of the house is completely glass, and even though it is double glazed it definitely lowers the temperature indoor. Curtains and blinds are not possible on this big chunk of glass. The upside is that if there is even a little sunshine it heats up quickly. My late husband never felt the cold so I got used to shoving on another jumper. My central heating didn't come on until December and I have it on for one hour in the morning and two hours late afternoon. At times it has been as low as 6 degrees which was way too cold. In the evening I put my logburner on for about two or three hours and that quickly heats up the huge open plan sitting room. I am amazed the friends will have their heating on full blast and wander around in teeshirts in the dead of winter. I dread my oil and electric bills but do my utmost to stay snug with turning the heating up or on for longer. I know my arthritis is worse in the cold so I always snuggle up under a big heated blanket. Growing up in a big Victorian house with only a coal fire in the sitting room and lino on the bedroom floors must have toughen me up!

On top of the suspending of the triple lock, this is an absolute disaster for a lot elderly people.

Don't get me wrong though - I am well aware that this is also terrible for a lot of younger people too.

i live on benefits and can't afford to heat my house using the heating that my h/a put in, i use a halogen heater in the living room and use the electric blanket for bedtime, i don't get bills as i use a keycard but i have noticed that i am putting more on the card and it is not lasting as long.

GillT57

karmalady

has anyone else drawn their curtains, it is going to be very cold tonight. I only have a front door curtain but jave wooden insulating shutters

Gillt57, I have no idea why your bills are high, possibly lifestyle being different to mine. Transformers left on all night use energy. Perhaps have a good hunt around, room by room. If you have the inclination, rent an infra red camera, which will show the heat leakage areas from house to outside. What is your epc?

My EPC is B, we don't have any draughts or leaks and don't do anything outrageous apart from rude odd use of the tumble dryer rather than having damp towels and bedding draped everywhere. Asking around friends, we are not unusual in our expenditure, I am still astonished at how low your bill is.

I can’t work out how someone’s monthly energy bill is only slightly more than the standing charges, thanks GillT57 for including them in your earlier post. When I looked on comparison sites last year, I thought the standing charges were pretty much the same for every provider? Maybe I was wrong and some people, those paying £50 odd a month don’t pay a standing charge?

I’ve read all these posts with interest, it clear that people pay very different amounts for their energy, more than can be accounted for by insulation etc. It doesn’t help that providers have so many different tariffs, quite daunting to look at them all p, find one that appears cheap only to be told it’s an online offer only or you have to live in a specific area or wear a red coat every Monday!

Done to deliberately to confuse us perhaps?

GillT57, it must be down to lifestyle and numbers in the household then. As I said, only me and therefore I don`t use many lights or electrical devices. That £58 pm was for a whole year ie £696 for 2019/2020 and I had about £50 left in account. I asked for the amount pm to increase to £70 ie £840 for the following year and the year after that. Due to the capped rate, I am certain that this will more than cover my energy costs, however I will be keeping an eye on my usage, as I always do. My epc is also B

I always give the towels a quick blast in the drier even if I'm going to hang them out in good weather.

Calistemon

My friend has a theory that using a tumble drier for a load of clothes saves ironing them and in fact saves energy (I'm not sure if she has done the maths but she is a scientist ?).
Perhaps she added her own energy into the equation.

I agree with your friend! I part dry then use the airer and very little needs ironing. Plus my radiators are fancy vertical ones so useless for drying!

My friend has a theory that using a tumble drier for a load of clothes saves ironing them and in fact saves energy (I'm not sure if she has done the maths but she is a scientist ?).
Perhaps she added her own energy into the equation.

Starseeker that's excellent news, I'm really glad you applied and qualified. It can take up to 3 months for them to actually credit your utility account so don't worry if you don't hear anything for a while.

Rude use? How did occasional become rude use? Sorry

karmalady

has anyone else drawn their curtains, it is going to be very cold tonight. I only have a front door curtain but jave wooden insulating shutters

Gillt57, I have no idea why your bills are high, possibly lifestyle being different to mine. Transformers left on all night use energy. Perhaps have a good hunt around, room by room. If you have the inclination, rent an infra red camera, which will show the heat leakage areas from house to outside. What is your epc?

My EPC is B, we don't have any draughts or leaks and don't do anything outrageous apart from rude odd use of the tumble dryer rather than having damp towels and bedding draped everywhere. Asking around friends, we are not unusual in our expenditure, I am still astonished at how low your bill is.

karmalady

has anyone else drawn their curtains, it is going to be very cold tonight. I only have a front door curtain but jave wooden insulating shutters

Gillt57, I have no idea why your bills are high, possibly lifestyle being different to mine. Transformers left on all night use energy. Perhaps have a good hunt around, room by room. If you have the inclination, rent an infra red camera, which will show the heat leakage areas from house to outside. What is your epc?

I thought that GillT57's bills seemed about average, at least they are comparable to ours; we won't put up the DD until we see what the bills are like in the next few months.

I hope you get your predicament sorted out Annie. As I posted above we had problems then switched supplier after we had sorted it.
Perhaps you need to speak personally to someone at the top, difficult when you are overseas but it may be worth it.
However, too many small suppliers jumped on the bandwagon and many of them have gone under as they were not efficient.

www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/making-complaint-about-your-energy-supplier-or-network-operator

www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/

EllanVannin

They can't put everyone in prison for non-payment !

If people refused to pay then something would have to be done. Look what happened with the Poll Tax. People just won't stand for it.
This is one greedy, grasping country !

no but they could cut your leccy off probably.

I like many have to choose between eat and heat. I help myself out by picking up food that is on its best before, and some on its use by that I can use next day or freeze, and get a lot of bread and fruit and veg from it so that helps me out. Look for an app called olio and see where your nearest people are.

Last September I used Simply Switch to leave Bristol Energy and sign up to British Gas. The problems with this change of supplier have been horrendous. The man at Simply Switch obviously got my gas meter number wrong. Consequently British Gas charges me for electricity but my Gas meter belongs to another property in the Midlands. Then checking on my Direct Debits, I was still paying Bristol energy so my account with them was never ended, I cancelled the Direct Debit but I had £500 credit, so I tried to get it transferred but now Bristol Energy had changed its name to Together Energy which is part owned by Warrington Council! It is just horrific and I left London for the Caribbean in November but need the gas and electric on as my fridge freezer needs electric and if the weather gets bad the Caretaker switches on the gas heating for short times. British Gas has been supposedly been trying to sort the gas meter problem out and write to me but nothing changes. These energy companies are so incompetent it is no wonder they go bust. Thank you for reading my experience but I do not seem to be able to get it sorted out!

has anyone else drawn their curtains, it is going to be very cold tonight. I only have a front door curtain but jave wooden insulating shutters

Gillt57, I have no idea why your bills are high, possibly lifestyle being different to mine. Transformers left on all night use energy. Perhaps have a good hunt around, room by room. If you have the inclination, rent an infra red camera, which will show the heat leakage areas from house to outside. What is your epc?

I’m with Ovo and happy with them but ignore their constant entreaties to have a dd in exchange for a very small saving. Prefer to pay as I go.

As mentioned before Ovo want to increase my Dd to £470 a month. I currently pay £130 for gas and electricity dual tariff.. My current fixed plan deal ends the last week of Feb.

My elec unit price currently is 15.86 going up to 34.19 end Feb
My elec standing charge is 23.97 going up to 33.53

My gas unit currently is 2.68 going up to 10.48
Gas standing charge is 24.84 going to 22.11

I’m not agreeing to anything and will do more research normally I fix for two years but ..........