We used to pay £170 with Octopus and a couple of months ago they put it up to £240 which considering how things were going, I didn't think was all that bad.
They now seem to have dropped it again to an all time low of £144 which seems to be due to the fact we're now about £1k in credit. I'm sure it'll go up again soon due to extra lights/heating being switched on.
To harness it does not cost a great deal.
I'd argue it does - maybe not in pence per therm or whatever of energy extracted, but if you look at the cost in terms of impact, all the energy that the universe has provided us in oil and gas and the cost to the planet through extracting and burning it, I'd suggest the cost is unpayable - certainly if we don't act soon.
But for sure in terms of other 'free' energy - we have to make more of wind and tide and sun, the costs are not insignificant but this is where the country should be investing for the good of the country. It might mean we need windmills in beauty spots if that's where the wind is, that's now the price to pay for ****ing it up so badly already.
Dunno the actual unit costs but my £55 month bill, that was £35 a year ago, has dropped to £2.44.
Gawd bless liss truss for paying 2/3 of my yearly bill.
I'm conflcited over this - my costs have increased from about £80/mo before the crisis, and I adjusted to £250/mo. Poss doesn't need to be that high but I saw that costs would increase eventually, and cut my spending to accommodate and will build up a balance before April when we will likely get another increase.
And I'm getting £500 given back as well, so instead of £250, for the next few months it's £183.
I can 'afford' £250, I budgeted for it by cutting other spending, and we live reasonably well. My wife may disagree...... but there are others that could use that far more than me. Even in Guildford.
On the other hand - I pay my taxes, more than most if I'm honest, why shouldn't I benefit.
So I'm halving it, in the form of doing a monthly donation to the food bank - easy enough to check the needs list and spend £25 on whatever they need. Maybe you might do something like that?
Energy is free inasmuch as it is omnipresent in the aether. It powers the universe. To harness it does not cost a great deal.
Do you have references for that?
Do you have references for that?
Do I have references for the earth being self-powered? Lol. That is quite evident. It doesn't need humans or any other animal to keep it running.
The earth runs, powers, functions perfectly without us. We are able to simply harness some of that (energy isn't created or destroyed).
Everything is at base electrical, and is interconnected.
Ah. I see – so you claim the government (via our taxes) pays for all the national grid, power generation such as power stations, offshore wind, hydro stations, nuclear, all the construction, ongoing maintenance etc? Everything is fully paid for by our taxes? So there is no need for any energy company to charge a customer?
Yes. Well, strictly speaking, not any more - since they changed this longstanding arrangement to the current version in order to steal even more off the backs of the good people of this land. But that had no consent of the people and is thus, not our problem.
Latest bill is £134, up from £101 in Sept, predicted usage was £433 according to Shell! Now £757 in credit as they've been taking £220 a month DD. We've definitely used the heating less but I was expecting a bigger bill than that, had smart meters installed about 6 weeks ago so a bit paranoid they have screwed the readings up somewhere.
And just got an email from she'll asking to up DD to £286, they can do one.
A couple of years ago our DD was £125. I increased it to £250 earlier this year (we were £600 in debit after our providers went bust, we lost our fixed deal and EDF put us on their standard tariff) and they have just increased it to £392 (we're still £250 in debit).
Dual fuel monthly bill heading to about £120-130 this month.
Was £50-60 in warmer months (with cheaper prices obvs).
Only been in this place since August so can't compare before that.
October's leccy bill 22 quid.
Oil price.... Through the roof.
Win some lose some.
Insulating the shit out the house instead.
@mattcartlidge you can install the Loop app on your phone and link it to your smart meter(s) so you can easily keep track of daily weekly monthly usage.
ah cheers BA.Nana - I had downloaded Loop a few weeks ago and dropped out of the registration process as it wanted card details and I knew very little about the app. I mean't to ask on here if anyone was using it, will have another look at it now, thanks.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27. How does that compare with other people? We have 1 year old twins at home so we have to heat the hot water tank for their evening bath and we keep the thermostat set at 16 in their bedroom. We are frugal with the heat for ourselves however now. A blanket and a hot water bottle is not too bad when watching TV. The insulation in our 1930s house however is non existent and we cant insulate the cavities due to building debris.
Octpopus set our dd at £356, now £289 with the governments £66 support.
I am slightly concerned however as so far we haven't really had any cold weather.
We are with Octopus. Because of when we supplied readings our latest bill is for 23 days. Just under £60 for electricity. So that will be around £80 a month.
Gas £43. So around £60 a month. Total monthly charges approx £140. Very little heating so far. Gas used for hot water and cooking. Electricity for a twonperson household with one person at home all day. Very little tumble drier use. Just TVs washing machine etc.
£235 seems high. You aren't heating the tank with electric I presume?
That sounds like a lot.
By contrast, 2 young kids / baths and our energy usage in September (with two of us working from home) was:
Elec: 215 kwH/ £84
Gas: 395 kWh / £48
If you haven’t got smart meters get them installed pronto. Then you can pinpoint usage.
Also worth checking if your hot water usage. If you have a system boiler with a tank you’ll need a max of 30 mins hot water a day. We get by with an average of 22 mins hot water a day for 4 of us including small baths / showers etc.
If you have TRVs on the radiators check they are set to 16 / 17ish in the bedrooms so you’re not overheating the house overnight.
Feeling very lucky today after having our bulk Propane tank filled. Not exactly sure of the current price per litre, somewhere around 130-150p I think so I was expecting a massive increase on the last time we filled up when it was 42p/litre. The lucky bit was that our tank was sufficiently low recently, <30%, for the supplier to deliver. Anything more than that and they wont. This meant that it was just less than a year since our last fill. As my wife had changed suppliers we had a new contract and unbeknown to me this also meant that our price was fixed for 12 months! Last year we paid about £850 on a nearly empty tank. Today we paid £650. After taking off the government subsidies our total cost is about £150! So many aren't so lucky so we're going to donate to the local food bank.
@edward2000 1930s house here though it is cavity wall insulated but is on the larger size. Bill for comparable period was £186 (£126 elec, £60 gas). No heating on yet other than 3 days when it had a quick hour or two blast. 4 people. That does include WFH and one full car charge. Right on the South coast.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27. How does that compare with other people?
Hard to compare without knowing your location. Down south we haven't had our heating on yet, so our gas bill was £28 last month of which £9 was gas. I've just raised my electricity DD to £75 which I think is generous since we were using £42 during the summer. That £75 includes car mileage though. 3 bed semi, 2 adults (one WFH) 2 digital kids.
Bill for comparable period was £186 (£126 elec, £60 gas). No heating on yet
How'd you spend £60 on gas without heating?
Hot water I guess as that's the only other thing on gas. £1-2 a day without the heating. On the days it was used it's £5 plus easily. So 12-15kwh gas for a non heating day approx.
That's way more HW than us, but we don't shower every day.
Both adults shower daily, sometimes more exercise dependant. Kids are every other day.
£60 a month on hot water, wow. The CH has been off since April, so 6 months of shower every day and washing the pots has been about £60 for the whole 6 months with my combi.
No, not £60 for the month for just water. The heating has been used a few times (though more than I thought looking at the graphs). Having the heating on a bit seems to increase daily usage by a factor of 4 or more. Not looking forward to what that is when it gets cold.
Just been digging more into the numbers and it seems those shown in the eon next app are before the government credit. The actual paid amount is therefore £122 combined when the £66 is taken into account. Apply that reduction ratio to the gas its £42 actually paid.
Finally! I can't even remember when I started this... 7 weeks ago maybe.... I've finally got my £1600 refund out of shell!
Its not like they couldn't afford it. £7,000,000,000 profit in the last quarter.
Well, just got my water bill which is metered.
12 Feb to 3 Oct = £82.16 ... about £11 per month. (Yes, I take shower everyday)
Not sure about the fixed rate but I think my water usage is below average.
That is hardly credible.
Having the heating on a bit seems to increase daily usage by a factor of 4 or more. Not looking forward to what that is when it gets cold.
Having a bath uses up about ooh, 3.5kWh. our boiler is 9kw at minimum so that's about 20-30 mins of running. When the heating is on it runs a lot longer than that each day. So yeah.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27.
😮
Sounds like you’re very economic. Ours was £220 for electricity, £180 for gas for the month ending October 18.
Includes car charging.
Heating & water are gas. on 6-9 and 15:00 - 21:00 at 19 Celsius and 55 Celsius for a tank respectively most days.
Octopus ‘flexible avro October 2021’ tariff.
Well, it’s official subject to Ofgem approval that Octopus will by Bulb on a taxpayer funded deal to be paid back later.
Recieved an email from Bill this morning. I wonder if this’ll change the bills.
This months combined Bill of us was £213 from a projection of £240 which is probably more about the mild temps right now, although we are doing our best to be economical. Our annual bill estimate has been revised to be exactly 3 x the 2021 bill at £3300.
Just dropped my octopus dd down to £1.
£260 credit on my account, plus the government are giving octopus £66 pcm for the next 5 months.
Split the £260 into 5 months and add on the government subsidy = £120.
Just done my electric for last month at £49, 96kwh. Gas was £11 last month, but expected to rise.
I don't think i will hit my £120 target, and looking at the longvrange focast wont need ch for at least a week or 2
Ours was £220 for electricity
What the chuffin eck are you doing? Welding?
I am with Octopus and a low user, £65 per month DD and in credit.
Recently I received an email informing me that Octopus will not be taking any DD payments this winter as my payment is less than the UK government support.
This was a surprise, not what I was expecting.
The support scheme is very poorly designed to provide this level of support to folk like me.
The money will be going to local charities.
And yet they(Ovo) put my £66 into my bank account with no direction as to why….
And won’t let me drop my dd down to a value that lets me drop the credit balance
They are a law to them selves
a month ago, might have been on this thread or maybe another, we were discussing blackouts. R4 had run a report on the potential, with the regulator saying they always model for a scenario leading to blackouts. The minister (maybe ex minister IIRC) put up to defend the mishandling of energy security was saying they model it every year (true) and this year was no different; the R4 journalist was saying that actually reading the report and comparing to last years', the model was now no longer in the unconscionable category, and was now a possibility albeit a slight one of the 'perfect storm' type.
Well..... seems like they're now war gaming it as a 'reasonable worst case' scenario
It stands to reason that if you close nuclear plants and coal plants without replacing them and build nothing but wind and solar (and a tiny bit of hydro) you will eventually get to the point where there isn't enough electricity on cold dark nights with no wind.
There is no incentive for new gas plants to be built because the marginal cost is more than wind so the number of hours they can run to cover costs is reduced.
And planning to rely on imports from Europe does not look so clever when Ukraine happens. Norwegian hydro was another banker which is actually not 100% dependable.
Norwegian ministers have signalled that they may consider restricting electricity exports as the situation in the country is becoming increasingly sensitive both physically and politically, with various politicians now calling for curbs on exports.
https://watt-logic.com/2022/08/02/early-outlook-confirmation-bias/
I believe planned rolling 3 hour power cuts are unlikely but not impossible. I have prepared by making sure head torches are in easy to find places upstairs and downstairs. I bought a couple of cheap LED lamps. We have gas for cooking and a battery radio.
I'm presuming the mobile phone base stations will have some sort of backup and will stay live for communication but we have a battery radio anyway.
Hopefully we don't get a 2010 style winter.
If the longer power cuts mentioned in the Guardian link happen it is trickier. Having cash rather than relying on cards seems sensible and a week's worth of petrol in the car.
Results are in. 3 bed standard 30s semi, 2 adults, 2 kids, old fashioned boiler and hot water tank. Thermostat set at 19 in the afternoon/evenings.
A warm October is the key it seems! Barely used any more gas than July. Will have to see what November brings as the temperature drops...
A warm October is the key it seems! Barely used any more gas than July. Will have to see what November brings as the temperature drops…
Indeed, only used 15% of our annual gas consumption in the last 6 months, still not turned the heating on 🫣 (940m3 annual use, 4 bed 80's detached house with 4 adults, old boiler & hot water tank)
In April Shell Energy fitted a new meter to my Dad's gas, he already has the electricity one in place. He was paying £140 per month.
The meter as of Saturday showed he had used in total £640 for G&E since 14th April. EDIT; he's currently £400 in credit
They are getting £278pm from him but send me emails every week advising I up this to £462pm with warnings of debt and recovery.
I'm not moving it beyond the £278pm which is the lowest amount I can set the d/d at online.
This is for an 81yr old man in a bungalow.
I work at home all day in a 3 bed semi and they are happy I pay £240pm.
just done my October readings on Octopus. 3 bed end of terrace with 3 of us in (Daughter at Uni) so reduced vs previous months. And just under a month of usage (28d)
237kWh of electricity = £95
362 kWh of gas = £45
Total = £140 but paying £250 including the Gov top up (£184 from me then) and I'm currently £546 in credit.
As others have said, be interesting in Dec / Jan but for now relatively comfortable.
Yay for global warming (joking)
