holy cow jj! ouch!

ive checked my figures, found some small errors but hasn’t changed overall….which means Shell have been over estimating my bill rather. it looks like (having just checked) since i’ve not been with them a year yet, they ust ake up a predicted useage. With the tariff changes, transfer from green when they went pop, and a silly big creditI’d bult up before, I’d not noticed shell were overcharing me so much. I feel a bit happier now.

I’ve also just discovered my shell account makes it really easy to a credit card payment which doesn’t appear to incur extra charges. i get a little bit of cash back with barclays…its not much but if I dump what i can afford in via the credit card and set the DD low I’ll save an extra few pounds….only a few quid but it all helps

According to uSwitch, my (combined) bill is going up 80%. So from £200 to £360.

I live on my own. Combi boiler, electric oven. Double glazed. Well insulated.

I cook every other day.

My curse is 3.5m high ceilings and full-time WFH. I’m investing in a smart thermostat and smart TRVs and I’ll see how those help. Then take a look at my other options if necessary.

I rent but I can take the smart stuff with me when I move, in theory. But as it’s likely to be to Portugal, I doubt they’ll be much use 🙄

@ji do you need to shower every day? Even every other day with a decent wash in between would make a difference.

@ji do you need to shower every day?

It depends on what you do for a living and what exercise you take.

It’s not really necessary to shower every day if you sit at a desk all day.

Modern three bed detached house (five years old). Working from home all through so heating on more than normal:
3830 kwh for gas (heating, hot water and hob)
1928 kwh for electricity

Luckily I’m on a fixed rate till July 2023.

Our payments have gone from £53 per month to £169 for both gas and electricity.

Our payments have gone from £53 per month to £169 for both gas and electricity.

Are your current costs £169? Did the energy supplier put them up by 300% and if so, I am presuming you’re well in credit ?

2000 kwh of electricity. That’s 2 adults in a 4 bed detached. Looking at some of your electricity figures, I have to wonder if you’re running the kettle 24 hours a day?!?!

Gas is a bit unclear due to British gas being a shambles, but I calculate it around 10,000 kwh

3.5m high ceilings

Similar problem at my house so I fitted a ceiling fan to push the warm air down to floor level. Not many watts to run either.

A lady on the radio yesterday said she was going to have to think about turning her immersion heater off when she didn’t need hot water….

My electricity consumption figures above include running my 2.5kw air conditioning unit for six or seven hours a night from roughly May though to October.

A lady on the radio yesterday said she was going to have to think about turning her immersion heater off when she didn’t need hot water….

That’s the sort of thing we’d have got the belt for in the 70’s!!! 🤣🤣

I’m currently paying around the average cap at £1900, so I presume in October I’ll be paying the £3600.

No way I’ll be paying £5200, £6600, £7000 net for energy, which is what an extra £9/£10k gross required on your wage. They can come in and switch the gas and electric off!!!!!!

20 yr old 5 bed detached house, 2 teenagers, wife out most days, I either work from home or away, generally away a few days every 3rd week. Currently £350 a month, expecting it to go to £500 plus in October, probably £600 in Jan.

I’m on £80/month at the moment DD for both. The prediction chart I’ve used suggests that it’ll be £230/month within a year. 😳

Not clear what ours is going to be, 1920 build house with but the only thing connected to mains is electricity. Economy 7 heaters all round and 2 massive log burners, one of which heats a rad in the landing upstairs. Was with green, whose estimate were woefully low, now on shell who didn’t give us a bill or tell us the rates they were charging until 4 months after green went bust.

No idea what the annual usage will be, as we only moved in April 2021, but it’s going to hurt whatever it is.

dyls – brave words but…you won’t have any choice.
You can opt to not pay in the short term but, eventually, you’ll be forced to; your supplier is likely to get a court order for access to fit pre-payment meters which will cost you more than the cap.
Non-payments won’t be written off.

Haven’t worked out the gas increase cost yet.

However, modern 4 bed detached house, EV car, solar panels and Tesla Power Wall battery.

Last year , 2021 we used 4500 kWh of electricity for our total useage including charging the EV.

We only bought / imported 32% of that total.

The new price of 0.52p kw, will mean our electricity will now be ( based on 2021).

4500 x 0.32 = 1440 kWh

1440 x £0.52= £748

I realise we are fortunate and semi insulated from this.

The point I wish to make though, is that this is a real crisis for almost everyone in the UK.

The government need to act NOW.

No idea. It’s not like there’s much choice. Bill comes in, gets paid, house warm

Well you do have a choice to useless energy.
Lots of people out there won’t have the ability to be able to just suck it up

OUCH

just had new offer through. On 2 year contract at business rates..

Annual consumption is 5800 Kwh

Current quarterlt charge £32 New rate £71
Current FIT charge 0.68p/kwh New charge 0.78p/kwh
Current unit charge 14.7p?kwh New rate 62.2p/kwh

So from an average annual spend of £1200 I now will have to find £5000. Not going to happen

Based on last years usage we are going to be north of £10k from around £2k when our fix ends in October. We’ll be ok but I don’t know how others and small businesses are going to manage.

We are getting showered at work and cutting down on the kids showers no more 1/2 showers for the daughter.

New build 4 bed so pretty well sealed and insulated but in a fairly windy spot. Miserably crawled flat on my back under our old bungalow insulating the floors, but the new house floor construction is way better in comparison (suspended beam and block, then a massive chunk of foam and screed on top). Too soon to know exactly what things will cost, plus both kids will be away so that more than halves the washing, drying and showers for the next six months.

No gas in the area so everything electric, with supplier predicting 6500 kWh pa which includes pretty heavy usage last dec-feb when it was cold weather and the place was drying out / getting the heating optimised. Some of those gas kWh readings are frightening and suggest the ashp is actually doing it’s thing pretty efficiently.

Work could get interesting…… if I turn on and use all the hydraulics at full whack it would be 1.3 MW!

Pretty terrifying for us given it coincides with our fixed mortgage deal coming to and end in November which will result in a couple of hundred quid extra a month going in that direction also

No idea. It’s not like there’s much choice. Bill gets paid by DD, house warm.

This

Trouble is that for many including several on here already, it’s not a choice either but is becoming it. Not just a choice of what holiday to go on, or bike upgrade or where to eat out at, but between heating the house and putting food on tables in some cases. If you genuinely ‘have no idea’ what your energy bill is or will be but are just confident you can still afford it you are in a very privileged place.

Even the chancellor’s sums say a £45K income is going to struggle and might need help. That’s a lot of people

People keep saying to speak to their supplier if you can’t pay. But what are they going to do! Put you on a payment plan? Which is only going to get higher and higher debt.

When will someone help? I can’t believe no one is stepping in. I don’t understand why some people haven’t realised the magnitude of it.

What is the UK’s energy strategy?
I asked a similar question about the UK’s economic strategy on the (currently) moribund coronanomics thread; that will spring back into life soon.
In an attempt to answer my own questions…
i) no clearly articulated energy strategy
ii) no clearly articulated economic strategy.
Is there a trend in these questions?
What is the gov doing to accelerate the development of (rolls royce) small modular nuclear reactors?
When will the Rough gas storage facility be re-opened?
When will UK develop/open new LNG terminals?
Is anyone in gov or any of the wannabes capable of strategic thinking?
To answer my own question, again, the answer is…no.

Even the chancellor’s sums say a £45K income is going to struggle and might need help. That’s a lot of people

I seem to recall earning 50k puts you in the top 10% of the country in terms of salary. As you say, a lot of people are going to struggle.

@theotherjonv – frustrating isn’t it. My sister and brother in law are extremely well off and they just don’t get what I’m fretting about. I’ve asked them how much they are budgeting for energy each month and basically they’re not as they’re comfortable enough to know they’ll be able to afford whatever increases are coming their way without making any other sacrifices. Some people just don’t get it

rjimbob88 i think there are lots of people in your position and this crisis will be like boiling a frog, there are still people on fixed rates before all this started for their energy and many more on fixed rate mortgages.

And can I make it quite clear that even those who are well off can see how this is impacting others, I am truly worried for the state of the country when this bites properly, I might come through relatively ok but if the local business have gone bust, the NHS has collapsed and schools are bankrupt saying I’m alright Jack isn’t going to cut it. This isn’t the fault of the well off (many of whom have got there off their own graft, I’ve had no parental support, not inherited and had some really scary times between jobs with little to no help from anyone to keep the lights on), please direct all vitriol towards our government(s) who could see this coming in some form 20 years ago and chose to do nothing about it.

My sister and brother in law are extremely well off and they just don’t get what I’m fretting about. I’ve asked them how much they are budgeting for energy each month and basically they’re not as they’re comfortable enough to know they’ll be able to afford whatever increases are coming their way without making any other sacrifices. Some people just don’t get it

At the other end of the scale, my mate’s neighbour is a young single mum who isn’t the brightest. He helps her out a lot and had a chat with her last week to see what she was doing about the upcoming rises.

She’s not worried as she’s on a pre-payment meter and only puts £12 on at a time. She cannot grasp that she’ll be putting that £12 in many times a week rather than once or twice. It simply doesn’t register with her😱

There’s a geographical element to all this too. The milder south of the UK will fare easier during the winter than the frozen north. I’ve seen folk suggesting a reverse  “London Weighting” to take account of higher energy requirements.

@stumpyjon

I don’t have a problem with people whose venn diagram crosses at the worked hard and through accident or design relatively lucky with the way their jobs and earnings have turned out. I’d count myself in that bracket, although these recent hikes, needing to pay privately for some medical care, and D1 about to embark on Uni have created a pinch that has caused cutbacks to be made.

But those that ‘it’ll be what it is, just keep sending the bill and I’ll keep paying’ without seemingly any awareness don’t sit very well. If there’s no awareness, I’d like there to be some, if there is awareness and the response is ‘so what, doesn’t affect me’ that sits even worse. That’s what i was trying to convey.

If there’s no awareness, I’d like there to be some, if there is awareness and the response is ‘so what, doesn’t affect me’ that sits even worse.

There will be awareness very soon.

Even if you have a £50,000 salary, a monthly energy bill of £700 is going to sting.

When what is left of your local high street disappears when the uncapped energy bills arrive.

Even the big companies are going to struggle, how much energy do you think a typical supermarket uses? If their bills are going up by 600% how will they continue to operate?

There is going to be mass unemployment in an incredibly short time scale.

We are staring at an unprecedented economic collapse and nobody seems to be doing a thing!

No idea what ours will go up to. Went up from £107 to £144 a month this time up for the £75 per we were paying in 2019.
Was £760 in credit this time last year and currently £430 in credit.
House stays at 24-29 all from May till November so heating not put on.
Both work 12 hour shifts for NHS so hardly in. Four showers a week each.
Reptiles seem to cost 8 pence an hour currently, tv takes it up to 12 p per hour. Washing machine ups it to 60p per hour. Average £3 a day electric. And £4 when both off. Been on standard variable since last year.
British Gas App says £144 per month is paying too much.
Three bed new build detached.

@theotherjonv

without seemingly any awareness don’t sit very well

Yes I agree, it’s going to affect everyone and people should be aware whether it’s concern for the welfare of other citizens or for more selfish reasons, the pub has closed, local restaurant has gone, town centre is a wasteland etc. it’s going to affect us all. As I said above I think there are a lot who havent realised what is coming, people at the end of a fixed rate, mortgage or energy, who have a very nasty shock when renewal comes around. People who fixed last summer will have seen others being impacted whilst up until now been insulated themselves, that won’t last.

People on more than £50k are also going to be impacted financially, finding an extra £600 a month for energy, another couple humdred on mortgage payements and uplifts on food probably equates to a grand a month less disposable income, even amongst higher earners that’s a big hit, many have mortgaged up to the hilt and have other outgoings inline with income. Also got to remember take home pay drops drastically around this point with over 40% disappearing before you even see it. Again not going to be as catestrophic as for lower incomes but not something most people can shrug off.

I think it’s been coming for a long time though, we’ve been encouraged from the nineties to live to the limit of our means relying on credit and short term financially stability, we’re at a point where many households lifestyles at all income points have outstripped ability to afford. It’s going to be a very painful if not disastrous correction for most.

There’s a geographical element to all this too. The milder south of the UK will fare easier during the winter than the frozen north. I’ve seen folk suggesting a reverse “London Weighting” to take account of higher energy requirements.

Surely Northern property should be constructed to reflect the different weather, they do this in Spain/Italy where there is a significant difference north to south and it’s not like it’s suddenly just got colder in the north, there have been centuries to understand this
Why should the south pay for the inefficiency and poor planning of the north when it has it’s own buildings to deal with?

Northern property should be constructed to reflect the different weather

Yep, we can obviously rely on the builders and planners to do things right…

Surely Northern property should be constructed to reflect the different weather, they do this in Spain/Italy where there is a significant difference north to south and it’s not like it’s suddenly just got colder in the north, there have been centuries to understand this

Well yes, but not everyone lives in a less than 10-year-old house. They didn’t have foam insulation, central heating and means of hermetically sealing a house back in the early 1800s. To reflect the weather up here we’ve got a very steep pitched roof (to stop the snow settling, but means a much larger surface area through which to lose heat) and 3ft thick solid stone walls which are a massive heatsink and take literally weeks to properly warm up after a whole summer of no heating use.

It’s hugely un-green but the only way I can see to manage this winter with some degree of comfort is to put in a log burner with back boiler linked up to the radiators – it might cost a couple of grand to do it but if I’m going to be paying ~£600/month for gas anyway and can get a trailer of logs for less than £200 then it’ll pay for itself within a season.

Edit: for context, the last actual annual usage report we had showed ~8,000kWh electricity and 32,000 kWh gas.That’s with a thermostat that never goes above 19°C and a gas hob.

Yep, we can obviously rely on the builders and planners to do things right…

Well they didn’t do things right in the bottom half of the country so will the top half pay for that?…

Well they didn’t do things right in the bottom half of the country so will the top half pay for that?…

We do, every day, all those public transport subsidies for London and surroundings because too many people live in such a small area. Try public transport up north. No doubt the north will be paying for the lack of infrastructure for water supplies in the south.