Cost of living crisis.

[Bellend Sebastian]

12 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I wonder what folks here on FT weekly bills are for gas and electricity combined?

We're averaging around £70 at present, approximately £300/month.

Just the two of us in a 2 bed bungalow.

Is this good/bad/average.

I've had 3 monthly bills on the trot of 400 quid or over, family of 4 in a fairly standard semi detached.

 

We have the heating on when we're actually here although the thermostat is set lower than it's ever been.

 

I think it's everyone's overly leisurely showers that are killing us cost wise

 

 

[fox_favourite]

50 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I wonder what folks here on FT weekly bills are for gas and electricity combined?

We're averaging around £70 at present, approximately £300/month.

Just the two of us in a 2 bed bungalow.

Is this good/bad/average.

Standard 3 bed detached family of 4. (New though) I spend about £160pm. We switch our heating off at night and we both work and obviously the kids go to school, so we’re not in during the weekday, only in the evenings. We have our heating on for an hour or 2 a day/weekends. Set the temp quite low as well. I think our new build does keep the heat quite well to be fair as well. 
 

if I work from home, I just sit in a coat or duvet.
 

Before all this out bill was around £70-80pm for years. It’s just extraordinary how the prices have gone up in such a short time and how the world has changed. Never really thought about the heating! 

Edited 10 March 2023 by fox_favourite

[FoyleFox]

42 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I wonder what folks here on FT weekly bills are for gas and electricity combined?

We're averaging around £70 at present, approximately £300/month.

Just the two of us in a 2 bed bungalow.

Is this good/bad/average.

Circumstances and routine are a factor, home all day etc and your tariff, these days. Two of us, 4-bed bungalow, and we are at home most days. We are still on a 2020 F/R of 5.61p Gas and 25.9p Electric. Our 3 most recent combined bills were

Dec £251

Jan £238

Feb £180

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

9 minutes ago, fox_favourite said:

Standard 3 bed detached family of 4. (New though) I spend about £160pm. We switch our heating off at night and we both work and obviously the kids go to school, so we’re not in during the weekday, only in the evenings. We have our heating on for an hour or 2 a day/weekends. Set the temp quite low as well. I think our new build does keep the heat quite well to be fair as well. 
 

if I work from home, I just sit in a coat or duvet.
 

Before all this out bill was around £70-80pm for years. It’s just extraordinary how the prices have gone up in such a short time and how the world has changed. Never really thought about the heating! 

It makes a massive difference. My parents' house was built in the 1970s and even that's so much warmer than my 1929 house.

 

The front and side of the house just let heat out (there's a modern extension on the back) and if energy costs don't drop back significantly I'm going to seriously think about external insulation, but that's well expensive - about £100 a square metre, apparently 

[BKLFox]

46 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I've had 3 monthly bills on the trot of 400 quid or over, family of 4 in a fairly standard semi detached.

 

We have the heating on when we're actually here although the thermostat is set lower than it's ever been.

 

I think it's everyone's overly leisurely showers that are killing us cost wise

 

 

I'm pretty much in the same boat with £400pmth DD for a 1980's detached which just seems high considering prior to all this i was only pulling a £1,400 annual bill, so even if we double 'costs' & kept usage the same lets call it £3k but £400 pmth is £4,800. My DDs have crept up from £150ish to £226ish then from Dec £400
I tried the British Gas chat option yesterday spent 1hr going around in circles & came away with nothing. I even pointed to 'their' estimate on my account suggesting i'd have a combined usage of £3,456 & using this as a guide i'm like how can i be paying £400pmth if you split 'your' estimate over the year it would be £288pmth, all i got was rest assured in your 6mthly review the figures will be looked at & if usage is up/down my DD would be changed.
Thing is i know my usage is lower than last year when the thermostat was set at 21degrees this year it was no higher than 18 & mostly 17 so the boiler has hardly fired up as i have a log burner, so just showers like you for 4 of us.
It seems they are trying to secure best part of 'their' estimate within the 1st half of the year because there is no way i'm using £1,800 worth of energy (which higher than a normal years standard bill) above the "average" user which they said would be £2500-£3k

Half the problem is that i don't really think the people on the other end of the line understand how its worked out either, i'll wait till June & see what happens.
 

[Free Falling Foxes]

36 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

I'm pretty much in the same boat with £400pmth DD for a 1980's detached which just seems high considering prior to all this i was only pulling a £1,400 annual bill, so even if we double 'costs' & kept usage the same lets call it £3k but £400 pmth is £4,800. My DDs have crept up from £150ish to £226ish then from Dec £400
I tried the British Gas chat option yesterday spent 1hr going around in circles & came away with nothing. I even pointed to 'their' estimate on my account suggesting i'd have a combined usage of £3,456 & using this as a guide i'm like how can i be paying £400pmth if you split 'your' estimate over the year it would be £288pmth, all i got was rest assured in your 6mthly review the figures will be looked at & if usage is up/down my DD would be changed.
Thing is i know my usage is lower than last year when the thermostat was set at 21degrees this year it was no higher than 18 & mostly 17 so the boiler has hardly fired up as i have a log burner, so just showers like you for 4 of us.
It seems they are trying to secure best part of 'their' estimate within the 1st half of the year because there is no way i'm using £1,800 worth of energy (which higher than a normal years standard bill) above the "average" user which they said would be £2500-£3k

Half the problem is that i don't really think the people on the other end of the line understand how its worked out either, i'll wait till June & see what happens.
 

The British Gas 'chat' is frustrating as you've discovered. Our so called smart meter (more like, thick as two short planks meter) has an issue with sending BG readings.

In trying to resolve this, the person I was chatting to automatically generated a complaint on my behalf. They suggested it, not I.

Their complaint procedure is basically them asking for up to date readings then two weeks later suggesting the complaint is resolved. Errrr, no. My bills are still in error.

[Mike Oxlong]

edit: wrong thread 

Edited 10 March 2023 by Mike Oxlong

[BKLFox]

7 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

The British Gas 'chat' is frustrating as you've discovered. Our so called smart meter (more like, thick as two short planks meter) has an issue with sending BG readings.

In trying to resolve this, the person I was chatting to automatically generated a complaint on my behalf. They suggested it, not I.

Their complaint procedure is basically them asking for up to date readings then two weeks later suggesting the complaint is resolved. Errrr, no. My bills are still in error.

Yeah told me to do a gas test by switching everything on then checking meter and see if it runs fast then switch off and see if it stops, it’s a digital display so you have to keep pressing the ‘B’ button to see the last 3 digit change, was pretty pointless it jumped up in 20s and neither of us knew if that was good, bad or ugly.

 

The thing that concerned me was the smart monitor constantly shows as being used for gas, I get the pilot light uses some but the reading is constantly fluctuating at 33p to around 59p every minute of everyday then goes up as boiler fires up it’s just annoying knowing that the boilers off effectively and this thing shows you using pennies, should just unplug it and put it in a draw I guess.

Like you I do worry the meters don’t do as supposed, I believe the electric is primary and sometimes can drop off their network or loses the connection to gas meter so the gas can’t be read correctly etc

[Free Falling Foxes]

16 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

Yeah told me to do a gas test by switching everything on then checking meter and see if it runs fast then switch off and see if it stops, it’s a digital display so you have to keep pressing the ‘B’ button to see the last 3 digit change, was pretty pointless it jumped up in 20s and neither of us knew if that was good, bad or ugly.

 

The thing that concerned me was the smart monitor constantly shows as being used for gas, I get the pilot light uses some but the reading is constantly fluctuating at 33p to around 59p every minute of everyday then goes up as boiler fires up it’s just annoying knowing that the boilers off effectively and this thing shows you using pennies, should just unplug it and put it in a draw I guess.

Like you I do worry the meters don’t do as supposed, I believe the electric is primary and sometimes can drop off their network or loses the connection to gas meter so the gas can’t be read correctly etc

Indeed. I have noticed more than once, our monitor indicating gas is being used when the boiler is off. Ours has no pilot light, so it cannot be that.

Looking online once, I read of a study carried out by a university in the Netherlands into Electricity meters. They tested 4 or 5 of the most commonly installed meters and they all gave fluctuating readings, despite being connected to the same load.

One meter was out by as much as £400 over the course of a year.

Why isn't Ofgem holding these suppliers to account?

[HighPeakFox]

Whisper it quietly, but British Gas have resolved my meter read issue sensibly.

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

Whisper it quietly, but British Gas have resolved my meter read issue sensibly.

They didn't fit a pre-payment meter whilst you were out this evening did they?

[Tommy G]

£300 ish pm, 3 of us + dog. Use a nest to control heating carefully 

[yorkie1999]

16 hours ago, BKLFox said:

I'm pretty much in the same boat with £400pmth DD for a 1980's detached which just seems high considering prior to all this i was only pulling a £1,400 annual bill, so even if we double 'costs' & kept usage the same lets call it £3k but £400 pmth is £4,800. My DDs have crept up from £150ish to £226ish then from Dec £400
I tried the British Gas chat option yesterday spent 1hr going around in circles & came away with nothing. I even pointed to 'their' estimate on my account suggesting i'd have a combined usage of £3,456 & using this as a guide i'm like how can i be paying £400pmth if you split 'your' estimate over the year it would be £288pmth, all i got was rest assured in your 6mthly review the figures will be looked at & if usage is up/down my DD would be changed.
Thing is i know my usage is lower than last year when the thermostat was set at 21degrees this year it was no higher than 18 & mostly 17 so the boiler has hardly fired up as i have a log burner, so just showers like you for 4 of us.
It seems they are trying to secure best part of 'their' estimate within the 1st half of the year because there is no way i'm using £1,800 worth of energy (which higher than a normal years standard bill) above the "average" user which they said would be £2500-£3k

Half the problem is that i don't really think the people on the other end of the line understand how its worked out either, i'll wait till June & see what happens.
 

I switched over to a variable rate direct debit, so you still get the discount of a direct debit but you're paying for the previous months usage. Doing that allows you to reduce your usage and having the money in your bank means you're making the interest (as if) on it instead of the energy companies. All that estimating stuff is ridiculous  when the price is so high per unit, you can't budget or anything and having a smart meter is pointless because you're basically monitoring something 6 months in advance. Edf wanted to put it up from £160 a month to £280, yet for the last 2 months i've been using about £40 a week, and no doubt if i'd carried on as before i'd have been getting on for a grand in credit again. The one thing i have done though is set up a timer on the imersion that heats the water up at 4  till 5 in the morning, so i'm paying 7p for a tank of hot water that easily lasts the day instead of the gas boiler heating it up which must cost quite a bit. 

[Trumpet]

Our last 3 months have been £300, £265 and £270.

 

Three bed semi (mid 2000s build), with always someone at home so the heating is always on with the stat set to 18c. Bump it up sometimes if it’s feeling chilly. Over night we knock it back to 15-16c.

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, yorkie1999 said:

I switched over to a variable rate direct debit, so you still get the discount of a direct debit but you're paying for the previous months usage. Doing that allows you to reduce your usage and having the money in your bank means you're making the interest (as if) on it instead of the energy companies. All that estimating stuff is ridiculous  when the price is so high per unit, you can't budget or anything and having a smart meter is pointless because you're basically monitoring something 6 months in advance. Edf wanted to put it up from £160 a month to £280, yet for the last 2 months i've been using about £40 a week, and no doubt if i'd carried on as before i'd have been getting on for a grand in credit again. The one thing i have done though is set up a timer on the imersion that heats the water up at 4  till 5 in the morning, so i'm paying 7p for a tank of hot water that easily lasts the day instead of the gas boiler heating it up which must cost quite a bit. 

The guy on the chat line at 1 point did say I was on the VDD rate also hence why so high ,as in, because I’m paying for what I used but despite me saying I have the words standard variable on the account screen In front of me he wasn’t having and it finally sunk into him when I kept saying “so for the past 3mths I have used exactly the same amount of energy down to the last watt, day by day and despite February having less days is that what your saying” I’m sure I heard the clunk when he got it, which takes me back to not sure those providing help in the help desks truly understand what’s going on either.

 

It might be worth going on to the VDD I think we all don’t mind paying but just for what we use when we use it especially in these times.

The whole thing needs another look at with tariffs I know the regulators squeezed all energy companies to bring down the amount of tariffs they offered, I think BG had about 20 different tariffs at 1 point, but even after there was still around 9 or 10, surely most people’s needs could be captured within 4 tariffs at the most.

 

ps & don’t get me started on how they work the gas units to kWh 😂 

[SemperEadem]

The high street is absolutely decimated.

[leicsmac]

29 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

The high street is absolutely decimated.

I think that was going to happen at some point anyway, for better or worse. Apart from some specific examples, brick and mortar retail can't compete with online retail in terms of economics.

 

Time for restaurants, other such services and pleasant open green spaces instead, I think.

[Vlad the Fox]

22 hours ago, leicsmac said:

I think that was going to happen at some point anyway, for better or worse. Apart from some specific examples, brick and mortar retail can't compete with online retail in terms of economics.

 

Time for restaurants, other such services and pleasant open green spaces instead, I think.

Yes, I think Covid accelerated this by a good few years, with everyone sat at home with money burning a hole in their pockets, those that would usually go out to the high street got in the habit of online shopping.   

[fox_up_north]

The other thing is so many shops are just copy and paste. No need for it all and so much tat. I certainly have bought far less since covid. 

[Vlad the Fox]

Regarding energy prices our DD is now £236 a month, 3 bed extended semi, myself and the wife and 3 energy guzzling kids. Though we must be slightly overpaying as our bills have come down from about £300 at the start of winter. It’s probably been helped as our thurmastat isn’t working, been waiting for a mate to come and replace it for us (always last on the list when it’s friends and family ) however it’s probably saved us as we only put it on when it’s cold now. Before we’d have had it set for before we got up, before we got home from work and into the evening. Now we just forget to turn it on which probably shows our house isn’t has cold as we thought it was, even through the cold snaps. 

[westernpark]

22 hours ago, leicsmac said:

I think that was going to happen at some point anyway, for better or worse. Apart from some specific examples, brick and mortar retail can't compete with online retail in terms of economics.

 

Time for restaurants, other such services and pleasant open green spaces instead, I think.

Yes the high street is moving towards a day out/experiences industry. Crazy golf, strange bars, bowling, escape rooms, are all popping up. 
I think shops will either have to be really cheap or offer niche and excellent customer service to survive. For instance, your average clothing brand shops are all being absorbed or moved online.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, westernpark said:

Yes the high street is moving towards a day out/experiences industry. Crazy golf, strange bars, bowling, escape rooms, are all popping up. 
I think shops will either have to be really cheap or offer niche and excellent customer service to survive. For instance, your average clothing brand shops are all being absorbed or moved online.

 

2 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Yes, I think Covid accelerated this by a good few years, with everyone sat at home with money burning a hole in their pockets, those that would usually go out to the high street got in the habit of online shopping.   

Yep, that's about the size of it.

[Spudulike]

3 hours ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Yes, I think Covid accelerated this by a good few years, with everyone sat at home with money burning a hole in their pockets, those that would usually go out to the high street got in the habit of online shopping.   

Not only that, City centres have become logistically difficult to get into. The introduction of low emmision zones without improving public transport and the out of control Parking Cowboys have made a trip into town unpleasant. I haven't done City centre shopping for years. It's either an out of town shopping mall or, usually, online. Just don't need the hassle anymore. 

[Lako42]

Moving onto the Octopus tracker tariff was the best move ever. 

 

Bills of £300 for a 3 bed semi down to £135 last month. 

 

 

Just has a refund of £132

[FoyleFox]

45 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

Moving onto the Octopus tracker tariff was the best move ever. 

 

Bills of £300 for a 3 bed semi down to £135 last month. 

 

 

Just has a refund of £132

What rates are you paying on the tracker - highest and lowest? Or average?