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How much per month is your gas bill at the moment?

After £450 gas December, was £361 for January. Before gov discount. Still been cold out, but not as bad as December. I'm trying to tweak things down using Hive. Looking forward to spring and summer so can save up for next winter. I have put down quite a lot of extra roof insulation, maybe it's helped a little.
 
Any tips for cable lifters, earthing boxes filled with extracted teeth and bat droppings, fancy US speaker cables with circuit boxes in line and other ju ju to use in circuit with or on top of meters?
 
TheDecameron said:
Any tips for cable lifters, earthing boxes filled with extracted teeth and bat droppings, fancy US speaker cables with circuit boxes in line and other ju ju to use in circuit with or on top of meters?
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Dec, you don't need fancy stuff - we aren't talking hi-fi - just get a pair of these:

71-9E3206pL._AC_SX425_.jpg
 
MikeMA said:
Dec, you don't need fancy stuff - we aren't talking hi-fi - just get a pair of these:

71-9E3206pL._AC_SX425_.jpg
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So, bare the wires entering the meter and the wires after the meter and jump the meter? We pensioners could get away with it by claiming we have a villa in Capri that we retreat to for the winter. Any Electricity Board employees snooping around could be koshed and shoved down a manhole by the odd job man.
 
4 Dec to 4 Jan we were averaging 44.38kWh per day for gas, 6.72kWh per day for electricity.
5 Jan to this morning we're averaging 41.65kWh per day for gas, 5.96kWh for electricity, so slightly down. I don't believe there is anything else we can do in our 1980's house to get these bills down further.

Checking back for electricity I can see the actual usage for the month upto Jan 4th was £69.15 at current prices. That same usage at prices 12 month ago would have cost £40.18. Itsm something has to give, plenty of people will not be able to afford these prices and will definitely be choosing between eating and cooking/heating. The big energy companies are not only killing the economy, they are killing people, imo.
 
Brian said:
I don't believe there is anything else we can do in our 1980's house to get these bills down further.
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It may not apply to your particular situation but if your downstairs is a suspended floor you could consider accessing the underfloor space and inserting insulation between the joists??? This would also give you a chance to double check the state of any CH pipework insulation.

Again, dependent on your house construction, if decorating any rooms, you could consider overlaying 'external' plaster walls with insulated plasterboard?

Regards

Richard
 
Brian said:
............. I don't believe there is anything else we can do in our 1980's house to get these bills down further...................
Itsm something has to give, plenty of people will not be able to afford these prices and will definitely be choosing between eating and cooking/heating. The big energy companies are not only killing the economy, they are killing people, imo.
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This for me too. I commented upthread that we are massively in credit with Eon and this is due to us using less than half of the gas that we used last year. In November 2021 we used 185 units in 2022 we used 65 units. In December it was a similar story 205 units in 2021 to 70 units in 2022. The electricity has been similar over both years but less in 2022 mainly be me being more careful. This does need to be balanced by saying our wood usage for the two wood burners has increased but as we have lots of free wood, this year at least, that's no cost to us.

I fully appreciate this is a choice that I'm making rather than my usage being limited by how much I can afford. I'm sure that lots of people are being limited by cost not choice.

I'm convinced that the drop in wholesale prices a) won't work there way to consumers anytime soon and b) I'm also sure that these prices are dropping in the UK as demand is down due to people using less.

I still struggle to understand how and why the price of electricity is linked to the price of gas when I look here National Grid: Live (iamkate.com) and it tells me that at the time of posting 54.7 % of the UKs electricity is generated by renewables and only 22.2% by fossil fuel. Its absolute madness.
 
December just over a grand :-(
Sadly that is on a pre pricing panic tariff, super scary thought when it ends.
Still overpaying and trying to be miserly but with wife WFH in the house heating is on most of the time and her mother in the granny flat who likes tropical temps, very hard to keep a lid on it.
 
RobFTM said:
This for me too. I commented upthread that we are massively in credit with Eon and this is due to us using less than half of the gas that we used last year. In November 2021 we used 185 units in 2022 we used 65 units. In December it was a similar story 205 units in 2021 to 70 units in 2022. The electricity has been similar over both years but less in 2022 mainly be me being more careful. This does need to be balanced by saying our wood usage for the two wood burners has increased but as we have lots of free wood, this year at least, that's no cost to us.

I fully appreciate this is a choice that I'm making rather than my usage being limited by how much I can afford. I'm sure that lots of people are being limited by cost not choice.

I'm convinced that the drop in wholesale prices a) won't work there way to consumers anytime soon and b) I'm also sure that these prices are dropping in the UK as demand is down due to people using less.

I still struggle to understand how and why the price of electricity is linked to the price of gas when I look here National Grid: Live (iamkate.com) and it tells me that at the time of posting 54.7 % of the UKs electricity is generated by renewables and only 22.2% by fossil fuel. Its absolute madness.
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Sums it up for me. We can pay it but are cutting back where we can because we feel ripped off and want to give these bastards as little as we can.

There is also a theft going on with the doubling of the standing charge.
 
Despicable: https://apple.news/AOUgfdAdVSEq6RGMyWpMYSw

British Gas force-fitting prepayment meters into the homes of vulnerable people…


“Debt collectors working for Arvato, on behalf of British Gas, are incentivised with bonuses when they force-fit prepayment meters, which can encourage them to ignore vulnerabilities.

One agent claimed single mothers were their most common customers, adding: “If every single mum that starts getting a bit teary you’re going to walk away from, you won’t be earning any bonus.””
 
Jezzer said:
Despicable: https://apple.news/AOUgfdAdVSEq6RGMyWpMYSw

British Gas force-fitting prepayment meters into the homes of vulnerable people…


“Debt collectors working for Arvato, on behalf of British Gas, are incentivised with bonuses when they force-fit prepayment meters, which can encourage them to ignore vulnerabilities.

One agent claimed single mothers were their most common customers, adding: “If every single mum that starts getting a bit teary you’re going to walk away from, you won’t be earning any bonus.””
Click to expand...

Full article here https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...4?shareToken=f98cba3d7471e1c8c30226586405dd38

"British Gas routinely sends debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit pay-as-you-go meters, even when they are known to have extreme vulnerabilities."

I also note "Last month Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said it expects to report a more than sevenfold increase in net profits for last year after benefitting from volatile energy prices." All those sky high winter gas bills are making a very tidy profit. With special thanks, of course, to His Majesty's Government for pumping in loads of extra cash.
 
Bob McC said:
That’s not my memory.
You paid a fixed amount, ie overpaid in summer, and consequently inevitably built up a surplus to cover the excess consumption in winter. I have never, in 50 years, had a negative account with a utility supplier when paying by direct debit.
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Maybe I am misremembering. When I say "negative balance", I'm talking about a dip to -£10 or -£20 in the coldest months, not hundreds. I have never, ever been in a situation before like this, where my balance was +£630 in credit in mid-winter though. Someone is taking the Michael.

I've got the cash back now, safe in my savings account. Took a bit of work hassling them (Octopus). Also had to hassle them to drop my DD back to where it was after the first massive 30% hike in autumn of '21. They've removed the customer's ability to drop the DD below their arbitrary "Recommended Amount" on-line, which would have seen them "resting" £2,200 of my cash by late summer '23.
 
I have just had to read my Gas/Electricity meters for EDF. Checking over the last 12 months Feb22 to Feb23 the estimated usage on which my monthly DD is calculated is spot on.

DV
 
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