General Chat

they have just put up our electric bill to £49 a month, gas is £35 a month that is £1022 a year for the two, both with Npower. We get a refund, I think will be £80 next April for having gas an electricity with them, so that is £942 a year.

All cooking is by electricity, heating/hot water is gas.

We are retired and home a lot of the time.

How does that compare with other people?

Ann
glos

Ann, I think I posted on a similar thread the other week about this.

My gas (with British Gas) payments have gone up from £20 a month to £86 a month - and I'm out all day at work and don't get home till 8pm of an evening so not using anything - my central heating is only on during severe chilly times for an hour in the morning and hour at night.

Haven't had my electric payments revised yet - but no doubt that will go up a lot, too.

It's totally ridiculous - they are making extortionate profits from us all...

Athena

Our electric is now £81, gas is £67 a month.

The thread may have been up in september, I was away for 4 weeks so sorry if I am repeating something.

Athena do you cook with gas, this is a four bed house, I actually don't think our gas is too bad, but maybe it too will go up again with the next statement.

Ann
glos

our electric is £50 a month and gas £25.....both with EDF.
Cooking and shower is electric and heating/ water is gas, there are 4 of us and i'm at home a fair amount

Karen x

Angie, that is good, there are only two of us but how big is your home, that can make a difference?

Karen, your is good. i forgot the shower, that is electric.

Gremlin, yours seems high, how many of you and what size house?

Ann
glos

On the question of profits, given their size and turnover, the utility companies are not actually making huge profits.

There was talk of a £1,000,000,000 (£1 billion) windfall tax - sounds a lot but only amounts to a one off payment of £50 to each household in the country.

our used to be higher but about a year ago oh kept on at girls to turn lights off,ipod docks,laptops etc to the point that they named him electroman but it did bring our payments down,


Karen x

Angie, it probably helps being terraced, you all snuggle up together and keep warm.

We are detached but do have double glazing and cavity wall insulation.

ann
Glos

Karen, i am the guilty one here. i turn my PC on in the morning and off at 10.30pm.

ann
glos

Ann, we have a detached property with 6 rooms plus kitchen / utility / bathrooms etc.Our youngest son who is in his 20's lives with us and does contribute.

We have a wood burner in the lounge so I suspect this will get a lot of use this winter, especially if it gets cold.

Ann Snap.....just don't tell my oh....lol

Karen x

Check with your provider a lot will give a discounted rate to over 60s and disabled if your costs are 10% of your income, some will also help with insulation etc if you dont have it.

If you are on some benefits warm front give grants for the work to be done.

d x

About 18 months ago I had a letter from my supplier (Scottish POwer) stating that they were putting my payments up from £60 per month to £120 (gas & electric combined). It didn't matter how much I protested that I don't live in Buck House or feed the whole street, they insisted that I was going to pay the new amount as they "thought I may be using this amount of fuel"

The next little man to knock the door asking if I was interested in changing supplier got my custom. I now pay £35 per month on each & I'm in credit.

Seems some of these supplier over estimate the usage after all it's our momey in their bank account earning them interest.

Angie, i meant the houses being terraced snuggle up together Lol!!!!

Actually we are not very much in credit so it looks as if ours is about right. Will now try and cut down some more, such a bind to keep switching the PV off though. I will also use the slow cooker more. (Also we have had two lots of 4 week holidays when everything was off!!!

Ann
Glos

This quarter

Leccy £495

Gas £130

Water rates £310

Three bed mid terrace well insulated, double glazing, lagging in the loft

Mine's gone up - but I haven't bothered working ou by how much yet - they gave me the rise in %.
British Gas upped my sisters by 50%. She was already in credit and is out at work every day. She immediately cancelled her monthly Direct Debit and now intends paying (by direct Debit) for the power when the bill comes in - why should they make a mint on the interest what they overcharge us?
The cost of Crude oil has halved - so when will the fuel bills go DOWN? They were quick enough to put the price up!!

maggie

Because we are all being ripped off Maggie & they know there's sod all we can do, we've got to have these services.

Same here Mc B--ripped off right ,left and centre -won't use my a/c unless we are feeling really ill ,and certainly not filling up my heating oil tank until we get snow!
Petrol prices were supposed to come down quite considerably last weekend -but hey! we still have last weeks stock at last weeks prices to sell !
Mmm-it dosn't take that bl**** long to to put the prices up when we still have have last weeks stock to sell !
But we as consumers are the losers and idiots --why are we not challenging our governments to regulate these costs ? Because we want the ability to pick and choose ourselves as to which fuel is
cheaper? Who is the cat and who is the mouse here ?

my son is with southern electric, and they have supplied him with a gadget that in real time shows what electric power he is using, and also has a comparison readout with yesterday, and I think previous days......LOL you can even see when the fridge cuts in and out.......

Ann I bet you have all the white goods?

Bob