Gas & Electricity

[Keep the Faith]

Just how many (Elec) kWh a month do people use here?

Lights, TV, Microwave and washing machine &Tumble dryer mainly

FROM	TO	USAGE kWh
27-Sep	30-Sep	31.9
01-Oct	27-Nov	421.1
28-Nov	10-Jan	389.0
11-Jan	25-Jan	118.2
26-Jan	25-Feb	279.6
26-Feb	26-Mar	241.4
27-Mar	01-Apr	48.2
02-Apr	25-Apr	179.3
26-Apr	26-May	209.2
26-May	25-Jun	161.4

 

[kaz7]

Had to put my ceiling fan on today , i view every rotation differently now , how much per rotation !

 

[BimboBob]

Being thick … but the more you pay per month .. the quicker the house gets paid off ?

You'll pay the interest off quicker. But you can only usually pay off an extra month a year...this still brings down a 25 year mortgage to around 20 years.

So yes. It does.

 

[Kompany Car]

Being thick … but the more you pay per month .. the quicker the house gets paid off ?

It does get paid off quicker but some mortgages have overpayment fees. Normally if its a fixed/discounted rate, in any given year you normally cant overpay by more than 10% of the outstanding balance.
That said, if you managed to get a long term fix a year or so back some bonds are paying more than 2%, so rather than paying your mortgage off, as satisfying as that may be, you might be better sticking it in a bond with a return that is higher than the interest rate you are paying.

 

[M18CTID]

Spoke to my brother today who is expecting his bill to go up to around £500/month. In the last 2 years it's gone from £150 to £500 a month!! I got lucky and an admin error meant I fixed last year for 2 years on £150 a month. Another mates bills are predicted to go up to £480 a month and he's in a fairly average house. At the time I was pretty annoyed with myself, but I feel 'lucky' now but I can imagine my bills will drift towards £300 a month - that's from £100 a month a few years ago.

We were talking about this and if bills just keep going up, you're going to get people telling their boss they HAVE to have a, say, 20% pay rise just to pay bills. That's going to push inflation up and up. If these kinds of bills come through in October - just before Christmas - it's going to be carnage.

What worries me though is that this is going to obliterate people. I've spoken to people who I know aren't on great incomes but have fixed deals and they simply don't believe that their bills will more than double. This isn't a case of switching lights off etc to save a few quid, no matter what you do in your home - short of not heating it - your bills are going to become phenomenally expensive and likely to drive the country into a recession. The war in Ukraine shows no sign of stopping and we're likely to have to get used to higher prices anyway. However, I don't see any sign of the government doing anything about this at all.

Similar situation to me. It was more by luck than design that my existing deal with EDF was coming to an end last September and I chose a new 2 year fixed tariff with them that takes me to the end of September 2023. This was just before prices started to sky rocket. Obviously I’ll bear the brunt when this existing deal comes to an end but I’ve been very lucky to have been shielded from all the major increases so far.

 

[N1985]

Just how many (Elec) kWh a month do people use here?

Roughly around 120-140kwh a month. That's 2 of us and one child. Missus works from home but is mega conscious about using it. Costing us between £90 and £100 for both fuels per month at the moment.

 

[Hayley Croppers chopper]

Similar situation to me. It was more by luck than design that my existing deal with EDF was coming to an end last September and I chose a new 2 year fixed tariff with them that takes me to the end of September 2023. This was just before prices started to sky rocket. Obviously I’ll bear the brunt when this existing deal comes to an end but I’ve been very lucky to have been shielded from all the major increases so far.

Congratulations feller.

 

[Kompany Car]

Similar situation to me. It was more by luck than design that my existing deal with EDF was coming to an end last September and I chose a new 2 year fixed tariff with them that takes me to the end of September 2023. This was just before prices started to sky rocket. Obviously I’ll bear the brunt when this existing deal comes to an end but I’ve been very lucky to have been shielded from all the major increases so far.

Virtually the same, moved house last Aug and immediately fixed at the best price i could for 2 yrs last September.
Didnt do it because I had any knowledge about what was going to happen, more the fact that I wanted fixed outgoings to help budgeting as we are having a lot of refurb work done.
Whilst you can never be sure, I think if this energy crisis continues to the autumn of next year, the government will have to act. That will be due to either people on the streets demanding it or more likely some form of political sweetener before the general election which can be no later than Jan 2024.

 

[Hayley Croppers chopper]

Virtually the same, moved house last Aug and immediately fixed at the best price i could for 2 yrs last September.
Didnt do it because I had any knowledge about what was going to happen, more the fact that I wanted fixed outgoings to help budgeting as we are having a lot of refurb work done.
Whilst you can never be sure, I think if this energy crisis continues to the autumn of next year, the government will have to act. That will be due to either people on the streets demanding it or more likely some form of political sweetener before the general election which can be no later than Jan 2024.

Also congratulations feller.

 

[Hayley Croppers chopper]

Had to put my ceiling fan on today , i view every rotation differently now , how much per rotation !

Maybe just do 1/2 a rotation for now.

 

[bluealf]

I have 5 aquariums, they cost £25 a week to run electric wise, then add in the food, conditioner, plant feed.

If the price gets to much higher we may have to shut them down but of course this then creates more problems, you can't sell your fish anymore as they fall into the same bracket of laws created to stop puppy farms.

We can give them away free but selling them is a difficult task.

Spent a lot of money on them over the last 8 years it is a bit of a bugger tbh

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

I think if this energy crisis continues to the autumn of next year, the government will have to act. That will be due to either people on the streets demanding it or more likely some form of political sweetener before the general election which can be no later than Jan 2024.

I agree with this, it's inevitable that "something" will have to be done.

If the prices were going up, say, £40 a month then most people can budget for that but when we're talking hundreds per month then for a lot of people, they simply won't be able to afford it. I can't understand why this isn't more of a talking point because when bills are going from £150 to £500+ per month it's unsustainable.

When the cap lift in October kicks in there will be plenty of people going into Winter knowing they simply cannot afford heating. And how many people are working from home now too?

I honestly can't remember the UK being in such a mess as it is now.

 

[BigJoe#1]

How can the Government help?

Here's how.

Why don't they cap the price per therm/unit and then they can pay the difference. Put simply if the price per therm was say 80p but the Govt capped the consumer charge at 50p, the government could stand the other 30p.

Now that would help the hard working public wouldn't it? Fair and balanced and would take account of the political situation in Ukraine.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Therm!
Why not pay in groats then?
FFS!

 

[Chris B]

How can the Government help?

Here's how.

Why don't they cap the price per therm/unit and then they can pay the difference. Put simply if the price per therm was say 80p but the Govt capped the consumer charge at 50p, the government could stand the other 30p.

Now that would help the hard working public wouldn't it? Fair and balanced and would take account of the political situation in Ukraine.

The problem with that is that wealthy people use more electricity than poor ones (they have bigger homes, hot tubs, swimming pools and electric cars), so the price cap you propose would be a government sponsored wealth transfer from poor to rich. This is why the government support so far has been given on a per household basis.

 

[Scouse Blue]

Apologies if slightly off topic, but still relevant I believe.
Utilities costs are scary I agree. For electricity and gas in peak winter it costs me approximately £4.25 a day for my 2 bedroom bungalow. For my sins, I am a smoker and get through 10/12 Benson and hedges gold a day, so around £8. However fuel is currently fucking ridiculous. Admittedly I drive an uneconomical car, but I went to play football tonight, approximately 20 miles away. £10 for 2 pints of cider afterwards and around £18 pound in fuel. Now that is scary.

 

[N1985]

Apologies if slightly off topic, but still relevant I believe.
Utilities costs are scary I agree. For electricity and gas in peak winter it costs me approximately £4.25 a day for my 2 bedroom bungalow. For my sins, I am a smoker and get through 10/12 Benson and hedges gold a day, so around £8. However fuel is currently fucking ridiculous. Admittedly I drive an uneconomical car, but I went to play football tonight, approximately 20 miles away. £10 for 2 pints of cider afterwards and around £18 pound in fuel. Now that is scary.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Apologies if slightly off topic, but still relevant I believe.
Utilities costs are scary I agree. For electricity and gas in peak winter it costs me approximately £4.25 a day for my 2 bedroom bungalow. For my sins, I am a smoker and get through 10/12 Benson and hedges gold a day, so around £8. However fuel is currently fucking ridiculous. Admittedly I drive an uneconomical car, but I went to play football tonight, approximately 20 miles away. £10 for 2 pints of cider afterwards and around £18 pound in fuel. Now that is scary.

In the same boat mate,five a side footy is quite a drive for me,the post match drink is a tenner, it hits hard.trying to stay fit doing the sport you love is bloody expensive.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

First round of £326 gone out today. That’ll be the nail bars, tanning salons and off licenses making a roaring trade then.

 

[M18CTID]

Congratulations feller.

Cheers, but like I say it was pure luck. I will also add that it's a rare occasion for me to be on the right side. Back in 2008 when the global financial crisis hit and interest rates were slashed to half of one percent meaning millions of people were paying hundreds of pounds less per month on their mortgage, I was about half way through a 7 year fixed rate deal that saw me paying 6.09%. Just to compound things, when that fixed rate deal expired my house was worth less than what I'd bought it for 7 years previously and I was in negative equity so I couldn't move to one of the really low percentage deals and was stuck on an SVR of around 4.5% for years!