I've just had the email from Shell.
How we worked out your new monthly payment (excluding the EBSS discount):
Predicted energy use
(3 months) £2233.50
WTF? That's more than my mortgage! Granted it's a larger house, but there's only two of us living here.
Have you submitted correct reading with them?
Smart meter.
Can anyone see a flaw in this plan…?
Estimated usage over the next 12 months is approx £3,072 / £256 per month.
We’re currently up in credit heading into the winter. Could we withdraw that credit balance and peg the DD at £256? It’d mean we’d almost immediately be in debit but will obviously catch up by this time next year?
Il with Shell and they seem to manage your DD value based on the next 3 months rather than the longer term / 12 months.
The flaw may be that energy companies won't want everyone doing this. It would mean them financing a huge debit as everyone went into the red through the winter.
So while one person doing it wouldn't matter they may not encourgage it. I'm with Octopus and currently £500 in credit. I tried to withdraw some on the website. I think their estimate is high because our electricity consumption is going to be down a third compared to last year due to savings. Our gas is also going to be much reduced due to new CH boiler and contros and better loft insulation.
Octopus website would only let me request a £60ish refund from my balance with a click and wanted a phone call for anything more. Not a big deal. If I am right then my balance will still be a few hundred come spring and I will get it one way or another then. They think based on previous usage that I will be just in the red at the end of winter.
Well I guess I’m testing my theory! Took about 20 seconds via their automated chat service on the website to get a £450 refund. Balance is now nil but the current £256 a month DD should bring us to a nil balance next Sept. We can always chuck it back in the Shell account if needed but will be interesting if they now recommend / force an increase in the DD.
SP refunded the £66 yesterday. £500 or more in credit here, DD still at £330 per month, last two month's bills were £180. SP saying I'm not paying enough, so can't change DD, but it's based upon previous years and we've slashed electric consumption. I expect a nice balance come spring - will withdraw it then and go on holiday !
Is anyone expecting electricity usage to go up in winter?
Obviously we'll need more lighting but that's a pretty small portion of the bill. We aren't expecting to tumble dry still, and we're probably watching the same amount of telly now as we will in winter. The CH pump will be running longer I expect.
Expecting a slight rise in use from what we've been doing (cutting use), but I'll be keeping eyes on it. I have got to heat the conservatory where I work one or two days a week, although a jumper takes care of most of it. We are out more at present - i.e. work and Uni.
Gas will jump, but that's due to it being 3x more expensive !
And still waiting for my refund from shell. Tick tick tick ..
£101 three month gas/leccy bill here.Thats after the £60.00 Boris bung of course.
I,m also now practising navy showers.One minute then out.No birds have rejected my wiffy Knackers yet!
So we've manually worked out our new electricity costs. Since Oct 1st we have only used 44kw according to the meter, so about 3.7kw per day. At 34p or so that's just over £15 for 2 weeks.
I cancelled direct debit with Bulb went upto £333 from £254 and they would not reduce, have about £450 in credit. Now after checking bills they are never more than £180, last month £140. Now I am just paying £200 per month by transfer but will reduce to £150 now have additional from Government they can use my credit if over £200.
Bulb did send me a letter today about the difference in charges with government top-up but will just wait until monthly bill to see how it works out.
Our fuel bill is essentially whatever the current diesel price is.
No gas. Solar electric. Solar shower topped up with the water from the kettle if feeling luxurious otherwise it's a short, cold shower (outside to boot). Two parking heaters, but not needed yet despite it being 8°C this morning. A brisk walk and down jacket help.
My DD with Shell is £170.00 / month (dual fuel).
They've just credited the £66.00 to my account - so income into account is £236.00 this month.
I have a Powerwall solution with 2 batteries which takes care of everything with a plug on.
Gas is used for central heating (not been on since March), showering (still mostly at the gym!) and cooking so fortunately it's pretty low
I'm also starting to think about looking at ways to move as 'off grid' as i can. Be interested to know if anyone here has managed it? I can't do much about the water supply, but looking ways to dispense with reliance on gas.
I cancelled direct debit with Bulb went upto £333 from £254 and they would not reduce, have about £450 in credit. Now after checking bills they are never more than £180, last month £140.
Bulb are ridiculous. I have just cancelled the direct debit with them as the ignored by request to reduce to something that reflected my use. This is a business account so they are charging us 65p kWh, despite the wholesale price capped at 21p. Absolute disgrace.
My account is £200 in credit and my next bill will be around £60-£70. They were going to take £130 on 1st November. I will just top it up on a monthly basis.
I am scratching my head here....
Octopus
We are fixed until September 23, they have £750+ of our money in credit, our smart meters have now started working, they have neatly added our subsidy to reduce our payments, great.
Currently we are paying £158 a month in total with & without subsidy.
By April they forecast we will be £1k in credit(!)
Yet their website is recommending we double our total payment to £310....?!
Is it me? I could buy a bike for that....ahem.
As previously posted I have little confidence in the Shell app or the calculations that sit on it - don't seem to take account of credit. The app is down for maintenance the moment so maybe there have been enough complaints for them to fix it - we will see...
The Energy Suppliers are taking the wee wee. Most of us have cut use with these incredible bills, so of course we are using less, but they aren't accepting it when you try and reduce the DD. SP would never let me reduce mine other than £20 or so. I'd £500 credit in July, so googled how to fine the 'refund' option buried in their web site and got it back. I'm again, just 4 months later £500 up. I still can't reduce it and they'd ideally want me to pay more.
@r8jimbob88 please tell me if you're refund has/does actually appear on your bank as I've been trying via countless phone calls and app chat conversations to get my £1600 back, which isn't even all my credit, for a month now, I had to start a complaint, they closed that saying they would pay it.... Still not got it. Getting very pee'd off and of it doesn't appear in the next few days I'm escalating.
****ing Bulb!
As I posted yesterday, £200 in credit, they are looking to take £130 next month, my bill will be £70 ish.
They ignored my messages.
Cancelled and DD and got an email that was trying to frighten me into renewing it within a few hours. Pity they couldn't react to my early message as quick.
Hiya,
Just looked at my Bill. We are hardly using any energy at all but left the balance to take into account the winter. I have done a lot of work insulating the house and we are really using very little energy it seems.
My account is now sitting at £823 in credit. I'm getting a little annoyed at the moment half of me thinks cash it in and go on holiday, the other is cautious and thinking keep the balance there and let it dwindle over the winter. It doesn't look like it will much though the current rate of consumption. We are using wood mainly for heating and the plan is to use more reverting to a back boiler next year to run the CH in addition to the gas. The gas I'm going to request pay as I use and standing order thereafter...
JeZ
Yep £450 received back in my bank account from Shell. Said it would take up to 10 days but came through almost immediately.
I think their calculations are all a bit random. App was recommending that we increase our DD but at the same time recommended a refund of £220 but instantly allowed a £450 refund.
The app currently says estimated usage £374 a month which I assume is just looking at the upcoming winter months. Despite this it’s recommending a DD of £435 😅 whilst at the same time giving an estimated annual usage value of £3,073 (which I agree is pretty accurate) which equates to £256 a month.
I give up. Glad I’ve got hold of my money now although I expect they’ll force an increased DD at some point soon. I’ll look forward to challenging that.
Has anyone actually had any experience of telling their energy provider that they can’t afford the newly suggested DD increases?
Shell app is all over the place
Is anyone expecting electricity usage to go up in winter?
Our does as we use fan heaters to heat the workshop.
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**** Bulb!
As I posted yesterday, £200 in credit, they are looking to take £130 next month, my bill will be £70 ish.
They ignored my messages.
Cancelled and DD and got an email that was trying to frighten me into renewing it within a few hours. Pity they couldn’t react to my early message as quick.
Hhmmm .... I normally have my DD fixed at £70 every month since I joined them few years ago for gas and electricity. Never used more than £70 in the past.
Then I received an email telling me to lower my DD ... errhhh? I know my credit is now almost break even with £85-ish bills for the last two months after being eaten away by the increase rate. Then they said something along the line of £66 whatever ... can't be arsed to read them all as I know I will keep usage to minimum and not much I can do ...
Then they said something along the line of £66 whatever … can’t be arsed to read them all as I know I will keep usage to minimum and not much I can do …
You're getting £400/6 = £66 as a credit every month for the next 6 months as part of the package from the previous chancellor to mitigate the price rises.
Shell app is awful. It shows two different figure when~£109 difference for my current credit balance, it's suggesting I significantly reduce my DD when it was only increased by them after a phone call with me at the start of the month, it appears to say the government ebss £66 will appear as a discount on the DD yet my October bill shows the full DD and the ebss credit on top. I think I may have to switch to print monthly after billing. Still no sign of my refund.
Price cap will no longer be universal for the full 24 months. Details incoming...
Only in place in current guise until April'23. Bugger
Great. Trying to budget for the next 12 months is impossible. Especially with my fixed rate mortgage coming to an end next year too. Bad times
On a prepayment electric meter so I log how much we've spent each Monday. £30 in the last week! Was £15pw, then went up to £20, so that's a big jump to £30!
We were just back from a week's holiday, so a fair bit of washing and some drysoon use, plus my son on the PC or xbox practically all day during the school holidays. Schools back now, so it'll be interesting to see how much it drops next Monday! Still not got our £66 voucher from EON, but they reckon it'll be here by the end of the week....
I think the price cap will be lowered at the next opportunity or the first opportunity after the subsidy ends and warmer weather returns. It should give the same effect as handing cash out.
Aren't wholesale energy prices decreasing at the moment?
pay by DD, but the £66 has appeared in my current account as a credit from BG, why can they not just knock it off the bill 🤔
retrorick
Full Member
I think the price cap will be lowered at the next opportunity or the first opportunity after the subsidy ends and warmer weather returns. It should give the same effect as handing cash out.
Aren’t wholesale energy prices decreasing at the moment?
Martin Lewis saying current predictions are up 73% in april, then down 15% in July 😯😯
So, I thought that energy costs were going to be less of a worry than the mortgage.
Thanks to this Cluster-F they're both going to be through the roof now 🤬
All energy is free, unlimited and omnipresent.
The real question is how long are you mugs going to continue paying? When your monthly bills are £600? £800? £1000? What'll be your breaking point? The price of oil or whatever has not significantly gone up, neither are the companies making hideous losses. Someone is being had. Or am I just a conspiracy theorist?
Say no and take what is rightfully yours.
All energy is free, unlimited and omnipresent.
...if you can tap into your neighbours leccy supply!! 🤣🤣⚡️💡☠️
All energy is free, unlimited and omnipresent.
The price of oil or whatever has not significantly gone up, neither are the companies making hideous losses. Someone is being had. Or am I just a conspiracy theorist?
Say no and take what is rightfully yours.
edit: I note @veganrider joined a week ago, to post on the conspiracies theory thread.
edit: I note @veganrider joined a week ago, to post on the conspiracies theory thread.
Given his post on here didn't make much sense, he would be ideally suited to the Conspiracy thread....
edit: I note @veganrider joined a week ago, to post on the conspiracies theory thread.
There's been quite a few 'vocal' new members recently. 🤔
Say no and take what is rightfully yours.
I've got a set of post hole diggers and a pressure washer. homebrew fracking anyone?
As for veganrider, he/she is a full member so making a financial contribution to STW.
Paying troll ? Wowsers !
Are you sure that didn't say 'Total Member'?
Dear "footflaps", let me make things clearer for you.
Energy is free inasmuch as it is omnipresent in the aether. It powers the universe. To harness it does not cost a great deal.
The national grid supplies our energy. This has already been paid for by the "government", i.e. us. The powers that be cannot have the plebs knowing this though. We must be kept preoccupied with news, debt, war, sport, engineered crises etc.
Perhaps instead of automatically branding people as "conspiracy theorists" and "trolls", or mocking and denigrating those with an outside view - ya'll.should do some research into things.
Or continue to get stuffed up the backside. But it's going to cause some major mental gymnastics when you realise that "energy" hasn't increased in price and neither have the profits of "energy companies" decreased.
Dunno the actual unit costs but my £55 month bill, that was £35 a year ago, has dropped to £2.44.
I do live well within my means in a small house like a miser though.
Gawd bless liss truss for paying 2/3 of my yearly bill.
The national grid supplies our energy. This has already been paid for by the “government”, i.e. us.
Ah. I see - so you claim the government (via our taxes) pays for all the national grid, power generation such as power stations, offshore wind, hydro stations, nuclear, all the construction, ongoing maintenance etc? Everything is fully paid for by our taxes? So there is no need for any energy company to charge a customer?
Maybe they think the energy magically appears in the grid for free.
'energy' may be 'free', moving it in its present form and converting it to a different form that we can use is not.
We used to pay £170 with Octopus and a couple of months ago they put it up to £240 which considering how things were going, I didn't think was all that bad.
They now seem to have dropped it again to an all time low of £144 which seems to be due to the fact we're now about £1k in credit. I'm sure it'll go up again soon due to extra lights/heating being switched on.
To harness it does not cost a great deal.
I'd argue it does - maybe not in pence per therm or whatever of energy extracted, but if you look at the cost in terms of impact, all the energy that the universe has provided us in oil and gas and the cost to the planet through extracting and burning it, I'd suggest the cost is unpayable - certainly if we don't act soon.
But for sure in terms of other 'free' energy - we have to make more of wind and tide and sun, the costs are not insignificant but this is where the country should be investing for the good of the country. It might mean we need windmills in beauty spots if that's where the wind is, that's now the price to pay for ****ing it up so badly already.
Dunno the actual unit costs but my £55 month bill, that was £35 a year ago, has dropped to £2.44.
Gawd bless liss truss for paying 2/3 of my yearly bill.
I'm conflcited over this - my costs have increased from about £80/mo before the crisis, and I adjusted to £250/mo. Poss doesn't need to be that high but I saw that costs would increase eventually, and cut my spending to accommodate and will build up a balance before April when we will likely get another increase.
And I'm getting £500 given back as well, so instead of £250, for the next few months it's £183.
I can 'afford' £250, I budgeted for it by cutting other spending, and we live reasonably well. My wife may disagree...... but there are others that could use that far more than me. Even in Guildford.
On the other hand - I pay my taxes, more than most if I'm honest, why shouldn't I benefit.
So I'm halving it, in the form of doing a monthly donation to the food bank - easy enough to check the needs list and spend £25 on whatever they need. Maybe you might do something like that?
Energy is free inasmuch as it is omnipresent in the aether. It powers the universe. To harness it does not cost a great deal.
Do you have references for that?
Do you have references for that?
Do I have references for the earth being self-powered? Lol. That is quite evident. It doesn't need humans or any other animal to keep it running.
The earth runs, powers, functions perfectly without us. We are able to simply harness some of that (energy isn't created or destroyed).
Everything is at base electrical, and is interconnected.
Ah. I see – so you claim the government (via our taxes) pays for all the national grid, power generation such as power stations, offshore wind, hydro stations, nuclear, all the construction, ongoing maintenance etc? Everything is fully paid for by our taxes? So there is no need for any energy company to charge a customer?
Yes. Well, strictly speaking, not any more - since they changed this longstanding arrangement to the current version in order to steal even more off the backs of the good people of this land. But that had no consent of the people and is thus, not our problem.
Latest bill is £134, up from £101 in Sept, predicted usage was £433 according to Shell! Now £757 in credit as they've been taking £220 a month DD. We've definitely used the heating less but I was expecting a bigger bill than that, had smart meters installed about 6 weeks ago so a bit paranoid they have screwed the readings up somewhere.
And just got an email from she'll asking to up DD to £286, they can do one.
A couple of years ago our DD was £125. I increased it to £250 earlier this year (we were £600 in debit after our providers went bust, we lost our fixed deal and EDF put us on their standard tariff) and they have just increased it to £392 (we're still £250 in debit).
Dual fuel monthly bill heading to about £120-130 this month.
Was £50-60 in warmer months (with cheaper prices obvs).
Only been in this place since August so can't compare before that.
October's leccy bill 22 quid.
Oil price.... Through the roof.
Win some lose some.
Insulating the shit out the house instead.
@mattcartlidge you can install the Loop app on your phone and link it to your smart meter(s) so you can easily keep track of daily weekly monthly usage.
ah cheers BA.Nana - I had downloaded Loop a few weeks ago and dropped out of the registration process as it wanted card details and I knew very little about the app. I mean't to ask on here if anyone was using it, will have another look at it now, thanks.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27. How does that compare with other people? We have 1 year old twins at home so we have to heat the hot water tank for their evening bath and we keep the thermostat set at 16 in their bedroom. We are frugal with the heat for ourselves however now. A blanket and a hot water bottle is not too bad when watching TV. The insulation in our 1930s house however is non existent and we cant insulate the cavities due to building debris.
Octpopus set our dd at £356, now £289 with the governments £66 support.
I am slightly concerned however as so far we haven't really had any cold weather.
We are with Octopus. Because of when we supplied readings our latest bill is for 23 days. Just under £60 for electricity. So that will be around £80 a month.
Gas £43. So around £60 a month. Total monthly charges approx £140. Very little heating so far. Gas used for hot water and cooking. Electricity for a twonperson household with one person at home all day. Very little tumble drier use. Just TVs washing machine etc.
£235 seems high. You aren't heating the tank with electric I presume?
That sounds like a lot.
By contrast, 2 young kids / baths and our energy usage in September (with two of us working from home) was:
Elec: 215 kwH/ £84
Gas: 395 kWh / £48
If you haven’t got smart meters get them installed pronto. Then you can pinpoint usage.
Also worth checking if your hot water usage. If you have a system boiler with a tank you’ll need a max of 30 mins hot water a day. We get by with an average of 22 mins hot water a day for 4 of us including small baths / showers etc.
If you have TRVs on the radiators check they are set to 16 / 17ish in the bedrooms so you’re not overheating the house overnight.
Feeling very lucky today after having our bulk Propane tank filled. Not exactly sure of the current price per litre, somewhere around 130-150p I think so I was expecting a massive increase on the last time we filled up when it was 42p/litre. The lucky bit was that our tank was sufficiently low recently, <30%, for the supplier to deliver. Anything more than that and they wont. This meant that it was just less than a year since our last fill. As my wife had changed suppliers we had a new contract and unbeknown to me this also meant that our price was fixed for 12 months! Last year we paid about £850 on a nearly empty tank. Today we paid £650. After taking off the government subsidies our total cost is about £150! So many aren't so lucky so we're going to donate to the local food bank.
@edward2000 1930s house here though it is cavity wall insulated but is on the larger size. Bill for comparable period was £186 (£126 elec, £60 gas). No heating on yet other than 3 days when it had a quick hour or two blast. 4 people. That does include WFH and one full car charge. Right on the South coast.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27. How does that compare with other people?
Hard to compare without knowing your location. Down south we haven't had our heating on yet, so our gas bill was £28 last month of which £9 was gas. I've just raised my electricity DD to £75 which I think is generous since we were using £42 during the summer. That £75 includes car mileage though. 3 bed semi, 2 adults (one WFH) 2 digital kids.
Bill for comparable period was £186 (£126 elec, £60 gas). No heating on yet
How'd you spend £60 on gas without heating?
Hot water I guess as that's the only other thing on gas. £1-2 a day without the heating. On the days it was used it's £5 plus easily. So 12-15kwh gas for a non heating day approx.
That's way more HW than us, but we don't shower every day.
Both adults shower daily, sometimes more exercise dependant. Kids are every other day.
£60 a month on hot water, wow. The CH has been off since April, so 6 months of shower every day and washing the pots has been about £60 for the whole 6 months with my combi.
No, not £60 for the month for just water. The heating has been used a few times (though more than I thought looking at the graphs). Having the heating on a bit seems to increase daily usage by a factor of 4 or more. Not looking forward to what that is when it gets cold.
Just been digging more into the numbers and it seems those shown in the eon next app are before the government credit. The actual paid amount is therefore £122 combined when the £66 is taken into account. Apply that reduction ratio to the gas its £42 actually paid.
Finally! I can't even remember when I started this... 7 weeks ago maybe.... I've finally got my £1600 refund out of shell!
Its not like they couldn't afford it. £7,000,000,000 profit in the last quarter.
Well, just got my water bill which is metered.
12 Feb to 3 Oct = £82.16 ... about £11 per month. (Yes, I take shower everyday)
Not sure about the fixed rate but I think my water usage is below average.
That is hardly credible.
Having the heating on a bit seems to increase daily usage by a factor of 4 or more. Not looking forward to what that is when it gets cold.
Having a bath uses up about ooh, 3.5kWh. our boiler is 9kw at minimum so that's about 20-30 mins of running. When the heating is on it runs a lot longer than that each day. So yeah.
Just received our latest monthly bill (Sep 25th to Oct 25th) and we spent £235.27.
😮
Sounds like you’re very economic. Ours was £220 for electricity, £180 for gas for the month ending October 18.
Includes car charging.
Heating & water are gas. on 6-9 and 15:00 - 21:00 at 19 Celsius and 55 Celsius for a tank respectively most days.
Octopus ‘flexible avro October 2021’ tariff.
Well, it’s official subject to Ofgem approval that Octopus will by Bulb on a taxpayer funded deal to be paid back later.
Recieved an email from Bill this morning. I wonder if this’ll change the bills.
This months combined Bill of us was £213 from a projection of £240 which is probably more about the mild temps right now, although we are doing our best to be economical. Our annual bill estimate has been revised to be exactly 3 x the 2021 bill at £3300.
Just dropped my octopus dd down to £1.
£260 credit on my account, plus the government are giving octopus £66 pcm for the next 5 months.
Split the £260 into 5 months and add on the government subsidy = £120.
Just done my electric for last month at £49, 96kwh. Gas was £11 last month, but expected to rise.
I don't think i will hit my £120 target, and looking at the longvrange focast wont need ch for at least a week or 2
