Yes indeed, more with the huge hikes than without. There have been numerous warnings about the inevitable increase, but I didn't expect it to be quite such an enormous % upwards.
This is going to hit an awful lot of people extremely hard.
I received an email today from Green informing me of a price hike of £425 per year starting next month.
I did a price comparison check and nothing comes close - they were all £118+.
I knew prices were going up but that's quite a hike just before winter.
Anyone else suffered a similar rise?
Last edited by Onelasttime; 31st August 2021 at 17:26.
Yes indeed, more with the huge hikes than without. There have been numerous warnings about the inevitable increase, but I didn't expect it to be quite such an enormous % upwards.
This is going to hit an awful lot of people extremely hard.
Yep, a big increase. So my strategy has been to go for a fix with a low exit penalty. So hedge against more increases but the option to bail if prices fall, surely only a matter of time before the regulator gets pressured into re-looking at this.
At exactly the wrong time wth winter on the way and furlough ending.
That said, I spoke to my brother in Sweden at the weekend and he's currently having a mare after a thunderbolt hit a local pylon and caused a surge, taking out his air source heating system and his TV. The heating engineers are currently on their 8th part replacement, the bill is £9000 and still not fixed. Insurance is only paying 60% towards the cost. I learned that he pays £600 per month for electricity. No one uses gas over there. I know wages are higher and the standard of living is generally higher, but bloody hell …
Yup mines going up as well by approx £200. Currently with Octopus and can't decide to go for their flexible tariff, which I can come out of at any time with no penalties, or go for a their slightly more expensive fixed tariff for 24 months.
I had a good price with Eon over last year, I've been hit this time when renewing, cheapest search which I've gone for is an increase of £250 from last year
Not sue if it is because the new owners of Asda owns a lot of petrol forecourts but all the supermarkets have stopped discounting fuel as well.
Bulb seem to think I’ll be paying an additional £3.63 per week which I thought was crazy initially. From reading the comments here though it sounds like it’s in line with everyone else.
my DD for gaz & leccy has gone up, from £31 a month to £38; with Avro Energy.. I searched on compare the market, and when you include the suppliers/tariffs that they can't switch you to, Avro still worked out best, for me anyway.. One big racket I think..
Couldn't be bothered with all the checking prices thing so we go through 'Look After My Bills'. Was a bit sceptical but seems to work. We were with Peoples Energy until a month or so ago, now they've switched us to 'green'.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I nearly started a thread on this the other day. I too had heard of the rises and only now as my current fixed deal is expiring in 3 weeks, I can’t find anything less than a 50% increase. Paying £125 per month and after spending an hour or so using all the different comparison sites and also a few obscure names directly, the cheapest I can get is £186 per month and even that is not letting me accept on-line due to demand. An extra £750 a year is a big hit.
I can see your point if his property uses gas central heating and he doesn’t turn it on but what about his electric? Even with minimal use he’s still going to have items pulling energy 24 hours a day. Pretty much all kitchen appliances are connected 24 hours a day, even when not in use. More so with smart homes.
Standby items draw almost insignificant energy - in fact there's legislation to make sure they do so.
The last time we spent 3 weeks away during Summer, my electric bill for the month was £30 and that was with two servers running 24/7Any non-networked electrical devices sold after 2013 should not consume more than 0.5 watts in standby mode
According to Energy Saving Trust, it’s estimated that the average UK household spends £30 per year leaving devices on standby.
Last edited by Scepticalist; 1st September 2021 at 09:31.
Just in time for all the new electric cars. I wonder if its to do with the companies beginning to offer special rates for charging cars and therefore having to catch up by charging more to everyone???
I was was with Avro last year on a fixed rate deal for gas and electric for £90 a month. Cheapest with them now is £132 for the same usage which I have gone for. At least there are no exit fees but its a big increase.
I did go on all the comparison sites BTW beforehand.
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So this massive price hike is apparently purely because wholesale energy costs to the suppliers have gone up by 50% because of 'post lockdown' surges across the world. I don't really understand this...ok, so compared with the lockdown period itself, demand might rise but I doubt demand has exploded above pre-lockdown levels? Is this just energy suppliers making up for lost revenue during lockdown?
I suspect this is just one knock-on example of where it's not all rosy sitting at home, getting free printed money. Whilst you are at home, you are using more energy and then when lockdown finishes, they want more to make up for the lack of business/manufacturing energy use.
Last edited by Christian; 1st September 2021 at 10:32.
I'll be first to admit I'm not the best at making financial risk-based decisions...my property history has been atrocious, I lost money on crypto and am the type of person that can somehow lose money even on SS Rolex! But I get the feeling we are in for some pain in the near future...this energy price hike being the first example of some significant inflation and short term interest rate rises.
I was with Octopus Energy and my tariff was ending in early September. My previous annual cost was £1,400 (gas & electricity) and moving to their cheapest available tariff it was predicting that my future annual cost would be £2,080.
Having used Martin Lewis Cheap Energy Club comparison site I got this down to £1,800.
I did a quick check of my current deal (to Spring 2022) vs new ones and it is an 18% increase.
Our gas and electric is £78.00 with eon.
Inspired by this thread, I thought I'd look into my Situation. I'm currently paying £107 per month for gas and electric, with EDF on standard variable rate. To fix for 3 years it's an increase to £133 per month or 24%!
HOWEVER - the cost of the unit rates are less on the new fixed tariff and the standing charges are the same. Why is the monthly estimate so much higher?
Yep, daily standing charges are exactly the same. 23.85p leccy and 26.12p gas
Current per kWh
Gas 3.987p
Day 25.78p
Night 9.79p
New per kWh
Gas 3.927p
Day 24.93p
Night 9.79p
I reckon I'm going to switch over, and screen shot the tariff details.
Maybe they just think I'm going to use more than I currently am? I consider myself quite a smart chap, but I do struggle sometimes with these things! When the logic doesn't makes sense I get confused.
I’ve notice the same thing with my EDF tariff, standard one on offer is actually slightly cheaper than the fixed ones on offer. But I think the standard one is set to go through the roof, I.e current prices shown are pre price rise, whereas the fixed ones won’t be hit. Mine also going up from £85 to at least £130
It's not profiteering. Energy prices have genuinely rocketed in a very short space of time. Look at this graph of wholesale prices:
https://www.cliffordtalbot.co.uk/energy-prices/
Wholesale makes up about 50% of your bill. The other 50% are the various infrastructure maintenance charges, indirect taxes and other things like meter operator charges, green levies etc etc.
I am also with Green and received a similar message. On checking through the Cheap Energy Club, Green still appear to be the best value for me.
I might start investing in extra jumpers and socks to keep me warmer :)
Might be time to invest in solar panals to offset the cost. I would consider it if I wasn't thinking of moving in the next couple of years.
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I used three online price comparators today and none of their recommended suppliers showed any significant savings compared to existing OVO forecast ... A friend then suggested AVRO which none of the price comparators mentioned ... I keyed in my forecast usage based on last 12 months usage and AVRO estimate is £108 cheaper per year ... so I have switched to AVRO ... effective 22 Sept . Now await the usual 'please stay with us' email from existing supplier OVO. The price comparators' figures likely include their commission ... so maybe best to get a quote direct from the energy companies ... provided you have your 12 month usage figures
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
Well, even searching around on comparison sites my annual bill has gone up by £600!!
However, having spent the last 18 months working from home with 2 teenage boys using the bath and shower like it’s going out of fashion, various TV’s and computers on throughout the day - and a long cold winter followed by a rubbish summer - I’m just putting it down to circumstances and mentally offsetting it against all the diesel I’ve saved!
To put it into context we live in a fairly modern detached 6 bed 3 story house, one of my sons has Down’s and a heart condition so needs to keep warm. Prior to the pandemic my eldest was at University and I had no need for a home office so I’m effectively hearing the top floor when I didn’t bother the year before. We have a modern heating system and boiler, but it’s my electricity that seems to have pushed the increase.
Anyone thinking of changing to led lighting, I’d suggest it’s barely worth the effort if you want to save money, I changed lots last year and it doesn’t seem to have helped!!
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After your tip-off, I've just checked them out too. They do indeed appear to be over £100 cheaper per year than the price comparison site options, and you're quite right that they're not on the ones I checked.
I'm still trying to get through to my current supplier, as they do have other tariffs available for new customers, but I can't find any info on what I can switch to in my account despite being variable and no exit fees.
sorry - only just seen your reply and queries..
no typo - I was paying £31 a month for both gas & leccy, gone up v recently to £38 with Avro. I think they only have one tariff.. I'm £260 in credit at the moment with them.
I live in a small terrace house, just me & 2 cats..
House was renovated 2 years ago - new gas central heating (never had c /heating before!), wt Bosch boiler. new d/glazing & every wall and ceiling was re plastered. Ceilings were quite bad so had plasterboard as well, the kitchen also needed boarding before plastering. Loft was relagged and boarded. The house seems to retain the heat which is good but not so good when we have hot weather and I have to have a fan on all night.
I have no tumble dryer and do not do any ironing & I've got a dishwasher but have never used it..
I'm on a water meter - and pay £11 a month! my cousin in comparison in Newton Abbot, pays nearly £80 a month just for her water but that is in a large Edwardian town house with her daughter & 2 kids living in the basement flat..
Last edited by bry nylon; 2nd September 2021 at 06:41.
^ Good effort on the low monthly bills and using good insulation rather than excessive heating. In my 2nd home, a large old tenement flat, which I use 5 days out of 7, my monthly DD is £28 and I'm also in credit - I only put the heating on when it goes below 12c. I prefer the cold, and I'm sure it's healthier.
I’m going to show this to my kids so they know that our usage isn’t normal. I’m forever telling them to take their electronics off charge when they are full, stop leaving lights on, stop leaving the tv on when they are both on their phone etc etc. My 10yr old boy is quite happy to sit around the house in his pants and then moans it’s cold when I open the windows to leave fresh air in
But isn't having electronics on charge minimal? Probably 5W when the thing is drawing power and less than 0.5W when not drawing power? That's less than 1p per day even if an iPhone is plugged in 24/7. Always thought electronics, TVs, consoles etc pale into insignificance compared to heating the house and water, and using big appliances.
Last edited by Christian; 2nd September 2021 at 13:07.
Dunno but my annual electricity bill said I’d used 4500kwh of electricity when the UK average for a 3 bedroom house with 3-5 people occupancy is just under 3000.
My heating is gas and I’m under the national average with that as my ethos is, if you are cold and you are wearing a t-shirt, stick a jumper on, not the heating.
I don't think charging the electronics will rack up the kW's, but a washing machine for instance will definitely do that, so with kids your machine is going to be used a lot and that will get the meter spinning. I got a new Bosch w/ machine last year and have only used the quick, light load, half hour wash cycle so that doesn't use much leccy..
Thinking back to my house refurb, I now remember that all the walls& ceilings had plasterboard put up and were re plastered.. I think doing that has helped retain the heat and also helped a bit with soundproofing..
I must be doing ok if I get the jukeboxs' seal of approval
Last edited by bry nylon; 2nd September 2021 at 13:25. Reason: double post