Gas Prices, Supply Issues and Collapsing Suppliers

[Disco]

She is on a meter.

Pov, that's insane. I know you've always had enegery bills that would rival Blackpool illuminations but still solely for electricity?!

[Princess Morripov]

I feel like I am cursed just electricity! Must add some candles onto my next Tesco order as I don’t think we can really justify putting the lights on.

[Lily]

She is on a meter.

Sorry, I meant the opposite of a pre-pay meter... a post-pay one I suppose!

[Flora Poste]

God knows what is happening with Ovo. I got my £66 into my account today. Simultaneously they have just put my DD up by £43 a month? WTF? I have a smart meter and am on a fix so it's not like they don't know my usage/ costs.

Mystery solved. I changed my DD (on their recommendation) at the start of October and because of that they haven't taken my Oct DD at all - so upped my DD going onwards to reflect that. But didn't actually tell me Fortunately I've got a decent amount of credit so it means I haven't missed a payment, buut what if I didn't? Useless turds.

[Rebel Pebble]

Bulb is being bought by Octopus, I just got an email informing me. Subject to final approval mid-December.

[F'Artiste]

Our supplier has upped our DD by another £120, despite being in credit (this was after they had estimated we would be £400 odd in debt, and revised down when we sent in the readings ).

[Rebel Pebble]

That seems very wrong, Farty. Bulb actually reduced our DD amount a month ago by £40. I assume because the combination of it having been high through a blazing hot summer, plus the first govt payment meant we were about £500 in credit.

And sorry it's mid November for the Bulb/Octopus thing, not Dec.

[dizzyd]

Our combined bill 17th Oct to 17th Nov was £280 our Nov to Dec bill is £420 !!!

Luckily we're in credit by quite a bit but God what a jump

[Topcat]

Don't worry too much, they have also said that petrol can go up by as much as nearly 6% next year too.

[Rebel Pebble]

I've been keeping track by sending monthly meter readings to Bulb each month and it's similar here. We used about £130 Sept-Oct, £160 Oct-Noc and then £330 Nov-Dec. That freezing weather made quite an impact!

Like Dizz, we're still in credit though because of stupidly high monthly payments through a heatwave summer.

[dizzyd]

We were away for one week end of November but left the heating on for 1.5 hours in the morning and evening for the cats !!

Apparently we are around £600 in credit and when they reduced our bill by the £66 I put it back up again

It's really concerning and worrying me how other people are coping

[rosy]

I got £25 as a cold weather payment for benefit claimants as the temperature in my postcode stayed below 0° for a week.

I still don’t have a smart meter on the gas so I’m taking readings every couple of days to try to manage the bills but it’s a constant worry.

[Disco]

I am literally terrified of huge unaffordable bills. I can't heat this house when the cost was much cheaper (it doesn't get warm or above 15 degrees ambient room temp anyway) so it felt pointless to even attempt to heat it this year although as it was approx 4 degrees ambient temp in the cold snap so my boiler put the heating on anyway. So I put the heating on for half an hour a day when I'm going to shower and that's pretty much it.

I've got a fire and Monk uses an oil filled radiator in his room and we've got electric blankets and 13.5 tog duvets on our beds, plus heated throws. I've currently got chilblains all over my toes though.

I need to take readings this month to see how I'm faring.

I remember heating a huge - massive - two bed flat willy nilly and it costing me £25 a month in gas in 2004.

[Princess Morripov]

It’s crackers isn’t it? Sometimes I sit there and think that I’m earning X times more than I was in 2002 and back then I could just leave the heating on and no shits were given.

We’ve barely had ours on (since the boiler replacement), cooking and keeping the doors shut in the kitchen/playroom keeps the heat in the evening downstairs and we are just putting the electric blanket on when we get into bed, to avoid draining all of the oil. We’ve sacked off the timer completely and it’s just turn on if too cold and turn back on when it’s bearable.

In fairness since it’s warmed up we’ve not felt like it’s been too terrible not having it on in the morning but what a way to live.