Energy bill increases

[Alex321]

@Alex321 I'm currently paying 19.2 per KwH which at 9000 pa would mean your £20000 will take at least 11½ years to breakeven.

9000 x 19.2 = £1728pa
£20000 / £1728 = 11.5 years

Presumably you sell spare capacity to the grid and this would be at less than 19.2? I presume the price would vary to mirror the energy market? Then there are maintenance costs.

At what point does the investment breakeven?

Yes, we will be selling spare capacity back to the grid. We will be going onto the Octopus Agile tariff when we get the battery, and the payments for that will usually be more than 19.2p - we will of course be able to send most of our outgoing power between 4pm and 7pm, when it is the highest price.
https://www.energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-outgoing-export-southern-england/

I'm expecting the payback time to be of the order of 8-9 years, maybe less if prices go up even further.

They also reckon that it adds between a third and half the cost to the value of the house.

 

[jowwy]

Yes, we will be selling spare capacity back to the grid. We will be going onto the Octopus Agile tariff when we get the battery, and the payments for that will usually be more than 19.2p - we will of course be able to send most of our outgoing power between 4pm and 7pm, when it is the highest price.
https://www.energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-outgoing-export-southern-england/

I'm expecting the payback time to be of the order of 8-9 years, maybe less if prices go up even further.

They also reckon that it adds between a third and half the cost to the value of the house.

are we to assume that you have paid for the system outright and not taken loans or additional mortgage costs to purchase the system???

 

[Alex321]

for people on a default tarif paying 29.7p/kwh would have a lower payback time to breakeven. Also not everyone uses 9000kwh pa.......

So far since january i have averaged 180kwh per month if we times that by 12 = 2160kwh for the year........but this month so far i have used 120kwh and yesterday only used 4kwh for the day. So not everyone would need such a big system that @Alex321 is using and paid for.

The reason for my low usage...i have no kids, its just me and the Mrs, i cook a lot outdoors on the gas grill and now pizza oven, my office runs on solar for 7hrs...and during the day its onyl the Mrs downstairs using a very low wattage Tv and Skyq box. All sockets not beingused are switched off just leaving the Fridge freezer, small freezer and boradband hub using power........

Yes i it may be very rare that such low power uses are that common, but as i sit and type here now, im using full solar and not an ounce of energy from the grid.

We don't use 9000 KwH per year - currently a little under 3000.

But at the moment, the heating is gas powered, and we'd like to switch that over to electric at some point, plus allow for the possibility of getting an EV at some point, so we wanted the biggest system that would fit on our roof, since we have the money to pay for it now.

 

[Alex321]

are we to assume that you have paid for the system outright and not taken loans or additional mortgage costs to purchase the system???

Yes. We paid off our mortgage on the last house about 8 years before we moved (2 years ago) - and the move was downsizing, although to a similar priced house.

No mortgage, no kids at home, me on a good salary and my wife on a good pension, all means we have a fair amount of spare cash. We also haven't taken a foreign holiday since 2019, though we don't usually go mad on those.

 

[jowwy]

We don't use 9000 KwH per year - currently a little under 3000.

But at the moment, the heating is gas powered, and we'd like to switch that over to electric at some point, plus allow for the possibility of getting an EV at some point, so we wanted the biggest system that would fit on our roof, since we have the money to pay for it now.

so wouldnt payback be a lot longer on 3000kwh a year.......

 

[Alex321]

so wouldnt payback be a lot longer on 3000kwh a year.......

Well the rate is more than the 19.2p @PaulSB was suggesting, and I was taking into account the payments we expect to get for the surplus.

My own calculations have suggested 8-9 years, assuming import rates stay at around 29p and we export at 20p average (both are likely to be more over that period rather than less).

 

[jowwy]

Well the rate is more than the 19.2p @PaulSB was suggesting, and I was taking into account the payments we expect to get for the surplus.

My own calculations have suggested 8-9 years, assuming import rates stay at around 29p and we export at 20p average (both are likely to be more over that period rather than less).

i draw low power from the grid like yourself....but im not getting such a big system as yourself in hopefully september.

 

[gbb]

So looking back, our combined bills pre price rises were IRO £110 to £150 a month (summer / winter).
First bill post rises £160, next bill £208 that was a spring bill, very little heating used (we dont much anyway ) and we dont use a tumble drier except in exceptional circumstances.
Steps need to be taken so we switched to boiler on for timed periods only (we used to leave it on all the time) and switched to eco modes on the washer and dishwasher.
This bill just in ... £130.

Thats not much effort for a big saving

I suspect our winter bills will now be IRO £180 maybe, notwithstanding any more incoming price rises
Theres no doubt we will have become a bit more conscious of what we're doing and its cost.
Environment benefits too, if we're all doing the same, our environmental impact must be better.

 

[PaulSB]

Here we go again. British Gas. The most useless feckin' company on the planet. June and July my bills were low. Excellent news. Just noticed this morning the July bill didn't include electricity. Checked June. No electricity charges. Every bill since December 9th 2021 has been incorrect and cancelled and reissued by British Gas for exactly the same amount. This time they forgot the electric!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievable

 

[fossyant]

Here we go again. British Gas. The most useless feckin' company on the planet. June and July my bills were low. Excellent news. Just noticed this morning the July bill didn't include electricity. Checked June. No electricity charges. Every bill since December 9th 2021 has been incorrect and cancelled and reissued by British Gas for exactly the same amount. This time they forgot the electric!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievable

Smart Meter ? Can you opt to send in monthly readings ?

 

[jowwy]

Here we go again. British Gas. The most useless feckin' company on the planet. June and July my bills were low. Excellent news. Just noticed this morning the July bill didn't include electricity. Checked June. No electricity charges. Every bill since December 9th 2021 has been incorrect and cancelled and reissued by British Gas for exactly the same amount. This time they forgot the electric!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievable

they are British Gas, maybe they forgot they did electric too lol

 

[Alex321]

they are British Gas, maybe they forgot they did electric too lol

We are going to switch to Octopus, but are currently with BG for both electricity and gas.

Smart meters for both, they take the smart reading for the gas, but use estimated readings for electricity (and for some reason estimated we would have used more in the period than the same period last year, even though we were actually WAY less due to the solar).

They know we have a smart meter for the leccy as well, because when we tried to enter our own reading, it was more difficult as you aren't expected to enter your own readings when it is a smart meter!

 

[fossyant]

@PaulSB - I'd recommend taking your own readings and pop it in a spreadsheet to work out cost - it's all very straight forward to do - Scottish Power, but no Smart Meter - I just log in once a month and give them the reading. This then generates the bill. I've got a spreadsheet logging it all, and check it to the bill.

This may just save you the shock when the electric bill is calculated.

 

[PaulSB]

Smart Meter ? Can you opt to send in monthly readings ?

We have smart meters but they have never worked. Installed 12 months ago. We don't get any readings on the little home display and nothing is transmitted to the supplier. Apparently this is due to a longstanding issue with the communication network locally. The vast majority of households in our area have non-functioning smart meters.

The last time I complained, January, I was told engineers expected to fix the problem in three weeks.

Thanks for the suggestions re submitting readings and a spreadsheet. This is something I've done for many years.

When I complained this morning I was told it was due to "inaccurate or missing data." Made my blood boil so I demanded £50 compensation and got it. I got £50 in June as well for a different billing complaint!

 

[ColinJ]

We have smart meters but they have never worked. Installed 12 months ago. We don't get any readings on the little home display and nothing is transmitted to the supplier. Apparently this is due to a longstanding issue with the communication network locally. The vast majority of households in our area have non-functioning smart meters.

I have smart meters. Both stopped working. After 2 attempts, BG got the electricity meter sending its readings through again, but then gave up on the gas meter! I am back to doing my own gas meter readings and uploading them manually to my BG account.