Is anyone else close

[Alison]

Heating still way off going on although we did consider putting the middle weight duvet on yesterday but then I remembered I'd still not washed it from when we took it out in the spring so will probably change over when it's dried and aired in a couple of days time.

[Two_Sheds]

gas and electric ( cook, heating and hot water by gas ) and the bills are £124 a MONTH.

my combined bill is £89pm.

We're paying £90 a month combined: I think it's extortionate. Only two of us, heating goes on as little as poss, no tumble dryer, dishwasher goes on once a week on Econ 7.

We have loft & cavity wall insulation, shut curtains at dark etc. All the usual energy-saving measures.

I get up at 3am to charge phones, radio, batteries etc and run the washing machine on Econ 7 (no, I've tried finding a timer there's not one). The home hub is turned to low-power at midnight and the laptop and TV are supposed to be OFF not on standby, OH if you're reading.

[bubblewrap]

Madderbat insisted on hot water bottles (to warm my feet up) last night.

[weekendwellies]

Madderbat insisted on hot water bottles (to warm my feet up) last night.

Nothing worse than cold feet

[rustylady]

I had no problem last night, slept with two grandsons (5 & 4 years old). Didn't need a hottie.

[bubblewrap]

Nothing worse than cold feet

It is when it's my feet on Madderbat's legs.

[piskieinboots]

.. Do you get subsidised rates in MQ?

Nope - many 'civvies' believe we get free rent, electric and water rates etc.

We pay exactly the same as any other persons for Utilies, water etc etc - our rent, however, is (slightly) subsidised due to the oft-times being moved.

Heating still on

[SarzWix]

So, I just had my gas 'statement'

In March, we were £77.00 in credit (ie, we'd paid too much) but the last meter read had been missed so it was an estimate that was slightly under, so we left the monthly payment as-was.
Since then, we've paid them £400+ and been submitting monthly meter readings to make sure this bill would be accurate. 2 months ago, we got a new A+ rated boiler fitted, and I rang up and told them and said I wanted to reduce the monthly payment by £10 a month. Today's bill, we are TWO HUNDRED pounds in credit!! And just to top off the insult, they have decided that in the next 6 months we will be using £536 of gas, and our payment needs to go UP by £8 a month

As you can imagine, I'm pretty angry, and rang them up to ask how they can decide that this winter we will be using MORE gas than we did last winter, considering it was the coldest in about a century, and we now have a better boiler? Typically, they had no sensible answer for that, except loads of waffle about estimated bills. Which makes no sense, because they've had actual readings since then? Anyway, upshot is that we get a refund of £200, which is very timely seeing as OH's car just failed it's MOT... HOWEVER. I really don't want to use my power bills as an enforced savings plan!!

[Glutton4...]

With you there Sarz!

Had a letter from E-On a few months ago, saying they were increasing our DDR amount. I sent a stinking email, asking why, when we had overpaid by about four hundred quid in the winter, and had to have a refund, and a reduced DDR payment in the spring. If they can't estimate more accurately, bearing in mind we've been here two winters, and they know how much we use, then it's time they employed someone who could!

They backed down, leaving the DDR as it was, at the new lower rate. Last week, I switched to a lower tariff, gave a meter reading, and am now about sixty-odd quid in credit.

I have now received another 'We are going to increase...' letter. Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhh!

Stinking email sent.

Do these people really think we are stupid?

[Alison]

Went round MILs the other day and she was in a bit of a state. Had just had her gas bill and they wanted to put her payments up by 50% despite the fact that she was £50 or so in credit. Had a good look at it and basically it seemed that they were predicting that she'd use about 50% more gas in the next year than she has used every year for the past 5! Now, OK, she has the house like an oven, but she's always done this so it's included in her bill. MIL doesn't like complaining so I rang up for her. Got a lovely man on the phone who was also confused and said that if anything her bill should go down by about £5 and that he'd put it in writing for her in the next few days. Sure enough, letter came through and now she's doesn't need to worry about how she'd pay the bill. This is really bad, how many other people like her do they try and bully into paying out more?

[Munch]

To scared to put heating on for 2 reasons

1. think my boiler may blow up ! lol
2. and most importantly, if I put my heating on I am admitting it is cold at night! I refuse to that until after our camping weekend at the begining of october! brrrrrrr.....

[OverWyreGrower]

We've had the same thing with E.ON as well... they wanted to increase the bill by about another £70 per month, and I said we couldn't afford it. It's all based on estimated use apparantly.

Since we have had any heating on since May, and still don't have it on, I can't see how they can estimate anything (we weren't with them last year).

Saying that, they are still miles better than npower....

Ahem, the original question?

We haven't yet put our heating back on, because it's broken, and we can't afford to fix it. We're padding with extra jumpers and blankets downstairs, and hot water bottles upstairs.

That's the problem with living in a drafty, single glazed house, with a boiler and central heating system that's older than we are!