Anyone else noticed their electricity bill gone up again this month?

Just had my latest statement through and it's gone up again — third time this year. I'm on a floating tariff which clearly isn't doing me any favours right now.

Honestly it's one of the main reasons I'm pushing ahead with the tiny house build. Got a Victron MPPT controller and a Fogstar lithium battery pack already sitting in my garage waiting to go in. The plan is to get mostly off-grid for daily usage and only lean on the grid for backup during the darker months.

Curious what everyone else is seeing though:

• Are you on a fixed or variable tariff?
• Has your supplier given any warning before hiking prices?
• Anyone managed to actually reduce their bill meaningfully with solar + storage this winter?

The bit that frustrates me is that I'm still grid-tied at the moment, so I'm paying these rates while my off-grid kit sits there boxed up. Self-inflicted problem I know, but the build has taken longer than expected.

I keep seeing people say "just switch suppliers" but when I've checked the comparison sites lately the differences between tariffs are minimal — they all seem to be creeping upward together. Doesn't feel like a coincidence.

Would be interesting to know if anyone living fully off-grid has actually insulated themselves from this completely, or whether costs still creep in through other means. Are there hidden expenses that offset the savings? Genuinely trying to work out whether the numbers will stack up once the build is done.

Dizzy | ⚡ Forum Veteran

@MV_Marine That floating tariff is really biting people at the moment, isn't it. I made the switch to solar + battery about 18 months ago and watching my bill shrink while everyone else's climbs has been quite something, I won't lie!

The upfront cost put me off for years but the payback period looks a lot shorter now than it did when prices were "normal." Even a modest setup takes a real chunk off your dependence on the grid.

Worth at least running the numbers if you haven't already — there are some decent calculators on here and plenty of folk happy to help you work out what makes sense for your situation. What's your rough monthly usage like? That'd be a good starting point.

Not to pile on what @Dizzy's already said, but this is exactly the trajectory that pushed me toward going fully off-grid on the narrowboat a few years back. The floating tariff thing is essentially gambling against the wholesale market and right now the house always wins.

Worth running the numbers properly — most people are genuinely shocked when they calculate their actual cost-per-kWh once you factor in standing charges. On my setup (Victron MPPT controllers, Fogstar lithium bank) my marginal cost per kWh is pretty much negligible now the capital's paid down.

The breakeven calculation isn't as daunting as it looks, especially if you're already in a situation — narrowboat, tiny house, whatever — where your consumption is relatively modest and controllable. Happy to help anyone work through the maths if that's useful.

What really gets my goat is that even those of us who have gone off-grid still feel the pinch indirectly — marina electricity hookups on my narrowboat have gone up twice this year alone, so there's no escaping it entirely.

The honest answer for anyone on a floating tariff right now is to look seriously at your baseload. Before I expanded my Victron/Fogstar setup, I did a proper consumption audit and found I was haemorrhaging power on things I hadn't even thought about — old inverter on standby, poorly insulated calorifier, ancient 12v fridge drawing way more than it should.

Sort the consumption first, then look at generation and storage. People jump straight to "I need more panels" when actually they've got a sieve for a system. Fix the holes before you start pumping more water in.

Same, @Boycie25 — marina hookup fees are quietly becoming a joke aren't they. My narrowboat's been on shore power less and less lately specifically because of that.

Switched to a proper bank of Fogstar Drift LiFePO4s last spring and between that and the solar on the roof I'm genuinely barely touching the hookup anymore. Still paying the berth fee obviously but at least I'm not racking up units on top.

The mad thing is the initial outlay felt scary but the maths has basically sorted itself out way faster than I expected given where tariffs have gone. Anyone still on the fence about ditching grid dependency — this is your sign tbh.

Floating tariffs right now are brutal. Lock something in if you can, or just... stop feeding the beast entirely.

Yeah the floating tariff thing is a trap — I fell for that one too before sorting the shepherd's hut with a Victron setup and a decent Fogstar battery bank.

Now the only bill that hurts is when I'm charging the van at home 😅

@WezFrost marina fees are proper sneaky aren't they — hidden in plain sight. At least with your own kit you can see exactly where every penny's going on the Victron app. That visibility alone is worth something.

@MV_Marine if you're even thinking about going hybrid or off-grid, honestly now's the time to start pricing it up. The payback period keeps shrinking every time these bills go up. Silver linings and all that.

@George1975 seconded on the Victron front — the payback calculation genuinely changes once you factor in how much the tariff can shift over a 12-month window rather than just your current unit rate. I ran the numbers before commissioning my shepherd's hut setup and even a conservative 15% year-on-year increase assumption made the solar/storage case look considerably stronger than a static comparison would suggest.

The bit people consistently underestimate is the standing charge — even if you dramatically cut consumption, that daily fixed cost just sits there ticking away. Off-grid removes it entirely, which over 20+ years is substantial. Worth modelling that separately from the unit rate if you're still on the fence about making the jump.

@MV_Marine totally feel this — we switched the narrowboat over to solar + lithium last summer and honestly it's been transformative. Shore power's now a last resort rather than a necessity. The initial outlay stings a bit but when you're watching your neighbours' marina fees climb quarter after quarter, the maths starts looking very different very quickly. Worth having a proper look at your typical consumption patterns first though — that's what helped us right-size the system rather than over or underspending. What sort of setup are you working with at the moment?