The energy price cap went up on 1 January, adding £94 a year to a typical bill

The energy price cap has gone up from the start of this month.

It means a typical home using electricity and gas and paying by direct debit will pay £1,928 a year.

That’s for customers in England, Scotland and Wales on a default tariff. It’s up £94 on the energy cap that was in place over the past three months.

(In Northern Ireland there’s a separate system regulating our energy bills).

If we have a prepayment meter, it used to be that we’d pay more. 

But for now the government has stepped in to keep prices more or less equal to direct debit customers. This is due to end in spring.

It’s important to remember the energy price cap is not a cap on our bills. It’s just a cap on how much our supplier can charge us per unit of energy we use.

So the more we use, the more we’ll pay.

On top of this, the £400 support that every household got from the government last winter isn’t being offered this year.

But if we’re struggling with energy bills or to keep the meter topped up, there is other support available this winter.

With the rising unit price though, we should try to save energy around the home wherever we can.

Energy prices have been so high over recent years in part due to the fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East.

It means switching suppliers and fixing tariff haven’t been offering the savings they used to.

This may be starting to change. But with the energy price cap being amended every three months it’s hard to know what will work out cheapest.

Current predictions are that the energy price cap will fall in spring and summer before rising again in autumn.

Image: Gary Barnes / Pexels