How are people who WFH managing their energy bills?

[confusedlots]

A few years ago most of us would be out at work all day, no heating on in our homes, no energy being used to heat up lunch etc, sitting in nice warm offices and using their electricity to make cups of tea etc. It seems like madness that in the cost of living crisis, that lots of people are expected to WFH, heating all those individual houses every day in this awfully cold weather, or else just freezing if you can't afford it.

Are people trying to get back into their offices to try to save money on heating their homes during the day? Or to stop them freezing if they can't afford to heat their homes?

I’m saving £6 to £8 a day on lunch and travel to work by working from home and cooking something for lunch.

I don’t think I will use that extra in heating. But if I do it’s worth it to be warm and dry.

I'm timing my in the office days to coincide with my husbands so we don't have to ha e the heating on at home

Yep I agree. I would have to drive to work, and easily do a tank of petrol, maybe more in a week. The heating, even with the current prices won't be dearer.

It's cheaper to heat my home than it is to pay for travel costs, dog care and then convenience food in the evening because I've no energy to cook after being out all day.

I love wfh.

I work from home 3 days a week and Ive been wearing thermals and hugging hot water bottles. But in this really cold snap I have allowed the heating to be on an extra couple of hours during the day because otherwise it's just unhealthily cold. Everyone on video calls just have so many layers on 😂

Also got 6% increase from work in August for the cost of living/price increases which has helped a little.

I'm freezing.

I would love to know what jobs people do to work from home!

I'd love to but never found a company who would let me (I'm a PA)

It used to cost me £40 a week in petrol, £30 in parking, and I often bought lunch and coffee.

Plus the commute was 50 mins each way.

So I'm saving time and £90 a week... but I don't know what my energy bill for this month will be yet.

I switched jobs and now work permanently from home. I'm saving around £5/day in deisel which over the winter will cover heating and in summer is essentially money I'm getting back.
I'm also saving money I used to spend getting lunch ( I realise that is a choice but u have very little will power when asked if I want to go to the canteen ).

I imagine there's quite a few people in a similar situation.

I work from my bed! Turn the heating up as well, the last few days I've had it on about 18 constantly. Petrol costs used to be higher.

Basically I turned my smart meter to face the wall and I'm pretending not to think about it. We only heat the house enough to not be freezing rather than warm to be fair.

It would be cheaper for me to go into the office. But it works less well for life. I do both school runs and walk the dog at lunch time plus do the majority of the housework. So I'm just trying to limit the heating to 17 degrees and layering up. Most people i see on video calls are wearing coats and hats etc.

The bills are getting huge but I wrap up, I have plenty of fluffy socks, thermal vests and chunky jumpers that keep me warm. I've sold my car since wfh and our shared one barely gets driven these days so we save there too.

No, WFH and loving it.

No commute (and commuting costs) plus the house would be heated anyway (OH at home most of the day) so it is a win win.
Even if OH wasn't at home during the day I would still WFH and stuck-up the energy costs as I hate commuting and the time it adds to the start & end of the day.

Exactly this.

Plus at least £5 a day in parking, and over an hour's commute.

My smart meter says energy usage is about £5 a day. Most of this is on heating in the morning/evening and washing machine etc. So say £3 a day of that is when I switch the heating on during my work hours.

When I commuted, it cost £50 a day in train tickets. I would sometimes spend £10 in a day on coffee and lunch to dull the pain of being in central London. So no, WFH is considerably cheaper.

Even at my cheapest office working (just a tube ride/bringing my lunch from home) the tube fare was a tenner so still more expensive than WFH.

It would cost me £8 in travel plus usually end up spending £5ish on coffee/lunch. It’s cheaper to WFH even with the heating on during the day. Plus my office is temptingly near Oxford St…

Dressing gown and hot water bottle.

I’m in Ireland and we can claim €3.60 per day WFH allowance. So that’s €60 per month towards my electricity bill. I have an open fire if it’s cold, and I bought a Snuggie blanket to wear. I’m also saving travel costs.

Oh, and DH and I try to WFH on the same days so we’re heating house for both of us / then both out on same days

I go into the office 2 days per week. It costs in train fares (about £20 per week)

When I'm WFH I don't have the heating on during the working day but do in the morning and at teatime as otherwise it's unpleasant.

I use hot water bottles for my feet and a heated poncho for my body during working. Hours. Plus fingerless gloves for.my hands. That costs me about £ 8 per day all in.

So, marginally more expensive for me to go into the office per day, but at the cost of frequently being cold WFH.

I no longer have to walk on icy pavements and stand around in the cold waiting for a bus with really bad arthritis and asthma. Honestly I will pay the extra for the heating, between my bus tickets, and sometimes buying lunch I'm better off and in less pain and with less asthma flare ups.

Same as others, the cost savings for me in train, coffees, lunch etc outweigh that cost of heating. That said I work in a garden office and don't heat the house, I use a wee 700w heater which probably costs £1/2 a day to run.

I don't think there are that many companies that have swapped from entirely office based to entirely WFH are there?

My office allows people to choose wfh/hybrid or entirely office based. There has been absolutely no increase in the number of people coming into the office since the weather has got colder. People either simply prefer to work at home or are still saving money on transport costs and/or childcare compared to heating bills.

I wfh at the start of the week, going into the office on Thursdays and Fridays. The money I save on not driving those 3 days and frivolous lunches and random shopping (I work in a really good shopping location!) is probably saving me £300 a month. Actually I’d say way more that that. My house is pretty warm to be fair, sits around 19 degrees without heating but I flick it up if I’m feeling chilly which does happen when you’re just sitting down at a laptop for hours. I’m pretty good at going out for a lunchtime walk when I want a break but haven’t done that much this past few weeks 😳🥶