What more can I do to cut down my electric bill?

[BrokenByDesireToBeHeavenlySent]

I'm not saying how much I pay as its a lot less than others but that's because I live alone in a tiny one bedroom flat.
My gas I'm fine with. My electric is 3 times my gas. I pay on receipt of bill rather than monthly cost.

The only electric on all day is fridge freezer. All appliances are switched off at the wall. Don't drink hot drinks so don't boil kettle.
Tv is only on when I'm watching something. Not on just for the sake of it.
Tend to charge phone in my car or at work but obviously there are times it needs to be charged at home. I'll plug it into laptop to charge if I'm using laptop.
Don't have lights on unless need them. Watch TV in the dark etc

What else can I do to cut the costs?

It sounds like you have done almost everything you can, unless you have any appliances sitting around that are on but not in use. We always turn stuff off at the wall (not the freezer!) when we aren't using it as standby still uses a small amount of power.

DP always charges his phone at the office. I suggested he take in a load of other chargers and have them lined up on his desk with things like the electric toothbrush and home laptop all charging there, but he didn't find this funny.

The only other thing is to replace light bulbs with LED ones as and when the ones you have stop working.

Gradually replace things with the most energy efficient replacement? Like if your lights are energy efficient it should be about o.oo1p or something to run for an hour and you shouldnt need to sit in the dark.

Problem is until something needs replacing its hard to justfy spend. Like you could get a cheaper to run frudge frezer but it would cost a lot. We were given a tv that was way more energy efficient than our old one though.

Do you need a full fridge freezer for one person, could you manage on a fridge with an ice box ?

Batch cooking then reheating, and keeping a full freezer will help her keep the electric bill lower though.

The standing charge will be taking a lot of the cost unfortunately and there's nothing you can do about that. I don't know if other suppliers have a lower standing charge.

You pay on receipt of bill, which is 5/10% more expensive, so you can save a few pounds by changing to direct debit, or even prepay - I think this is now the same cost as DD.

You don't mention your laundry or showering habits. All the behaviours you describe could be blown out of the water if you're a MN level thrice daily showerer and washer of every item after every use which is then tumble dried.

Also worth checking how much your fridge freezer is using. If it's old, it might not be very efficient. We're about to replace our FF because it's 25 years old and uses 2-3 times more electric than a modern one, so even though I'm curious as to how long it will last left to it's own devices, it needs replacing due to this, and also because all the plastic drawer inserts are cracking due to age.

With what you have explained, it seems like you should be paying the bare minimum, so could there be a fault you're unaware of that's increasing the amount used or another flat using your electricity possibly. Without knowing how much it's costing you, it's hard to see if it's a fault or expensive provider, etc. It seems you are doing everything to keep costs down. If it's more than £120 a month, then it's more than mine, which is what I currently pay on prepayment meter in a 3 bed house for a family of 4. And we don't switch anything off, etc.

As well as batch cooking, good for storing yellow sticker stuff and ice cubes.

I only have to feed myself a lot of the time because DP works away or gets fed at work a lot. During this time, I mainly live on M&S yellow sticker finds.

You probably aren't using heating atm - but how are your heating and hot water generated.

If you use a shower how is the water heated (electric shower or direct feed from hot water supply)?

It's hard to comment on how much you are using if you don't share usage details.

My current consumption is all over the place depending on whether I'm heating the hot tub (which itself depends on whether the solar is generating).
This week I'm on my own and without the hot tub am typically using about 4 or 5 kwh a day.
This includes appliances, cooking (oven, hob, airfryer, microwave etc) and lights.
My hot water is oil fired, so separate to electricity usage.

You pay on receipt of bill, which is 5/10% more expensive, so you can save a few pounds by changing to direct debit, or even prepay - I think this is now the same cost as DD.
I pay "on receipt of bill", ie what I've used not a set monthly amount. But it is still a direct debit and therefore no more expensive per unit.

I forgot about laundry as mentioned by someone else, and maybe tumble drier?

It will be the massive hike in standing charges. Martin Lewis has a bit in his newsletter this week about a couple of new companies which have set their standing charges lower than the price cap, which might be of interest. Search Moneysavingexpert.

What's your actual usage per day in KWh? That'll help track down if there's something going on that's using more than it should. I'd expect no more than about 7 KWh a day with the usage you state, depending on how your hot water is heated (presuming with gas boiler, unless there's an immersion switch that's been left on). You can see your monthly unit usage on your bill.

Also modern LED bulbs use negligible amounts of electricity. Don't sit in the dark unless you want to, you are saving literal pennies over the course of the year. The big energy users are things that either generate heat or cool, so immersion heaters, washing machines, tumble dryers, hot tubs, air con, fridge/freezer. Lights (unless it's old-fashioned external lighting, which can use a lot), charging a phone, etc. use tiny amounts.

We replaced our fridge freezer recently and have noticed a massive drop in electric usage. The old one was only around 10 years old, but it seemed to be running most of the time (constantly humming etc), so we can only assume it was faulty. The new one is noticeably quieter and is silent most of the day.

Other than that, do you have an electric shower rather than it being powered from the gas boiler? Electric showers are pretty energy hungry.

I live alone and use very little too. Currently, my electric is 5 times my gas because I am not using any heating and often shower at the gym. My gas is not much more than my standing charge.

In winter, I use a little more electricity but much more gas and the cost of each is pretty similar.

You'll probably use more £energy charging your phone in the car, ie using petrol, rather than plugging it into the mains at home.

Don't worry about turning the lights out when watching TV, as long as you're using low energy bulbs, you'll only use a slither of a penny per evening.

Laundry - wash clothes less often. After a shower, dry your nethers with a face cloth so you can hang up and reuse your bath towel another few times.

Cooking - once water is boiling, eg pasta/veg, turn heat right down and lid on. Cook a meal to eat over 2 nights, so you can quickly reheat in the microwave the next night. Try not to use the main oven, if you do, cook several things at the same time. Consider something like an air fryer or remoska.

Showering - get a shower timer. Or navy showers - turn on, get wet, turn off, soap up, then a quick rinse.

Dishwasher - only run when full. Reuse plates etc if they're basically clean bar a couple of crumbs.

Ironing - don't bother!

Anything that heats up is what you need to focus on. Look at the wattages. A light bulb or phone charger using say 5W/hr, it doesn't need to even blip on your radar. But something like a main oven at 3 KWH or electric shower at 7KWH will greatly impact your bills.

As others said, you didn't mention showering or laundry? Washing machines and hair dryers and tumble dryers use a lot of electricity.

Is it the same supplier for the gas and electricity? If not and it is practical and cost effective to do so, would having just one supplier reduce the standing charge costs?

Well it depends on whether your perspective is reasonable here about the 3x as much.

Your standing charge (daily charge) for electric is likely to be just shy of double that of your gas in any case.

How much is your gas bill per month?
How much is good electric bill per month?
Why are you trying to reduce it to such an extreme that you're sitting in the dark?

Anything that heats (or cools like air con) with electric will use more.

Toasters, kettles, ovens, washing machine during the water heating part of the cycle (same for dishwashers). Wash clothes on 30 degrees and use shorter cycles if not too dirty.

Changing to more energy efficient appliances helps somewhat, our new fridge freezer uses half of the kWh the old one did as an example. Our air fryer uses less than our electric oven by far. A microwave even less.

If you have a gas hob then use it to boil water for cooking from cold rather than an electric kettle.

Fridges and freezers are more efficient if they are full. Pop in containers of water to fill it up. Also check the seals don’t need replacing

Probably the standing charge
I use about 5kwh a day living alone and can't seem to cut it any more