To ask what you're doing in advance of gas/elec rises in April?

[irritablehead1]

I feel like I wade through treacle when i try to work out how to try and minimise rise of the gas/elec in April.

Can anyone offer a short cut through all the advise and pretty much tell me what I should be doing to cut the impact?

I fixed with a new supplier after mine went bust and I was switched to British Gas. At the time the advice was to hold tight and not do anything. But I wasn't happy to do that. I was right, the fix I went for (at around the price cap) ended the next day and there hasn't been cheaper since. But I naively went for 12 months only, thinking things would be better by October. I may well regret that.

To mitigate price rises I asked for a pay rise!

At this point, there isn't much you can do, on the plus side we will be heading into warmer weather so usage will go down and hopefully something will happen to improve the wider situation. Not sure what!

Reduce outgoings...don't think there's a magic answer unfortunately

I guess cut back on luxuries. Save energy wherever possible.

Hope for a decent pay rise this year.

I’ve turned radiators off in rooms that aren’t really being used. I switch the heating off if I’m not going to be downstairs. I wear more layers and put a blanket over me if I’m watching telly later at night.
I switch the heating off much earlier at night.
I am very conscious of leaving lights etc on now.
I use draught excluders and keep my curtains closed as much as possible.
I was switched to a prepayment meter because I couldn’t pay my bill and believe me, I am now EXTREMELY careful with my use of gas and electricity.
I used to leave my heating on all night
I’d love my house to be warmer, tbh.
But it’s well-insulated and retains heat well. So I just shove on a dressing gown or something and suck it up.

Nothing. Just accept that the bills are higher and there will be a bit less disposable income.

It's terrifying for those who are already really struggling

get draft proofing, more loft insulation - empty loft of junk to increase insulation effect, cavity wall insulation, looking at solar power hot water, solar panel electric

Rarely put the heating on. If I'm alone in the house it doesn't go on at all. Big camping lanterns (D batteries) in the rooms the teen uses a lot and take light bulbs out. They give pretty the same amount of light oddly Washing machine etc use cut right back. Washing hung out if the pavements dry even if it's still a bit damp to finish off. Socks and knickers in the middle of double raidators to make use of when heating is on the few hours for the bairn. Backs of doors for bigger laundry stuff. Everything off at the socket apart from the absolute necessary. No standby.

It won't affect April's rises but the one a few month after that is really going to hurt.

Heated throws are great for when you're sitting and feel cold.

Plus bubble wrap, the type with the big bubbles on the windows with a spritz of water helps keep heat in, as does tin foil behind radiators.

Leave oven door open after use to heat kitchen.

We just got our quarterly bill - Oct to jan. first off on it said congratulations you have used less gas and electric than this quarter last year. Great cheaper bill - nope it’s £70 higher. So frankly I give up for April. I refuse to have a cold house. I grew up with going to sleep in a cold bed and taking a deep breath as you sit on the loo - it was inside but an extension thing with zero insulation. H had similar although his loo was outside. We are keeping an eye on the readings online plus we don’t pay council tax in February/ March so that can go in the pot.

We bought one of those gizmos which tell us what each of our applicance uses.

Our old chest freezer was the biggest culprit in usage. It is on for 20 hours out of each 24. Dreadful. It has a dodgy lid.

2nd biggest culprit - we have a 2kw heater in the "airing cupboard". Dawned on us that I only need it on max 3 days out of 7.

Will be hanging up washing outdoors more, like others.

Oh, and DH and I have two computers on, day and night. Need to tackle that too. But to be fair, we are both on them for several hours each day.

Trouble is with electricity, it is pennies spent here, and pennies spent there. Which all add up over the space of a year.

You could try, like I have read others have done, literally turn off all electricity all over the house. And you may soon see what is very important, and what is not so important. Or you can find ways around. A bit.

Good luck.

This is a good list of where the pennies go.
But it does go by average usuage I think. And as I said above, I think it works on the computer being on 2 hours a day, for example, which is way below what this particulr household uses.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2164842/How-household-gadgets-cost-run-16-electricity-bills-wasted-appliances-left-standby.html

You have probably read the link before, but others may find it useful.

Price rises or not, I can’t believe the waste of energy on some of these posts

Heating on all night
Not drying washing outside
Computers on day and night

Am I the only one?

Electric blankets and candle light is fun and warm if you have a surplus like us.kids love it.

It would be difficult for us to reduce our usage. We are already pretty frugal.

We have been stockpiling more firewood though which will mean that we can turn the gas boiler off earlier in the spring and relight it later in the autumn.

We have just switched to the cheapest fixed rate we could find.

DH is working a load of overtime just now to build up our savings (it was supposed to be paying off the mortgage but we might just nest egg it for now).

Sit under a duvet on the sofa on the evening - no heating needed!

Nothing

I'm not too fussed about it tbh

Getting rid of the spare freezer. I fill it with reduced food but don't think it's worth it any more.
Being more organised with laundry so I'm not doing as much or needing to tumble dry.
Nagging everyone more to be more aware.

We’ve locked ourselves into a loyal customer tarif.

We have electric heating only which is more expensive than gas. I will sometimes turn on electric heater in living room if it feels particularly frigid, only for about an hour. This isn't every day. Doors kept closed, curtains closed as well because our windows are huge and lose so much heat through them. Wear layers and have no shame in wearing my fluffy dressing gown if I'm just chilling at home. Blankets/throws used regularly. Been spending a lot more time in the bedroom as it's never really cold in there, I think because the immersion heater for water is in our bedroom cupboard. Daughter been sleeping in our bed because her bedroom is so cold and difficult to heat up. Just trying to get through this winter really.

I am so worried, we are having to pay back our previous supplier £98 a month for the next 12 months, they told us we were on a smart meter but for some reason only the gas worked, they failed to tell us for 18 months and didn't asked for readings so when we switched we owed them £1100, I think somewhere there stitched us up but can't prove it.

Based on the usage on my statement I switched to a BG fixed rate but obv the readings weren't right, so not only am I paying nearly £100 on top of this years monthly payments to Bulb (who are incompetent idiots) we are under paying by about £60 a month this year. Until I'm forced to increase the payments I am leaving it as it is. I am hoping we can do everything we can to reduce our usage. We can't get a smart meter as apparently they aren't doing them for us right now.

@puginthehouse
Lots of sympathy, that's such a difficult situation and the worst time to have to be overpaying. We owe our energy company money too because of their incompetency, but much much less than you.