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?

@Snowiscold

This is a useful thread. We don’t have a tumble dryer. We only have the heating on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. I would have no heating on at all and wouldn’t mind, but dh and dd complain. Hot water - this is set to come on twice a day but I’m trying now with just once in the evenings - when we have baths/showers. I’d be tempted to turn it off all the time as I’d just switch it on when needed. Computer use - we have one each and they are on all the time - we wfh. But we could be better at turning them off after work. Insulation is the thing that lets us down, I think. Loft insulation could be much better. I’ll look at those chimney sheep too, as we have fireplaces in every room. We also have exposed floorboards in a few rooms. Carpet would be better. But worried about how to get large wardrobes and beds out in order to fit carpets.

Tumble dryers are an absolute money pit as you cannot insulate them. Your biggest problem is the water heater, presuming you don’t have a combi boiler, switching on a completely cold water tank is a very big power draw, it’s cheaper to leave simmering or super insulate it, showers are very light on what really is wasted water,baths are plug holes for energy.

@lightand

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.

Do you have a link for your gizmo? It sounds really useful and I might buy one.

We went for a 2yr fixed tariff at 6.7p (gas) and ifirc 28p (elec). This seemed like possible madness a few weeks ago but I think this will work in our favour over the span of the tariff and I wanted some security.

We are going to get solar power in the summer. Which is something we were going to do anyway after sorting the driveway and bathroom. Fair to say the increase has re-jigged priorities.

A2k heater in the airing cupboard! how big is the cupboard? that’s a 2 bar fire, get rid, put a black light heater in just gentle warmth at very minimum cost, no more than a light bulb.

@mogsrus
That’s interesting re hot water. No, we don’t have a combi. Even if we just have the hot water on once a day (it’s on for half an hour) it seems to stay hot for 24 hours. But I take the point about heating up a tank from scratch.

We rarely have the heating on. When it’s gets to 9 degrees then we put it on for 1 hour only. We have blanket hoodies each and blankets for the sofa.

@driftcompatible

I also have two log burners that will heat the whole house quickly and well BUT I feel guilty about using them because so many have said they are bad for people and the environment. But it would save me a LOT of money. If I used the burners I wouldn't ever need heating on at all.

IMO and that of others in a rural area, this problem is exaggerated. I have been told it is like other combustions, it needs to be complete, burn at higher temperature is better. Fewer fumes. Crack on for now but use dry wood.

Watching this thread with curiousity. I have an old house. I don't feel the cold too much and hate overheated houses. However we experimented keeping heating off this autumn and the increase in mould and mildew was astonishing. I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to heat whole house than to pay for replastering/painting/having health issues.
For those keeping heating off and using hot water bottles/blankets etc found the same?

Don’t know if anyone has realised that these plug in energy monitors actually use energy to work! albeit small. And the average household computer will take about 10p per day to run

[quote Snowiscold]@mogsrus
That’s interesting re hot water. No, we don’t have a combi. Even if we just have the hot water on once a day (it’s on for half an hour) it seems to stay hot for 24 hours. But I take the point about heating up a tank from scratch.[/quote]
What I did was build a box around the tank ( hot part only ) out of insulation slabs then fill cavity with more insulation. Fitted a time clock.

We have a cold house generally. Heating on 6.30-7.30am and 5.30-8pm. Even then the thermostat is at 18. If we're at home in the day we might have another couple of hours in the middle of the day. No tumble dryer either, we do have a heated airer.

We try and not wash clothes etc too often. I'm on the MN slattern list re towels and bedding but I don't care! Wash at 30 too, apart from towels. In the summer they get washed at 30 as the sun kills stuff apparently.

We don't watch the TV a lot, probably an average of an hour a day. No idea how much electricity the TV uses though.

What am I doing in advance? Paying my debts and saving £100 a month for this purpose. I guess that if I save enough during the warm months, I will be able to cope with the increase when the cold months arrive.

@Alittlenonsensenowandthen

Watching this thread with curiousity. I have an old house. I don't feel the cold too much and hate overheated houses. However we experimented keeping heating off this autumn and the increase in mould and mildew was astonishing. I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to heat whole house than to pay for replastering/painting/having health issues. For those keeping heating off and using hot water bottles/blankets etc found the same?

We found this one year when dh was made redundant and we literally couldn’t afford the heating. We spent more fixing the damp and condensation issues caused the following year than if we had just put the heating on - but we literally couldn’t afford to so there was nothing we could have done.

I think very low income families are going to be broken by this. When you’re on the breadline there is already nowhere to cut back.

@Hercisback

We have a cold house generally. Heating on 6.30-7.30am and 5.30-8pm. Even then the thermostat is at 18. If we're at home in the day we might have another couple of hours in the middle of the day. No tumble dryer either, we do have a heated airer.

We try and not wash clothes etc too often. I'm on the MN slattern list re towels and bedding but I don't care! Wash at 30 too, apart from towels. In the summer they get washed at 30 as the sun kills stuff apparently.

We don't watch the TV a lot, probably an average of an hour a day. No idea how much electricity the TV uses though.

If it’s a modern tv very little ours is 42inch & that’s 130 watts so it’s a lightbulb really

@Alittlenonsensenowandthen

Watching this thread with curiousity. I have an old house. I don't feel the cold too much and hate overheated houses. However we experimented keeping heating off this autumn and the increase in mould and mildew was astonishing. I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to heat whole house than to pay for replastering/painting/having health issues. For those keeping heating off and using hot water bottles/blankets etc found the same?

I found the same but after a lot of trial and error, I have found out that the best temperature for my Victorian house (Not necessarily for all Victorian houses) is 18 degrees for 2 hours in the morning and for hours in the evening. It keeps the house dry without costing a lot of money.

At first we found being at 17-18 degrees was too cold but we are now used to it, I am sleeping much better with the heating off at night. During the day we wear warm clothes and do heating boost for an hour at 20 degrees if we feel too cold (normally around 1-2pm) But, if it is too cold outside we will need to run 2 boosts but it is still better than having the central heating on all the time.

I found the same but after a lot of trial and error, I have found out that the best temperature for my Victorian house (Not necessarily for all Victorian houses) is 18 degrees for 2 hours in the morning and for four hours in the evening. It keeps the house dry without costing a lot of money.

We be able electric car. Stupid us. At the time it was way cheaper than petrol and we felt good that we weren't adding to the dirty road pollution. Now are electric is sky high.

I'm not sure what we can do. We don't have a big freezer or fridge. Our kitchen is only 3 years old and all the appliances rated A** for efficiency. We turn the lights off.

I do use the tumble dryer a lot though and I suspect that is what is costing a lot but it's very wet where we are and I have two small children. I dry in rooms what I can but there is just too much washing. As adults we don't wash our clothes after every wear but the kids are filthy.

Also the dishwasher but it's a life saver. I think if I want to keep these luxuries then we just have to cut back elsewhere for now.

We are in a 1930s house so drafty sadly. We've done what we can to insulate it within our budget.
We already wrap up warmer to have the heating off. The baby gets cold though, even with 4 layers on!

@BleepBleepBloooob

We be able electric car. Stupid us. At the time it was way cheaper than petrol and we felt good that we weren't adding to the dirty road pollution. Now are electric is sky high.

I'm not sure what we can do. We don't have a big freezer or fridge. Our kitchen is only 3 years old and all the appliances rated A** for efficiency. We turn the lights off.

I do use the tumble dryer a lot though and I suspect that is what is costing a lot but it's very wet where we are and I have two small children. I dry in rooms what I can but there is just too much washing. As adults we don't wash our clothes after every wear but the kids are filthy.

Also the dishwasher but it's a life saver. I think if I want to keep these luxuries then we just have to cut back elsewhere for now.

We are in a 1930s house so drafty sadly. We've done what we can to insulate it within our budget.
We already wrap up warmer to have the heating off. The baby gets cold though, even with 4 layers on!

Dishwasher is more economical than hand washing, & let’s face it who wants to do that in this day? Lighting if it’s led is seriously low. We can turn every bulb on in the house, & the total draw is 120 watts

We have used for many years Remoska cooker sold by Lakeland,so cheap to run,best thing ever.Costly but pays for itselfPressure cooker I make a huge pot of soup in 10 minutes lasts all week for 2 or freeze portions.Electric control over blanket on the bed.Electric fur lookalike throw on the sofa.Led lights whole house.Small freezer always full use washing machine on full loads low temp no tumble dryer use a clothes airer and lastly thermal vests and socks.Gas boiler new on the lowest we can get away with.Hope we can live like this with lessworry.I really feel for those in colder parts of the UK in poor housing stock.

I’m panicking about this as we are so close to the bread line anyway. I earn £220 a week and two years ago I could fill my car with petrol and feed us well, plus have £20 ish left over as disposable. Now I can’t afford to get to work really, and am back to struggling to cover our food needs, and I’m pretty good at being frugal.

We have a log burner and only live in a two up two down, so I’m not too worried about heating as long as we can stock our log stores. It’s electricity really. I use the oven a lot but will try and cook ahead on a Sunday so have meals prepared for the week that just need heating up… and the tumble drier. We live in wales at the bottom of the mountain and, from November to March I could put washing out at 6am and it’ll still be sodden by 5pm

@mogsrus

Don’t know if anyone has realised that these plug in energy monitors actually use energy to work! albeit small. And the average household computer will take about 10p per day to run

That's why they made energy apps for phones. ☺️

Everyone that's saying they are fine as they have a fixed tariff , if the company are charging less to sell it to the consumer than what they are buying it for it wont be long before they go out of business , like lots of energy companies already have .

Phone app doesn’t actually tell you how much an individual device is using as with a plug-in unit does.

The plug in use will be tiny, far less than a phone charger. Worth the investment if it tells you your gaming PC or old fridge freezer is costing tens of pounds a month to run.

@pumpkinpie01

Everyone that's saying they are fine as they have a fixed tariff , if the company are charging less to sell it to the consumer than what they are buying it for it wont be long before they go out of business , like lots of energy companies already have .

Anyone who has fixed recently is paying far more than the customers on the current svr.