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?

We’re pretty frugal, both hate dry air in a too warm house so only have minimal heating on, usually 45 mins in the morning and an hour late afternoon when the sun goes down and the temperature quickly drops. We have a fire with smokeless fuel in the living room so light that if it’s a particularly chilly evening.

We layer up during the day as we work from home, fingerless gloves and a light scarf make a huge difference, and Uggs all day rather than slippers are a game changer!

We don’t have a tumble dryer, we hang stuff outside even if only for a hour or two to start it off, then put it on an airer by a radiator to finish off.

We plan to upgrade the insulation in the loft in the spring. We turn lights off etc but need to be better at turning things off at the plug. Other than that there isn’t a lot we can do. We have double glazing, most of our appliances are pretty new and energy efficient.

@Guacamole001

I am with Utility Warehouse which claims it won't go up!

I find that hard to believe. Unless they massively hedged over a year ago, which even the big suppliers probably didn't, they'll be selling at a huge loss unless they raise their prices.

Or you'll pay over the odds for their other services (I understand that they like to sell you a package including broadband etc) to compensate.

Utility warehouse is mlm so the (unpaid) reps will be taking a cut. It can't be the cheapest option.

Following

I've just watched Martin Lewis and he recommended still not rushing to fix your tariff...yet

@SuPerDoPer free insulation sounds good as about to move from a modern house to edwardian semi

Obviously this is rubbish for people who are only just managing now but from an environmental point of view it is definitely making us think more about our usage and actually turn stuff off! I feel like we have been so wasteful.

[quote sleepyhoglet]@SuPerDoPer free insulation sounds good as about to move from a modern house to edwardian semi [/quote]
I vaguely assumed I might qualify for this but I don’t seem to, sadly.

@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?

Hopefully useage will be down in April when the next price rise hits, so it won't impact on actual bills. It will hit in Autumn though, unless prices go down over summer.

We are Putin's hostages I'm afraid.

Wow reading this makes me realise we probably spend a lot of money on gas/electricity..
We have the heating on all day from when we get up to when we go to bed. We have 2 hot showers each per day, we don't have curtains on any of the windows, no electric blankets or hot water bottles and use a tumble dryer to dry all the clothes.
I think I'll use some of these tips to start using a bit less!

Does washing dry outside at this time of the year? I've tried it but it's still wet when I bring it in !

If the pavement/patio is dry then washing will dry. Look out for days that have some sun to dry big items like towels as they hold more water than other washing. Anything you can get even a bit drier outside means less water in your house.

My washing has been out for 5 hours today, its been 5°. Its still a bit damp but a night on airers will have it dry by morning. I've just put the heating on to help. If I hadn't have hung it outside, it would take 3 days on airers to dry!

I refuse to worry myself to death over this, i pay quarterly dd and if i have difficulty paying in full when the bill comes i will contact them before they take the money out and make an arrangement to pay .
If they can see you are forthcoming with payments there's not much they can do about it , they aren't going to cut you off or get debt collection involved if you keep up the agreement - they have to help you.
I'm not going to sit freezing to death this winter and i bet the energy company fat cats won't be either !

We're already pretty frugal, and are on economy 7 left over from the last occupiers. It's annoying as we're more daytime users, but I've adapted and started doing washing at 11pm, and running the dishwasher at night.

When we moved in I spent a good £60 on LED bulbs (each fitting seems to be a chandelier with 5 bulbs, but 5w per bulb is better than 60w per bulb!)

Washing is dried on airers in front of the rads, or hung on the rack in the utility room. Our back garden doesn't get sun in winter so drying outside isn't great.
Heating and water come on for an hour each morning at 2 each evening. We also have fleece duvet covers, hoodies and electric blankets on the beds.

Next autumn's plan is to go to half hour am and 1 hour pm, and pray for another mild winter!

@EnterFunnyNameHere Ours is Energenie but there are other brands on the market. We got it from cpc.farnell.com/ and it was £13.92 including VAT (but not P&P), but other suppliers are available.

[quote Player20868]@EnterFunnyNameHere Ours is Energenie but there are other brands on the market. We got it from cpc.farnell.com/ and it was £13.92 including VAT (but not P&P), but other suppliers are available.[/quote]
Thank you!

@Alittlenonsensenowandthen interesting about mold and mildew. How old is your house? Think we are being crazy by moving from a 10 year old house to a over 100 year old house but we like the areas but I'm getting nervous

I don’t know what I’m going to do about it but I know I’m thoroughly fed up about it and need to be pro active.

@tsmainsqueeze

I refuse to worry myself to death over this, i pay quarterly dd and if i have difficulty paying in full when the bill comes i will contact them before they take the money out and make an arrangement to pay . If they can see you are forthcoming with payments there's not much they can do about it , they aren't going to cut you off or get debt collection involved if you keep up the agreement - they have to help you. I'm not going to sit freezing to death this winter and i bet the energy company fat cats won't be either !

They might put you on a pre payment meter.

What's the most effective and cheap to run heater, if you just want to heat one room?

@FanGirlX

What's the most effective and cheap to run heater, if you just want to heat one room?

Any heater will heat a room, the smaller the wattage, the longer it will take & electric heating is 100% efficient. If the heater you choose is 1000 watts & your electric charge is let’s say 10p per kWh it will cost you 10p per hour. The higher the wattage, the price just goes up. All heaters are rated tops at 3kw. Hope this helps

[quote sleepyhoglet]@Alittlenonsensenowandthen interesting about mold and mildew. How old is your house? Think we are being crazy by moving from a 10 year old house to a over 100 year old house but we like the areas but I'm getting nervous[/quote]
We live in a Victorian House.

Thanks all for input on old houses. Thankfully we can take the hit financially on bills so think we're better off as we are and not risk the mould!

@mogsrus

Thanks. I was wondering about the difference between fan heaters and plug in oil heaters.

@tootyfruitypickle

Does washing dry outside at this time of the year? I've tried it but it's still wet when I bring it in !

80% dry but I do give it an extra spin before putting on the line.