Page 7 | That it’s bonkers this is my FIX? Sorry another ENERGY one

Ineedtoletgo83 · 2022-08-27T07:44:39+00:00

I wish I’d fixed in Oct 2021 but on MSE advice I didn’t then. Wow now this is our situation, what can we do? cut down usage is our option. I did the MSE calculator is suggesting I strongly fix at £483 per month. Paying £165 atm due to go to £220. I mean we could reduce our usage but really how much will that affect our bills? large 4 bed semi, dreaded open plan area. Gas central heating. we use 17800 kWh of gas?! and 3744 kWh of Electricity. I wfh 5 days a week. DH two days a week. Kids home from 4ish most days.

category12 · 27/08/2022 13:48

MorganSeventh · 27/08/2022 09:21

If the house is getting hot very quickly when it's hot outside, and losing heat very quickly when it's cold outside, that suggests it's poorly insulated - it can't retain either cool air or hot air inside.

Part of the issue might be the bi-fold doors, plus the open plan design downstairs which means one wall is essentially glass and there's no way of blocking heat leakage from inside to out. However, it would be worth looking into insulation measures, like how much roof insulation you have in place and whether there's a way of blocking heat escape from the doors. This would also help mitigate the impact of future heatwaves.

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Yeah, your house getting very hot in the heatwave means your insulation is crap, not good.

Watapalava · 27/08/2022 14:01

My 3 bed old hours high ceilings used 32000 gas and we are all out all day!

Wexone · 27/08/2022 14:09

the reason why you feel the cold when the heating is off is because your body is not used to it. cab take your body about 4 weeks to get used to the difference in a house temp you live in. I felt it when I moved out of my parents house (house is like a sauna heat on flat out aswell as stove-can't stick it now ) when had to Start paying oil myself I wouldn't put heating on much. heating in for an hour in morning come on in eve half 6 to half 8 increasing maybe to half 5 in mod winter if its a cold one. dress warmly at home lots of layers not pyjamas.

RiderOfTheBlue · 27/08/2022 14:11

This thread is the perfect example to illustrate why there needs to be financial education in schools. No disrespect to OP, you only know what you know etc, but people need to understand how these things work. Never mind teaching kids trigonometry. Teach them about energy bills, how mortgages work, how to budget etc. Skills they'll need in every day life.

Wexone · 27/08/2022 14:11

@WalkingOnSonshine don't turn yori radiators off fully. this means that the hear in the one room will be sucked out as rest of the rooms are cold. reduce the radiators to a low heat in the rooms you dint use. far better

alwpejdj · 27/08/2022 14:13

RiderOfTheBlue · 27/08/2022 14:11

This thread is the perfect example to illustrate why there needs to be financial education in schools. No disrespect to OP, you only know what you know etc, but people need to understand how these things work. Never mind teaching kids trigonometry. Teach them about energy bills, how mortgages work, how to budget etc. Skills they'll need in every day life.

We do teach this, the kids couldn't care less.

Macaroni1924 · 27/08/2022 14:14

Ineedtoletgo83 · 27/08/2022 10:49

How does the thermostat connect to our central heating boiler? Sorry?! We have a wireless HIVE atm so I could just get another one for the kitchen area

I think this is the problem for many. I deal with the money in our house and when I was talking on and off to him it dawned on me he didn’t see a problem because we were fixed at £160pm. I then had to explain that although a fixed price on a house means that’s exactly what you pay this is different. It’s the rate per kw that’s fixed not the monthly payment. If we use more the monthly payment increases. He now realised why I’ve been harping on about turning off lights etc. I honestly think there will be a lot of folk out there thinking the same thing.

Macaroni1924 · 27/08/2022 14:15

Oops quoted wrong comment 🤦🏻‍♀️

Original poster

Ineedtoletgo83 · 27/08/2022 14:16

I also need a new front door!

OP posts:

latetothefisting · 27/08/2022 14:22

HairyFeline · 27/08/2022 13:13

As you’re working from home, make sure you claim the relevant tax deductions…every little adds up!

You can only claim this now if you HAVE to work from home -e.g. if your company doesn't have an office or whatever. You cant claim if you could go into the office but choose not to.
Its not like the last 2 years when you could claim the full amount even if you only wfh one day.

Oddbutnotodd · 27/08/2022 14:23

I have skimmed the thread but I have fixed today. I saw the new calculator on moneysavingexpert and given the extra costs from January 1 2023, I am paying over the odds now. Hope it pays off.

I use much more than the average gas usage. I think it has been very misleading by the media to quote average household spending. Many people somehow think that is a maximum.
The new cap will be roughly 52p for electricity and 15p for gas. I was paying 2.36p for gas until April! I can only fix for a year but hope that something will be done by the government.

I have already cut down on my energy use as much as possible. It is going to be very hard for many people.

lljkk · 27/08/2022 14:39

check wall & roof insulation was my focus thought, too
My house was built in '94 & had empty cavity walls.

oakleaffy · 27/08/2022 14:40

Ineedtoletgo83 · 27/08/2022 09:02

It gets cold straightaway!!! If the heating goes off we feel it. I should say our house was baking in the heatwave so think retains heat well.

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Sounds like a very poorly insulated house if roasting in summer and cold in winter ..
well insulated houses are cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
I have heating on at 18/19

Baoing · 27/08/2022 14:46

The whole thing has brought home to me how wastefully we've (as in, just us) been living. Leaving stuff on standby, slow cooking for 8 hours, leaving heating on when the house is empty/overnight, leaving lights on, having the heating on high, but leaving doors and windows open...the list goes on.

We've made some real changes in the last few weeks, and will make more going into winter - we sure had fallen into wasteful ways.

dianthus101 · 27/08/2022 14:48

RiderOfTheBlue · 27/08/2022 14:11

This thread is the perfect example to illustrate why there needs to be financial education in schools. No disrespect to OP, you only know what you know etc, but people need to understand how these things work. Never mind teaching kids trigonometry. Teach them about energy bills, how mortgages work, how to budget etc. Skills they'll need in every day life.

It would be totally pointless to teach them at school. Children aren't going to care or remember the information by the time they need to use it and probably by then things will have changed anyway. For example, the energy price cap didn't even exist until two years ago either so lessons at school wouldn't have helped people understand.

80sMum · 27/08/2022 14:52

Ineedtoletgo83 · 27/08/2022 12:00

Sorry 145%! It’s madness

The charges are about to increase by about 80% in October and by an estimated 51% in January. That's a 170% increase on today's prices. So a fixed increase of 145% could actually end up being cheaper than staying on the variable rate, even though you'll be paying a higher rate between now and January. The coldest months are often January, February and March.

The increases are huge, so it's hard to get ones head around them. Normally, nobody in their right mind would dream of agreeing a fix that increases their prices by 145%. These are indeed unprecedented events.

Justkidding55 · 27/08/2022 14:58

We got our open plan converted back to seperate rooms in the second lockdown due to wanting some space
from
teens lol. I’m very relieved and we love having seperate areas now. Maybe think about dividing the areas somehow? Doesn’t need
to be permanent. Good luck this is a scary time.

MissPankhurst · 27/08/2022 15:00

As I understand "fixed" it is price per unit used.

If oranges are priced at 10p, you can buy one orange and pay 10p or you can buy 8 0ranges and pay 80 p.

The supermarket has fixed the price of the orange at 10p but depending on many oranges you buy, your bill could be a lot bigger.

You can't give the cashier 10p because that is the fixed price of the orange and expect to buy 8 oranges for that price.

The more oranges you buy at the fixed price of 10p, the more you will pay.

ivykaty44 · 27/08/2022 15:07

fixed is going into the supermarket now and as you’re on fixed rate you purchase everything in their but have to pay 10p more than other on variable rate. So of oranges are 6p you’ll pay 10p

byt later if the prices increase to 8p you’ll still be paying 10p but if the prices increases to 15p you’ll still pay 10p

its a gamble on unit price

WhatsitWiggle · 27/08/2022 15:38

@Oddbutnotodd I'm the other end of the scale, my gas usage is much lower than average but electricity around 20% higher (and I'm working on reducing that). So figures of £6k scare the beejesus out of me. I feel it would be better to quote price per unit and then give "typical" low/med/high examples.

psychomath · 27/08/2022 15:52

Baoing · 27/08/2022 14:46

The whole thing has brought home to me how wastefully we've (as in, just us) been living. Leaving stuff on standby, slow cooking for 8 hours, leaving heating on when the house is empty/overnight, leaving lights on, having the heating on high, but leaving doors and windows open...the list goes on.

We've made some real changes in the last few weeks, and will make more going into winter - we sure had fallen into wasteful ways.

Slow cookers are actually meant to be more energy efficient I think, as even though they're on for hours they use such a small amount of power to run that it's still cheaper than the oven. I haven't used mine in years but I'm thinking it might be time to dig it out again.

toooldtocarewhoknows · 27/08/2022 16:05

EmptshelvesUK · 27/08/2022 09:19

We turned our hot water down to one hour in the morning just before we get up as a trial (admittedly only 2 WFH adults), we’ve taken it down to 45 mins now. It’s a large insulated tank. Lasts till following day. Hubby boosts it the night before his early golf start for half an hour once a week . DH is quite amazed at how much previously we’ve been wasting.

We've just done this and been amazed at what we were wasting.

dianthus101 · 27/08/2022 16:20

ThePerfectCircle · 27/08/2022 13:30

For most people the winter is when they use three quarters of their energy (even though most of us spread our payments over the year). I would be overpaying now to make it easier in the winter.

Then basically use as little as you can… insulate yourself as much as possible (thermals, jumpers etc; it’s crazy to walk round the house in t-shirts and bare feet in December), look at any grants to have your house insulated. Thick curtains, blankets. If you’re going to watch tv in the evening do so in your bedroom. Get used to having your house at 18 not 21. Turn the heating off a couple of hours before you go to bed.

Also many energy companies give you data on how much energy you use for different purposes and by time of day. Get to know it, there is some great insight out there that most of us aren’t using. Likewise make sure your heating is programmed properly so if there are days you’re out of the house you aren’t paying to heat empty rooms.

If you’ve got savings look into insulation, solar panels, heat pumps or a new boiler if yours is over about 10 years old. Have heating zones set up in your house so you can set the heating to come on later upstairs if you are downstairs in the evenings.

As a country we went through years of really cheap gas prices compared to many countries so I think lots of us have had the luxury of not having to pay attention to what we use. I really feel for everyone at the moment.

Why overpay rather than save money in the bank and gain interest?

JOFFCV · 27/08/2022 16:26

Baoing · 27/08/2022 14:46

The whole thing has brought home to me how wastefully we've (as in, just us) been living. Leaving stuff on standby, slow cooking for 8 hours, leaving heating on when the house is empty/overnight, leaving lights on, having the heating on high, but leaving doors and windows open...the list goes on.

We've made some real changes in the last few weeks, and will make more going into winter - we sure had fallen into wasteful ways.

This is us too so really trying to cut down now very strictly. I hate to think how much we have wasted. My Mum was always saying our house was too hot. Hopefully we won't have as much as a rise in costs. It will still be high though.

I've got to try and argue with EDF when they change our DD or will have to cancel it and pay for what we use.

Oysterbabe · 27/08/2022 17:30

I worry about the impact of the rise in energy prices on everything we buy. I know someone who runs 3 small shops. His energy costs were 18k a year. He's expecting that to increase to 80k per year. He can't just absorb that cost so he either passes it on to the customers or goes out of business.