My energy bill will still quadruple even if I put a jumper on?

[verdantverdure]

AIBU to think that even if I participate in this weird new “wear warm clothes in wintertime” trend, shut doors, buy draught excluders, buy Oodies, buy thermal curtains, and buy a £300 air fryer my energy bill will still quadruple.

Especially as most people wete already doing all or some of that.

Nothing short of turning the heating off is going to make much difference is it?

(Although of course I'm trying.)

After all, the money saving expert himself, Martin Lewis, says this isn’t something individuals can fix on their own , and it would be pretty arrogant to think I know better than him.

The "Put a jumper on" advice doesn't help British businesses at all does it?

What do you think?

I think you would be surprised by the number of people that have their thermostat cranked up to 22 through the winter and live in their shorts and t shirts at home. Sure, they might not be the people on the breadline but they aren't the wealthiest people either, at least in my circles. I think the people I know that live this way will need to start listening to this obvious advice or else get a nasty shock.

It does remind me of that. Simplistic individual solutions for complex systemic problems.

Nothing short of turning the heating off is going to make much difference is it

Well it depends what your starting point is. If the rate quadruples and you quarter your use, your bill will stay more or less the same.

Obviously reducing use to 25% of what it currently was will be hard to impossible, but some people will have scope to cut down quite a lot from previous generous usage levels so might see their bill 'only' double. But they haven't gone anywhere near as far as 'turning the heating off', far from it.

Remember there's also the financial help, which is as much as £1200 for lower income households.

If your previous annual bill was £1200 and it goes up to £4800 but you reduce your use by a third, you will actually pay 4800 x .67 = 3200 - 1200 = £2000 so the amount what you pay has gone up by is a little over 65% which is a lot more manageable than quadrupling.

Well, yes.

Which is why i think there is little I can do to stop my bills actually increasing. All i can do it limit the increase as much as possible by reducing energy but i dont seriously think i can reduce it by half, then half again. I wasnt that wasteful!

The rate is quintupling from what it's been the last few years in January and sextupling in April though @BarbaraofSeville. Then possibly noncupling in October 2023.

Because I have gas heating and not electric, turning down the heating will help with my gas bill obviously but it's the electric that seems to be more of a problem in general for the price hike and apart from heating, use of electricity is fairly static over a year if we don't count extra lighting and the christmas tree. I'm lucky enough to have an indoor airer for clothes drying so don't use a tumble drier when I can't get my washing out, but that does rely on me having some heating on

It's also about where you live, further north, east coast, rural etc is just colder and it's harder to do without heat than it is in a fairly insulated house or flat in a southern city, although being in a flat might have additional costs to get clothes dry.

Chatting to a colleague in Hertfordshire the other day, he was in 23 degrees, I was 14.5.

Same @AntlerRose. I don't think most people have the room to reduce very much and still live a normal life.

We're not on the breadline but the hike will be a huge proportion of our budget.
It's making DH and I keep a close eye on the smart meter and we're also improving home insulation and putting up thermal curtains.
I must admit, I hadn't paid attention to which appliances and which programs on those appliances used the most.
Switching to the eco modes on the dishwasher and washing machine makes a big difference and we're trying to cook without using the oven.
I hate being cold though and I'm not sure how well I'll manage when it gets colder even by wearing a jumper.

i wish people would listen to martin or whoever and reall work out how much extra or roughly they will pay

ive done the calculator it will be roughly a 100 more a month but we're going into winter so i expect it will be more

and thats just up until january god knows what happens then

Kerpong warm isn't achieved only by adding jumpers if you spend too much time sitting still (eg WFH!) . Moving about helps. Wrap up and go for a walk outside. You'll feel the benefit when you come back.
It's not going to compensate for rates quadrupling but it's a small - and probably free - thing you can do to make your own day less miserable.

Just done our calcs.

Even if we drop our energy use by a THIRD (and I've always been a tight arse with the heating etc) we will have bills in Jan / Feb of over £500.

YANBU

I've just seen Boris on Sky saying buy a new kettle to save £10 a year on your electric, he doesn't mention it will cost you at least £25 for an energy efficient one, probably more for a good one. What are we supposed to do with all the old ones, build a kettle mountain?

I think you’re right and you’re wrong at the same time. Obviously this is to a large extent out of our hands as individuals and also the government are shit.

And yet…it will partly come down to individual solutions to deal with this. This is part of the bumpy ride of energy transition and we quite possibly are going to be forced to use less energy in future. As of now, there is no particular reason to expect a technological deus ex machina and a financial one can only go so far. This is probably not a blip as such.

A better government still won’t change the laws of physics.

Surely he meant 'get somebody else to buy you a new kettle'?

Yes, I suspect he meant that you should put it on expenses!

£300 for an air fryer?? Mine was like £40.

BILLS WILL ONLY HIT THE ASTRONOMICAL FIGURES IF PEOPLE CONTINUE TO USE ENERGY AS THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE.

Sorry I had to shout because this, 'My bills going up to $60 million pounds 'is only for those who insist on living in a greenhouse. Whatever the reason.

I’m not trying to offend any PPs but what these threads have shown is how little people understand about their bills, how they’re calculated etc. We should do more to make it easier for people but also think this sort of practical education is maybe a bit missing at schools. It’s worrying as I feel like some people - eg those who think a fixed tariff means they can use whatever they want and pay a set amount - might be in a lot of difficulty when the bills come in.

There is just now a teacher on another thread saying about how it went when they did this with class.

Which child is actually going to pay attention to this? Most won't. I wouldn't. For adults there is plethora of sources from very simply written basics to more complicated stuff.

You can only do what you can. That means not racking up units unnecessarily. So draught proofing your home and dressing warmly will make a difference.
However, if you already do that and are on the bones of your arse, fuck knows.

it may already have been mentioned, but would an electric blanket help him?

No. That's the benefit of central heating, you dress for indoirs. Obviously in winter socks, slippers and jumpers but not hats and gloves.

It baffles me that people think warm clothes, blankets and draught excluders are a new trend, its not a trend it common bloody sense and most people have been doing it all their lives.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s EVERY house had draught excluders, usually sid the snake lol.

I remember as a teen being absoloutly confused by older ladies who REFUSED point blank to put on a jumper or use a blanket during the day stating it was 'rude' (coats and jumpers are 'outdoor wear & blankets are for night time in the bedroom only apparently) yet complaining they couldnt afford heating and where freezing to death.

Frankly if you freeze to death through sheer stupidity of not using the cheap/free resources you have then its entirely on you and I have no sympathy (its different to use them and still freeze or not have access to them but to willfilly refuse common sense then that on them).

I lived in shared housing in my teens and honestly if we had £1 for every time a mother/aunt/grandmother that told us we where rude for having blankets in our living room then we could have afforded to heat the whole street lol.

@Bubblebubblebah i don’t mean about this specifically really - teaching kids now about this is a bit futile given that by the time most of them are paying bills it’ll be out of date info. But general skills to understand and plan finances, understand legal and financial terminology to understand bills? Think that would be useful as a general skill.