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?

one of the biggest problems is that so many companies are going to close down because of the cost of energy, so many people are going to lose there jobs, this is going to make Covid look like a walk in the park.

Well yes but we already shut doors, turn lights off and have the thermostat on 16 for 4 hours a day. The children bath in a baby bath . The adults shower every other day. No tumble dryer or dishwasher. Kettle marked to fill 2 cups. There's not a lot else we can do. Unplug phone chargers and the WiFi at night ? Probably save a few quid a year.

Public buildings being less overheated would be a good side effect. It's annoying to have to sit in libraries and GP surgeries in a pool of sweat in January.

But in any case, people's bills will only increase like that if they don't do anything about what they use, which would be silly
I don’t see what I can do? Turning lights off saves pennies. Turning devices off standby saves pennies. I suppose I could save a few quid by using the oven less, at the expense of hot meals. But I can’t use the washing machine less, can’t turn the fridge freezer off, can’t stop washing dishes, realistically can’t turn the tv off because it’s now our only entertainment because we can’t afford to go out. The heating was already on 18 and turned completely off for 12 hours a day. There isn’t much I can reduce!

👏

News is saying food banks are closing because they can’t afford to run the fridges and pay for heating and lighting etc. Apparently 25% of pubs are considering closing for six months because they can’t afford heating over winter, they plan to reopen in spring when it’s warm enough to have no heating on. But apparently 70% of them won’t make it.

I don't know your circumstances obviously, but if you mean heating is on for 12 hours a day then that is a lot. Unless you mean off for 12 hours a day and 8 at night or similar? Ours will be on for three hours a day.

I've reduced washing machine usage by washing things less often, bought smaller towels, full loads and only at 30. I keep water in the fridge to avoid losing as much heat in air when I open it.

I used to wash everything at 30 degrees except towels and sheets but it didn't feel clean. However I am now washing everything at 40 degrees and just doing the one hour wash instead.If need be I will handwash some of my clothing rather than do the longer washing programmes. I am finding even towels and sheets are still nice and clean after a one hour wash.

Our washing cycle costs least on the longest run

Same as many dishwashers

It's the power * time that matters

A smaller power for a longer time can cost less than a large power for short time

Similar heating

Ours is "on" for 12 hours

But in fact it doesn't fire up much once it's got the house to temperature in the morning

If we had it on for 2 hrs am and 2 hrs pm it would probably cost pretty much the same as it would be hearing the house up twice

I thought Martin Lewis or someone else had shown that wasn't true? Otherwise, I don't know why my gas usage is so much lower than the average with two people (average 2.4).

https://www.bestheating.com/info/is-it-cheaper-to-keep-your-central-heating-on-low-all-the-time/

It may be true if you have very good insulation, but probably isn’t for most of us.

I used to have mine on for two hours in the morning and five and a half in the evening, down to three total and only dropped by one degree and my usage has come down a lot. I have a window open in the day so couldn't leave the heating on anyway.

I wfh so I use heating during the day. 8am - 8pm the thermostat is set to 18, and it turns itself on and off as necessary to maintain that temp. 8pm -8am it’s turned off completely. I didn’t think 18 was that high, I often feel cold and still wear a jumper.

Surely washing less means re-wearing dirty clothes?! We wear clean clothes everyday for school and work, I don’t see how we can reduce that. Obviously we re-wear pyjamas and casual clothes around the house, but we can’t go out in dirty clothes.

Whether you clothes get dirty after 1 wear sort of depends on the clothes. For travel in winter where washing is limited I’ve used e.g. tweed dress which can be reworn loads before there’s an issue and I can just change tights/undergarments which are small to wash. Not that we can all go out and change our wardrobes! But for a more normal example, you don’t wash jeans after 1 wear.

Well our gas usage is also below average so it's not simple !

It will depend on what you heat the rooms to when you have the heating on

if it's comfortable just before your heating goes on you will be "over heating" to a higher temperature when the heating is on - steady state is usually more efficient

It's more the drop in usage that that convinced me, for our household that is. Was at over 8000kwh for gas a couple of years ago (at 17 degrees but for longer hours), currently the yearly estimate is 5100kwh.

Measurements are the only way to know what really works

Doesn’t that depend on your definition of dirty clothes? Jeans are basically self cleaning and only need washing when smelly. For everything else (except underwear) we only wash if they smell
or have food on them. For me and DH that is after about three wears but for DS it’s generally everyday. He doesn’t change uniform everyday though as packed lunch doesn’t create much mess and he changes when he gets home. Just because you have worn something it doesn’t mean it’s dirty.

If you wfh are your clothes really getting dirty after only one day? In winter? Tops or trousers too? I go out to work and tops are fine for two or three days in winter, jumpers and jeans much longer.

If it don't smell and it looks clean it doesn't go in the wash

Well I've just calculated that in 2021 my average monthly cost for g & e was £87.50.

I used the tumble dryer at least twice a week apart from Summer, and heating was on 7am to 11pm every day (both retired) from October to Apri / May.

There's quite a lot we can do to reduce our use so our bills don't quadruple. We pay by variable dd for actual useage. Just got our bill for last month Gas £15 and Electric £53 (plus pence).
Used the Electric oven as usual so can cut down that cost.

Unless i spill something on myself or sweat excessively I wear most of my dresses happily 3x before wash.
Tops happily 2x.
And so on.
You don't want to know how many times do I use towels😁

I'm the same. No doubt someone will be along to tell us how disgusting we are!

I've just googled to check, and I reckon 1974 is the year when the UK converted from the million-million definition to the thousand-million one. Apparently Harold Wilson announced then that government statistics would use the thousand million definition.

I suspect it would be some time after that before school textbooks were updated though.