Do nothing to save energy AIBU

[Iknowforsure1]

Am I delusional?
Apart from not having baths I love, I do nothing as for now not save money on bills.
We don’t have heating on as we don’t need it now, our small 2 bed property is warm enough at the moment and I work outside of home and everyone else in the family is out for the day. However I do boil my kettle every time I want it, I cook when I need and use tumble dryer once a week when I don’t have time to dry things naturally. Am I going to be hit with a gigantic bill? As of today my direct debit reduced to a couple of pounds due to help from the government (£64 a month for every household?). Account is also in credit since summer. I just don’t have the energy to think about the energy. I guess I’m still delusional?

Well if you ain’t heating your house and you only use tiny amounts like you say for kettle etc then little for you to save you’ve already cut it to the bone

I’m the same! Our direct debit has gone from £100 to £50 from this month, I don’t really get why everyone is worrying? We rarely use heating as live in 2-bed flat on 2nd floor so get a lot of sun light and benefit from neighbours heat! Don’t have tumble dryer anyway, and only 2 adults so only 1-2 loads of laundry per week.

Some of us are just small users. We are not doing anything differently too. When the 400 comes (in parts) it will probably take our leccy through for just over 5 months even on that prices! Just that, nothing from us added

I'm not making massive changes yet. The only thing i'm doing is holding out as long as I possibly can before putting the heating on and have bought cheap Oodies instead. Boiler is on the eco setting so it only produces hot water on demand.

We always have TV and radio on, and I use my tumble drier a fair bit because I haven't the time or space to have it draped everywhere indoors, and nobody is in during the week to watch out for the rain if there's a load on the line.

I also like baths a couple of times per week.

genuinely you don’t understand why folks are worrying? You think everyone doesn’t heat their homes?

I'm in a semi I'm a low user but I hear my house with oil. It's ridiculously expensive from last year. My electric has doubled and we haven't had any discount applied here yet.

I'm trying to be careful because this isn't just going to be for 6 months. This is going on for a long time.

Because not everybody is childless and living in a second story 2 bed flat are they… surely it can’t be hard to understand who those with higher usage might be worried about the higher costs.

You don’t get why everyone is worrying…? Seriously?

I'm not doing much either. All I've done is make more effort to turn off lights that don't need to be on. I also haven't bothered to replace some ceiling spotlight bulbs that went. I'm trying to turn off the TV when we're not watching it, rather than keeping it on for background noise. That's about it really.

It depends on your existing habits of you have anything to cut back on! So if you're pretty economical anyway then, well, what can you do?! They say bills will be 50% higher than last year I think, but if you can't easily cut back then we just stuck it up.

Remember this is Mumsnet though, where a fair proportion will wash every towel, sheet and item of clothing after each and every use, rather than when they start to smell a bit. Which if essential can't be cut back on, so then holding out putting the heating on and not boiling the kettle will be the things that can get cut to help save energy.

Well to be honest I do worry and I do have children. It’s also the time when I feel I did the right thing of not trying to buy a bigger property even though ideally I should. We are not struggling (we are indeed minimal users of everything, we don’t even have a car as we cycle to work), however if I start to receive gigantic bills, of course we will start to struggle. I feel like reducing the bills will mean I cut the very essentials as we live minimal anyway. I feel like I might regret my relaxing attitude soon, but after a hard long day at work it’s so difficult to stop myself from boiling a kettle or reducing to wear dirty clothes to work, so I just wash and dry and drink tea. I guess I’ll wait and see what it means for us.

@LesOliviers
Oh no, I forgot the TV thing… I do like to have it on when children are in bed, often for a background, just to veg on the sofa. It’s like a therapy. I guess it’s one more thing to think about

@BattenburgDonkey
I never lived in a bigger property. I’m not originally from the UK and flat living is a norm where I’m from. Is switching the hitting on only in certain rooms an option for bigger properties? I guess it’s probably the size of a family more than a size of property that’s the factor in bigger usage?

No. It can be to do with the construction and build type and insulation of the property as well as the method used to heat the home

Op,are you really skint or something? It costs about a penny a time to boil a kettle and it costs about 20 quid a year to watch the telly. The bug cost is heating your home, you don’t do this, you’ve already cut it to the bone, unless there is a back story here about you being really struggling then it’s hard to understand your issue?

@Dirtylittleroses
There is no need for your attitude. Everyone’s talking about things like not having a tea to reduce energy consumption and switching the water off while they apply the shampoo and naturally I start to think if I’m doing wrong not bothering doing it yet. I have no idea how much everything costs, I’m really sorry, no smart meter. My issue is the same with yours and everyone else’s. Honestly.

We're not cutting back because like you we're light users. Still too warm for heating quick shower daily. Charging gadgets probably adds up. We have lit the log burner a few times in the evening.

I don't worry about the kettle although I think a stove kettle would be cheaper induction here.

Will be harder for families I'm sure

Not having tea? It's less than a penny to boil a cup of water. That's a silly thing to sacrifice.
Turning off water while shampooing saves a bit - water too which is important after this summer. So does taking a shower every other day if possible (which is what I do if not going out for anything other than walking the dog).
But heating the home is the main energy gobbler. I don't heat more than the ground floor (radiators off in all the rooms bar my daughter's). And I haven't had it in yet as still quite mild here (London). Insulation, double glazing etc.
I used to live in a large Victorian detached house with 11ft ceilings. It was never that warm even with large radiators!

I think for most people heating is the main cost, although tumble dryers and ovens use quite a lot of energy. I’m not sure I can do much more to reduce my bills, I knocked the thermostat down to 19 degrees last year which reduced my gas consumption noticeably but I’m not comfortable turning it down lower to 18 degrees. My house feels cold at 18 degrees and I’ve had damp problems in the past which I don’t want again - black mould, damp clothes etc.

Drying clothes inside is not an option for the same reason so unless I wash on a dry day to get it outside, I will still use my dryer but will make sure it’s for a full load only. I’ve got an air fryer which is great at cooking meals for one person so I rarely turn my oven on now.

I’m hoping that the monthly rebate will help me for the next six months and fingers crossed that we don’t have a harsh winter and do have an early summer!

I can’t afford to ignore the problem but will monitor costs carefully and look for savings elsewhere if necessary.

I'd buy more school uniform and wash less often. Dehumidifiers are good

I fixed a year ago for 2 years so my prices haven’t gone up, I’m in credit by several hundred pounds but trying to build a buffer/cut back usage anyway especially if there might be power cuts. I’m really worried that people will end up very poorly or ending up in damp housing because they can’t afford to heat them properly x

@Dirtylittleroses I think that really depends on your Tv. Mine is old. I was given it 13 years ago and it was second ?(3rd, 4th or more) hand then, it's a 'requires two strong men to move it' type. I would/could replace it, but I'm ridiculously fond of it, and there's nothing wrong with it )well it sneers at the concept of red button action, but that's not important! I suspect Phil is quite energy inefficient, so I've cut down on usage a little bit.

Ive started being more careful with only putting as much water in the kettle as I need & being careful to turn things off when I'm not using them.

im a bit wary of microwaves, but I've started using mine instead of heating say soup up on the electric job.

I'm not timing my showers, but I'm not using the bath at all.

I usually do 3 loads of washing a week, that won't change, I might try 30° instead of 40°, but there's no way I'm waiting until they smell before I wash stuff.

im not going to put the heating on as much, but I will put it on to keep the place dry, I don't want mould!!

I'm fortunate to have the choice, at the moment anyway.

Here's one of the more useful charts I have seen on how much energy appliances use.

I think the key point is this: the less energy you use the higher percentage of your bill the £67 a month for the next few months will cover.

The standing charge has gone up, and the unit charge too, so if last year someone was paying £200 a month in 2021 then this year £67 won't that make much of a dent in the increased prices.

But if someone is a much lower than average user paying £60 a month, who isn't home much and doesn't trouble the hot water and heating much, then the £67 may cover a good chunk of the increase

Every household gets £67, every household's bill will go up, but household vary in their energy needs and habits, and winter hasn't hit most of us yet.

I'm more worried about when our mortgage fix runs out tbh.

I think that's old prices, it's few p more now, but yes, it's good for imagining the costs!