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?

Thanks both people who replied to this - I hadn't seen the hours down the left hand side, on my phone they just looked like bullet points

This does mean that my laptops cost me c£8pm, which is over 10% of my bill!

Can I just link to this thread - www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/4618028-the-how-much-does-this-cost-to-run-thread?page=1

plenty of discussion about what’s worth switching off and how much appliances cost.

PLEASE DON’T SIT IN THE DARK! Please don’t sit in silence because you’re scared to run a radio! Get the facts and live a decent life without being terrified of your bill. Maths is wonderful and will save you suffering needlessly.

I'm absolutely loving the naive 'Not putting the heating on, what's everyone worrying about?' posts - in Autumn.

Let's see what they have to say when Winter hits long and hard.

Uswitch has an article on that with completely different figures.
www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2022/04/13/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-your-phone-and-laptop-fully-16451546/amp/

www.techadvisor.com/article/728205/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-a-phone-tablet-or-laptop.html

I am assuming most people don't have large laptops permanently in?

I have new small tablet type in, monitor and table and it is not costing more than pennies a day because I am pretty on top of my usage

Those articles are a bit out of date price wise though @InCheesusWeTrust.

27p per eight hours of laptop use is pennies a day, isn't it?

@Ilovetocrochet how much is noticeably? I routinely set ours at 23 and nobody where’s a jumper but 19 with a jumper is an option if the saving is worth it

That is a really good thread.

I have a small form factor desktop. It's been souped up with 32 gb of RAM and I use 3x 21" monitors.

I have turned down the processor speed and switched the monitors onto eco.

It uses 63W in this mode. Or for 8 hours a day = 0.063x8=0.5 kwh. That's about 17p a day.

I sometimes use it to do massively complex calculations, but 95% of the time I don't need this, so I have switched off all the processor capability.

If your home PC setup for work is costing you £££ per day you've got the wrong setup unless you have some fairly specialist and unusual requirements.

The fact you’re all out of the house every day is the main reason your bills are low. Many don’t have that option. Those with young children at home, those who have to work from home, those who have disabilities that keep them at home etc.

We have electric storage heaters here so that will be the biggest cost for us. Currently still very mild so no need to put them on just yet.

There is no way I would deprive myself of the radio, it's on all the time if I'm home, I like the company!

I have been trying to do more practical things that I should probably have been doing anyway e.g. making sure washing machine has a full load, only doing baking if I'm using the oven anyway to cook a meal (easy to slip a tray of flapjack in too).

How do people put one or two loads a week for 2 people? What about beddings, towels, daily outfit, pyjamas, dish towels and cleaning cloths?

4 of us, heavy users of electricity and gas, we're not cutting back or doing anything differently.

Thank you for this! I plan on sharing it often, especially when people fret over their kettle usage. It's actual pennies compared to everything else. TBH even that 5p is probably a completely full kettle..

One of them says unit so can be easily recalculated.
I havebthe set up as I mentioned above and even with old laptop it all costs about 10p a day. I am on 29p for now so it will be very negligible move in few weeks. I am basing that on difference between I might be wrong though!
I will check tomorrow and sat what difference does the work set up make.

I eonder how big laptop they used. There is alf course difference based on screen size and what is it used for.

I think my electricity meter is broken😂

In one breath people are not putting heating on all winter and in the next they are panicking because there won't be no heating on for the three hours the power might be cut off

Dark clothes😁
Sheets every two weeks in, alternating with towels the other week. Dish towels go in with towels.
Once in a while it's 3 to do all jumpers and extras.

@InCheesusWeTrust Thanks. Laundry is the bane of my life!

All this focus on other people's bills has made me realise I'm already quite careful. One DC and a 3 bed house in London and my dd has gone down to £23 a month with the £400 grant thing. Only thing I have cut back on is daily baths for me, but tbh I could easily still have them and it be affordable (I have showers which are much cheaper on the gas according to the smart meter). I don't feel the cold massively so not even contemplated putting the heating on yet and thermostat set to 19. I'd feel sick having it at 23! Just goes to show how different we all are :)

I find light bulbs vs candles proper disturbing. More than the kettle thing.

Re the kettle. People are buying thermos everywhere. It's what, a tenner for cheapest one? That's 200+ kettle boils!

Cheapest tealight in wilko is 3.7p, burns 3.5 hours.
Standard (nowadays) low energy lightbulb uses 0.01kwh an hour (60w equivalent LED) that's about 100 hours of use for the price of 1 cheap tealight candle...

Feel free correct the math!

Well I’m in a drafty damp end terrace, I have 3 small children (one that needs heat because of his disability) and work from home.

Life is expensive for us right now and I should imagine many others too.

Well I might have to correct myself to say it's 10, isn't it, not 100😂

I also use what I want, when I want but have taken a few steps to maximise efficiency.

Had a wood burner put in a couple of months ago which will provide a large percentage of my heating and luckily have enough free wood for at least this autumn and winter.

Have brought an air fryer, one cup kettle, electric blanket and have gone round house and replaced bulbs with low power ones.

I’ve also insulated the timber framed and cladded utility room and thinking of replacing the single paned window with double glazing like the rest of the house.

On the flasks thing - yes, if you routinely boil far more water than you need and don’t use it at all, and you already own a flask, then putting that in a flask will save you some money. However it’s saving about up to about 5p each time you don’t boil the kettle, and a flask doesn’t keep it boiling so probably not hot enough for tea anyway.

It is definitely not worth buying a flask for. The best thing is to measure out the water before you boil it , or use excess water for washing up or cooking. But that doesn’t feel so “active”, I suppose. People like to feel like they’re doing something. However the best way to save money is almost never to buy something new!

@AtomicBlondeRose
Actually I also think in lines of that…
instead of obsessing about energy bills, I better try to review and reduce my overall spendings in other areas, changing habits overall. I now cancelled my music subscription and even though it’s less comfort, I can still listen music for free. Combined with choosing a cheaper new plan for mobile phone, it adds up to £30 a month saving, which is better than counting how many times I boil the kettle.

I need to compare last years bill with the one I’ve just received to work out actual kWh usage but the lines on the little graphs are certainly shorter - I’d estimate that I reduced my bills by about a fifth. As I on a fixed term, my direct debits have not changed.