How is your attempt to use less gas/electric/water going ?

[KangarooKenny]

I read all 3 meters again yesterday and the app shows I’ve used quite a lot less 🎉
My waterbutt is practically empty, but I am making the effort to put any clean water - such as out of the dog’s bowl or the kids water bottles - on the plants. And I’ve cut down on showers at night, doing pits n bits instead when I’ve not been to the gym.
The heating is off and staying off until October now.
The majority of washing is going on the line, but I’ve had complaints about rough towels so have to fluff them up for 10 minutes in the dryer.
Unfortunately I still seem to have mountains of washing, need to see how I can reduce it.

I’m away to be putting in a new kitchen and utility room and have decided to stick with a gas hob rather than changing to induction, and am having an old fashioned pulley in the utility to cut down dryer use over the winter. I’d have been having a pulley anyway, and the current energy prices have confirmed this is the right thing to be doing

My DM hangs her washing in the garage in the winter. I suppose that as long as the air is dryer than the washing, it will dry it a bit.

I'm doing allsorts to get the electric down. It was a £1 a day for years. Now £1.25-£1.50
I swapped bath sheets for bath towels
Changed 12" plates for 9" plates
Got dd to use a paper towel instead of a plate for toast(saves 30 plates a month)
Wear uniform for one extra shift
Wear pyjamas an extra night
Switch off at wall not standby
My latest is to hang garden solar string of lights in kitchen window and another in the bathroom window. The panel hangs outside. So I don't have to put the light on in the night.
All this means I am also having less housework to do aswell.

Alphabet1spaghetti2

@stayathomer i would say yes. I don’t have a tv or broadband / landline etc. is switching them off really that hard?

When we turn the internet off the following day it takes ages to connect again then goes patchy. Dh works with computers so without broadband he's in big trouble!!!! I hate having it on all the time though

@stayathomer that’s ok - he has to use it for work.!!! Whereas I just use mine for leisure, so I use my phone or hotspot the lappy for a bigger screen. Bit of difference in usage 🤣

I've set myself a challenge to not use the tumble dryer for 12 months. Havent used it in 2 so far. Might prove difficult in winter though. I've invested in a heated airer and dehumidifier and have been using them since march or getting the clothes out on the line as much as possible.

I watch 'telly' at night when the kids are in bed on my phone. Either the catch up channels or netflix.

All lights off at bedtime (used to leave landing light on for the kids). Everything switched off at walls.

My fixed energy rate came to an end in middle of march. I went on the standard variable tariff (octopus energy). The estimated I would need to pay £200 pm.

Having recently checked the app, they are now saying £105 should cover my estimated use. So I've dropped my payments to £140 to be on the safe side.

Oh, I bought some heated mattress covers too. Heating hasn't been on for ages.

Great thread. Anyone kmow if slow cookers(.say for a 6 or 8 hour time) are cheap to.run.. thinking of batch cook...

Slow cookers are incredibly cheap to run, on low apparently they are about .4kwh for 6 hours. So less than 14p on the standard variable rate.

Using the tumble for the odd 10 minutes rather than a full cycle daily.

Rarely using the oven - once a week roughly.

No heating.

Switched lightbulbs for LEDs.

Annoyed I didn't do all this sooner as was wasting money before the price hikes.

Are peoples energy bills what they expected? My fixed rate ended in march. For april (since price cap increase), my total gas and electric has been £90. I'm happy with that.

Our annual gas usage is right down. From 16000+kWh back in January to 12,700kwh now. I guess that will be a combination of a milder winter/ turning the flow down on the combi-boiler and turning the thermostat down.

Since this thread started I have got a solar array on the roof and a home battery so I'm seeing huge inroads on the electric bill - although obviously it remains to be seen how useful it will be over the short days in winter in the N.E...not a lot, I expect.

We have gone for solar panels too. Electric usage down from aprx 14/16 kw per day to 3kw. Expecting it to be down further in the summer and then up again in the darker winter days. I appreciate that they aren't possible for everyone.

toasted if your with Octopus have a look carefully at your bill. I was paying £98 before price cap change, app says I now need to pay £110 but my bill says they estimate I'll use approx £2200 in gas and electric over the year and that's without thinking about October price rise. I have increased my payment to £220 to cover it. It's difficult but I don't want huge bills in winter. April was pretty low due to the better weather but we're still being mindful of spending and trying to get in good habits before it turns cold and dark again

We're currently paying £46 gas and electricity £69 per month by DD. Before the price increases it was £10 each which British Gas set but obviously was estimated way too low so we're currently paying off about £200 electricity debt with them. We soon hope therefore that once the debt is settled, this will reduce our DD to accurately reflect our usual and now even lower usage from the changes we've made (hubby's an electrical engineer and records every Kwh/w we use from every appliance), and our electricity bill will reduce by maybe £10 or £20 so hopefully we'll pay less than £100 per month for both gas/electric.

Doing everything we can to reduce usage; I was made redundant recently and wanted to look for remote work but now thinking - let's go back out to work and use the company's electricity ;-) Seriously though, I'm so conscious of any energy usage now. Not sure what we'll do in the winter especially drying clothes as normally I would use a tumble dryer in bad weather - does anyone have any tips for what they'll do at this time of year? Our tumbler costs us 68p per hour so I dry outside whenever possible.

Cooking... it costs 18.8p to use the oven for one hour per day. We probably only use the oven about twice a week so not too concerned about that.

For menopausal ladies, I normally have a pedestal fan blowing in the bedroom all night in the summer but haven't used it since the price rise but curious as to it's energy cost - it's 60w and hubby has calculated it costs 1.06p per hour to run (so using 8 hours per night each day = £3.92 per month) however, compared to my small hand held fan at 4w (0.001p per hour so just 22p per month) this is now sitting on my bedside table giving a very powerful stream of air at a fraction of the cost.

Can't believe we're having to do this in 2022 but every penny literally counts.

Next thing is working out how to reduce our Glowworm boiler - we've got it at lowest temperature, 38 degrees, but for some reason it won't reduce lower and showers could do with being just a little cooler in the warm weather.

All prices above are according to our current British Gas standard variable tariff.

Useful website to see what appliances use:- www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guidance/safety-around-the-home/home-appliances-ratings/

For clothes drying in the winter I have a large clothes horse/airer and use every radiator plus the banister. I sometimes also hang shirts etc up on hangers and hang them anywhere they will stay really.

I can get 2 loads of washing up this way. With this in mind I try to spread my washing out evenly-ish over the week. So rather than having one washing day where I do several loads and then have to find somewhere to hang everything, I try to do max of 2 loads per day.

My eco settings are very long cycles so it would be hard to do more anyway while using them.

It hasn't caused us any problems with damp, although we keep the window near the clothes horse slightly open almost all the time.

I have been washing clothes on eco cycle / cold, not noticed much of a difference dirt wise
not had heating on (elec blankets when cold)
still love my tumble (in a flat)
I try to do less washing overall, now bedding gets washed every two weeks instead (not ideal, but helps) and clothes a lot less (reworn where possible)
I shower every other day unless necessary, saving on water / gas cost

I think overall it's working a bit, but my bills were still over what they were. But manageable.

We still hang washing out in winter - check weather forecast and wash the day before it's supposed to be dry. We're often at home during the day though, so can go and bring washing in if rain threatens. Oh, and this is Scotland and NE of England, so not in the balmy south! It's rare I can't get washing at least almost dry so I just hang on a rack overnight to air.

We've also started washing a bit less, as PP said, bedding and towels every ten days rather than every seven, outerwear every five days unless dirty/smelly (which it never is). Air fryer instead of oven.

Our new smart meter has now been set up and is showing electricity usage about £1.12 to £1.30 per day and gas £0.20 (we have a solar panel for hot water and the central heating hasn't been on for weeks) - keep having to remind myself there's a standing charge on top.

An elderly family member has just moved in with us, so the heating bills will be doubtless increasing later in the year so we're building up a buffer now.

Also trying to think of ways to utilise grey water more. We already use it for watering plants and washing cars, DH has drawn the line at using it to flush the loo!

Our income has reduced by 50% in the last year and between that and the huge cost of living price hikes we've definitely had to change mindset.

I do that too sometimes and generally have one or two windows open, even in the midst of winter (I like the fresh air!). I have started to use an Eco wash and have had even my father suggest spinning twice after which it is dryer to then put on a clothes horse in the spare room upstairs. Will see if that works later this year.

I will tell anyone that will listen about the Remouska - an electric pan with element in the lid that will cook anything that cooks +/- 180C. I can cook a roast dinner for 2 in it inc roasties,swede, carrots, sprouts, stuffing and of course chicken. Of course there is a degree of preparation but it will cook the whole thing to perfection in the time it takes my (new and largely redundant) oven to heat up. Apparently it costs less than 6p an hour, so that's about 4p then

Not very well! I am making small conscious changes and about 11am standing in the kitchen thought it felt unusually warm.

DP had a fried egg for breakfast around 8.30am and forgot to turn the gas hob ring off! Albeit on low, I was pretty miffed with him.

Mine was 98 too but they said I need to pay 105. I've gone for 140 but I'm in credit right now so hoping to build up more over the summer.

I dont trust the estimated usage. My usage this month for electric is 106kWh less than this time a year ago.

Winter will be harsh as I like to put the heating on. Im putting better insulation in my loft at the weekend so that should help a bit.

@loopylindi tell me more about the remoska. I googled it on the back of this thread.

There are different models, do you need the different kids or is the standard model good enough?

What sort of things do you make in them? How do timings work? Do you need to do a lot of prep?

Sorry for all the questions

Thanks toasted. We've got the smallest model (bought some years ago before there was a choice of models) We also bought a rack to go inside which increases its potential enormously. So, for us it is enough. I cook casseroles in it (chicken usually ), sausage and apple in cider sauce, ready meals(turned out into the pan if the foil dish won't fit) sponge puds and cakes (they can be cooked directly in the pan but this means it's not available for other things. When doing a roast there is some prep of veg to do first, but usually the chicken goes in the bottom in a foil parcel with seasonings. The I put pre crisped potatoes, mashed swede, a pre cooked parsnip or two into a cake pan on the shelf. Put the lid on and then go to cook greens. Dinner will be done in 15mins max. It does require some trial and error for veg placement, but there is even room for a couple of ready made yorkshires. It will also heat ready made pasties and crisp up microwaved jackets. Is it worth it? Well, it's a bit like microwaves. If all you do with that is use it for reheating cold coffee etc then probably not, but if you actually use it for cooking then yes. You do have to do some trial and error until you find what suits you and your family but I use mine almost every day so def. yes! Good luck.