how to reduce gas and electricity use?

[MrsLargeEmbodied]

any suggestions?
turn lights off?
dont use oven?
turn off heaters in unoccupied rooms?
fill a flask?

You shouldn't be running baths as they use more energy to heat up the water and more water than short showers.

For me I'm going to be doing one meal a week just tinned soup heated in the hob and a cheese toastie ( using my George foreman). Instant pot chicken and veg soup to keep in the fridge to be reheated for lunches. Won't be making home made bread anymore as that's like burning money 😂🤷🏼‍♀️. Roast dinner once a month instead of weekly. More stir fry veg. I've still got half a sack of charcoal in the shed so on dry days I could wrap and cook half a dozen for roasted spuds for an evening meal and lunches the following day.

I've tried to explain to my teenager that thirty minute showers need to be reduced to 5 minutes but it's like taking to a tree. As soon as the prices jump up I'll actually fill the meter jumping up and have to show her. Same with straighteners etc. I don't mind her using either but it needs to be seriously reduced to mitigate the rises a bit.

God. 21st century Britain.

Wash everything less.
Wear clothes longer
Wash towels and bedding only when absolutely necessary
Weekly showers/ baths
No hairdrying/ straighteners etc
No hot drinks
No tumble drying
Extra duvet
Extra jumper on in house
Very thick slippers/ jammies/ dressing gown
Thick curtains and blinds
Sit under throws
Wear hat scarf and gloves to bed/ in house
Hot water bottles

My breadmaker uses less than half a kwh to make a loaf, so I'm going back to that rather than making focaccia, rolls etc in the oven.

One of my kids used to take a half hour shower - that's like three baths! So hard to get through to them.

In the same way that the best way to save petrol is to walk or cycle to the shops / school / work etc the best way to save energy at home or simply to turn off or down the heating, use the oven less, only iron what absolutely has to be ironed etc. My mum moans constantly about her bills but insists on ironing sheets, towels, socks, underwear etc etc. 🙄

Has anyone else wondered how the large contingent on MN who shower at every opportunity or have a bath then a shower to get properly clean will do? Or the many that seem to wash clothes when worn once?

What about an electric blanket for the bed? Is that something that costs little instead of having the heating on?

Economy 7 is likely to cost you more unless you charge a car overnight or have night storage heaters.

I agree. We have it and only break even because we schedule as much as we possibly can to run in the cheap period (currently 01:00 to 08:00).

Yes sounds good

I'm still going to shower daily

Would people recommend a heated throw which can be used around the home or an electric blanket for the bed? I can't afford both.

Easy wins will be anything involving heating. Electric shower, plug in heaters, immersion, tumble dryer, oven. Kettles are only on for a few minutes.
Also we discovered our kids gaming computers draw about 500W each and are on most of the day during the holidays.

Flame effect gas fires are quite high usage too I think.

Look on Facebook marketplace for secondhand, we got our electric blanket on there for £7, looked it up it was £70 new!

I have been monitoring my usage since April & the thing that’s made the biggest difference in reducing it has by far been getting an air fryer. I got a cheap Asda one (6l so big) it’s amazing. My daily rate was usually (using oven)£3.10-£3.70 per day. Just checked it now & it’s currently £1.94.

Thirty minute showers! If it's a complicated hair washing routine that's making the showers so long then maybe suggest she washes her hair in the sink instead? Otherwise show her the bills and explain exactly what it will cost and what it will mean for your household (giving up on things, reducing things, debt, etc), be honest, ask her what she'd do in your position and what she thinks is reasonable and fair.

I cook a lot in my ninja foodie as it's cheaper than the oven and hob.

My dad said we should all be making a flask of tea or whatever so the kettle is only boiled prob once a day. It's a good idea.

Instead of ironing I hang clothes up in the bathroom whilst I have a shower and my DH has a shower etc as the steam can drop the crinkles out of things. I have done this for a long time through laziness before the energy prices rocketed.

Batch cooking in the slow cooker (not sure if the subsequent re heating in the microwave makes this void though).

When it's just me and DH at home I have an electric throw instead of the heating.

If you boil a litre of water, I think it'll cost the same whether you boil it in one go, or at four different times - just boiling what you're going to use is key. I'd rather have freshly boiled water for a hot drink, but I suppose if you boil too much, you could put that in a flask and use for cooking or whatever.

21st century everywhere right now. Keep up.

I've taken the bulbs out of my outdoor flood lights

My bread maker does a loaf over about 3 hours using 600g flour and costs 10p.

The big ticket electric users in this house are:

The dishwasher (so it'll be jammed full before going on the eco setting only). Crumbed dishes etc can get washed by hand in cool water.

The oven (so it'll be batch cooking so that it's never on just for one thing).

The washing machine (so clothes will be worn more before ashing and washes will be split into cool/quick wash for lightly soiled and only use the hotter washes when needed, for bedlinens etc)

The freezers (this is difficult as we have an allotment to use both freezers to stock up on produce. However, any spare spaces will be filled with cold water bottles to keep temps low when the door is opened; stock monitored and if it drops low enough for just one freezer we'll turn on off)

Fridge (trick one that)

Kettle (only boil what you need)

Tumble dryer (is banned)

From there on down the list, it's more about timer plugs or even taking some things out of action totally. E.g. we have a sound bar on the main telly. That is getting unplugged and we'll use the TV speakers instead.

For gas it's....

Shorter, cooler showers

No baths

Heating on low in morning and evening only.

Thermal curtains over the patio doors

Internal doors will be closed with draught exclusers and we'll not heat the hallways or landing. That way we keep any heat in the rooms we're sitting in most.

External doors will have draught exclusers.

Blankets, electric blankets, thermals, slippers.

Thank you - that was the brand of the one I had! Now I know what it is, I can google it and see if they still make it.

They do! I'll be ordering one today, that will definitely help.

Just to publicise my own thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/legal_money_matters/4618028-the-how-much-does-this-cost-to-run-thread

Don't leave things still on charge when they have fully charged eg. phones, ipads, laptops, etc. They only use a tiny amount but it all adds up.