have you reduced your usage

[forgotmyusername1]

I have checked the estimated gas and electric usage from feb to latest statement. Estimated electric has dropped 40% (8673 kwh to 5328) and gas has dropped 15% (13058 to 10979)

Have you been able to reduce usage and if so how have you done it. We have stopped using the tumble dryer, use the air fryer rather than the oven wherever possible, measure water for tea rather than filling the kettle up and reduced time in the shower.

Solar lights are good for this. I have a couple that live on window ledges. They cost nothing after the initial outlay and you can buy pretty ones in lanterns.

I just can't get our electricity down - it's driving me crazy. Not helped by the fact DH got a hybrid car at the start of the year so we're charging that now. Obviously it's still cheaper than the £15 or so fuel DH would use each day so I am trying to remember that. But - even if I take the car out of the equation (it wasn't charged last night for example) we're still using loads of electricity each day. I turn off lights, I have massively reduced tumble drying... not sure what else to do!

Yesterday we used about 13kwh which was the lowest in ages, a but when the car is charged it's more like 20.

13 is low though. It’s just that some people post about ridiculously low levels which make the 13 seem high in comparison.

Im pleased to have reduced mine to 16 on a normal day.

I've stopped using the tumble drier. Mostly drying on the line or airer. It's just a bit of a pain when the weather is crap.

I've also turned the heating off and will see how long I can go without putting it on. I'm hoping not to need it much - we have a logburner and houses both sides tend to help keep ours warmer too

From my last 2 quarters British Gas congratulated us on reducing gas and electricity but the bills were still £100 and £90 more for the same quarters the year before. I dread to think what the next quarter will be - we still don’t have heating on.

On our bills (eon) it says what kwh they are predicting you using for the year. I compared the feb 2022 with oct 2022 statement to see what the reduction was

Oh and looking at the website usage for Monday as an example electricity was 5 kWh or £1.90. Gas 27kwh or £2.27

didnt Replace the drier when it broke, instead bought some over the door rail things to dry clothes and maximise drying space.

Boiler has packed in Aparantly my sink is blocked (engineer has X-ray vision) so will be saving a fortune as now have to wait until middle of November to get a fix.

Bought an insulated cafetière so only have to boil kettle once or twice a day.

use the multi cooker/slow cooker/air frier for most meals. Also use it to bake treats. And to grill food have an original lean, mean grilling machine.

We already saved due to switching off lights when not in use, and at the plug (aside from fridge/freezer). and use the eco function on the dishwasher and washing machine. Bulk buy meat and make that go further by bulking with veg and pulses.

I think the government have come up with a brilliant way to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint - allow energy companies to charge what they like, still make their profits and force ordinary people to drastically reduce their usage due to the lack of affordability. The Tories will claim the reduced carbon footprint as their environmental win, and still appease their rich donors in energy/fracking etc etc. they’re even de-incentivising green energy now!

I have some as well that are motion activated. Bought them as my cats cannot see in the dark. Cannot remember where I got them from they were cheap and aimed at campers.

As people have mentioned to you on other threads, you need to go around noting everything that is switched on in a typical day, how long for and make a list.

Even with the car removed, your 13 KwH usage is very high.

Although it's possible you have something switched on that you don't realise (for example a PC bitcoin mining rig with a high power graphics card) there is also the possibility that there is some error in the meter, or that you are actually paying for someone else's electricity as well (this is not unheard of, especially in flats).

Our typical usage is 8kwh a day for electric. 4 people in a 3 bed detached and we work from home.

We submit monthly readings. Our September account shows we used 4kw electricity and 5kw gas, same time last year it was 5kw electricity and 6kw gas. We've been trying to be careful. We're careful anyway, but electricity wise, we have tv on only if actively watching it, put lights on a bit later, turning oven off a bit sooner and wearing some things an extra time.

DH has been turning shower to cold towards the end and I've been trying to shower less (off gas boiler). We don't have heating on in September, but will try and use less in the winter.

Sorry, didn't make it clear, the above is a daily use.

Weve been working to reduce ours too, much more militant about turning things off. Stopped using the dryer function of our washer/dryer (took over 4 hours to dry half a load) and use a heated airer. Also switched to the eco setting wash.

Our fridge is about 7 years old so I reckon newer ones would be more efficient but won’t be upgrading until this one dies.

Is it much cheaper for a shower instead of a bath? We don’t have a shower installed and wasn’t planning on it until we could get the whole bathroom refurbed but this is looking less likely at the moment too! But might look into just installing one if it will help with bills.

I'm only using the tumble dryer very occasionally e.g. last weekend had a load of washing and visitors staying and I didn't want wet washing everywhere. I'm measuring water for the kettle. Turning things off instead of leaving on standby. I'm trying to decide if I should buy an airfryer.

It has made no bloody difference and I'm really fed up with it, don't know what to do.

Gas is another matter, I've turned down temperature on boiler,since April I've had heating on for 2 hrs when GS wasn't well and felt very cold and my gas has dropped by 50%.

So a game of two halves for me.

I don't have a smart meter, so I have no idea how much I'm using, but there's one at work and I noticed that boiling the kettle for a few cups of tea was 3p. For some reason I was expecting it to be way more than that.
I don't feel there are many ways I can cut down my electric.
I switch microwave and telly of at the plug until I use them.
Rarely use the tumble drier - just to finish off washing if there's no chance I can get it fully dry from the line.
I think my boiler is doing the flow thing correctly - that was a revelation that we should all be doing this.
I am lazy in shutting down my computer - I usually just put it to sleep as I'm on it constantly, it's a newish Mac, so I don't know if that uses much power?
I'm in the process of getting a new kitchen and mostly new appliances at the same time, which although obviously not an economy, they will use less power and I will freecycle my old appliances.

For me insulating my house is the main priority as then I can retain the heat once I get to a certain temperature.

I'm really hoping that some of these Green habits will stick, I think it's really important to reduce our footprint on the earth and if we can all tighten our belts it's not a bad thing.
Hopefully those who can't tighten their belts any further will be supported by the rest of us, my heart goes out to them.

We have oil heating. It’s stupidly expensive at the moment but it is what it is and we will still use the heating. We only tend to have it on gif a couple of hours in the evening anyway.

electricity we are trying to cut back on

This is a fortune! I hope you manage to reduce it.
I would not be able to afford that much.

We've reduced our usage. Turning lights off, not using tumble dryer, turned down boiler temperature, haven't put heating on yet and no immediate plans to do so.

After dinner, we watch tv in the dark in bed with a hot water bottle. Eat your heart out Charlie Bucket!

I haven't posted about this before. And really I was being rhetorical as I know that the only way to get to the bottom of it is turn everything off etc.

My electricity is slightly down (2%) but I've cut our gas by two thirds.

I'm using a log burner in the evening. The heating was off all summer and is now only on for an hour early in the morning. And during the summer I discovered that I could get by on 10 mins water heating.

I have plenty of free wood, so I'll carry on like this for as long as possible.

This

using slightly less but paying 3 times more

and the sc omfg😱

Ours is showing online as £55 so far for October which doesn't seem too bad. We are in a flat though. (Ovo smart meter)

Use airfryer instead of oven
Spot cleaning clothes more and wearing my socks twice
Using same coffee cup throughout the day
Leaving bed sheets 3 instead of 2 weeks
Shorter showers
Thermostat is a degree lower