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.

Still use the same as before and most days I only use under £2.00 because I’m sleeping in the day and children are at school. I use my tumble dryer twice a week that’s when I use around £3+. The only thing I have stopped using is under floor heating in the bathroom . I haven’t used it for 2 years now because it was too expensive.

I work nights

We are trying, bought an airfryer to reduce using the oven & hob, only doing washing when we have a full load, adjusted the heating time to come on an hour later in a morning, drying washing on the radiator or airer & only using the tumble dryer for bedding & towels, only washing clothes when they are really dirty.

Son has gone to Uni, that’s reduced my washing hugely, though I’m sending him money every month so technically no better off. But overall yes I’m switching things off a lot, heatings gone down a notch, rarely put the oven on as got an air fryer. In 2020 I impulsively bought a hot tub, not a chance that’s going on! Now my son’s gone to Uni and DD is always in her room I’ve been going upstairs around 6pm, so nothing on downstairs at least. They wanted me to increase DD to £280, even though I’m £400 in credit. It was £120 last year, I’ve increased to £220 and hope don’t need to increase again.

No we are a very low usage household anyway. If anything I might be even stricter on turning lights off. We already mostly shower at work or the gym.

With the £66 payments and government cap our energy expenditure will likely be less than last winter.

Biggest is for us is a common one; drying clothes. We have made cuts to many things and changed our behavioura,

Argh fat fingers strike again!

'...changed our behaviours, but drying clothes is a bit difficult right now, especially as the weather outside is very wet today!'*

How did you manage to use that much?

Turned the hot water temperature down on the combi boiler. Washing machine used less frequently, and wearing warmer clothes indoors.

We are on holiday atm. I am looking at the energy used in our house when it’s empty. We are using approx 8kwh according to the British Gas website.

as far as I’m aware, all that is running is 2 x American fridge freezers, one chest freezer, Wi-Fi router, deco Wi-Fi mesh extender, hive camera. Everything else should be off

Oh and one lamp left on but it has an energy saving lightbulb in it

I think we will use less than last year, but very difficult to tell as we recently had a new boiler, bathrooms, hot water tank put in. Last year was mild too. Although we haven't really had the heating on much this year either, only a couple of hours for a couple of evenings.

One big thing maybe DH not sitting in the conservatory every night watching his TV, with an extra several lights, and electric radiators going! That should help.

Our showers are super duper pump fed, so probably using more power, but as our water is gas heated, that will have reduced. The new boiler is super efficient. We used to have to put the immersion on for baths, but haven't done so since the new boiler was put in.

So, for us. Swings and roundabouts, but I am not making any effort to change how we cook, or use tech, or lighting, as it is all new, LED, or Apple, and is all pretty efficient.

American fridge freezers have a bit of a reputation for using lots more (50% more) power than normal fridges. 8kwh in 1 day is 0.33kwh continuous use (8/24).

I guess the question is whether you really need two of them. I would guesstimate each is costing about £300 a year to run.

We have one in the kitchen and one (our old one) is in the pantry being used as overflow. I appreciate fully that most people don’t have three freezers.

Yes. It's happened in stages as the costs have gone up. But when I look at a couple of years ago compared to now:

Elect: down by 34%, maybe even more
Gas: down by 25%

This time last year I was using about 25 kw a day of electricity as we used an oil filled radiator as well as the central heating. The oil filled radiator has been moth balled and I am now using less than half that and it was even less in the summer as I have a small 8 panel solar system. No battery but it pretty much ran the house during daylight hours. I used a total of just under 8000 kw last year. This year I should at least halve that. I am also cutting back on gas as I have a new boiler that is more energy efficient plus the water is now on timer rather than on all day and the heating is set to 20 rather than 22.
I am also doing things like washing at lower temperatures, put in all LED bulbs, no tumbler dryer, using air fryers where possible rather than the electric oven, shorter showers and only filling the kettle with what water I need for a cuppa.
I have also looked at where I can save on water as I am metered. I have put in an extra 1000 litres of water storage for the garden using blue chemical barrels I got for a tenner each and put water flow restrictors on the taps and showers and so far shaved £12 pm off the water bill.

In September a little bit, but not significantly. I used combined of 50kWh less than last year. But it was before the big increase. It's still 6 days until end of October, but last year I used 963kWh that month and this year 492kWh until 23rd of October.