October Energy Bills, how did you do?

[WahineToa]

Well I ran around doing all sorts to try and reduce our consumption but only saved 40kwh over the whole month! However, I see looking back over this year we have slowly reduced it by closer to maybe 100-120kwh a month. I got a clothes heated airer and cut the dishwasher use by 2 cycles a week, 4 min showers etc We rent and I think the fridge is using more than usual because it’s got a taped up seal and iced up a bit in summer… Can’t get to the plug to attach our gadget to check the energy usage. There’s only 3 of us in the house.

Our bill with Eon after govt help is £115, it’s been around £130-140 a month for awhile. So I feel that because we saved that 40kwh we have reduced our bill from the £200 expected and now make a profit from what the govt gave us? I would normally donate it but if we don’t get help next year, I should probably save it.

How did everyone else do?

October £38 Gas and nil Electric (credit to c/f £35)

Electricity was £85 - not sure about gas yet, as don't have a smart meter for gas (wouldn't fit in the box), but think it will be around £30 - including standing charges. We've got quite a bit of credit, but I've still had letters from Utility Warehouse putting up our DD (to £312 for both). We set the heating to come on regularly yesterday, so October gas is only for hot water.

5 bed mid-terrace - 2 adults and 3 preteen/teen dc. I am at home during the day but tend to just use the fire if I'm cold and stay in that room!

Wow ours is 17/18 daytime and down to 12 at night

it clicked on at 14 last night and dh got out of bed to turn off as too hot. I was asleep

It works really well for us because we chew through so much electric, have a roof that we can put plenty of panels on without shading issues and because we don't have any intention of moving in the near future. We have a 10kwh battery. I'd recommend it if you would have a similar set up but there are too many variables for it to work well for everyone.

100 kWh gas in my super saving hot water heating mode.

202 kWh electric, which I think is mainly due to increased wfh and the special widgets that requires.

Right did ours this am

gas is 29 units for last month

if I have this right an unit is kWh 32

so it’s 29 x 32 so 928 @9p so 83.52 plus sc

does that sound right

Depends if metric or imperial I think, if you look on a previous bill you should see. Our units are about 11kwh. Yours sounds high for October, ours was 11 units x 11 =121kwh. 118.7 on the bill.

£29 after the £66 deduction, so I guess £95 - two bed, newish flat with two adults and one baby but wash and tumble dry pretty much everyday

If you have an older meter and it's ft3 then yes, one unit is roughly 32KWh. If it's m3 then it's about 11.2Kwh a unit.

Def old. I’ve been in house 23yrs and same one from when I moved in

It'll say on it anyway. That seems about right if you've had heating on a bit. We were 601KWH in October so £70ish.

Yes 30m am and maybe hr in eve most days

odd day not as warm

if can stick at £100 a month be good

doubt that will happen though lol

pic is last month. I’ve given numbers to Bulb so will see what this months bill will be like. Should get in a few days

October last year £95. This year £165 😞

Oh. Pic didn’t load. Signal is crap here. Tho basically used 627 khw last month and 20 units in metre

hence my deduction if I unit must be 32 khw

I'm with British Gas, and they like to keep me guessing, so God only knows.

Seems roughly double in cost for us

19 units last year sept to oct was £28

57 units last year oct to nov so this month and £80

so have managed to cut right down to almost a third of what used last oct /nov but due to rates rising paying the same 🥲🥲

was paying 3p. Now 9p

Not used any gas yet so 'only' paying the standing charge.

We, 2 adults in 3 bedroom semi detached, have cut our electricity usage down from approx 72-75 units to 53 a week.

I turn the shower off when washing my hair but it is really testing my mental and physical fortitude - my teeth were chattering today.

Someone on here said about keeping all spare water from the kettle in a flask. An ingenious and very handy way of getting washing up done without heating further water.

We have a mini halogen oven that has helped immensely plus we now cook two days worth of food. I then just lightly reheat the next day.

We have a pond and turned off the UV over the winter which saves 25watts per hour. We also bought a power head that uses almost 50% less watts p/h.

A truly weird thing we now do is peg some radiator reflective foil on a part of the curtain where the gaming pc is positioned.

I am not kidding but a couple of hours usage from the computer heated the room up a few degrees. Rather than the heat hitting the window it can bounce off the foil.😀

I am all for cutting usage but the things I am doing to cut down is beginning to get me down. The shower is becoming a dread.

I turn the shower off when washing my hair but it is really testing my mental and physical fortitude - my teeth were chattering today.

@Lampedsomeoiks

keeping it on will honestly cost you a penny. Showers are to be enjoyed AND warm you up

Along with cleaning!

@Lampedsomeoiks thank you there’s some great tips for me there! Cheers

It is 8.5Kw shower so each minute is approx 141.67 watts per minute. I can almost visually see the pennies pouring down the plug hole. What a bloody state it all is.

October was incredibly kind in terms of temperatures. The coming of November and the damp has enveloped the house.

Another thing couple of things I now do is use the tablet to watch stuff rather than use the TV / Virgin Tivo box.

And I use my laptop rather than the gaming PC to do my work. I work for myself so honestly the PC was only used for work in the day 😉but the components are exponentially more power hungry than a basic little laptop.

We have always been careful with usage but a week on holiday this year showed just how large our passive usage is. The fridge freezer, pond pump and UV, aquarium with two filters plus 3 security cameras and Virgin router hub added up to 31Kwh!

Please try not to make yourself too miserable. The kettle / flask combo is so easily done, especially if you already own a flask. The shower is just soul destroying on nasty cold damp days.

Yes I think I will pass on the shower tip, I have too much hair so would stand there cold too long!

Very pleased with mine - being using all the tips shared

October 2021
Gas 437 kWh
Electricity 424 kWh
Total = £109

October 2022
Gas 274 kWh
Electricity 285 kWh
Total = £86 (£20 after £66 credit)

What was I doing last October? Clearly had every light on every day and hour long showers!