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Original poster

Insane costs to run our home. Is there help on the way?

169 replies

SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 11:05

We are in the fortunate enough position to own our own 3 bed Victorian property. Over the years we have modernised it by adding on an extension (with lots of glass - so not great for keeping heat in (or out in the summer). We have also added in as much insulation as possible to the walls in the bedrooms and ceilings, the windows are all new wooden sash windows, we have wooden shutters I try and keep closed (no fabric curtains).

I have just checked our smart metre and we have already spend £6.28 this morning alone! I kept turning the heating off over night because our bedrooms luckily weren't absurdly cold, but our front room (north facing and always the coldest) got down to 13C!! I did have the tumble dryer on last night to dry a load of blankets I washed (son was ill) that I'll be using during the day to keep me warm while I WFH. DH and Son are upstairs in bed so it's just been my daughter and I up and about so far today. I've had a shower as well. Not used the stove or oven or anything. The heat was on this morning for maybe an hour.

I checked the smart metre and yesterday it tallied up at £19.88 for the day!!! 😳

The cost to heat and run the electrics for our home will cost us close to £600+ this month!?! This is crazy and unaffordable. As I said, I understand that we are in a fortunate position with our home, and there are many others struggling far worse than us. Will there be more help from the government? Is there an end in sight for these sky rocketing costs? (I know it won't be instant, but will they go down close to where they were within the next couple years?). Will there be help from the government?

What can we do to lower the costs? Husband says that all our bulbs are energy efficient. Right now I've got all the lights and heating off. We do have some things plugged in that's not in use like the main computer, the TV, sky box, play station etc. but there's not loads. The only things I'm actually using right now is my laptop for work that's plugged in and my Amazon Alexa to listen to some music.

OP posts:
Sweetpeasaremadeforbees · 12/12/2022 13:16

It’s the heating. It’s nothing to do with your Alexa/lightbulbs/led on your microwave.
Seriously though - you own a Victorian house and you built a glass extension and now you want public funds to keep it warm… ?

Sorry but I agree with this. Plus as others have said, it is exceptionally cold at the moment so your energy costs will be higher at the moment. I wouldn't focus on just one particularly cold day.

Yabado · 12/12/2022 13:16

my electric atm is around 8.50 a day but £4.50 of that is the bloody hot tub
so my regular every day electric is around £4 a day
gas with it set at 19 degree is around £5 a day
so excluding the bloody tub it’s under a tenner a day for both

we don’t go around turning off lights and unplugging stuff
house is warm enough although I like it tropical so I will use my heated throw as DH dosent like it as hot as I do

have maybe 3-4 showers a day ( gas not electric )
someone is always at home as well
but we don’t use a dryer or cooker any more

DogInATent · 12/12/2022 13:18

Hooverphobe · 12/12/2022 11:55

It’s the heating. It’s nothing to do with your Alexa/lightbulbs/led on your microwave.

Seriously though - you own a Victorian house and you built a glass extension and now you want public funds to keep it warm… ?

everyone is either

1.freezing their tits off in cold and damp

2 cancelling their 4th Seychelles trip for 2023

3 a barrister married to a barrister telling you they don’t know how your bills are so high (when they’re using a different fuel system)

4 throwing caution to the wind and sticking their fingers in their ears

To complete your list..

5 Still on a fixed rate until the end of spring and/or bought in solid fuel before prices rose

whynotwhatknot · 12/12/2022 13:20

MarshaBradyo · 12/12/2022 13:10

Not sure if you got it, but £900 did go out, I wouldn’t say no but others need it more.

Show quote history

no,not eligible and it still not enough long term

GasPanic · 12/12/2022 13:27

Yabado · 12/12/2022 13:16

my electric atm is around 8.50 a day but £4.50 of that is the bloody hot tub
so my regular every day electric is around £4 a day
gas with it set at 19 degree is around £5 a day
so excluding the bloody tub it’s under a tenner a day for both

we don’t go around turning off lights and unplugging stuff
house is warm enough although I like it tropical so I will use my heated throw as DH dosent like it as hot as I do

have maybe 3-4 showers a day ( gas not electric )
someone is always at home as well
but we don’t use a dryer or cooker any more

Have you considered turning off the hot tub ?

Afterfire · 12/12/2022 13:33

We are a low income family and we just can’t afford to have the heating on much. I am always a bit 😳 when - as here and on other forums I’ve seen online- people are complaining about the cost of heating etc and then saying they’ve got their heating on overnight 😳. You really don’t need heating on overnight. Use extra blankets, hot water bottles, extra layers etc. We have never put our heating on at night, it’s cold but that’s life if you can’t afford it. We have the heating on for 1.5 hours in the morning and then again for 2 hours from 4-6. The rest of the time we use heated blankets and wrap up. We hang washing up and just use the dryer for the last 10 mins to keep the damp off and dry it completely. We have two disabled people in our family and when you’re on a low income you just manage - and we’re better off than a lot to be honest.

LemonSwan · 12/12/2022 13:36

SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 12:17

The heating isn't throughout the night. We have a Nest thermostat so it's set to come on a bit before we get up in the morning and for an hour perhaps when we're up getting ready. Then it may come on if it gets really cold again, but we have separate thermostats for our main living room / kitchen area and the rest of the house. So don't need to heat if we aren't upstairs.

We put it on again to warm the rooms for 30 mins when the children get ready for bed and go to bed. Then for another 30 mins or so while we get into bed. Then it's off for the night.

I think I just need to crank to way down, because I think sometimes what happens is it's turned off, but set to say 15C. And when the room hits that temp it comes on. It's so cold now that the rooms are hitting that temp more often and faster than they have before. I will turn them way down today and see what it is at the end of the day.

** I have just heard the boiler flick on, so something has triggered the heating. I will go investigate. It's either my husband turning it on or one of the Nests has gotten cold enough to switch on. I shall go turn it off!

I really wouldn’t turn it down. It takes an hour of constant boiler on average to warm 1 degree.

Rather than programming times just let the nest do it’s thing. It clicking on and off for 15 here and there is much better than hours and hours whilst you wait for the house to reheat.

Take note of your gas units midnightly as you do your experimenting. The flow rate makes a huge difference to the boiler efficiency but that’s something you have to experiment with yourself.

No point being cold and miserable when it might cost you exactly the same to maintain a constant temp.

Original poster
SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 13:36

Sweetpeasaremadeforbees · 12/12/2022 13:16

It’s the heating. It’s nothing to do with your Alexa/lightbulbs/led on your microwave.
Seriously though - you own a Victorian house and you built a glass extension and now you want public funds to keep it warm… ?

Sorry but I agree with this. Plus as others have said, it is exceptionally cold at the moment so your energy costs will be higher at the moment. I wouldn't focus on just one particularly cold day.

To clarify - I said it has a lot of glass (in the grand scheme of things) but it is not a glass extension. It is the main hub of our home - an open plan kitchen & living room that is quite long. One wall obviously is attached to the back of the house, the other wall is attached to the semi beside us, so no windows. There is a large window on the external wall, some large velux windows in the roof and then the end that backs out to the garden is glass bifold doors. It is definitely not a conservatory.

There are built in blinds into the glass doors, but to be honest we keep them shut most of the time for privacy. I will see about putting some cardboard over the doors to see if that helps hold in the heat.

Our front door is also quite drafty at the bottom and the letter slot part. I need to look at getting the bottom part sorted.

OP posts:
LemonSwan · 12/12/2022 13:45

So sorry if I just explain.

If your house loses x degrees an hour. It costs just as much to maintain at 15c than 19c if you have it on constantly.

The only way you are better off turning on and off is if your house is super insulated and you can heat at a rate higher than loss without whacking the flow rate to 70+.

Ciri · 12/12/2022 13:45

we've just put thermal blinds onto our velux windows and its made a big difference to the temperature in the playroom.

Yabado · 12/12/2022 13:59

@GasPanic
no because I can afford it

next year it may become an expensive flower pot In the garden 😂 but at the moment we can afford it so it stays on - I just moan about it

and for the cost of it and redoing my garden I’m damm well going to use it even if I do bitch about the cost of electric

antelopevalley · 12/12/2022 14:10

@Afterfire I agree with you. But I think for a lot of well off people this is the first time ever they have had to think about these kind of costs.

Afterfire · 12/12/2022 15:14

antelopevalley · 12/12/2022 14:10

@Afterfire I agree with you. But I think for a lot of well off people this is the first time ever they have had to think about these kind of costs.

Oh absolutely. It’s just a different world!

EmmaAgain22 · 12/12/2022 15:21

Complaining about the cost of heating a hot tub is a bit weird. Maybe do that with fellow hot tub friends (that sounds wrong 😂😂)

JustAnotherMoan · 12/12/2022 15:24

Just to rule a few things out, as this is likely to be a combination of high use devices and heating/water demand. This is what I found when I investigated our high use:

  • Is it a high end gaming computer? A very high end PC (i.e. with a big energy guzzling GPU), in constant gaming use could easily eat through £2 in 8 hours of use. If he is mining crypto 24x7 then treble that. Similarly, a PS5 will cost about £1 for 10 hours of use.
  • Fridge/Freezer door seals - our 10 year old fridge/freezer was running a lot - put a switched on torch in each, and turned the kitchen lights off. We could clearly see the torch light. On one door it was badly aligned, so adjusted to fix. The other door needed a new seal.
  • What type of boiler do you have? Our new combi has a small reserve tank that is kept hot for near instant hot water. Turned this off (think we switched on an Eco setting to do this).

We went through all our appliances and tech kit to work out what each used per day, covering standby and typical in-use consumption.

Thingamebobwotsit · 12/12/2022 16:05

So you are on the high side and it will depend on the tariff you are on too. But I wouldn't wait for prices to come down... in fact they are set to get higher in the spring. And there is the little discussed fact of Europe putting a cap on Russian exports which means Putin is threatening to turn off supply and China opening up again which is likely to also increase demand and pressure on supply.

It isn't looking pretty and it is going to be a long winter.

Original poster
SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 18:00

Update on total spend for the day. I'm not at £10.50ish. I was at £8.56 a couple hours ago. But we've since turned the heating on (was 14C in my daughters room) and I'm so cold my nose is red and dripping in the kitchen despite it being warmer in here than it was earlier this afternoon. Think my removal of layers and blanket while I was WFH is the cause of this. Son is downstairs playing on the PS3, I've air fried my daughters dinner - now doing the same for my son and husband as well as cooking pasta on the hob for my son. Surely we can't spend another £5-£8 this evening alone. I'm hoping to have it as it about £14-£15 by the end of today. If that is the case the. I think the TV has contributed a lot to the cost on other days as well as the heating.

OP posts:
Original poster
SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 18:01

SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 18:00

Update on total spend for the day. I'm not at £10.50ish. I was at £8.56 a couple hours ago. But we've since turned the heating on (was 14C in my daughters room) and I'm so cold my nose is red and dripping in the kitchen despite it being warmer in here than it was earlier this afternoon. Think my removal of layers and blanket while I was WFH is the cause of this. Son is downstairs playing on the PS3, I've air fried my daughters dinner - now doing the same for my son and husband as well as cooking pasta on the hob for my son. Surely we can't spend another £5-£8 this evening alone. I'm hoping to have it as it about £14-£15 by the end of today. If that is the case the. I think the TV has contributed a lot to the cost on other days as well as the heating.

*I'm about at £10.50ish

OP posts:
chocolateasaltyballs22 · 12/12/2022 18:26

Why are you cooking separate meals for everyone? That can't be very energy efficient. But apart from anything else it's a ball ache.

Reallybadidea · 12/12/2022 18:28

What's your kWh for gas and electricity? TVs don't use much, that's unlikely to be contributing significantly unless it's massive and ancient.

dancingqueen123 · 12/12/2022 18:31

Our home costs are similar op. It's ridiculous.

Original poster
SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 18:33

Reallybadidea · 12/12/2022 18:28

What's your kWh for gas and electricity? TVs don't use much, that's unlikely to be contributing significantly unless it's massive and ancient.

Just gone and checked. It's currently 88.56 kwph which is a combined total heating and electric. Only things running are the tv, downstairs lights and the heating. Total now was £12.14 Envy

OP posts:
Original poster
SoupaDoupa · 12/12/2022 18:34

I should say I'm not sure if I read the kwph correctly. I think maybe it's the total for the day so far. Not current usage. Yesterdays says it was over 100kwph

OP posts:
Minikievs · 12/12/2022 18:36

Total now was £12.14

How's it gone up £2 in 30 minutes? Have you had the tumbler on?

NewBootsAndRanty · 12/12/2022 18:36

You need to break down the gas and electric kwh separately.