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

[SoupaDoupa]

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.

Nope. Just the air fryer, the heating and the TV

Electric is more expensive than gas. Your electric usage sounds high.

Sort your smart meter display to show you the split between electric and gas.

It's saying now the kwh used so far today for heating is 83.51 (£8.60) and electric is showing 948w and saying cost per hour is £0.33. Total now is £12.77 and 94.17kwh

I'm going with 4, because i didn't use any heating for months during summer and barely any electricity.

having to ration heat, wear gloves and only eat slow cooked stew feels so unfair

So that's 10.49kwh used today for electricity?

At the moment you're using just under 1kwh an hour of electric...

Op, we are in a 3bed victorian semi too and our gas hit £20 the other day 😔 I have the thermostat set to 18 during the day but some rooms very rarely get that warm, our living room is about 13/14 most days and we have it off during the night. We do have a log burner and use that in the evenings. We are a family of 4 and all of us are home most of the day, I don't even know what the elec is, it's not showing on my smart meter just now, our mortgage also went up about £200 last month when we had to remortgage too. It is worrying 😔

@NewBootsAndRanty is that good or bad? I haven't a clue tbh. It's saying for the month so far our bill is £178 and we've used 1222kwp all together.

Total cost now for the day is £12.88 and 94.49kwh used so far.

I turned the heating off at 7pm btw.

We lived in a big draughty victorian house. The key is to wear warm clothes and slippers. Extra covers (I always had two duvets) on all the beds and warm socks etc in bed .

We have a 5 bed 1990s built detached house and if doesnt cost anywhere near that amount to heat.

If I am WFH i just heat the room I am in with a portable heater or use an electric throw (I get very ill if I get cold)

Not sure if you've answered this but what temp is your boiler on?

Totally depends on what you're using.
I don't have a telly or computer, live on my own, and usually use 6 or 7 kwh a day of electric if I'm using a tumble dryer or have my dehumidifier going flat out. I use gas for heating and cooking.

Medium average household use is 8kwh a day according to OVO.

You need to split the kwh between the two because of the unit rate difference - using "10kwh" an hour could mean about £1 worth of gas , £3.40 of electricity, or anything in between.

It says 66C. But it's been specifically set to that and the flow and everything specially done because we have underfloor heating downstairs. I can't really go fiddling with it it it will mess everything up.

Makes me want to move now even though I love our house 😕

For us, having the heating click
on and off to keep the house at 15c overnight is cheaper overall than letting it drop any lower and have the boiler burn away for ages at full whack to warm the house again. I know this because I have done day to day comparisons.

Having the heat on 24/7 means the water in the system never really gets cold enough to need much to bring it up to temp, and the actual walls and furniture etc don’t get cold enough that the heating has to run for long to raise the temp in the evenings when we want it warmer.

Plus, the house doesn’t get damp.

There isn’t a once size fits all solution so to assume that people are being extravagant by having heating on over night is silly.

I’ve been leaving mine on overnight too at 15 and it’s been working well.

Surely a lot depends on your tariff? I fixed last year for 2 years and am likely on a cheaper tariff than most so wouldn't spend that much in a day.

Oh but they do make lovely houses in so many ways. I think it's learning to adapt. It's not freezing all year round. Hot water bottles, warm layers etc all make a difference. Oil filled heaters for heating just one room. Decent thick rugs if you have cold stone /wooden floors. Blankets for the sofas.

Could you get some really thick lined curtains for the big glass wall?

And do you have a log fire/stove? My parents one kicked out a lot of heat.

I don’t think your costs are that high given that it’s for gas and electricity.

Agreed. We are averaging £31 a day over the last week just for heating.

Stuff is expensive but it’s due to be warmer next week so costs will drop back down again.

I've been out for an hour and a half. Meter now reading at £14.71, but the heating is back on. Husband must have turned it on...

Temporary fix for the draughty front door. Chop the leg off an old pair of leggings/tights and stuff with rags/stained t-shirts/that skirt you bought but never liked - spread a few pebbles in (to weigh it down because if there really is a big gap it’ll get blown across the hall) and sew up the ends.

Cut a flap of fabric which covers the letterbox but will allow letters to come through. Pin it in place.

not beautiful no, but better than a cold blast to the neck.

I have used a power monitor to check out how much things cost to use - one very similar to this📧
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085S7Q1T4/
You program in your unit price and plug the device you want to measure in to it, eg. tumble drier.
About 3 years ago I found that my 25 year old fridge freezer was using a lot of electricity and probably accounted for 25-30% of my total bill - I had noticed it was rumbling and humming a lot - it worked out to be more economical to buy the cheapest Bosch Fridge/Freezer and it paid for itself in only 18 months.

I use about £2.50-£3.50 a day on electricity - I had the oven on last night - it was full of sausages (30!), 6 baked potatoes and huge pot of ratatouille - that's why it was £3.50. I probably don't use the oven even once a week. I would normally have used the slow cooker for ratatouille but I was making more than would fit in and needed to cook sausages for a work thing tomorrow.

Although it's a bit unsightly - I have used the foil covered bubble wrap - the type you put behind radiators and double sided sticky velcro'd it to most of my really big windows and doors (it's dark most of the time now anyway) just to slow the rate at which heat is lost from the house - it should mean the boiler comes on less frequently to maintain the temperature which is set at 17C during the day and bumped up to 18C if needed in the evening then it's set to 16C overnight - it rarely comes on. Novembers usage this year was £120 - exactly the same as last November's. I'm monitoring the gas usage to see what difference it's making - I take my own readings and have spreadsheets going back years.

@SoupaDoupa are you sure your smart meter monitor has been programmed with the correct unit price and daily charge - mine picks it up from the smart meter. Mine automatically adds on the daily charge at midnight so it starts the day with 50p on the clock - the readings on the website do not include the 50p daily charge - where are you getting your readings from?

My husband generally deals with all of this kind of stuff, so it's all fairly new to me. I don't access the website - as far as I know he doesn't regularly either. We just look at the smart metre and is displays everything there. That's what we've been going by. We had it installed about 3 months ago, and admittedly I've not paid much attention to it until recently. I will check it at midnight to see what it resets to.

Also just to say that all of our appliances, tv, dvd player, sky box, etc are all under 5yrs old so should hopefully be fairly energy efficient in comparison to something 10-15yrs old .