Anyone else decided to stop caring about heating bills?

[ClarissaParry]

I put the heating on during the cold snap in December, and now I'm £200 in debit.

I'm not happy about it, but my dc were warm.

I've decided to put my head in the sand and crack on with staying warm over winter. We're not talking 24C 24/7, but 17C or 18C morning and night, and during very cold days, for longer. Minimum temp is set to 13.5C at the moment, but on cold and damp days, I go for broke and up it to 14C!

I'm hoping spring is early this year and we have a long run of not needing the heating on so I can avoid getting too deep into debt with the energy company, but I'll still keep the house reasonably warm regardless. Am I the only one willfully ignoring their energy balance?

Out comfort and health comes before their greed and wealth - my new motto lol.

If we all end up in debt fuck them. Their problem.

We're in 2022 for gods sake, the cost of living shouldn't be this bad, but it is 🤷‍♀️ enjoy your heating I say ❤️

Same here. My children are 1 & 3 and both are waking in the night at the moment. If they're cold they'll wake even more!

Draughty victorian house so very hard to heat, I'm trying not to think about it too much. Thankfully we overpaid by quite a bit over the summer so it might not to too bad.

Our comfort and health comes before their greed and wealth

Corrected my own spelling mistake 🤣🤣

What’s a sofa duvet? I’ve googled but none the wiser.

I assume a sofa duvet is a duvet bought just for using while sitting on sofa

This is my thought too.

I am being a bit more frugal than previous years just because it's so much more on my mind currently, but not excessively. I WFH and it's absolutely miserable being freezing all day. I heat the kitchen and lounge to about 17 degrees and wear layers and use a heated throw if I'm feeling cold. Bedroom rads all off.
Bathroom radiator is old and won't turn off or down, but at least I don't get a cold bum when going to the loo.
Small dc get home in afternoons and house jsnt freezing for them with this approach.
I'll deal with what bill comes. No smart meter here, prefer blissful ignorance till I submit the meter readings.

Slight hijack but it's relevant. Can I ask you all how you track your spending with it? I get billed twice a year, so I'm in loads of credit currently. But I'm not sure how best to check up on the usage vs money sitting there? Can I ask to be billed more often? (British Gas). Sorry if this a silly question. Until this all kicked off I was a bit naive about how it all works. Thank you

They're not getting cheaper, still more expensive in comparison to last year, the year before etc,
They just word it this way to make it sound good

Sort of like when the government put a higher cap on it, then changed it to a lower cap and it looked like they were helping, the lower cap was still massively higher than it was 12 months ago 👀

Log in to your online account and you will see monthly usage. Do you provide meter readings or are you bills based on estimates ?

Also this! Going to submit readings next in about August.

Lights costs pennies esp if you're using the new ultra efficient bulbs. I'm baffled by people sitting in the dark. Glad you saw sense

Same. I work from home and it's so miserable sitting all day in the cold. To hell with it. Heating is on and I'll suffer the consequences.

@DogBowlsAreMyWeapon

(threatening not to fill them or flinging frisbee style at DH??)

North of Scotland and no log burner???

you're hardy or mad.

@IDontCareMatthew energy companies have doubled the price of an essential service and you're calling someone trying to keep their family safe and warm irresponsible?! You've chosen the wrong side. I'm with you OP.

@cantba

be very careful keeping the radiators off in little used rooms, rooms/contents can easily get mouldy and it's not easy & not cheap to fix! You're better off having them on for a bit each day. As you have the heating on anyway, I don't think it'll make a huge difference to the cost anyway.

@DadANDPK thanks for that. Good advice.

It was knee jerk on my part although I have to say that switching everything off including all wall sockets except the fridge and wifi hub knocked at least 130kw off from my previous bill.

@DadANDPK not much difference tbh when you’re on an island with no gas and no trees - importing logs is not a cheap alternative.

You'd be better off submitting them before the rates go up again as there's no guarantee they would assign the readings to when you used the fuel, which may well be while prices are "lower". They go up again in April.

I haven't 'chosen the wrong side' 😂

What does that even mean
The ATTITUDE is irresponsible, op even herself says she's got her head in the sand about it

Bit silly really because energy costs still appear to be rising, and with a 'fuck it' attitude,well, good luck repaying it all

I would continue to submit meter readings monthly otherwise they will do an estimated bill which will likely be way off inaccurate.

I wish I could stop worrying about it. Sadly we have oil for heating/hot water so when it runs out, it runs out. My tank is currently empty as we cannot afford to fill up at £800 :-(

@Greensleevevssnotnose

I think the little things add up when you're all at home (lights, charging devices, games consoles, tvs, kettle, fridge/freezer not working as efficiently (overfull) as well as being accessed many many more times.etc etc).

I presume you don't have electric showers?

did you save on commuting??

You'd be better off submitting them before the rates go up again as there's no guarantee they would assign the readings to when you used the fuel, which may well be while prices are "lower". They go up again in April.

I will submit them in April. It's not like they hold back with their estimates which I'll pay with the £66 on too but this is an expensive time of year for me for a large number of reasons. I'm in a much better position to pay it off over the summer