Suggested DD of £595 per month gas & electricity!

[SugarMitts]

I’ve just had my new ‘forecast’ and it’s saying I need to be paying £595 per month to ‘stay on track’

Obviously I can’t afford this, I’m already in huge debit in my account as I can only just afford half of this!

So I neeeeeed some tips on how to cut my useage, we must be using way over the average but I just can’t see how we’re that much over
I’ll be honest I don’t understand a lot about heating etc, if we’re cold I flick it on, when we’re not I flick it off, it’s on a timer so I don’t mean every single time, but I don’t know what our thermostat is set to (don’t even know what that means) I just go off what the temp on the dial says and if it’s low I’ll press boost, so I need people to talk in very simple terms here 🙈

Family of 6, 3 storey, 5 bed house, 1 bathroom

We don't have carpets & the floors can feel cold. Wear slippers. Our house is set to come on to 18 for 1.5 hours in the morning & a few hours in the evening but it often doesn't click on in the evening. When it was cold we had it on more & I turned the thermostat up as it felt cold. Our hot water is on for an hour in the morning & this is enough for 3 showers at least. Occasionally we have to boost it.
Our DD is £300/month although last month's bill (for both) was about £600, but that is unusual. Our electricity is high because we have underfloor heating in some rooms. Our gas is quite low. 4 bed detached house with poor insulation (no cavity walls).

Assuming the bills are acurate ie you have a smart meter or submit readings (if not, submit a reading now):

You are looking for big savings, so forget about switching things off instead of standby. Electric showers, hot water, heating, washing machines, tumble driers hot tubs and electric cars are the things to look at.

First thing I'd do is turn the thermostat down 1C. 21 is on the warm side. If the 1 hour shower is electric, on a 10kWh shower, that's about £2.70... Even halving the time will make a big difference (if your showers run off the gas boiler, the cost is less, but still quite a lot).

I'd also look at how much of the payment is debt, and how much is usage. If you can stop the debt increasing, that would be a great first step.

Also, look at the British Gas energy trust. You don't need to be a BG customer.

Turn the thermostats to 0 when you are out of the house. Depending on how cold the lower floor gets you could be having the heating on all day to stay at 19 which you don’t need if everyone is out till 4/5pm. It takes no time at all for heating to warm up can when it’s been off all day.

When I wake up my house is 10 this week it’s reached highs of 12! It stays at that until 4 pm when the heating gets turned on ready for everyone coming home and gets set to 16.5

I appreciate I have adjusted and these are normal temps but we couldn’t afford to do it any different and we do adjust! I’d try by bringing it down a degree or two at first

Ok I think I’ve misunderstood the thermostat thing (why can I not get my head around this, I promise you I’m a normal intelligent woman outside of this!) I’m not saying my house is 21° all the time, absolutely not, it’s currently 19° but I haven’t switched it on since the kids went to school - what I meant was, if I press the boost button or when it comes in the timer, the heating will click off when it hits 21°

I’m also going to go rummage around the boiler and see how to switch the hot water off, it really doesn’t need to be on until bath & shower time this evening

Also, while I’m asking a lot of stupid questions what’s one more - if I turn the radiators down will that help? I always figured ‘well once the heatings on the heatings on so I might aswell have them on full’ but somewhere turning them down was mentioned, isn’t that just paying the same amount for the rooms to be colder?

When you break it down like that it actually doesn’t sound too bad, problem is I don’t have 3 different households income…maybe I’ll start charging the teens to heat their floor 🤔

We are family of 6. 5 bed, 3 storey. 1 bathroom house too.

My G&E for Jan was £264

And all my kids are gamers so have PCs and PS5s running alot.

@SugarMitts

Are most people on mumsnet too stupid to work out a simple thermostat?

You're talking about flow temperature when turning down radiators. It could make your boiler slightly more efficient but it will take you longer to heat your house and may not at all in very cold temperatures.

Whilst it's sickening the profits energy companies are making the good thing to come out of the energy crisis is people like the OP who are wasteful are being pushed to reduce their usage for the planet.

It's not rocket science!

Oh that is very interesting to compare to someone in the same boat!
Our Jan useage was £440 😳

Could you post a picture of your thermostat/controls for heating and hot water? I have a dial thermostat in the hall but that controls room temperature only. I have a control unit in the kitchen and that's where I set the timer for heating and hot water. My hot water is on for 1 hour per day and my room thermostat is currently around 18⁰C but is on a timer so only on am and pm. We have electric showers so they heat their own water.

Used around £300 last month and payment is £235 but I have some credit so that the usage was covered

You haven't misunderstood the thermostat. Boosting to 21 is hot.

You need slippers and rugs for cold floors. Heat yourselves not the whole room.

It's a mid terrace and we are frugal with the heating in fairness.

We are with Utilities Warehouse with a smart metre. I don't have nay of the extras they pedal. Just the G&E.

Threads like this are the only good thing to come out of the energy crisis

We are a 4 bed house with 2 adults and 2 teens. Electric showers, washing machine on a lot due to gym goers and rugby players. Dont have a tumble dryer. Thermostat around 18⁰C but only on am and pm and water on 1 hour per day

If it's a combi boiler then the hot water being on all the time wont make a difference. It only heats water by turning the boiler on when the tap is on.
If you turn the boiler off then no hot water at all.

We use heated blankets and oodies in the evening. I use a heated blanket while working from home. I rarely boost the heating when alone.
Reduce washing by wearing cardigans, jeans etc more than once. Hang damp rather than use the tumble dryer.
Have a serious conversation about time in the shower. Teenagers are often more environment focused so I would aim from that perspective.

If your kids do sport/swimming or you go to the gym shower there instead of at home.

If you do a meter reading today and then tomorrow at the same time you can see your daily useage. Then turn plugs etc off and see if the next day it is lower. With octopus you can put a reading in each day and it works it out in £ (can take 24/48 hours) . I did it regularly for weeks when I changed my boiler and prices had shot up. But I would investigate as a family if not you will become the bad guy who moans about the house been lit up like Blackpool illuminations 😂.

You don't need to turn the water off if you have a combi.

Have you got a tank with an immersion heater or a combi?

Oh we have a combi, that’ll be why I didn’t know you could turn the hot water off then!

Ok so I’ve decided I’m going to have to get strict on this, tbh I’d got into a bit of a “fuck the energy companies and their profits I’m not working every day to have my kids be cold at home I don’t care if I’m in debt” kind of mentality - which I still agree with, however they’ve got me over a barrel haven’t they so I’m going to have to play their game more and rein it in

Thank you to those of you who helped me understand more and to those who gave practical advice - my children will not be thanking you when I have a chat with them later about timing showers etc, and thank you to the couple of people who joined in my thread just to call me thick! Hope that made you feel better 🙃

Have a great day everyone!

I mean this kindly, but the cost of heating nowadays means unless money is absolutely no issue to you nobody can simply afford to 'flick the heating on when we're cold'.

It sounds like you are running the heating almost constantly. Ours is on from 6pm - 8pm in an evening and that's it. Yes, it's cold a lot of the time and we are at home. We put another sweater on and sit with a hot water bottle on our knee and a throw (if we're sitting). If we're moving about doing housework it warms you up.

This isn't due to anything other than the fact that most of us can't gaily afford to just flick the heating on in a 3 storey 5 bedroomed house cos we're a bit chilly. It will cost a fortune to heat. I've got a large Victorian family home that is mostly bloody cold. My gas/electric bills are £330 a month - even with just having the heating on for a few hours.

Slightly off topic here but if the length of showers is an issue - most water companies give freebies - such as timers (egg timer style) and shower/tap adjusters to encourage economies.
Also is DH claiming work from home tax allowance? It isn't much but would give you a little extra each month to throw at the debt.

Putting up thick curtains around both windows and doors (essential), using draught excluders and using thick rugs in winter will also make a big difference.

We have the thermostat set to 19 in the day and 16 at night and it’s fine. Our bill for a 3 bed semi is £170 a month.

OP, I mean this kindly but I sense you may be getting overwhelmed with all the good well-meaning advice in here, so let's start with the basics.

1. Take a deep breath
2. If you post your last bill/ statement, blanking out your personal details so we can't see it's you, we can have a look at what's going on and understand the problem.

You need to sort this, but you can.

We got a dehumidifier a few months ago and it’s been a godsend for laundry! No more heating on during the day to get things dry - I could easily get 2 or 3 loads of washing dry in one day, including bedding or towels. Much cheaper to run than a tumble dryer.

Give your kids a timer for the shower, once the timer goes off they have 2 minutes to get out or your turn off the hot water? Be harsh to start with and they’ll get the message.

make sure all your bulbs are led. Make sure your freezer isn’t empty (fill with empty boxes). Close doors to create ‘warm zones’, turn radiators off in rooms you can (I don’t have the radiators on in the hallways/ all the bathrooms). If you can invest in things like thermal curtains, thicker beddings. Make sure you and everyone puts on an extra layer, wears socks and slippers etc before boosting the heating.

Get a smart meter so you can see when your bill is going up.