How much do you pay approx in elec & gas per quarter? How can we save money on these?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

We just got our electricity and gas bill in for the previous quarter and it was £505!!!!

It's been winter obviously so the heating has been on a lot and I must admit I often put the heating on the dry clothes. We have a tumble drier that's on loads too but I find that air drying takes too long and the clothes end up too rough.

What do you roughly pay? (feel free to say I am being nosy but this is a genuine query to see if we are paying over the odds) And how could we cut back on these bills?

Thanks!

Not far off that for gas & elec combined. Gone up by nearly £200 in the last 2 years!

about the same, combined 540.00 a quarter

£70 per month, so £210 per quarter for both, I am mean with the heating though, in deepest winter on all day (6am to 10pm) on a low temp, autumn and spring only on twice a day, then off from Mar to Oct. Only have hot water on twice a day for 2 hours or so at a time, lagged hot water tank. Have heating on low, with thermostats on all radiators to have bedrooms cool and lounge warmer, use gas fire when cold, invest in gilets, fleece jumpers, etc.

We have an energy monitor and the things that really jack up the energy consumption is tumble dryer, kettle, microwave and dishwasher. You could always part use the tumble dryer, hang clothes outside when you can, inside if necessary then give them a quick 10min in tumble dryer to finish off??

Have a look at the tarrifs at least once a year if not twice, we're on a good fixed with Eon at the mo but signed up last summer.

No gas, just electic.

£120 a month.

I posted in a very similar kind of panic about six months ago, and did manage to get our electricity bills down by about 25%.

The energy monitor is definitely worth getting - we have one and are now so much better at turning lights and so on off as soon as we can. It really does change the way you use things.

Also, what made a difference for us was turning anything with a transformer (so not just mobile charger, but DAB radio, laptop charger, even halogen lights) off at the plug when you are not using them, change ALL your lightbulbs to energy-saving (even the ones in the cooker hood...) and putting computers to sleep or turning them off as soon as you walk alway from them.

The tumble drier does eat electricity - the only thing where the roughness bothers me are nappies and towels, so we air dry these and then put them through on low heat for a few min to soften up. We've also got the dryer balls that you can get from Lakeland - they beat things around a bit and soften them up more quickly.

Where can we get an energy monitor? Does someone need to install it?

John Lewis is where we got ours, some elec companies give them out free to their customers, JL might not be the cheapest at the mo, shop around.

Just install it yourself, one part clips onto the outgoing wire of your elec meter/supply and the mobile part "talks" to it so you can walk around the house turning things on and off to see what difference it makes!

And no, they're v simple - just a clip which fits around the (outside of) the wires to your fuse box.

mine was 699 for this qarter estimated for both, but once i read it i only managed to shave off 50 quid. bit of a shocker, having gone up over 200 for this quarter.

£120 a month here for both but that is all year. So when we're using less in the summer we're still paying the same. tbh your bill sounds about right for a winter quarter. We were on a price capped plan until last november. Our prices were capped at november 2007 prices. When it ended our bill went up by 60%

Ours was about £300 combined for combined gas and electricity for the last quarter. We pay £80 a month plus about £9 a month for our logs if you split the cost over a year. We both work from home.

I have stopped using the tumble drier apart from emergencies. Instead of using the main fan oven to cook things, I have a little camping oven that sits on the work top and is 650watts, plus use the slow cooker a fair bit. Agree with getting an energy monitor, it does help see where you are spending money.

The thermostat is turned down a few degrees lower than it was two years ago and we have acclimatised.

£75 a month combined. we have the heating off now but over the winter it was set on a thermostat rather than a timer, around the 18 mark at all times. water is set to heat up for half an hour in the morning and half an hour at about 3pm. we don't tumble dry much, just hang stuff on an airer or in the airing cupboard if it needs to dry quicker. i do tumble towels though.

Ours is about £1000 a quarter (of which electricity is £300) I know it is unbelieveable and that is with me going round turning off everything I can constamtly and with heating on for only 2 hours a day usually. We reckon something is wrong with boiler as it appears to be so inefficient and need to get someone out to check.