Bringing down my gas and leccy bill challenge (start August 2008)

lemontart

for those of you with electric ovens turn off the switch at the wall - the one with the red light on when not in use - that is bound to save a few units over a year as not powering that light. just like standby items, also I have 3 cordless phones so have unplugged two and now just rotate the one on charge so always have on fully charged, this also knocks off a few units not to mention using conservatory all year round to reduce need for lights on as long as possible

JayJay14

I'm with e-on dual fuel capped until oct 2009 paying £84 a month, we've been paying the same for about 18 months and are actually about £150 in credit. I could ask for the amount to be reduced I suppose but I feel better having that cushion even if they get the interest - it's the price of peace of mind I think..

The house is a 4 bed detatched but only 9 years old and well insulated, I only have the heating set at 18 degrees in the winter which my friends think is crazy but we have no problem with this. If we get chilly we put aniother jumper on. The washer rarely goes over 30 deg and the TD is for emergencies only!!

I think that changing all the lights to the low energy bulbs has made quite a difference coz the house is quite big - but I only bought cheap ones, they were 99p I hink.

The problem is always trying to get OH and DS to turn off lights and the TV when not in use but since we got the energy monitor from e-on at least I can now show them the effect;)

Magentasue

In our old house we tried energy saving bulbs but found them 'too weak' so that instead of having a lamp on, we'd have two. Recently, my brother got some and I thought the same. I can put up with it for bedrooms but prefer 'proper' light elsewhere. Is it just me?

wendy+5

What's an energy monitor?

kbarty

I've been looking at our usage for a couple of months now. I wrote down our usage for each quarter for the last year and worked out a daily average so that I had something to aim for. It's taken a while to get on top of it all, but seem to have got the leccy down well to 3 or 4 units a day (nice and easy in the summer though eh?). Last summers average was about 7 a day. Haven't managed to get the gas down as good though. Experimenting with just turning the water on when we all want a bath. Leaves enough water for washing up for the next day or so too so when the water doesn't need switched on we manage 0.3 units a day but when it does about 1 unit a day. (0.3 must just be the pilot light!!) This is no different to last year.

Good luck with it everone. I find it strangely rewarding to be beating the latest energy rises in this way.

Little_Star_3

Ive been obsessed with how much gas and elec we use since our bills in may which were massive, Ive worked out that since then (when I went nuts and started taking drastic action) we now use an average of ten units of electric a day and 1 unit of gas every 3 to 4 days. I dont know what all that is in £ though.
Im not sure how i can reduce it any further, but Im starting a new job soon which means I'll be out the house every day, unfortunately our gas usage will go up come winter, but hoping we will be in enough credit to take care of that. We are on Scottish power fixed price energy online. I started paying by dd two - 3 months ago and we currently pay 50 a month for electric and 10"£ a month for gas and we are £72 in credit. ETA we live in a two bed, old victorian style house, there is just the two of us, me and my flatmate. Heating/water is gas, the water is heated as it goes style. Gas hob. Electric oven, shower, and pretty much everything else!
Im up for the challenge!

Magentasue

wendy+5 wrote: »

What's an energy monitor?

If you google energy monitor, you'll see them. The basic ones plug into a socket, you plug your tumble drier, kettle or whatever into it and it'll tell you how many units you're using. I found it useful - boiling a full kettle and then boiling two mugfuls of water was an eye opener. As was the difference between a short 40deg wash and a standard 30deg wash. I assumed the quick wash would be cheaper, but no.

Unfortunately, the evilbox (xbox) wasn't the power guzzler I thought it was (well, fortunately, I suppose).

pennyocs

i will join in on this one you all seem to use less than we do already we live in a 4 bedroomed flat in a terraced house. there are 5 of us. we have prepayment meters for both gas and electric,i cook and have central heating with gas only have appliances on electric. we are using at the moment £60 electric and £20 gas per month i try to use tumble dryer only in emergency and turn lights off after most of family the dishwasher is on way too much sometimes 3 times a day,apart from that im stuck what else to do

NeilNorton

I started last summer. Sorted ch and water timer, turned heating down a degree and switched to low energy light bulbs. We also got much better at switching lights off. I've found out that even fluorescents should be switched off if out of a room for more than a third of a second! After all that the EON graph showed we used more this winter but loads less in spring. I've started to send regular readings otherwise the graph is iffy at best.
I now need a device to stop my teenage daughter from living in the shower! Flushing the toilet works but creates the wrong kind of heat!;)
Good luck.

mardatha

We cant stand energy saving bulbs either. Its a choice between paying the elect bills or going blind and mad !