ive had enough of my electric costs

melie3

hi all, very depressed. have a key meter for my electric, and am putting on about £30-£35 per week. i do about 2-3 loads of washing per day, and tumble dry the lot at the moment as ive not the room for all this washing hanging in my house. no radiators to dry stuff. i was just having a look at maybe switching (am with southern for my sins) now would it be a good time. im on a standard rate which meter for my area is charging 14.16 p per unit. i wish i could say i have a 6 bed mansion with every lightbulb on, but sadly no we have a 2 bed terrace. its just making our life rather hard. i know it will only be for a few more months til the suns here lol but its just soo !!!!!!!g hard right now!!

Magentasue

The washing machine, especially if you set at 30deg isn't the problem, it's all that tumble drying. Now, I wash for six and have cut it down to 7-10 loads a week. Unless your circumstances are exceptional, I reckon you could cut your washing down.

To cut down on tumble drying, I have gone back to using an airer. I hang the washing over and when it's dampish, iron what needs ironing and put it back over the airer or on the radiators. Towels, socks and the like get a blast in the tumble drier. More effort but has really cut the electricity used.

Harder without radiators but airers will cut down the length of time for tumble drying.

icefall

melie3 wrote: »

hi all, very depressed. have a key meter for my electric, and am putting on about £30-£35 per week. i do about 2-3 loads of washing per day, and tumble dry the lot at the moment as ive not the room for all this washing hanging in my house. no radiators to dry stuff. i was just having a look at maybe switching (am with southern for my sins) now would it be a good time. im on a standard rate which meter for my area is charging 14.16 p per unit. i wish i could say i have a 6 bed mansion with every lightbulb on, but sadly no we have a 2 bed terrace. its just making our life rather hard. i know it will only be for a few more months til the suns here lol but its just soo !!!!!!!g hard right now!!

If you are on a key meter maybe you could switch to a company that does not charge you extra for it. Ebico is the only company that does that.

Joyful

icefall wrote: »

If you are on a key meter maybe you could switch to a company that does not charge you extra for it. Ebico is the only company that does that.

Icefall
There is no difference to a cash bill or a key meter now at British Gas either. I'm sure I have heard of at least one other Company which is the same.

sheilavw

Hi we have lived in our current 3 bed semi for 20 years. I have neither central heating or dryer. Our lounge is open plan with living flame fire. I simply put airer on landing and with heat rising it does dry (even if it does take a little longer than on a radiator)

icefall

Joyful wrote: »

Icefall
There is no difference to a cash bill or a key meter now at British Gas either. I'm sure I have heard of at least one other Company which is the same.

Oh right when did that happen? Thats good news. I assume thats on all the British Gas tariffs and will apply to all British Gas customers, including the op hopefully?

I knew the government was looking into requiring that customers not be charged extra for using key meters. So British Gas have swung into action then. Anyone else know other companies not charging extra for key meters on all tariffs?

icefall

Also Joyful do you work for an electricity/gas company? If so it would be fair if you declared this. I believe there are rules on MSE concerning this.

this is one of your posts
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=15540469&postcount=29

It does look as you work in the industry in some capacity which should really be declared on MSE.

markharding557

in my area(midlands)edf is a bit cheaper than ebico even on prepay

Fire_Fox

Hot washes use around 4KWH of electric, tumble drying the same again - that's up to £1.10 per load of laundry! You obviously don't have to answer this, but why is your household creating two to three loads of laundry a day? If you have a two bedroom house, you can 't be a large family?

Try to get as much washing hung out as possible, even if you only half dry it outdoors and finish off in the tumble dryer. I have one of these and, sad as it may sound, I love it. It which only takes up two square feet of floor space and holds two loads of laundry at a time:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80119043
At £20 it would pay for itself very quickly!

The alternative would be to run a dehumidifier in the same room as you are airing clothes - gets them dry quicker than without, and not as expensive to run as a tumble dryer. And have you tried dryer balls?

melie3

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Hot washes use around 4KWH of electric, tumble drying the same again - that's up to £1.10 per load of laundry! You obviously don't have to answer this, but why is your household creating two to three loads of laundry a day? If you have a two bedroom house, you can 't be a large family?

Try to get as much washing hung out as possible, even if you only half dry it outdoors and finish off in the tumble dryer. I have one of these and, sad as it may sound, I love it. It which only takes up two square feet of floor space and holds two loads of laundry at a time:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80119043
At £20 it would pay for itself very quickly!

The alternative would be to run a dehumidifier in the same room as you are airing clothes - gets them dry quicker than without, and not as expensive to run as a tumble dryer. And have you tried dryer balls?

yes well we are quite a big family for a 2 bed house.we are a family of 5 with 2 children under 4 all sharing one small room, so my washing just piles and piles. i will start putting washing out next month or april, depends how weather turns, but if i put it out now on an airer the local moggies like to mark them with their scent, and the washing prob comes in as wet as it went out.

Magentasue

melie3 wrote: »

yes well we are quite a big family for a 2 bed house.we are a family of 5 with 2 children under 4 all sharing one small room, so my washing just piles and piles. i will start putting washing out next month or april, depends how weather turns, but if i put it out now on an airer the local moggies like to mark them with their scent, and the washing prob comes in as wet as it went out.

Bet you could cut down to one wash a day most days unless you're using washable nappies or have bed-wetters. Even then, two loads max. Wash at 30deg where possible - I was surprised that my half hour eco wash at 40deg used more electricity than my standard 30deg wash.

Can you have an airer standing somewhere indoors - I have mine over an airer for a day and it needs 20mins or less in tumble drier. Or maybe over bath?