Reducing utility bills

Legacy_user

Today we got our NIE statement and a separate letter from them increasing our monthly direct debit to £101.00 :eek:. We also pay quite a lot to Phoenix for our gas (heating and cooking) and really need to cut this down.

As a first step I've resolved to drastically cut down on the use of my tumble dryer and we are gradually replacing the rest of our non-energy saving lightbulbs. The heating is also on less now that the weather is improving. However we live in a timber frame house and had problems when it was built as the builders failed to fully properly insulate the sloping ceilings upstairs. He came back and fixed it and there was an improvement but I'm wondering if he did it properly.

Can anyone tell me if is possible to get someone to take an infrared image of our house to see if we are losing energy through the lower parts of our roof?

Snoozle

I've no idea about the infra-red thing, but I do know that our house was poorly insulated by dodgy builders, and when we finally got it insulated properly, we couldn't believe how much money we had thrown down the drain over the years - if has almost paid for itself within a year.

Old_Git

everything you have on standby is costing you money .
TV, computer ,DVD .The clock on the microwave ,its all money .

curly07

have you thought about getting a meter in? we have that and you just top it up as needed! saves another direct debit!

we have all our lightbulbs changed to energy saving ones. we never leave anything on standby, im a freak in that sense! i go round making sure all switches are off when going out or going to bed (apart from the obvious.. fridge, freezer etc).

The tumble dryer can be very expensive, especially if its not a modern appliance which is of a high standard grade! I very rarely use ours, i put stuff on clothes horses and set them infront of radiator to dry, and now the better weather should be coming, the clothes will be put on the line!

Hope this helps :-)

gibbyni

we changed to this about a year ago and save us on average 20% on our usual elec bill

http://www.nieenergy.co.uk/keypadpowershift.php

quintwins

the meter does save you money, but you also save £10 a quarter by paying my DD so it depends on your useage


we had a huge bill last quarter and our dd had been £85 and they increased it to £135!!!(partly to cover the £3200 we now owe them) altho is discoved we'd been running a completely empty (already faulty) fridge freezer for 2 months, i have also resolved to not use my drier as muvh and i think i've used it 4 times since we got the bill last month, also i decided not to use my water heater anymore, as we have a dishwasher we only use it for the bath but it eats electric so now all my kids even my 7month old has a shower (baby comes in with me) i'm not really sure if thats helped us much yet but i'm expecting it to have made atleats some diference

we already have all energy saving bulbs

caz2703

There are gadgets you can get to check your electricity usage (link below). We borrowed one from a colleague and it's amazing how much leccy an oven, microwave and kettle use. With having a little one in the house I couldn't really compromise on the heating but I try to remember to pour a cuppa when the kettle has boiled and not get side tracked and have to boil the kettle again 30 minutes later!

It's a shame we're tied into NIE over here so there's no competition.

http://www.electricity-monitor.com/

quintwins

just saw free insulation not sure if it's anygood to anyone

i'm very tempted to get it and stash it for when we build but this house is insulated so think that would be cheating

http://www.nie-yourenergy.co.uk/insulation/index.php

System

Thanks for the replies and the links.
I was really surprised at how big a proportion of the average household electricity usage is lighting. We do have some energy saving bulbs but could do with replacing more. We have a lot of halogen and low voltage downlighter bulbs in the house so we will have to see if we can get energy saving versions of them.
Generally speaking we turn most things off at night except for the fridge/freezer, cooker and microwave. We also shower but my daughter seems to think she's in there for a holiday as she spends ages in it and hers is an electric shower. Ours runs off the gas boiler.

blueberrypie

Pam17 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if is possible to get someone to take an infrared image of our house to see if we are losing energy through the lower parts of our roof?

I don't know, but - when it snowed, how fast did the snow melt? If you're losing heat through the roof, snow on it will melt faster than snow elsewhere.

CL

We got our electricity tariff changed to Economy 7 and (as it was a new house) got dishwasher and washing machine with timers and we only run them at night. Fridges and freezers obviously run at night too, so you save there also. The day rate is nearly the same (15.09p per unit vs 15.03p), but the night rate is only 6.38p. It costs 10.82p per day for the service.

You can buy timer plugs for a few pounds to run appliances overnight.

http://www.nieenergy.co.uk/pdf/tariffs_domestic.pdf