I'm in a panic about my bills..

HH62

Some background, I've just separated from my husband, living alone in a new (1 year old) 2 bedroom apartment.

I have a dishwasher, and a washing machine with a dryer. I dont have the TV on very often, but the PC is switched on 24/7 usually. (That's about to change). I never use my cooker oven, I have a combi microwave. I have a shower once a day.

I've been living here 3 months and have just had my first bill. I have used 1000 units of eletricity in that time. It equates to about £45 per month. I budgeted for using £20!! £45 a month is about the same as what my husband and I used in a 4 bedroomed house. I've checked my meter reading 3 times because I am in shock...

So..when we refer to equipment being on "standby" this means when there is a light on? So does switching everything off at the wall really help? Even the microwave? Mine wont work without the clock being set so I would have to set it each time I used it.
Also, does the dishwasher and washing machine really make that much difference? I use them both almost every day, and as its a flat I dont have a place to dry my washing so use the dryer for that. Any suggestions how to get bedding dry without a washing line?

Like I said I am in a panic, I feel sick. The bill covers the summer months so will go much higher..havent had my gas bill yet (dreading that) and am also going to be posting about my water bill on the water board as that seems very high too.
Basically, can anyone give me any advice? Could my meter be faulty or how to cut down? Please help!

immoral_angeluk

Having your PC on all day only uses about the same amount of electricity as a lightbulb would left on for the same amound on time. Having things on standby instead of properly off (ie switched off by the remote etc) uses pretty much the same amount of electric that it does leaving it fully on, as the only thing that actually goes off is the monitor. things like microwaves are only ever on or off.. but it helps to switch things off by the plug if you're not using them.
You dishwasher, washer and dryer will use up a lot of electricity especially if used daily. what temperature are you washing clothes at and why are you running it every day if you live by yourself?? We run ours 2/3 times a week and in our house are 2 adults and a toddler! Ideally you should be washing at 40 if not 30 to reduce the energy used. Personally to me a dishwasher is a waste of electricity and water when a sink and warm soapy water work just as well. You can buy a clothes horse to dry your clothes which are great if you live by yourself and will teach you to cut your washing down as they take slightly longer to dry.
Also a couple of things to check,
is your immersion heater turned on?
What temperature is your water heater at? Anything about 50/60 and it should be turned down to save energy.
What kind of bulbs do you have? The energy saving ones are a good investment.
Also how is your house heated? Have you not got radiators you could dry your clothes on?

immoral_angeluk

Oh and also you microwave will *probably* be using more electicity than an oven would as they use higher powers to cook faster, so you're probably better off using a normal oven.

HH62

Thanks for taking time to write all that info..much appreciated.
I dont have an immersion heater, I have a boiler which is switched on all the time...assume thats ok. It gives hot water on demand? I'm embarassed to admit I am clue less about all this.
Gas central heating, so yes I'll be putting things on the radiators to dry from now on.
I also realised, after reading your post, that I'm guilty of running the washer half full sometimes.

magyar

HH62 wrote:

Some background, I've just separated from my husband, living alone in a new (1 year old) 2 bedroom apartment.

I have a dishwasher, and a washing machine with a dryer. I dont have the TV on very often, but the PC is switched on 24/7 usually. (That's about to change). I never use my cooker oven, I have a combi microwave. I have a shower once a day.

I've been living here 3 months and have just had my first bill. I have used 1000 units of eletricity in that time. It equates to about £45 per month. I budgeted for using £20!! £45 a month is about the same as what my husband and I used in a 4 bedroomed house. I've checked my meter reading 3 times because I am in shock...

So..when we refer to equipment being on "standby" this means when there is a light on? So does switching everything off at the wall really help? Even the microwave? Mine wont work without the clock being set so I would have to set it each time I used it.
Also, does the dishwasher and washing machine really make that much difference? I use them both almost every day, and as its a flat I dont have a place to dry my washing so use the dryer for that. Any suggestions how to get bedding dry without a washing line?

Like I said I am in a panic, I feel sick. The bill covers the summer months so will go much higher..havent had my gas bill yet (dreading that) and am also going to be posting about my water bill on the water board as that seems very high too.
Basically, can anyone give me any advice? Could my meter be faulty or how to cut down? Please help!

Partly I'm afraid you're experiencing the opposite side of "two can live as cheaply as one"... Also, you don't mention if you have gas so I'm assuming you only have electric in the house. If so then £45 a month doesn't really sound too bad to me.

Dishwasher and washing machine/tumble dryer use quite a lot of energy; obviously you need the washing machine but you could see if it's got an energy saving setting. For the other two, wash plates by hand and dry on the radiator! (or at least limit the amount you use them, and always run a full load)

Your TV doesn't need to be off at the wall, just at the on/off switch, and the same goes for radios, stereos etc. Your microwave's clock will use virtually no energy - you can leave that on.

Other things which make a surprising difference are
- turn off lights in rooms you're not in (and switch from 100W to 60W lightbulbs)
- get energy saving lightbulbs in your living room and kitchen (on the assumption their the rooms you leave the light on most)

Check you're on the cheapest tariff you could be - see the main MSE article at the bottom of "Utilities".

Finally, don't forget that fuel bills have gone up by about 30% in the last 18 months.

magyar

HH62 wrote:

Thanks for taking time to write all that info..much appreciated.
I dont have an immersion heater, I have a boiler which is switched on all the time...assume thats ok. It gives hot water on demand? I'm embarassed to admit I am clue less about all this.
Gas central heating, so yes I'll be putting things on the radiators to dry from now on.
I also realised, after reading your post, that I'm guilty of running the washer half full sometimes.

If it's a combi boiler then yes, it's fine to leave it on all the time for hot water.

magyar

Our posts crossed so I didn't see you'd answered the point about gas heating, in which case yes £45 a month is a lot for a two bedroom flat (not including heating).

magyar

HH62 wrote:

Thanks for taking time to write all that info..much appreciated.
I dont have an immersion heater, I have a boiler which is switched on all the time...assume thats ok. It gives hot water on demand? I'm embarassed to admit I am clue less about all this.
Gas central heating, so yes I'll be putting things on the radiators to dry from now on.
I also realised, after reading your post, that I'm guilty of running the washer half full sometimes.

And don't be worried about seeming clueless. The clueless people are the ones who aren't asking questions like these, but just carrying on spending too much!

:beer:

Cardew

immoral_angeluk wrote:

Having things on standby instead of properly off (ie switched off by the remote etc) uses pretty much the same amount of electric that it does leaving it fully on, as the only thing that actually goes off is the monitor. things like microwaves are only ever on or off.. but it helps to switch things off by the plug if you're not using them.

Sorry this is completely wrong!

Almost everything on standby uses a tiny proportion of of the power when fully on.

Typically TV's use 100 watts+ when on and from less than 1 watt on standby. Not many modern TV's use more than 2 or 3 watts on standby.

Microwaves when not operating(ie just the clock on) use tiny amounts of power. Same with most things with LED/LCD displays.

To save the usual comments like "every little helps", by all means switch things off(rather than leave on standby) if you wish. However don't exagerate the power consumption of appliances on standby.

immoral_angeluk

Cardew wrote:

Sorry this is completely wrong!

Almost everything on standby uses a tiny proportion of of the power when fully on.

Typically TV's use 100 watts+ when on and from less than 1 watt on standby. Not many modern TV's use more than 2 or 3 watts on standby.

Microwaves when not operating(ie just the clock on) use tiny amounts of power. Same with most things with LED/LCD displays.

To save the usual comments like "every little helps", by all means switch things off(rather than leave on standby) if you wish. However don't exagerate the power consumption of appliances on standby.

If that's the case then I apologise.. just what I've been told along the way.

magyar

Actually Cardew, I'm not so sure you should be criticising people for saying things should be turned off standby.

A typical colour CRT TV will use ~100W of power when on. Assumed this is on 2 hrs per day then that's 200 Wh of energy. If it's on standby then using your figure of 1W then the remainder of the day will use 22Wh of energy, i.e. about 10% of total.

OK so the total cost is still only 5.8 kWh a year, or about 58p (!) but if the ~60m TVs in the country are all on standby then this could be costing the country £34m a year and accounting for about 800,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

So agreed, we're only saving 50p each, but we should all still do it!

(For the record, I appreciate your point was about exaggerating this, rather than it being a material point)