Energy saving to cut bills

WelshWoofer

Hi,
As I'm recently separated and now have to pay the bills by myself I am on a mission to reduce my essential outgoings as much as possible. I thought a good place to start would be the energy bills as they're £97 a month for gas and electric and £35 a month for water.

As a start I've just been around the house and checked the lightbulbs - I need to change one to an energy saving one but the rest are all ok -will do that later.

I have also turned everything off at the plug except the clock radio, TV that's on now and the phone (and fridge and freezer of course).

I've changed the water/heating clock timer (heating has been off since about May) so that the water only comes on for 90 mins in the morning and an hour in the evening. I'm aiming to not have the heating on until at least October - lets hope for an Indian summer!

I also already have water saving blocks in the toilet cisterns.

Any other ideas for energy saving? The house is fairly new (10 years old) and is well insulated and has double glazing etc so I'm not sure what else I could do?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Butterfly_Brain

Even with double glazing I would have some heavy duty curtains at all windows and doors and also use draught excluders. Instead of putting on the heating, put on a jumper first, then if you are still cold then put the heating on at about 15 degrees and the heat will build up gradually the higher your thermostat the more gas you use. Have you got thermostatic valves on your radiators? if you have only swithch the ones on in the rooms that you use.
You really don't need heating on in the autumn so maybe you could have a fleece to wrap up in when watching tv and a good old fashioned hot water bottle at night to take the chill off the bed.
HTH x

grumswifie

Hi there

I am a great believer in switching off at the wall when not in use. We have an energy monitor and can tell when something is left on. You do see a difference, even leaving computerand washing machine on at the wall. Pennies granted but it wll mounts.

Also fleeces in the bed, one underneath you, and opne on top beforetheduvet. I have stopped using the elecblanket qnd like this now. So snuggly.

Closing curtains before it gets dark helps keep heat in too.

Mde fleece draught excluders for front doorfrom a fleec scarf, justput a wee roll of bubble wrwp in it and stitched it up. Very easy, i amrubbish at sewing, if i cando it,anyonecan!

GreyQueen

Call your local water company and get a meter installed asap; you'll save several hundred each year. HTH
.

WelshWoofer

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I already have a water meter and have recently become a bit more conscious about what I'm using, although its difficult to give up the bath in the evening a couple of times a week to relax - I'm going to try to limit myself to every other night and take it down from there. I have a shower every morning of course, but that's a 5 min job, functional washing, in and out!

decogecko

I've just gone onto a water meter and my water company provided me with a shower timer - like and egg timer but obviously for the shower! It's for 4 mins (apparently the average shower is 7 mins) and does help me to be much quicker in the shower.

Can you switch gas & electric suppliers to see if you can get a cheaper tarriff? Use a slow cooker to save on gas.

I'm knitting myself a throw for the winter and investing in thermals, like you OP my heating isn't going on until the clocks go back!

judy_

WelshWoofer wrote: »

Hi,


I've changed the water/heating clock timer (heating has been off since about May) so that the water only comes on for 90 mins in the morning and an hour in the evening. I'm aiming to not have the heating on until at least October - lets hope for an Indian summer!

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Could you manually turn on your water rather than have it on timer?
When I am home alone like this week as my children are on holiday, I just flick the water on for half an hour, this gives me enough hot water to have a shower (or small bath) and to wash the dishes (I save the dishes to wash in the evening).

HTH

Judy x

lizzyb1812

WelshWoofer - how many people live in your house? I ask because you have the water on for 2.5 hours in total per day. I live on my own and have it on for just 30 minutes in the morning - no baths though so you could manually put it on for half an hour when you wanted a bath.

short_bird

A small saving: if you have an extra port hub on your computer, check you still need all those ports for extra devices. If you can do away with the port hub, that'll be £10 less per year.

WelshWoofer

lizzyb1812 wrote: »

WelshWoofer - how many people live in your house? I ask because you have the water on for 2.5 hours in total per day. I live on my own and have it on for just 30 minutes in the morning - no baths though so you could manually put it on for half an hour when you wanted a bath.

There's just me and the dog so I could probably get away with putting the water on the evening when I need it - the control thingy has a "just put it on for an hour" function so I won't forget to turn it back off again too:o
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll give it a go!

mesh

hello, when I was in your situation, I cut down on all gas and lecci usage, only heated the rooms I was using and keep all doors closed! this helped a lot with the bills. Got my single persons allowance from the council and like you, had a water meter installed.

Then I started looking at what I was doing so the usual if its yellow let it mellow...etc only using the wm and dw when full etc. using the loo at work before coming home, walk more instead of using the car, its just a lifestyle change and one that soon catches on and becomes enjoyable as I find its like beating the system!

Then when all the usual bits are being done, look at your meals, batch cook, use leftovers, etc. then I looked at my social life and started visiting friends and have them visit me instead of meeting up at bars, pubs, coffee houses.

Keep track of your spending and you will soon see where you waste your money and then you can sort out allowances and how much to give yourself.

I also visited the library and found out about free training courses (although these may have been cut/reduced where you live) and I go foraging for free food eg blackberries, apples and pears from friends gardens, sloes, plums etc.

Now all of this may not be up your street and I suppose some people think I am odd but I dont realy care because its my money and I dont want to be in debt and I dont want to waste it on trivia. I save and when I have enough I buy. I use the mantra, is it a need or a want?? have fun with your new life and keep track on what you do/spend and ask yourself questions eg. did that work? if not what can I change? if it did work, can I improve it?

Hope this helps.
Mx