Energy saving to cut bills

Sunnyday

Is your shower electric?

If so once you limit the baths then instead of having the water on to wash the pots etc boil the kettle instead.

We are two people and two dogs and a cat in a 1935 3 bed semi and our total gas and electricity for the last 12 months is less than £800, i can`t remember the exact amount but its something daft like £764 so i don`t think that we do too badly.

One thing that i used to do and have got out of the habit is to boil the kettle and fill a flask, throughout the day i used to use this hot water to make cuppas and it saved quite a bit. I really need to get used to doing this again.

Once our heating goes on for the winter it stays on and only the thermostat regulates it - we don`t use the timer as one of our dogs is ancient and needs to be kept warm so i daresay that using the timer you would save more pennies too - unless of course your dawgie is ancient and rheumatic like ours lol.

This winter i`ll be on a real mission to get the bills down due to the increases in price and i`ve been back on the preparing for winter thread for a while now. I`m currently lining the curtains with fleece blankets. The difference in temperature last winter was amazing, behind the curtains was very cold next to the windows and the room was toasty warm so i`m convinced that this saved us quite a lot as despite double glazing we seemed to have been losing quite a lot of heat through the windows :eek:

Hope that everything goes well for you!

SD

squeaky

kittycatface wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3090130
For a free energy saving monitor, I just put in my National Insurance number (am in receipt of tax credits) and it came within 4 wks. really helps you see and then reduce how much you're using, worth about £30-£40 in the shops. Good luck, hope the offer is still working
Sorry just checked it and the offer that is still working is the British Gas one
enter code EF3
http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/money-saving-budgeting-bargains-609/315522-british-gas-free-energy-saving-products.html

A more direct link...

Follow this link to British Gas
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/productoffers

Type in EF3 and press submit, fill out the form and hey presto free energy saving products.

( For the last entry on the form use your NI number thingy VX123456Z )

sammy_kaye18

Can I recommend the

saving on gas and electric thread

and the

preparing fro winter thread - usually on the first few forum pages.

Both have some good tips for saving gas/electric especially in the cold weather

rising_from_the_ashes

WelshWoofer wrote: »

I now know how much I actually use a month according to Npower and its £39 for electric and £40 for gas.

I'm also in a 3 bed semi (14 yo) with a dog & 2 cats - my gas is £39 and elec £26 (break even on usage at end of each year).

So, your gas sounds about right but think you may be able to get the elec down a bit. How many lights do you have on in the evening? I've cut right down and have one in the room I'm in and have a floor lamp in the hall with a 4 wt low bulb in - this is enough to see to walk downstairs, pop to loo etc.

oldtractor wrote: »

know its drastic but have you thought of moving to a smaller house?

I'm similar as I now find myself in a largish house for just one person (family across the road is 2 adults & 3 teens in the same house).

I seriously considered moving a couple of months ago but there's 6 houses in my street for sale (and have been for several months).

I had a look at a couple of houses but the only ones that were actually cheaper to buy were either in areas I wouldn't want to live or needed a lot of work done to them - so looks like I'm stuck here for a while! (I also like my house and have a great plot - next to a field - so it would have to be a big saving for me to move!).

Ballymackeonan

I'm also in a 3-bed semi, too big possibly BUT it has a huge back garden (the house was built in about 1954 and they don't do it like that nowadays!) So there's plenty of room for vegetables... and possily chickens as well.

When I bought it there was single glazing, no insulation and no central heating. Now it's fully double glazed, cavity wall and roof insulation have been installed and I've also got a solar water panel and a wood-burner to augment the oil-fired central heating. Until recently there was no gas supply locally, so I've been stuck with the more expensive fuel. While my mother was living with me, I took out the bath and replaced it with a walk-in shower as she couldn't get in and out of the bath easily.

The electric costs about £19 per month - and that's for everything, including cooking. Low energy lightbulbs, of course, and switching everything off at the plug when not in use - but I've also found that a Remoska cooker is very useful for cooking small amounts rather than using the top oven, and uses a lot less electricity. The solar panel means that in a normal summer I've got a big tank of hot water on tap for showers, washing up etc, and even in the depths of the last winter it was feeding lukewarm water into the system even on those freezing cold but bright days, so less electricity was needed to top it up.

The downside of the house is that there is a big open staircase - a lovely feature, but it is a heat sink! So my heating costs are probably a lot higher than they would be in an equivalent sized modern house. But in the winter only the radiator in the hall was turned on, plus one other room downstairs, even if I had to wear a thermal vest, a wooly jumper and a cardi! (I've taken up knitting again in anticipation of the coming winter..) Fleecy jammies and hot water bottles at bedtime in the winter!

lollyfin

Hi
just to let you know my gas and elec combined (cos i cant remember separate figures) is £84 per month. I live in a 3 bed semi built around 1950ish and there are 6 of us (bit of a squish). we have reduced our consumption by about 25% on last year according to our suppliers. i think a lot of this is due to getting a fridge/freezer combination rather than single (large) ones, getting a better more efficient washing machine,my old one was ancient, can do washes in 15 mins for stuff thats not really dirty instead of over an hour for the last one and trying to make sure everyone switches stuff off doesnt always happen oh and we all have thermals for when it gets colder
hth
ps my bills could probably be cheaper if i got cavity wall and better loft insulation sorting that out this year

JackieRHE

Are you with British Gas - they are offering free loft insulation and cavity wall insulation in my area.
It would be worth checking out.

rawmummy

Hi,

Some of these bills do seem high. I live in a 35 year old 3 bed semi (4 of us altogether) and I pay gas and electric each month by direct debit through southern electric.
We pay roughly £20 for the gas and £20 for the electric and we are also always in credit, so they sometimes gives us some money back.

We have got cavity wall insulation, loft insulation topped up to the recommended 10 inches. We have central heating and an electric cooker so most of the gas is for the heating of the home and water.

We don't really go without anything - we have computer, tv etc that are very regularly used by all four of the family. However, the tumble dryer is only used occasionally in winter, everything is always turned off standby, lights are only ever on in the room(s) we are in. The kettle is only ever filled to the exact ammount of water we will need to be used, we turn it off just before it clickes off as the last few seconds uses alot of electricity. We shut curtains at dusk and tuck them behind the radiator. We have a curtain at the bottom of the stairs.

I am going to be putting a curtain up across the front door soon so hopefully this will help even further.

marmiterulesok

Hi,

Just a small suggestion concerning taking showers.I have a shower a day (can't stand baths),but only have the water running to wet my body initially and then to rinse off the soap afterwards.Obviously if I'm washing my hair,the water's on for a bit longer.

Roughly,I have the hot water running (more like tepid really) for about two minutes max each time I shower.I never understand why people waste so much water when showering...

squeaky

marmiterulesok wrote: »

Hi,

Just a small suggestion concerning taking showers.I have a shower a day (can't stand baths),but only have the water running to wet my body initially and then to rinse off the soap afterwards.Obviously if I'm washing my hair,the water's on for a bit longer.

Roughly,I have the hot water running (more like tepid really) for about two minutes max each time I shower.I never understand why people waste so much water when showering...

Me too.

AND... I put the plug in. Then (since my dustpan has a soft edge) I use the dustpan to scoop up the water into a bucket - ready for flushing the mellow yellow loo

Double use of water. Free loo flush. And an always clean dustpan