Gas and Electric costs - Price rise / help.

nickpe

Hi Guys  - So this morning I received my email from SSE informing specifically how our gas/electric costs will be going up after the 1st April.  

We currently pay £153 a month for both gas and electric and they have said our new direct debit payments will rise to £229 a month. 

This is all based on the following -
They estimate our gas and electric costs will rise by £904 a year with the new rates.
Gas payment to rise from £76 a month to £123 a month
Elec payment to rise from £77 a month to £106 a month

 Our annual usage for Gas is 16886 kWh
 Our annual usage for Elec is 3632 kWh.  

We are on the SSE standard tariff and the email states this is the cheapest tariff and there is no better tariff than what we are currently on. 

 So as you can imagine, like many households I’m not pleased about the cost rise and I’m looking at real life ways/helpful tips in ways  I can look to reduce paying the rediculous amount of £229 a month for gas and electric.

  I run my gas heating on a timer which means it’s set at 16 degrees during the night, then kicks in at 06:30am and heats the house until 07:50am at 21 degrees (this is to warm the house whilst family wakes up before work and school)- it then kicks back off at 07:50 back to 16 degrees whilst we set off to school and work. 

The heating then remains at 16 degrees during the day whilst we are out and then kicks back in at 16:40 back upto 21 degrees so that it’s warm for when we all return and it remains 21 degrees until 20:20. By this time the house has remained warm and will do so until people start winding down for bed etc. 

The thermostat is then set back to 16 degrees from 20:20 until 06:30 where it starts it cycle again back to 21 degrees.  

So with that said, I have today done the following, decreased the temperature back by 0.5 degrees for all the times mentioned and also set the heating to come on 10 minutes later in a morning and to also shut off 10 minutes earlier on an evening  - in theory saving 140 minutes heating time over a week.  

Does anyone else have any practical and useful tips in ways to reduce useage and cost when it comes to gas and electric??

victor2

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

If you've got energy saving (LED nowadays) bulbs, that's about all you can do for lighting. There's lots of nonsense spouted about not leaving phone chargers, TVs etc. on standby to save money. They use so little (modern TVs less than 1W by EU regulations when in standby), that the possible savings to be made rarely outweigh the convenience of stuff being on standby.

The biggest electricity consumer in a house is often the fridge/freezer and there's not much you can do about that. Tumble dryers (if you have one) are a bit notorious for eating energy. Electric showers can be expensive to run if people spend a long time in them.

It can be a useful exercise to read your meters daily for a few weeks and get an idea of what constitutes an expensive day. From that you can start to home in on what is actually costing you more money than it need to.

EssexHebridean

Electric showers eat power even if you DON'T spend a long time in them - but if you have GCH then it's more than likely you run your showers off that system anyway - lucky you! 

MWT

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

nickpe

MWT said:

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

This is true, I’m not sure turning it off would see much of a change during the day, plus keeping it as 16 means it doesn’t have to work too hard to get upto 21 degrees when we all get home.

Was more curious what measures other people are taking to strike the balance of ensuring you don’t overpay vs sufficiently heating your homes etc

Sea_Shell

I've noticed that our highest Electricity days are when we've been doing chores.

Washing machine, vacuum cleaner and ironing.

But on the other hand we also save on gas as we're busy moving about so stay warm and so don't turn the heating up until we've finished.

Aylesbury_Duck

nickpe said:

MWT said:

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

This is true, I’m not sure turning it off would see much of a change during the day, plus keeping it as 16 means it doesn’t have to work too hard to get upto 21 degrees when we all get home.

Was more curious what measures other people are taking to strike the balance of ensuring you don’t overpay vs sufficiently heating your homes etc

That is a false assumption.  You don't leave your kettle simmering away at 60 degrees all day so it doesn't have to work harder to get up to boiling on the occasions you want a cup of tea.  Turn your heating off overnight and when you're out if you really want to save money, otherwise you're just wasting money.  You'll need it to come on a little earlier to get the house from say, 12 degrees to 21C, but it's more efficient than heating an empty house for almost nineteen hours in every 24, although I appreciate that at 16C the heating will only be kicking in and out as needed to maintain that minimum temperature.

Gerry1

nickpe said:

MWT said:

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

This is true, I’m not sure turning it off would see much of a change during the day, plus keeping it as 16 means it doesn’t have to work too hard to get upto 21 degrees when we all get home.

That old myth never seems to die...

Aylesbury_Duck

Gerry1 said:

nickpe said:

MWT said:

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

This is true, I’m not sure turning it off would see much of a change during the day, plus keeping it as 16 means it doesn’t have to work too hard to get upto 21 degrees when we all get home.

That old myth never seems to die...

I know.  I know plenty of people who swear by it, despite having had it explained that it's a false economy for almost every household.

nickpe

Gerry1 said:

nickpe said:

MWT said:

victor2 said:

Set the heating to be off at night, not 16 degrees - you're all tucked up in bed then, so don't need the rest of the house heated. Likewise during the day. If the heating is off it is costing you nothing (apart from the standing charge of course).

Depends on the level of insulation, but for us at least there is zero difference between 16C and 'off' as the house would never cool down that far over night or during the day anyway.

This is true, I’m not sure turning it off would see much of a change during the day, plus keeping it as 16 means it doesn’t have to work too hard to get upto 21 degrees when we all get home.

That old myth never seems to die...

I stand corrected 😀

thank you for some of the tips and the kettle explanation above is a very good example I appreciate it.

Ive told the wife to try and stop doing half empty washes in the washing machine, so hopefully she might do for example 7 cycles a week rather than 12

I know these might sound trivial but it all helps.

markin

If its a condensing boiler you can turn down the heating flow temp, you want the return pipe below 55c, takes longer to heat up the house but with less gas.

Is the loft the current 270mm of insulation?