Help please as I’m panicking

Toomuchdebt

Keep_pedalling said:

Your second biggest energy spend is the fish tanks. Heating tropical fish tanks is going to consume 100’s of kWh every year. A 160l tank will use about 600kWh PA which at around 28p pkWh is £168.

Thank you good to know. My tropical tank is 60l, the others are cold water tanks so no heaters involved. It's the tropical tank I'm most concerned about. I'm considering putting the platys in with the goldfish to save money- as they're both cold water fish I'm hoping they'll be ok together.

Toomuchdebt

BUFF said:

Toomuchdebt said:

 I have gas central heating which isn’t very efficient. 

With some more information (boiler make/model, controls etc.) we can perhaps help you improve that.

It's a Worcester 640 I want to say? Old combi boiler. 

Toomuchdebt

markin said:

Looks like you may be using a little more than the average so im sure the are savings to make, How old is the Freezer? When they go bad they can start using far more than they should.

Buy a plug in power meter to check it and the fish tank, and everything in the house.

But with the mold problems in mind you should look to move.

The freezer is only 2 years old so should be quite energy efficient still. Will have a look for the power meter. 
I would like to move but I can't afford to do so.

Toomuchdebt

Emmia said:

markin said:

Looks like you may be using a little more than the average so im sure the are savings to make, How old is the Freezer? When they go bad they can start using far more than they should.

Buy a plug in power meter to check it and the fish tank, and everything in the house.

But with the mold problems in mind you should look to move.

Partly, that depends on the cause of the mould. If it is "social mould" caused by drying clothes inside and not ventilating bath/shower rooms after use etc., then the mould will re-occur at the next place, as the same causes will probably be present. If the mould is caused by water ingress from dodgy guttering etc., then hopefully, it won't as long as the next place doesn't have these issues. 

Given the debt, does the OP have the money to be moving house?  

There's no insulation in the roof at all. I keep windows slightly open 24/7 to help with ventilation. The mould is in the bathroom and the upstairs bedrooms-I dry clothes in the kitchen only.

Mstty said:

@Toomuchdebt

Good morning, I hope you got some sleep and some good news the warmer weather seems to start tomorrow🤞

Without your actual kWh usage on Elec and Gas usage for the past year on your previous fixed deal the below is a rough estimate.

If you just let you current fixed rate end it will fall to the standard variable rate protected by the capped rates

Based on the average capped rates you should realistically budget for £240 a month but if you can supply exact kWh usage figures that will help put together the exact yearly cost.

Please remember there is also a £150 council tax rebate for people living in band A-D including renters. If you don't pay by direct debit you may have to claim this manually. 

Additionally you do sound like someone that could claim from the 500million sent to councils from the government for a hardship fund. Details of this are not available as yet but please bear this in mind and check with your local council what the criteria is when they are ready for applications.

In October there is also a further £200 that will be knocked off your October bill  however this coincides with another potential price rise of 30% and will just soften the blow for the upcoming winter months and it's a loan that we all start paying back in April 2023 at approx £4 a month.

When you can call Octopus and see what initiatives they have for helping people and a hardship fund as well.

Thank you for all the information. I will be calling them Monday morning and asking if they can extend my current fixed rate and if not I'll be on the variable one. I have applied for their hardship help already. 

Toomuchdebt

EssexHebridean said:

The unhelpful comment from earlier in the thread has been reported. The OP goes out of their way to explain the reason for the multiple postings so the spiteful post is completely uncalled for. 

OP - I hope you had a better night’s sleep and now feel at least a little reassured.  The most important thing right now is for you to work out where you stand with the debts - and the Debt free wannabe board is the best place for that. I’d suggest you put together your SOA (Statement of Affairs) and post that over on DFW then we can take a look and see what we can suggest. As you’ve discovered, burying your head in the sand just leads to more stress, so I’d really suggest that as you have made a start on facing up to the situation you try to take that momentum to continue sorting things out. Remember - everything can be fixed one way or another. 

Thank you.I'm honestly a little scared of doing an SOA partly due to comments like the ones here from a certain person. 
I do feel a little calmer today and after I reply here I'll be setting up my budget properly again.markin said:

Did you scroll down? The back button could make me think its the bottom but the is a scroll bar.

If the really is 0 insulation it could be a quick payback time if you can get someone you know or the kids are old enough to do it.

Around £300 for better than nothing. Only 100mm deep rather than 270mm

https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-insulation-roll-l-6m-w-0-37m-t-100mm/3663602481812_BQ.prd

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/roof-and-loft-insulation/

The kids are 13 and 11 so no not really. I've asked the landlord multiple times to do something about it. I don't have £300 to be spending on it otherwise I'd have done it long ago. To give you an idea of how useless the landlord is I currently have a huge hole in my front porch ceiling-I say huge hole, it's actually half the ceiling...he hasn't fixed it since OCTOBER. 

brianposter said:

The first requirement is to know why "the house has a damp problem".

Is this anything to do with the fish tanks ?

Nope-I've been here 7 years and the damp has been here for 5. I've only had fish for 2 years. I've been asking the landlord to do something about the damp for 5 years. His solution was to give me a dehumidifier, and to install ventilation fans. 

skogar

Great to hear that you are feeling a bit less stressed and I can see you have had lots of replies already. Also thank you for giving us a bit of an idea about your household. Some things that might be practical for one person are not so practical with more people.

The damp definitely is a concern. I'm wondering if the upstairs rooms are the worst affected if there is an issue with the humidity from the bathroom. Whether you can improve this at all by regular airing of the rooms (in addition to the fan). Drying the washing indoors won't help with this either but it is difficult in winter. Does the damp improve at all in the summer?

Your bill does seem like a huge price hike so if you can find the usage details and work out what it would be on the variable tariff hopefully it will be cheaper. Hopefully the weather will start warming up soon so hopefully that will make things a bit easier at least in the short term.

Most people on the forum are great and really helpful and so I would encourage you to post your SOA.

I have never done an SOA on here but the thing I found most useful when trying to reduce outgoings was to make a note of all spends and then I looked through them and worked out what I could cut out with minimal impact and what I might be able to adjust a bit. It gave me a better idea of what things I was actually spending  the money on.

You may find it helpful to look at a few of the threads on old style - there is a long running thread on preparing for winter which might have some ideas for you and there are a few others as well. The feeling the pinch thread is a recent one looking at recent cost rises.

Sending a big hug.

Toomuchdebt

skogar said:

Great to hear that you are feeling a bit less stressed and I can see you have had lots of replies already. Also thank you for giving us a bit of an idea about your household. Some things that might be practical for one person are not so practical with more people.

The damp definitely is a concern. I'm wondering if the upstairs rooms are the worst affected if there is an issue with the humidity from the bathroom. Whether you can improve this at all by regular airing of the rooms (in addition to the fan). Drying the washing indoors won't help with this either but it is difficult in winter. Does the damp improve at all in the summer?

Your bill does seem like a huge price hike so if you can find the usage details and work out what it would be on the variable tariff hopefully it will be cheaper. Hopefully the weather will start warming up soon so hopefully that will make things a bit easier at least in the short term.

Most people on the forum are great and really helpful and so I would encourage you to post your SOA.

I have never done an SOA on here but the thing I found most useful when trying to reduce outgoings was to make a note of all spends and then I looked through them and worked out what I could cut out with minimal impact and what I might be able to adjust a bit. It gave me a better idea of what things I was actually spending  the money on.

You may find it helpful to look at a few of the threads on old style - there is a long running thread on preparing for winter which might have some ideas for you and there are a few others as well. The feeling the pinch thread is a recent one looking at recent cost rises.

Sending a big hug.

Oh the bathroom is downstairs and I think that's caused by the leaky guttering. The upstairs is because of the lack of insulation.

markin

The kids are the perfect age to get in the corners, just make sure they know to stand only on the beams and don't block the eves, Get a good led headlamp and Start with just the kids bedroom if you need to spread the cost over the year.

I worked out the payback would be around £100 a year for just 100mm thick using the numbers on that site so 3 year payback, but that's likely very outdated costs, it could be a 1 year payback now.

Mstty

@Toomuchdebt

Hi again, has the landlord/lady ever given you the EPC rating of the property you are renting? If not you can look it up below as they shouldn't be renting a property with a rating less than an E and you could use this to make them do the work to make your home more efficient so you pay less in bills.

https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

Toomuchdebt

markin said:

The kids are the perfect age to get in the corners, just make sure they know to stand only on the beams and don't block the eves, Get a good led headlamp and Start with just the kids bedroom if you need to spread the cost over the year.

I worked out the payback would be around £100 a year for just 100mm thick using the numbers on that site so 3 year payback, but that's likely very outdated costs, it could be a 1 year payback now.

Yeah they’re not going up in the roof without supervision and in any case the 13 year old would be too scared and would have a panic attack. I can’t get up there because of my health issues. And regardless I still can’t afford it and more to the point I shouldn’t have to. I rent therefor the landlord should make sure the house is in good condition no? If I could afford £300 for insulation of any kind I wouldn’t be worried about paying extra for the energy bill. Mstty said:

@Toomuchdebt

Hi again, has the landlord/lady ever given you the EPC rating of the property you are renting? If not you can look it up below as they shouldn't be renting a property with a rating less than an E and you could use this to make them do the work to make your home more efficient so you pay less in bills.

https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

Hi no he hasn’t. I’m going to look it up now and get back to you. 

It’s rated D valid till Feb 2025. Not sure how with all the damp and a huge hole in the front porch ceiling. Good to know how to check the energy certificate though so thank you.