I'm not stupid but I've been caught out about rises in energy prices and the government's cap

macman

OP, you haven't given us the most pertinent piece of info: what is your annual kWh usage on each fuel? Without knowing this, no one can advise why your DD is set so high, even allowing for the debt recovery.

QrizB

It would be helpful to know your annual energy use, both gas and electricity. You can calculate this for yourself or you can look at a recent bill which will include an Estimated Annual consumptiuon figure.

According to this thread in April you were using around 16kWh/day of electricity and 30kWh/day of gas (as you have an imperial meter, measuring in hunderds of cubic feet).

molerat

turnitround said:

Im with Utilita and my new rates are 

Electric     1st 2kw @ 55p then 33.5 for the rest.
Gas           1st 2kw 24.49 then the rest at 10.32

But there are no standing charges.

I pay by variable DD and my bill for last month (Aug) was £89.40 but of course we did not really have the heating on apart from one day for a couple of hours. I do a wash 2 or 3 times a week and have a gas hob and electric oven and dishwasher but dont have a tumble dryer. This month I have used the heating twice and at night tend to just put the gas fire on in the lounge rather than the heating as I hate a warm bedroom.

We are retired so home all day and have a 3 bed semi so up to now I'm not overly worried.   I have a smart meter and to date for this month it's showing my usage at £ 71.06 but still 5 days to go plus vat.

Of course there is, it is just hidden in the first 2 units. 55 - 33.5 x 2 = 43p per day, 24.49 - 10.32  x 2 = 28.34p per day.

diystarter7

Thank you all, all helped to some degree at the very least and many more than that

We have laptops that are on all day, almost all day and one is used for work about 10 hours and connected to a 22 inch screen - we have two tv's on and on for 80% of the day/night from about 8am until midnight or longer

We use a drier, about 4/5 times a week
3 of us live in the house

The drier is A rated as are the tv's
We have mostly LED lights.
We have an eletric oven
Combi boiler 10+ old


I've decided today to increase the payem by 150 a month hopefully paying off the debt as well

EssexHebridean

Do you need both laptops and Tv's on at the same time? Might be better to concentrate on one thing at a time and save energy into the bargain!  
Do you have external space you can use for drying clothes etc? Cutting down that drier use by 50% even would make a big difference.
Check whether you have spare LED lightbulbs in the house that you can switch straight in for any older style ones still in use. Otherwise ensure that the older ones are in light fittings that get used the least. 
Think hard about maximising use of the oven - so if you're putting it on for a sunday roast can you also roast a tray of veggies for the week alongside, and pop a pudding in which will do you for a few days afterwards? If you have a double oven with one smaller than the other don't automatically put the large one on because it's what you've always used - think about whether the smaller (faster to heat up) one will do the job. 
Make sure the boiler settings are optimised both in terms of radiator and water temperature. Someone on here will be able to advise on this if you're unsure. 

macman

diystarter7 said:

Thank you all, all helped to some degree at the very least and many more than that

We have laptops that are on all day, almost all day and one is used for work about 10 hours and connected to a 22 inch screen - we have two tv's on and on for 80% of the day/night from about 8am until midnight or longer

We use a drier, about 4/5 times a week
3 of us live in the house

The drier is A rated as are the tv's
We have mostly LED lights.
We have an eletric oven
Combi boiler 10+ old


I've decided today to increase the payem by 150 a month hopefully paying off the debt as well

80% of your energy usage is usually heating and hot water. Stressing about a couple of laptops is really not necessary. As suggested before, only if you post your actual annual kWh usage can anyone calculate exactly what your DD should be set at on SVT under the EPG.

diystarter7

Thanks all.
Tv's on as one of our adult kids lives with us and WFH and has tv - laptops on etc
Re drying - we have a spare room, garden, integral garage with internal door etc but just don't like to see washing drying. Also when dried via drier they come out a lot softer.

I think it's the drier that zaps the electricity but I'm surprised re combi and use of electricity as I've been reading on google.


As I said we have money and still away from state pensions and small company pensions left work several years ago never claimed benefits and not entitled as well over the 16/20k whatever it is in savings.

I may look around for a newer drier - our drier is about 6 yrs old according to my wife I thought it was newer and its actually a B rating just looked at sticker i thought it was an A rating - 9kg load.  Washing machine is about 18 months old A rating


We are not desperate unlike, sadly many millions that are fearing winter and fuel and food bills but we are very aware and alert as we don't want to get  into debt, claim benefits or live a completely sheltered life where we can't eat what we want and heat the house reasonable well. No offence to anyone but always tried to plan ahead and the B's at the fuel suppliers should have done a better job at alerting us but thanks to you guys I will keep closer tabs on it.

Slinky

I know you've said in the past you don't like seeing washing drying in your garden, but that tumble drier is costing a lot for your reluctance to do this. With regards fabrics being softer, I've had the towels and sheets on the line this morning, they are slightly damp still so will finish them off in the tumble drier. You only need to put them in for 5-10 minutes to get them to soften up.

Sea_Shell

As I've said on other threads, we might have to all make choices between "perfection" and "that'll do".

Perfection costs.   We all have to decide whether it's a price worth paying. 😉

BUFF

diystarter7 said:

 I'm surprised re combi and use of electricity as I've been reading on google.

This shouldn't be large. I have a 14 year old combi & whilst the uptick in electricity use is noticeble over winter  when the heating comes on (typically set to "on" for 8hrs per day albeit will not be firing/pumping for all of that)  a large part of that is because I am a low user to start with (typically ~34kWh/day in summer).
For me, the heating running adds <20kWh/month of electricity - at Oct 22 EPG rates that is under 23p/day.