EDF have upped our monthly DD to £860, equivalent to £10,300 per year for our 3 bedroom semi

IanIanIanIanIan

I bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps you might get the MSE advice guide removed then as is not of any use?:
budget-planning

dunstonh

IanIanIanIanIan said:

I bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps you might get the MSE advice guide removed then as is not of any use?:
budget-planning

It pays not to follow MSE advice guides religiously as they are often only right 75% of the time. Or they are over simplified to a level where more serious people will be able to improve on them.

Miser1964

The OP will need to double-down on finding those energy guzzlers now that the unit price cap has been marked for review after just six months, no doubt going UP!

Then again, so will everyone else except the most frugal on the Energy board who have the CH set to 12°C, except for Xmas Day when it's 15°C 😎

rp1974

dunstonh said:

It pays not to follow MSE advice guides religiously as they are often only right 75% of the time. Or they are over simplified to a level where more serious people will be able to improve on them.

Then where'd be the opportunity for blaming Martin Lewis,MSE,etc for peoples own actions,or inactions?.
Like every other source of information it's providing a best guess at what may,or may not happen based on what information is available at the time.
This forum and MSE generally has provided much helpful advice to many,although it's a case of understanding what's being presented.

mroshaw

We've taken our first steps! Today, I replaced 12 (yup, twelve) 50W halogen spots in the downstairs office area with 12 MR-16 LED bulbs. Ever so slight buzzing coming from one of them, so I guess we haven't been 100% successful in avoiding replacing the transformers - happier to put up with that for now, than have the old bulbs back in!

I've also received two TP-Link P110 Smart Plugs in the post today: £9.99 a piece from Curry's, so thought I'd get two to offset the £4 postage. One is now monitoring the TV setup in the living room, the other is monitoring my PC and monitor setup in the office. A mighty "spreadsheet to rule them all" has been brought to life, and we're poised to start collecting data!

We're looking forward to the smart meters going in on Friday. As a family, we're going to see what our individual contributions are to our energy consumption and see if we can have some fun reducing our own personal impacts. As well as overall consumption, of course. I think it will be great for the kids to see what impact everything has and it'll be a great learning experience for me and the missus too. Just have my fingers crossed that the kettle isn't for the chop, as I really need my coffee first thing!

Martico

mroshaw said:

A mighty "spreadsheet to rule them all" 

I've been following this great thread with interest, it's a very positive one.
And this line has brought me particular joy. All, erm, power to you and your Spreadsheet

Spoonie_Turtle

mroshaw said:

We've taken our first steps! Today, I replaced 12 (yup, twelve) 50W halogen spots in the downstairs office area with 12 MR-16 LED bulbs. …

Just have my fingers crossed that the kettle isn't for the chop, as I really need my coffee first thing!

Whew, those were quite a guzzle (600W!)

The kettle will be most efficient if you only boil what you need.  The amount of water requires the same amount of energy to heat regardless of how powerful the kettle is - a lower powered one will just take longer than a higher powered one.  The kettle will show a spike in energy usage but it's for a short time so nothing to worry about.  You could monitor it for a week to see cumulative usage just for information, but unless it's being used frivolously (filling it up every time for one cup of tea/coffee, for instance) it's unlikely to be on the energy chopping block.

dunstonh

We've taken our first steps! Today, I replaced 12 (yup, twelve) 50W halogen spots in the downstairs office area with 12 MR-16 LED bulbs. Ever so slight buzzing coming from one of them, so I guess we haven't been 100% successful in avoiding replacing the transformers - happier to put up with that for now, than have the old bulbs back in!

A temporary solution, if the buzzing is a pain, is to keep one of the old halogens in the circuit with the rest LED.     Buzz vs approx 40w extra. (you dont say what you replaced them with). 

That is going to be a noticeable difference. 600w in the office on for much of the day I guess.  If you do 7 hours then that was 4.2kW.

One is now monitoring the TV setup in the living room, the other is monitoring my PC and monitor setup in the office. A mighty "spreadsheet to rule them all" has been brought to life, and we're poised to start collecting data!

Be aware that if your TV is an OLED, then these must remain on standby.  However, they are very light in use on standby if you turn off mobile device connectivity.    Normal LED tvs can be turned off.

I actually found the challenge to save energy and get it down to be rather enjoyable.  I was surprised at how easy it was to get my wife and daughter to adapt.  Although I told them the heating would have to be lower if they didn't.   It's amazing what women will do to ensure the heating is higher!!!

mroshaw

dunstonh said:

you dont say what you replaced them with. 

These are the bulbs I bought to replace the 40W halogens: https://amzn.eu/d/gSI7ed4.

Chrysalis

[Deleted User] said:

IanIanIanIanIan said:

Simplest way to stay in control is to move to 'Monthly Variable Direct Debit Whole Amount' and only pay monthly for what you use and get a monthly invoice (instead of six monthly 'billing' of EDF) which just confuses things, and also lets you see exactly how you are going without surprises.

At home start a 'Household Budget Account' perhaps a separate bank account or simply a running spreadsheet, into which you pay a fixed amount monthly but enough to cover your expected bills for the year.  Your account, your money!

A household budget account is ideal for ALL or your fixed outgoings, car tax, insurance, club fees, etc. All the outgoings you may predict somewhat well.  The monthly payment into the account is then a fixed monthly amount which takes the sting out of paying a yearly high bill by spreading the cost over twelve months.

The simplest way to stay in control is to start a new bank account and assume that you are better at predicting price and usage for every service than the companies who provide the service, and that you wouldn't accidentally spend money from this account on some other conflicting urgent need?

I don't think so.

This might be a way of doing it, and it might work for you, but it certainly isn't simple or for everyone.

Well i am certainly better at it than Octopus, they are still predicting on their annual estimator my usage to be 4x what I actually use, and some of us yes can regulate ourselves on spending.

If I trusted my supplier I would be about 3k in credit now and rising rapidly.