Help to warm house and understand

Aylesbury_Duck

You've had some excellent advice here.  The challenging question I'd pose yourself is: Do you need to have a house that large?  Four bedrooms for two of you sounds excessive, and you mention a small mortgage.  Might now be the time to downsize, use your share of the proceeds to buy a smaller house, hopefully have some leftover money to help with cost of living, and what should be lower utility bills (and council tax)?

RobM99

Do you (plural) run a gaming PC? They are surprisingly power-hungry! Could be ½KwH which astonished me!

MattMattMattUK

RobM99 said:

Do you (plural) run a gaming PC? They are surprisingly power-hungry! Could be ½KwH which astonished me!

Mine can reach 700w draw at full pelt (1,000w PSU), but only when either running a high end ray traced game, or encoding video after editing, at idle it is around 120w, even in a normal game it will not get over 450w. So high end gaming PCs can use a lot, but they often use less overall than people think. 

SAC2334

molerat said:

Something you really need to get a grip on is your  actual annual usage in kWh.  Your IHD only gives a rough guide to how much gas you are using as it uses a constant figure in its calculations for something that varies from day to day.  You need to find actual meter readings from your bills and set them out in a list and see the difference at 12 months apart.  You can then figure out your annual cost and where your monthly DD should really be.

I don't know if you are a spreadsheet person but by using one you can really start to build up a picture.  I can see meter readings back to 2002 and monthly kWh usage chart back to 2009.

The IHD is showing last weeks  total kwh usage was £37 made up of  £25 a week electric and £12 gas  .
If she kept that usage up it would make a total of approx £188 a month (including the £28 a month standing charge)  .. minus the £67 energy grant takes it down to £121 a month 

She is paying Utility Warehouse  £250 a month ..Shes spending  £121 a month at last weeks kwh  rate 

 I reckon shes doing great as she is and will be building up a decent credit. The total usage is not
excessive and she is doing very well keeping it as low as it is especially on the gas usage ,
Possibly keeping  the electric down by finding out all the tweaks  and making sure the boiler and TRV settings  are normal .TRV in main rooms set at 3 and 2 in the other rooms .Flow rate down to 55 hot water down to 50c (only if you dont have a tank ) may help .She can afford to keep the house warmer if the overall monthly spend is at £120 now.


Are you saying that the IHD kwh use can not be trusted and in reality could be much higher .

molerat

Are you saying that the IHD kwh use can not be trusted and in reality could be much higher .

IHD gas kWh usage can be different to actual usage.  Admittedly not a huge difference but it certainly is not accurate.

She is paying Utility Warehouse  £250 a month ..Shes spending  £121 a month at last weeks kwh  rate

Based on a very small snapshot.  A whole year of use is needed to build a true picture.

RuBy

I do not get a chance at weekends to get in mse hence not responding to the many helpful posts.

I do not have access to historic bills before September. My husband left and I had no way of seeing those.

I pay utility warehouse a dd of £283 a month.

I’ve today purchased 2 heated throws, watching the usage they are working out on medium setting at 3p an hour each.

Total game changer, an Aldi special buy.

We are both very cosy.

On Monday I plan to check the cost of each item I am running and can upload pics of the boiler.

Thank you for your help.

Oh and no gaming computer.

I also can’t downsize, this house will be in my daughters name in trust once mortgage completion. 4 bedrooms needed My room, child’s room, equipment for child room and a spare room for family that stay 3x a week to help me at night.

RuBy

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Just to check, do either/both of you claim a disability benefit (DLA/PIP)?  If so, and you had a claim/claims in by 25th May you should have had a £150 cost of living payment.  I know it's not much in the grand scheme of things but it would help a bit.

I received the £150 earlier this year for my child as she is disabled.
we won’t get the recent ones as I went on UC too late.
Thanks you for your help 

RuBy

Gerry1 said:

Make sure you're not using any form of electric space heating, e.g. fan heaters, towel rails, oil filled radiators, immersion heaters.  Electric blankets are OK, an electric kettle is OK-ish. An electric throw may be more effective than trying to keep the whole room warm.

Check with Citizens Advice to make sure you're claiming all the benefits to which you're entitled. Make sure you're on your energy company's Priority Services Register if you qualify.

Thank you for the electric throw suggestion, I managed to grab 2 in aldi and feels like a game changer.

ariarnia

RuBy said:

Gerry1 said:

Make sure you're not using any form of electric space heating, e.g. fan heaters, towel rails, oil filled radiators, immersion heaters.  Electric blankets are OK, an electric kettle is OK-ish. An electric throw may be more effective than trying to keep the whole room warm.

Check with Citizens Advice to make sure you're claiming all the benefits to which you're entitled. Make sure you're on your energy company's Priority Services Register if you qualify.

Thank you for the electric throw suggestion, I managed to grab 2 in aldi and feels like a game changer.

i also wanted to share with you this thread and part of the forum. 

this thread in specific has lots of great ideas for non 'energy' ways to feel warmer over winter but that part of the forum is also a really lovely supportive community for those horrid january and February months 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/old-style-moneysaving

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5122360/preparing-for-winter-v/p593

Gerry1

RuBy said:

Gerry1 said:

Make sure you're not using any form of electric space heating, e.g. fan heaters, towel rails, oil filled radiators, immersion heaters.  Electric blankets are OK, an electric kettle is OK-ish. An electric throw may be more effective than trying to keep the whole room warm.

Check with Citizens Advice to make sure you're claiming all the benefits to which you're entitled. Make sure you're on your energy company's Priority Services Register if you qualify.

Thank you for the electric throw suggestion, I managed to grab 2 in aldi and feels like a game changer.

That's great news !  It's very important to stay warm, as this interesting article explains.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63602501