Energy bill increases

[mjr]

Somewhere in the back of a drawer is a device to measure how much electricity you are using, by a company called Owl I think. You clipped something to the mains cable with a display in the house. Got bored with watching it so put it away about 15 years ago....

I borrowed one of those from the public library when we move in here. It was great for prioritising replacing kitchen lights and floodlights with LEDs and so on, which were a surprisingly large chunk of energy use.

Of course, now you can do it with a smartphone app if you've a smart meter.

 

[oldwheels]

We pay a higher rate for energy in rural Scotland since we produce enough green energy to export some but are so "remote" we can get ripped off. I will not veer off into politics.
The house has cavity wall insulation and double glazed windows so apart from external cladding not much else can be done.
I am situated on top of a hill with high wind exposure which does not help.
The Highlands and Islands have the greatest incidence of fuel poverty in the UK.
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I have another one somewhere showing transmission charges where we pay over the odds by a large margin but bits of southern England get paid to transmit electricity. Verging on getting banned tho’.

 

[numbnuts]

Somewhere in the back of a drawer is a device to measure how much electricity you are using, by a company called Owl I think. You clipped something to the mains cable with a display in the house. Got bored with watching it so put it away about 15 years ago....

I've got one supplied by npower, it justs sits next to my desktop and most of the time it has £0.02 so that per hour, it goes up to £0.03 if the fridge freezer come on and up to £0.05 if the washing machine or the breadmaker is on.

 

[mjr]

I've got one supplied by npower, it justs sits next to my desktop and most of the time it has £0.02 so that per hour, it goes up to £0.03 if the fridge freezer come on and up to £0.05 if the washing machine or the breadmaker is on.

Hmmm... my heating will dwarf that I've not yet got a smart meter but the heating has its own meters, reporting to my phone (amongst others). 19p for the last hour, resulting in 4.5kWh of heat. Oh well, it's only winter once a year! 😎 ♨️♨️♨️

 

[mjr]

The southern Walloon region of Belgium has joined Brussels in requiring energy companies to get a court decision before they can cut off a customer.

 

[gbb]

Talking to colleagues and it seems (a very small survey tbf) that we're all paying around £120 to £150 a month for dual fuel. Thats manageable we seem to agree, all wish it was cheaper but hey ho.
And then you think back to when we wer'nt so flush, and how it sits with those who struggle...and it must be a real struggle. I remember being young and not long married (late 70s, early80s), a bag of coal was £7, we could afford one bag a week...and it simply wasnt enough.
But survive we did, in fact it taught us a lot about priorities, finances, made us determined to lift ourselves out of the struggle, little by little. It also reminds you, you can accustom yourself (and the kids) to houses that are not like greenhouses.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Talking to colleagues and it seems (a very small survey tbf) that we're all paying around £120 to £150 a month for dual fuel. Thats manageable we seem to agree, all wish it was cheaper but hey ho.
And then you think back to when we wer'nt so flush, and how it sits with those who struggle...and it must be a real struggle. I remember being young and not long married (late 70s, early80s), a bag of coal was £7, we could afford one bag a week...and it simply wasnt enough.
But survive we did, in fact it taught us a lot about priorities, finances, made us determined to lift ourselves out of the struggle, little by little. It also reminds you, you can accustom yourself (and the kids) to houses that are not like greenhouses.

Funny compared my energy bill to what my eldest two pay in digs. Let’s just say I’ve had a reaction , no longer Blackpool illuminations when I’m out

 

[cyberknight]

Talking to colleagues and it seems (a very small survey tbf) that we're all paying around £120 to £150 a month for dual fuel. Thats manageable we seem to agree, all wish it was cheaper but hey ho.
And then you think back to when we wer'nt so flush, and how it sits with those who struggle...and it must be a real struggle. I remember being young and not long married (late 70s, early80s), a bag of coal was £7, we could afford one bag a week...and it simply wasnt enough.
But survive we did, in fact it taught us a lot about priorities, finances, made us determined to lift ourselves out of the struggle, little by little. It also reminds you, you can accustom yourself (and the kids) to houses that are not like greenhouses.

already turned the heating down by 1 c , its enough to be comfortable in a cardigan ( cant do jumpers with my arm ) compared to t shirt warm

 

[Roseland triker]

My energy bills have gone sky high with the cost of wine now....

As for the peanut costs I'm appalled

 

[MrGrumpy]

Made a conscious decision last year to drop temps down as well. It’s been fairly mild on the whole this winter. So my Nest stat is maxed at 18.5c . Last year I had it at 21c at night

 

[Roseland triker]

Made a conscious decision last year to drop temps down as well. It’s been fairly mild on the whole this winter. So my Nest stat is maxed at 18.5c . Last year I had it at 21c at night

It's been very warm here this winter.
My house stays around 21c with the heating on for just a couple of hours a day.
I paid 34ppl on oil during the summer and filled up the tank so it's quite cheap really

 

[fossyant]

Our heating is on at around 18c - I've actually adjusted the timer for the heating to go off at 7pm rather than 9.30 since we completed the boarding in the loft - made the bedrooms too warm, so the heating is off earlier so they cool down.

I'm going to keep an eye on our leccy as that's our big bill - I give monthly readings on line, but I'm thinking of a weekly tracker. Just added some extra insulation to MrsF's hot tub (big power user) and even more LED bulbs have been added - we've got one light that's not LED as it's a G4 bulb that is on a dimmable lamp, and the G4 LED's we have aren't dimmable.

 

[fossyant]

I've just done a quick check on my usage over the last week, after the extra insulation has been fitted. OK, add in other variables etc etc, but it's lowered consumption by 1KWh a day, so over a month £6 - not massive, but recoups costs within 6 months.

 

[mjr]

It's been very warm here this winter.
My house stays around 21c with the heating on for just a couple of hours a day.
I paid 34ppl on oil during the summer and filled up the tank so it's quite cheap really

Only if the tankful lasts until oil is that cheap again, but what uncertainty!

 

[midlife]

Just ordered some heating oil, I'll check how much it is. Not sure it's only 34pence a litre though