Trying to keep energy costs down but DH doesn’t co- operate.

Luckygirl3

Oldbat1

OVO have already put up our DD in April to £218 a month. I’ve just had an email this morning saying they want to now put it up to £340 a month. Energy is like a mortgage. I really really feel so sorry for those families who just can’t afford these huge hikes plus food price increases. We are lucky we have savings to fall back on. Husband leaves lights on plus he leaves computer on all day. He says “minimal” costs - he won’t change!

£218 a month!!! Is that for both gas and electricity? It is a startling amount! - do you live in a castle?

My electricity DD has gone up to £79, which is a huge increase on before; and my LPG I buy by the tankful so it is hard to judge it as a monthly amount, but it cannot be more than about £45 a month if I divide the tankful by how long it lasted. So I am looking at around £125 a month at the very most for both.

What do you have running that can justify the huge D/D?

It's not astonishing at all. Mine is £166 a month (OVO originally wanted to put it up to over £200) and I live in a modern-ish, well insulated two bed terrace. I have thermostats on all my radiators, hardly ever use the oven and turn off lights, etc. I usually live on my own. Nobody needs to be in a castle to run up those kind of bills.

Cabbie21 does your DH deal with the electricity bills?
If he knows how much it costs, and you can afford it, then why not let him get on with it?

I am also one who tries to economise but it seems you are giving yourself unnecessary stress, unless you actually can't afford the cost.

British Gas sent me an email at 0400 on a Sunday increasing my dual fuel DD from £57 to £202.67; we did owe them £345 at the time as the old DD was too low, which I knew when they set the amount in December 2020, but I prefer to owe them rather than overpay. No explanation of how they had calculated such an odd amount.
I phoned them on the Monday and we discussed our deficit, the coming summer and the April and October tariff increases and then I offered them £170 per month which I reckon will leave us debt free in 12 months and they accepted my figure.
Still a huge increase, but now justified. It is in the power companies' interest to overcharge! We will be switching to another supplier once (if) cheaper fixed rates return as British Gas have been underhand on this and other occasions.
The OP should phone the supplier and negotiate!

Mine went up from £157 to £250 and I live alone. However, since the weather’s picked up and I’m not using much gas, I’m down to a few pounds a day according to my smart meter.

This morning my husband woke up at 7am and switched the electric towel rail on in the bathroom. It takes about 20 minutes to warm the room and his towel, but he never has his shower before 8:30am.

He comes downstairs at 7am, fills the kettle to the brim, switches it on then goes out to walk the dog. He never makes his tea until the kettle is re-boiled at 8am. (I switch it off after he goes out).

He cooks bacon and eggs every morning and warms his plate in the oven. He sits and eats his breakfast with the oven still on.

I ask him every day if he has heard about the increase in fuel costs?

Sigh...

OP if as he says you can afford it, i don't see the problem.
there are many accidents in the home in which lack of adequate lighting is a factor, missing a step, trips and slips.
also i read that greater lighting contributes to better mood.

V3ra you must be married to my husband they sound identical.

We can also afford it but it’s a waste of precious resources that’s why it’s so irritating.

a person should be able to relax in their own home without being harried about unnecessary scrimping and saving.
esp after a life time of hard work.

V3ra, your husband is worse than mine.

I have to agree welbeck.

Our monthly dual fuel payment is already £360.
We can afford it, we're both still working full-time, but that's not the point. It's wasting resources and totally unnecessary. With a bit of thought and no real hardship we could reduce that payment, and there are plenty more worthwhile ways to spend the money!
I have managed to persuade him that he can dry-fry food on the hob and really doesn't need to put the oven on just to cook half a dozen sausages ?

Poor husbands being constantly nagged to turn lights off, not put the heating on, don’t spend too long in the shower, it must be pretty miserable for them if they are retired and and being hen pecked and nagged all day long about trivial things.

OP

Are the saver tendencies stronger in you than in your husband?

I wonder if this is the first disagreement you have towards finances

now i understand why some men mutter, anything for a quiet life.
why do some women assume they are in charge of their menfolk, as if they are parents telling them what to do, and sighing at their lack of compliance.
it's as if men don't know how to live in a house without women giving them instructions.
maybe they've just got different ideas.
partners means equals.

I live alone, and keep a light on inside the house all night as well as front and back porch lights. It’s an expenditure I make to feel more safe at night.

We are lucky that we both feel the cold, so no arguments about the heating, it’s a chilly bungalow even though it’s double glazed and has cavity wall insulation, our Electricity bill has gone up to £119 a month but it’s fixed for 3 years, our oil (for heating) has gone up to £289 per month!
Apparently the fuel companies like you to have 6 months money in credit.
We have a lamp on in the sitting room and one in the hallway, our under cupboard lighting comes on in the kitchen when you walk past it, then goes off again, so no lights are left on.
I charge iPads and phones during the evening , so that they aren’t left on all night on charge and only the rooms we use are heated.
However with summer nearly here, we should be in credit with both suppliers fairly soon.
Not much more we can do, we are fortunate that we don’t have to choose between food or fuel and that we can also help our ACs with their bills.

Only child syndrome?! Please - children self reliant, with excellent leadership qualities, is what you mean surely ?...speaking as an only child, obviously ...

Urmstongran

I read the other day that turning lights off only saves 2p a day. The huge price hike is in the standing charges (some £700 p.a. apparently) and there’s nothing we can do about that.

... I read the same. On more than one site. Apparently, there are some types of lighting systems that cost more to turn off and on, and thus it's cheaper to actually leave the lights on!

I know "every little helps" - but this is so little that it really doesn't.

I wonder how the hike in standing charges can be justified? Or is it that people are cutting back so drastically on usage that the energy companies are trying to recoup through the SCs?

I feel so angry I could almost support a revolt... can't pay, won't pay type of revolt ...

Like some other grans, I can get by, but I really am concerned about those - pensioners and poorer families - who've already cut to the bone. How on earth will they manage in winter? No one should have to live in a freezing cold home. You can walk around with multiple layers and hugging a duvet / blanket, but you can't function properly like that.

It's morally wrong. I know it's 'market forces' but government - any government - can mitigate the effects if it wants to.

Chocolatelovinggran

Only child syndrome?! Please - children self reliant, with excellent leadership qualities, is what you mean surely ?...speaking as an only child, obviously ...

Exactly Chocolatelovinggran

The single biggest waste of energy in our house comes from OH using the hot tap unnecessarily.

When I say 'unecessarily', I mean that due to how long it takes for hot water to reach the tap (nearly a bucketful of cold water comes through first), he is actually washing his hands in cold water, but that same amount of hot water is leaving the cylinder and going into the pipes, so is having to be reheated!

There is a lot of hand-washing every day, so that's a heck of a lot of water being heated for no useful purpose whatsoever.
It isn't just hand-washing, of course - there are many other jobs where he uses cold water from the hot tap instead of just using the cold tap, where the water initially coming out is the same temperature.

OH is aware of this, but is totally unable now to change the habit of a lifetime.

I agree.
I couldn't care less about lights on around the house. I wouldn't even notice. I would notice if I get too hot. We're forever switching heat on and off.
It's no big deal. We wouldn't argue over it.
More important things to worry about. Leave poor hubby alone.

Just for information, our dual fuel direct debit was previously £120 last year. We were in deficit at the end of January so I cleared the balance to zero. The company then put it up to £159, just before the general increase. We then compared tariffs in the light of all the dire predictions, and opted for a fixed tariff, with a DD of £309, dearer than the standard tariff, but hoping to be cheaper than the next price hikes. Possibly the wrong decision, so we reviewed it. Any new tariffs have much dearer standing charges, but slightly lower unit rates, so there is an incentive to reduce our usage.

And for information, I do not constantly nag about lights. The subject came up as we reviewed the situation. We disagree on this particular topic.
I do resent the implication that only he has worked hard all his life and deserves to relax in his own home, Welbeck.

Modern light bulbs use so little electricity. A standard LED bulb uses 3 - 5 watts compared with 100w, 20 years ago, so a few lights left on will not increase your bill significantly.

Why not do a deal with your DH's you will not make a fuss about lights, if they will have a bath rather than a long shower, if they spend 30 minutes in the shower, a bath will use less water and need less energy to heat, or have shorter showers.

For some years we had a device on the kitchen wall that told us how much electricity we were using at any given moment.Buy one of those and put it somewhere very visible.

The standing charge is a scam and needs to be looked into. Someone said it is to compensate the energy companies for the fact that some of them went bankrupt and their customers had to be transferred to the bigger ones.

Errrrm! Doesnt that mean that we are then paying out for these big companies to aquire a whole bunch of new customers??? I run a business and if someone handed me a whole tranche of new customers on a plate I would be a happy woman. So why are we paying out for these companies who went broke? They obviously had a crappy business model.

As someone self employed who works at home I will be loading as much of the fuel and utility increases as business allowances against my tax bill. Im arthritic so I wont be cutting down on heating anytime soon. However I only heat the room I am currently using plus the bathroom.