Gas & Electricity

Is it worth unplugging shitty little appliances around the house? I was always under the impression that made very little difference to overall bills. Understand they’ve gone through the roof but won’t the bills be massive anyway due to standing costs?
 
There is a light said:
Is it worth unplugging shitty little appliances around the house? I was always under the impression that made very little difference to overall bills. Understand they’ve gone through the roof but won’t the bills be massive anyway due to standing costs?
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It will save you a few quid a month, but as you say, the SCs up your bill even if you use zero gas/electric.
 
There is a light said:
Is it worth unplugging shitty little appliances around the house? I was always under the impression that made very little difference to overall bills. Understand they’ve gone through the roof but won’t the bills be massive anyway due to standing costs?
Click to expand...
Standby modes can be suprisingly expensive. Worth it IMO.

Big problem I've got is this stupid Virgin Media box, it sits and eats power. Turn it off at the mains, it loses all saved programmes and takes half an hour to boot. There is a low power standby mode, but that is very unreliable at switching on. Like, press all the buttons for half an hour hoping for the best unreliable.
 
Summerbuzz said:
Standby modes can be suprisingly expensive. Worth it IMO.

Big problem I've got is this stupid Virgin Media box, it sits and eats power. Turn it off at the mains, it loses all saved programmes and takes half an hour to boot. There is a low power standby mode, but that is very unreliable at switching on. Like, press all the buttons for half an hour hoping for the best unreliable.
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Use Virgin standby every night never had a problem.
Just press the restart button and its on in a flash
 
Our smart meter was finally up and running on Tuesday this week. About £3.65 per day on average, so that's about £1300 per year, excluding any winter heating increases. They are charging £300 per month, so that's £3600 per year.

I've applied to be a Trusted House Sitter (.com), so plan to spend most of the year using some rich peoples houses in exchange for walking their dog twice a day, while they are in holiday.
 
M18CTID said:
Does a smart meter save big money? I’d have thought if you were pretty sensible anyway that it might save a few quid but not a great deal?
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Well gas and electric is something I never took for granted. My dad drummed it into me growing up to switch lights off etc.
Tried teaching the kids but they don’t get it, they think I am being a tight arse. I want them to see for themselves as the meter is whizzing round.
 
Colin Bells Holdall said:
Well gas and electric is something I never took for granted. My dad drummed it into me growing up to switch lights off etc.
Tried teaching the kids but they don’t get it, they think I am being a tight arse. I want them to see for themselves as the meter is whizzing round.
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Yeah, it sounds like you need a smart meter then. I don’t have kids so less of a need for me, although it looks like they’re pushing us all onto them.
 
M18CTID said:
Yeah, it sounds like you need a smart meter then. I don’t have kids so less of a need for me, although it looks like they’re pushing us all onto them.
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I think you can become obsessed by them, I was brought up not waste stuff so we are pretty good, I don’t honestly think we can cut back our usage, like I’ve said before the annoying thing about them is I have been charged 71p without actually using anything, and basically I’m paying that due to the failures of the private sector :(
 
Blue Maverick said:
I think you can become obsessed by them, I was brought up not waste stuff so we are pretty good, I don’t honestly think we can cut back our usage, like I’ve said before the annoying thing about them is I have been charged 71p without actually using anything, and basically I’m paying that due to the failures of the private sector :(
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Without doubt "standing charges" are a licence to print money.
This time last year we was paying 31.5P a day combined whereas now we are paying 55.4p combined, and that's been discounted by 14.5p a day as a loyalty bonus.
So basically paying £201.65 for not using a thing.
 
M18CTID said:
Does a smart meter save big money? I’d have thought if you were pretty sensible anyway that it might save a few quid but not a great deal?
Click to expand...
They save you a bit of money as the energy companies can't just lump up direct debits based upon assumed usage as they get your actual usage. I do a meter read every month anyway and that helps to justify a lower direct debit.

We've also split our electric/gas tariffs as I'm getting an electric car soon and want to get on a special EV tariff (really cheap charging at night). You can't get on one of these tariffs without a smart meter so getting one is a must if anyone is thinking of getting an electric car.

One thing people can do to save money is to save on the things we take for granted like boiling the kettle. We switched to cold brew and not boiling the kettle is saving us 40p per day. If you get a smart meter then you can see all of this stuff and work out what's costing you. I linked mine to an app called Loop Energy which tells you how much you spend everyday down to the hour (which showed that boiling the kettle costs a bloody fortune).

It can become a bit of an obsession but it's helped us to lower the bills a bit. Unfortunately though it's just proved that the only way to save a lot of money is to change your choices. I can't imagine how much people with hot tubs and that kind of thing are paying as now it must be £100's per month.
 
inbetween said:
They save you a bit of money as the energy companies can't just lump up direct debits based upon assumed usage as they get your actual usage. I do a meter read every month anyway and that helps to justify a lower direct debit.

We've also split our electric/gas tariffs as I'm getting an electric car soon and want to get on a special EV tariff (really cheap charging at night). You can't get on one of these tariffs without a smart meter so getting one is a must if anyone is thinking of getting an electric car.

One thing people can do to save money is to save on the things we take for granted like boiling the kettle. We switched to cold brew and not boiling the kettle is saving us 40p per day. If you get a smart meter then you can see all of this stuff and work out what's costing you. I linked mine to an app called Loop Energy which tells you how much you spend everyday down to the hour (which showed that boiling the kettle costs a bloody fortune).

It can become a bit of an obsession but it's helped us to lower the bills a bit. Unfortunately though it's just proved that the only way to save a lot of money is to change your choices. I can't imagine how much people with hot tubs and that kind of thing are paying as now it must be £100's per month.
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A cold brew! Sorry but that’s never happening.
 
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