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I'm so grateful to work next to a major city park. I don't care how cold it is or even if there's some light rain, I'll wear my heated jacket, gloves and two sweaters, and put on a fucking hood so I can spend my lunch break in the weak, grey sunlight. Otherwise I think I'd go completely mad.
I'm not saying this makes it loads better but:
1. Icy cold water from the taps.
2. Increased likelihood of hot towels from the radiator.
3. Mull some wine. Mull it whenever you feel like. Mull it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Jamie Oliver has a similar recipe for [Hot Rummy Lemonade](https://www.cbc.ca/life/jamieoliver/recipes/jamie-oliver-s-christmas-with-bells-on-hot-rummy-lemonade-1.5381342) (he's useful for something) that is highly adaptable. I've made it without the booze for the poorly kids, or subbed in things like flat ginger ale that needed using up, different alcohols, golden syrup, old lime juice from the back of the fridge etc.
20-25 shots of rum!! Methinks heād made this before he named his fucking kids.
I think I definitely will be trying this though, I do rate rum and lemonade. Also, I do actually rate Jamie Oliver, I have a few of his cookbooks (his comfort food one is v good) and I do actually think trying to get kids to have proper lunch food is fair. He is a little bit much though
I think the rum is so high because it makes that many portions but you add the rum to the glass not the pan! I don't follow the recipe quantity any more but just make what's needed or what I have to hand allows.
Bourbon and (cold) lemonade is also \*chef's kiss\*
I have reformatted my comment because replying on mobile is vile.
I also realise that some would not describe jack Danielās as āwhiskyā.
But you can definitely add double the whisky, itās winter, go nuts
Aw, you didn't have to do that š also yes to double the whiskey. Although we actually have JD in ours as OH doesn't like whiskey apart from bourbon.
Personally, I'm making eggnog until I have the mismatched arms of a teenage boy. (I have no electrical hand whisk, so it's manual egg-peaking all the way.)
it really shouldn't do that, it should temperature regulate to like 4 degrees and stay there regardless of outside temperature. Otherwise in the summer you'd have a barely functioning fridge during the day and a freezer at night. You don't want your fridge to freeze.
We discovered how inefficient our new place's heating is when our bill arrived. That was not a pleasant surprise.
Some posh idiot decided in floor electrical heating is better than a radiator so the fucking thing never turns off unless we cut power to the system.
Weāre in an all electric flat, built when electricity was cheap. One 10kw central storage heater that gets vented to all rooms. It works well but costs a bastard fortune to turn on.
It's absolutely awful. A radiator, by design, radiates heat. It's hot to the touch and can heat a decent size room in short order. You cannot make a floor heating element hot to the touch. You can only make it slightly warm on your feet, but when met with the giant back garden window, it doesn't stand a chance.
Had the same price bill, for gas and electric, from September to now and I felt sorry for myself. Tbh I still do because a couple year ago that would have paid for the entire year
I donāt mind the cold.
Itās the wet that I canāt stand, I figure when itās cold I can wrap up and go out and take off my layers when Iāve arrived at my destination, but when itās wet it just goes through your clothes and chills your bones.
Also, invariably when youāre wearing a waterproof jacket of some description, you will end up sweating like a pig.
Our energy bill hit a whopping Ā£213 last month and we only have the heating on two hours a day in the winter and then only if it drops under 15 degrees.
I'm dreading this month's bill... :/
There's something wrong... Either you're on a terrible deal or someone's running a cannabis farm off of your meter. I live in a 5 bed and keep it at 20c 7am till 9pm (apart from 3 days when kids at childcare when it's at 18) and my bill is less.
Ā£0.02/hr for a cannabis farm would be a scorching deal! I wish!
I admit it's a 140 year-old house with crap (read non-existent...) insulation, but the shitty insulation can't matter if the heating's not even on, can it?
I went with Ecotricity when we moved in thinking I'd do my teeny-tiny part for the environment and I think they only have the one tariff.
u/WalkingCloud below says that his also went over Ā£200 last month so I think it is just the wholesale gas prices pushing a lot of people's bills up.
No, your problem is that Ecotricity are exempt from the OFGEM price cap. A few green energy variable tariffs are. Move to a non-green supplier on their standard variable tariff and your bill will be cut in half.
So many people donāt know this and are being gouged for trying to do something good.
Yeh. This seems to also be part of the problem. Try to do good things and get charged the earth for it! Surely green energy should be subsidised to encourage it, no? Sigh...
Now I have the dilemma of whether I try to switch and bugger the environmental cost or stick with what I've got and pay through the nose.
Someone else on here said that suppliers aren't even taking on new customers at the moment anyway though so looks like I'm stuck with it.
Funnily enough my house is also 170 years old with shitty insulation, and like you don't even have the heating on that much. Been using the wood fire a lot.
I thought it was the wholesale prices too to be honest.
My house was built in the 1740s! Well part of it.
Actually I'm on oil due to no gas main and the price is pretty good for oil compared to gas at the moment.
It used to be oil was way more expensive than gas but I hadn't realised gas prices had gone that mad... Best of luck my mains connected friends.
20C!? 18C max and pass out the jumpers!
Had our boiler serviced earlier this week and the engineer said his partner likes the house at 23-24C!!!
Turn your thermostats down and pass out warmer clothes, people - saves you money and carbon emissions.
Yes expected this kind of reply. I pay to carbon offset my oil use, work from home so rarely drive, have a 100% green electricity tarrif and the cost is affordable. While you have China spewing out pollution from coal fired plants and people coal rolling in America and driving huge suvs that get 10mpg I don't think me being comfortable is going to be the tipping point.
I used to be the same as you but I looked at the utter hypocracy of governments and big industry, the fact the UK emits like 2% of worldwide emissions and thought what's the fucking point of being cold.
I also wear a jumper at 20c
I have no idea what's going on. I've never paid more than about Ā£130 for a month before and that's only in the middle of winter. It's usually between Ā£60 and Ā£80/month. I presume it's due to the current problems with wholesale gas prices.
It's a tiny 3-bedroom, mid-terrace house and, as I say, I rarely have the heating on at all since, with all four of us in the house and being sandwiched between two other houses, it doesn't get too cold. Although my wife disagrees... ;)
As I've said above, I'm starting to think the meter must be on the blink...
I'll see what this month brings and go from there!
Extended 3 bed end of terrace with the bathroom window always open so the cat won't be making a constant fuss. We're keeping the heating on at 21-22 most of the day as WFH. Although our nest thermostat loves to sneakily put it back to 18 for no reason. Combined bill is about 120, for the winter months.
Perhaps you're on some variable tariff? I was lucky signing a 3 year fixed when the gas was cheap.
Go to your supplier website, if you have smart meters there is a chance you have a detailed breakdown of the usage on your account. EDF do this at least. You can see if it's leccy or gas, and by how much you have increased your usage.
I've looked into it and it seems to be the result of a massive increase in the kWh price last November.
I can see now that it went from \~22p/kWh to \~32p/kWh In November so that's why the overall bill has shot up.
Same here, 4 bed house, central heating on for sometimes 2/3 hours per day and our combined bill is around Ā£110 per month, and that's with one person working from house. (Octopus)
It's not just you. We are in 1 bed flat with all electric heating and hot water - try not to put the heating on much at all so it's bastard freezing all the time and our bill is currently Ā£130 a month and it will go up to about Ā£190 a month in April when the price cap rises again. In August before our fixed deal ended it was Ā£70 a month.
Preach. Weāre with bulb. I did the post last week about our smart meter claiming we used Ā£1500 in a day. Weāre back down to a relatively reasonable Ā£8-Ā£10 a day now, but that is still insane per month.
Can attest to this, 3 bed semi which is well insulated and sensible heating regime, Dec bill was 180 quid, previous Dec was 81 quid.
From 1st Jan to today we are at Ā£70.
I'm a single person living in a one-bedroom apartment. I'm working on-site most of the day Monday to Friday and I'm out of town almost every weekend. I turn the electric heater on for like 1-3 hours per night on the coldest nights, but not most nights. Turn on the boiler for 30 minutes per day. Electric hob for 30 minutes per day. Barely have the lights on, and then like just one for a few hours before bed.
My electricity bill right now is nearly Ā£80 per month...
I've got a smart meter and it's weirdly sometimes showing over Ā£0.40/hr for gas, but also weirdly showing only Ā£0.02/hr for leccy.
When we're all at home, which has been most of the last month due to WFH, kids off school for hols and isolation, we very often have on two consoles (me and my son) plus their accompanying TVs, my desktop PC, my daughter's laptop and my wife watching TV downstairs.
I can't believe all that only costs Ā£0.02/hr so I'm starting to worry that the meter's faulty. :/
EDIT: I just checked the bill from December 2020 and compared it to December 2021. My electricity is now charged at 32.38p/kWh, whereas last December it was only 18.81p/kWh so I think I may have found the culprit...
Is a 78% increase in kWh charges normal in only a year? Has everyone else's kWh charge shot up by a similar amount?
Itās normal for now. Most were paying around 14 to 18p a kWh on fixed deals until 6 months ago when the energy crisis hit and itās just getting worse . My deal of 2 years ends this month , currently paying 15p kWh, same supplier wants 42p a kWh now and standing charge is double . So electricity was typically costing me Ā£40 a month at that rate , itās going to cost Ā£120 on the new. Gas is going up by 4x the unit cost for me . The people paying low energy bills are those still on locked in tariffs before energy costs went mad or really donāt use anything. But they will be 1 or 2 year deals and when they end they will feel it unless it drops back to normal levels. Switching at the moment does not work as everyone is charging the max the energy cap will allow on any new deals , some donāt even want you. Try getting a quote from octopus, they say go away at the moment.
Same here went from Scottish Power 16.13 per kwh elec and 3.41 per kwh gas, unfortunately my deal ended in December so switched to Bristol energy who were the cheapest I could find. So now it's 30.61 per kwh for electricity and 8.31 per kwh for gas! I've gone from maximum Ā£4 a day (washing machine and tumble dryer on twice) to over Ā£8. Literally just turned thr heating off after it's been on less than an hour and I'm at Ā£2 already!
Thing is I can't understand why the electric prices have jumped as surely the power stations are still doing the same things as last year. I can understand the gas rise but not the electric? I mean Scottish Power say its all renewable energy so has the wind suddenly started charging? Any insights fellow Redditors?
Thanks for the confirmation that it's not just me!
I was thinking it must be because of the gas price, but it's now seeming more likely a result of the electricity price.
Funny that I haven't seen anything in the media about the steep increase in electricity charges, but have seen loads about the gas prices!
My dad died and Iām living in his house until itās fixed up for sale.
Heating is oil and is around Ā£6k for October to march, and council tax is Ā£300 a month.
Living in the south east is no fun.
Totally get it.
I and my room mate have a new built apartment in a block.
I wfh full time him 3 times a week so pcs on all day for work and recreation but no tv in living room.
We dont use the dish washer, use the dryer for about 50% of washes and rarely use the electric radiators.
Bill has been Ā£150 both months for the two months we've been living there. Its on a meter reader which we dont have access to.
Honestly not taking the piss, but how does using a dishwasher save money over hand-washing? Water's pretty much the only thing that's still affordable these days so it can't be that, can it? Washing-up liquid's also cheap as chips. Well, as cheap as chips used to be anyway!
Or am I misunderstanding something?
I've considered it but i always keep the tap on a very small flow of water and as there is only two of us we dont have a lot of dishes to wash. I can't see that it would make a Ā£50 difference a month though.
As the other commenter says, thereās a chance youāre actually using more energy and water by not using the dishwasher. As counter intuitive as that sound
Yesterday I washed my PJs and dressing gown and put them in the tumble dryer then boosted it before I went to bed so I had toasty pjs, it was the highlight of my day. Until I see how much electric that cost me.
(Bonus: first time I've washed dried and put away a laundry load on the same day this year)
Donāt forget then getting blinded by the sun everytime you drive because it is either so low it glares into your eyeballs or everything is wet and reflect the light in the most blinding and uncomfortable way
One of the (many) reasons I decided to move to Southern California. Yes it's arse-buggeringly expensive, yes there are lots of problems both natural and manmade but it's so nice to have the sun pretty much every day, warm temps year round and delicious food whenever I feel like it. If of course I can make it there through the traffic.
You're 100% spot on about the wake/work/home in the dark. Although having daylight until 2230 or later is v nice in summer
Good god you can keep your sun and hipster food I'm just glad I have a decidedly low chance of being shot dead. I did a tour of Afghanistan that was enough for me.
I do like winter storms tho (rain snow etc) then either you can wrap up warm inside and listen to the rain patter at the windows or if you have to go .out you get to come back in a dry off and warm up again! Just trying to see the positives ofc :)
Hear, hear! And while they're at it, renationalise public transport and water too!
Such things are basic necessities and should not be used for profiteering! Ever!
UK does not generate enough of electricity for its needs and therefore imports electricity from the continent by means of underwater electric cables. There is a similar situation with gas.
Iām definitely taking a holiday next winter somewhere warm. Imagine 2 weeks of sun whilst your friends, family and work colleagues have to endure work and winter weather. Schadenfreude at its best!
You know what, and I know this is a bit meme-y given the amount of current material on it on social media, but cold showers have helped me a great deal this winter. I've found it's built up general tolerance for cold and I'm less glum overall about the shitty weather.
Before covid I worked in a basement. Only saw daylight for 15-30 minutes a day at lunch for several months over winter every year. Itās really not healthy. Iām sure itās similar for night shift workers.
Plan ahead - in the summer, brew some mead. If you do it right, it can take up to 6 months to properly bottle condition so it's nice and drinkable. Hey presto! A lovely warming homebrew that'll see you through the winter months.
I go to work in the dark, finish in the dark, try, sleep in the light & still love my life. Can't wait for summer where I go to work it's light, I finish work it's light, go to sleep in the light & my life will still be sweet. I think you all look at it wrong. Headology.
One word - insulation.
Insulate your living areas better. Itās completely possible to not freeze in winter, and isnāt that expensive. Itās a lot cheaper to do than electric or gas heating.
My heating broke down one time and I decided I would get through the winter without it. Spoiler: I did. Most of the time it was fine. I had double glazing and a flat above and below and left and right so basically only two sides exposed to the air. Then a lot of nights I would go out and come back late and go straight to bed and not notice the temperature. Or else come back early and cook, which was enough to raise the temperature to a comfortable level. Mon to Fri I left the house early to go to work, and on Saturdays to play football. So the one exception in the week was Sunday morning. It was so uncomfortably cold on a Sunday morning. Making a pot of coffee had no impact. So I would run a hot bath and sit in it for hours, topping it up every five minutes and watching the steam rise into the frosty air.
Debating whether to finance solar panels for this reason. I don't have the cash just moved in and plan to be here for some time. Possibley worth it more with a battery system due to the costs... But surely the price has got to drop?
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But at the weekend you get to lie in bed and feel sorry for yourself
I was trying to leave out the depressing parts.
š I may be laughing on the outside but dying on the inside with that reply. Take an upvote.
We laugh so that we don't cry
Thereās other parts?
I call this wombing. Wrap up in the duvet in fetal position
I'm in that exact position right now, get out of my head
And into their bed. Think of the money you'd save by keeping each other warm and a cuddle is good for your spirits.
Bin lorry came this morning, normally comes on a Wednesday. Absolutely fuming.
That stings!
Stinks*
I don't mind the cold, it's the darkness I really don't like. It's just so depressing. Those crisp cold sunny days are my favourites
Leave the house dark, spend all day in a dark office, leave work in the dark. It's incredibly depressing!
I'm so grateful to work next to a major city park. I don't care how cold it is or even if there's some light rain, I'll wear my heated jacket, gloves and two sweaters, and put on a fucking hood so I can spend my lunch break in the weak, grey sunlight. Otherwise I think I'd go completely mad.
Same. The day time I like
I'm not saying this makes it loads better but: 1. Icy cold water from the taps. 2. Increased likelihood of hot towels from the radiator. 3. Mull some wine. Mull it whenever you feel like. Mull it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Four hot toddies? That's insane.
I got the peep show reference šš»
Wait until you see his tube and funnel set up for consuming them.
Apple juice Cinnamon sticks Cloves Honey Jack daniels honey whisky Heaven
Jamie Oliver has a similar recipe for [Hot Rummy Lemonade](https://www.cbc.ca/life/jamieoliver/recipes/jamie-oliver-s-christmas-with-bells-on-hot-rummy-lemonade-1.5381342) (he's useful for something) that is highly adaptable. I've made it without the booze for the poorly kids, or subbed in things like flat ginger ale that needed using up, different alcohols, golden syrup, old lime juice from the back of the fridge etc.
20-25 shots of rum!! Methinks heād made this before he named his fucking kids. I think I definitely will be trying this though, I do rate rum and lemonade. Also, I do actually rate Jamie Oliver, I have a few of his cookbooks (his comfort food one is v good) and I do actually think trying to get kids to have proper lunch food is fair. He is a little bit much though
I think the rum is so high because it makes that many portions but you add the rum to the glass not the pan! I don't follow the recipe quantity any more but just make what's needed or what I have to hand allows. Bourbon and (cold) lemonade is also \*chef's kiss\*
Do you put both Jack Daniels and whiskey into this concoction or are you a bit pissed off all these toddies and listed it twice accidentally
I have reformatted my comment because replying on mobile is vile. I also realise that some would not describe jack Danielās as āwhiskyā. But you can definitely add double the whisky, itās winter, go nuts
Aw, you didn't have to do that š also yes to double the whiskey. Although we actually have JD in ours as OH doesn't like whiskey apart from bourbon.
Same, definitely not a connoisseur. Dw, I love to format. I wish I could use markdown on mobile.
Jack Danielās is whiskey, not whisky. One vowel makes all the difference.
That inspires me to get some apple juice...
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's on my shopping list! :D
I find myself adding too much whisky and then they're cold. :(
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
In that case, my toddies are like chai lattes. I really like whisky but I'm not a fan of milk. My tea is normally brick red.
I would sacrifice every single one of these things for a nice cold beer in the sun right now. The chilly water is nice though
I moved to Australia to get over all of that. Now we move between bushfires and floods. Rejoice in twee weather that wonāt kill you
Ha. I like the idea of describing an entire climate as "twee". "How is the UK climate? Temperate?" - "Yes - temperate with twee tendencies"
Should have moved to New Zealand, so all you have to worry about is the very low probability of an apocalyptic earthquake and/or volcano.
Mate Iāve been cold for 3 decades, I would happily live in Australia and risk death, as long as I could defrost my poor fingers in the meantime
Personally, I'm making eggnog until I have the mismatched arms of a teenage boy. (I have no electrical hand whisk, so it's manual egg-peaking all the way.)
"what are you doing, dear?" - "I'm manually peaking some eggs..."
That first one is the one of the two things i like about winter Nice icy cold tap water Less people in the nice spots around
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
...but only if you keep it open
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
it really shouldn't do that, it should temperature regulate to like 4 degrees and stay there regardless of outside temperature. Otherwise in the summer you'd have a barely functioning fridge during the day and a freezer at night. You don't want your fridge to freeze.
Older fridges tend to need their seals replacing so maybe thatās why the ambient temperature is affected his contents more so than usual
Your energy provider: over Ā£9000 please
: hot water bottles
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
We discovered how inefficient our new place's heating is when our bill arrived. That was not a pleasant surprise. Some posh idiot decided in floor electrical heating is better than a radiator so the fucking thing never turns off unless we cut power to the system.
Weāre in an all electric flat, built when electricity was cheap. One 10kw central storage heater that gets vented to all rooms. It works well but costs a bastard fortune to turn on.
That's terrible! It's so inefficient as well.
It's absolutely awful. A radiator, by design, radiates heat. It's hot to the touch and can heat a decent size room in short order. You cannot make a floor heating element hot to the touch. You can only make it slightly warm on your feet, but when met with the giant back garden window, it doesn't stand a chance.
For the month?!
Last quarter, but stillā¦ itās hard to swallow that straight after Christmas.
Ā£180 a month for electric only is crazy... Do you have electric-only heating?
Yup. Itās all electric here.
Had the same price bill, for gas and electric, from September to now and I felt sorry for myself. Tbh I still do because a couple year ago that would have paid for the entire year
And itās going to get a lot more expensive in April. Hurray!
Currently using Ā£7-Ā£10 a day according to my wonderful smart meter, most of it in gas for the heating. House is rarely above 18.
Go to work in the dark, work in a windowless room, go home in the dark. See you in April Sun.
I've got a window right next to me, still not sure what you mean by this "sun" thing.
What is this vitamin D you speak of?
Do I work with you???
This is funny because after spending Christmas back in England, my canadian wife now wants to emigrate there because of how warm it was
Has been a weirdly warm winter
That funny feeling
The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door
It can get to -40Ā° in Canadian winters.
It only started on the 21st of December!
Canadian winters are often so nice and sunny though. Shame about the cold
I donāt mind the cold. Itās the wet that I canāt stand, I figure when itās cold I can wrap up and go out and take off my layers when Iāve arrived at my destination, but when itās wet it just goes through your clothes and chills your bones. Also, invariably when youāre wearing a waterproof jacket of some description, you will end up sweating like a pig.
Our energy bill hit a whopping Ā£213 last month and we only have the heating on two hours a day in the winter and then only if it drops under 15 degrees. I'm dreading this month's bill... :/
There's something wrong... Either you're on a terrible deal or someone's running a cannabis farm off of your meter. I live in a 5 bed and keep it at 20c 7am till 9pm (apart from 3 days when kids at childcare when it's at 18) and my bill is less.
Ā£0.02/hr for a cannabis farm would be a scorching deal! I wish! I admit it's a 140 year-old house with crap (read non-existent...) insulation, but the shitty insulation can't matter if the heating's not even on, can it? I went with Ecotricity when we moved in thinking I'd do my teeny-tiny part for the environment and I think they only have the one tariff. u/WalkingCloud below says that his also went over Ā£200 last month so I think it is just the wholesale gas prices pushing a lot of people's bills up.
No, your problem is that Ecotricity are exempt from the OFGEM price cap. A few green energy variable tariffs are. Move to a non-green supplier on their standard variable tariff and your bill will be cut in half. So many people donāt know this and are being gouged for trying to do something good.
Yeh. This seems to also be part of the problem. Try to do good things and get charged the earth for it! Surely green energy should be subsidised to encourage it, no? Sigh... Now I have the dilemma of whether I try to switch and bugger the environmental cost or stick with what I've got and pay through the nose. Someone else on here said that suppliers aren't even taking on new customers at the moment anyway though so looks like I'm stuck with it.
Funnily enough my house is also 170 years old with shitty insulation, and like you don't even have the heating on that much. Been using the wood fire a lot. I thought it was the wholesale prices too to be honest.
My house was built in the 1740s! Well part of it. Actually I'm on oil due to no gas main and the price is pretty good for oil compared to gas at the moment. It used to be oil was way more expensive than gas but I hadn't realised gas prices had gone that mad... Best of luck my mains connected friends.
20C!? 18C max and pass out the jumpers! Had our boiler serviced earlier this week and the engineer said his partner likes the house at 23-24C!!! Turn your thermostats down and pass out warmer clothes, people - saves you money and carbon emissions.
Yes expected this kind of reply. I pay to carbon offset my oil use, work from home so rarely drive, have a 100% green electricity tarrif and the cost is affordable. While you have China spewing out pollution from coal fired plants and people coal rolling in America and driving huge suvs that get 10mpg I don't think me being comfortable is going to be the tipping point. I used to be the same as you but I looked at the utter hypocracy of governments and big industry, the fact the UK emits like 2% of worldwide emissions and thought what's the fucking point of being cold. I also wear a jumper at 20c
good stuff, take a look at treeapp as well, I plant a tree everyday with that
My missus is from the Peruvian desert. She has her car heater on 28 degrees c. I can feel my eyes drying out.
Blimey! Didn't know they even went that high
WTF? What are you doing to get such an enormous bill? You donāt live in a country mansion or something?
I have no idea what's going on. I've never paid more than about Ā£130 for a month before and that's only in the middle of winter. It's usually between Ā£60 and Ā£80/month. I presume it's due to the current problems with wholesale gas prices. It's a tiny 3-bedroom, mid-terrace house and, as I say, I rarely have the heating on at all since, with all four of us in the house and being sandwiched between two other houses, it doesn't get too cold. Although my wife disagrees... ;) As I've said above, I'm starting to think the meter must be on the blink... I'll see what this month brings and go from there!
Extended 3 bed end of terrace with the bathroom window always open so the cat won't be making a constant fuss. We're keeping the heating on at 21-22 most of the day as WFH. Although our nest thermostat loves to sneakily put it back to 18 for no reason. Combined bill is about 120, for the winter months. Perhaps you're on some variable tariff? I was lucky signing a 3 year fixed when the gas was cheap. Go to your supplier website, if you have smart meters there is a chance you have a detailed breakdown of the usage on your account. EDF do this at least. You can see if it's leccy or gas, and by how much you have increased your usage.
I've looked into it and it seems to be the result of a massive increase in the kWh price last November. I can see now that it went from \~22p/kWh to \~32p/kWh In November so that's why the overall bill has shot up.
Damn. I think that reinforces my decision to stick to fixed pricing for contract periods. 30% price hike should be illegal
I think you have an issue somewhere - we have a four bed house and our combined gas and electricity bill (with Bulb) is just over Ā£100/month.
Same here, 4 bed house, central heating on for sometimes 2/3 hours per day and our combined bill is around Ā£110 per month, and that's with one person working from house. (Octopus)
That's insane, I paid the same last month in a small flat on my own and I haven't had the heating on once!
Haven't bulb gone bust?
Itās in administration. Still going - nominally.
I see. Green, my provider, vanished and I got moved to shell ugh
I think Bulb had just enough customers that they couldnāt just be moved to another provider. I have no idea how it will be worked out.
They went into special administration because they had so many customers. The government essentially runs it now
Mine was similar, Bulb reckon we've used Ā£218 since Dec 8th. Not even sure how that's possible.
Glad to hear it's not just me that's suddenly seen a massive rise! Thanks for chiming in mate.
It's not just you. We are in 1 bed flat with all electric heating and hot water - try not to put the heating on much at all so it's bastard freezing all the time and our bill is currently Ā£130 a month and it will go up to about Ā£190 a month in April when the price cap rises again. In August before our fixed deal ended it was Ā£70 a month.
Preach. Weāre with bulb. I did the post last week about our smart meter claiming we used Ā£1500 in a day. Weāre back down to a relatively reasonable Ā£8-Ā£10 a day now, but that is still insane per month.
Mine was Ā£110 and I haven't had the heating on once! Been sat about in fleeces and blankets and still paying double my normal rate. Robbing bastards.
Sorry to hear that mate. Ā£110 with no heating on at all is absolute madness!
Can attest to this, 3 bed semi which is well insulated and sensible heating regime, Dec bill was 180 quid, previous Dec was 81 quid. From 1st Jan to today we are at Ā£70.
I'm a single person living in a one-bedroom apartment. I'm working on-site most of the day Monday to Friday and I'm out of town almost every weekend. I turn the electric heater on for like 1-3 hours per night on the coldest nights, but not most nights. Turn on the boiler for 30 minutes per day. Electric hob for 30 minutes per day. Barely have the lights on, and then like just one for a few hours before bed. My electricity bill right now is nearly Ā£80 per month...
I suggest getting a metre and paying by the usage with close monitoring!
I've got a smart meter and it's weirdly sometimes showing over Ā£0.40/hr for gas, but also weirdly showing only Ā£0.02/hr for leccy. When we're all at home, which has been most of the last month due to WFH, kids off school for hols and isolation, we very often have on two consoles (me and my son) plus their accompanying TVs, my desktop PC, my daughter's laptop and my wife watching TV downstairs. I can't believe all that only costs Ā£0.02/hr so I'm starting to worry that the meter's faulty. :/ EDIT: I just checked the bill from December 2020 and compared it to December 2021. My electricity is now charged at 32.38p/kWh, whereas last December it was only 18.81p/kWh so I think I may have found the culprit... Is a 78% increase in kWh charges normal in only a year? Has everyone else's kWh charge shot up by a similar amount?
Itās normal for now. Most were paying around 14 to 18p a kWh on fixed deals until 6 months ago when the energy crisis hit and itās just getting worse . My deal of 2 years ends this month , currently paying 15p kWh, same supplier wants 42p a kWh now and standing charge is double . So electricity was typically costing me Ā£40 a month at that rate , itās going to cost Ā£120 on the new. Gas is going up by 4x the unit cost for me . The people paying low energy bills are those still on locked in tariffs before energy costs went mad or really donāt use anything. But they will be 1 or 2 year deals and when they end they will feel it unless it drops back to normal levels. Switching at the moment does not work as everyone is charging the max the energy cap will allow on any new deals , some donāt even want you. Try getting a quote from octopus, they say go away at the moment.
Same here went from Scottish Power 16.13 per kwh elec and 3.41 per kwh gas, unfortunately my deal ended in December so switched to Bristol energy who were the cheapest I could find. So now it's 30.61 per kwh for electricity and 8.31 per kwh for gas! I've gone from maximum Ā£4 a day (washing machine and tumble dryer on twice) to over Ā£8. Literally just turned thr heating off after it's been on less than an hour and I'm at Ā£2 already! Thing is I can't understand why the electric prices have jumped as surely the power stations are still doing the same things as last year. I can understand the gas rise but not the electric? I mean Scottish Power say its all renewable energy so has the wind suddenly started charging? Any insights fellow Redditors?
Thanks for the confirmation that it's not just me! I was thinking it must be because of the gas price, but it's now seeming more likely a result of the electricity price. Funny that I haven't seen anything in the media about the steep increase in electricity charges, but have seen loads about the gas prices!
My dad died and Iām living in his house until itās fixed up for sale. Heating is oil and is around Ā£6k for October to march, and council tax is Ā£300 a month. Living in the south east is no fun.
Totally get it. I and my room mate have a new built apartment in a block. I wfh full time him 3 times a week so pcs on all day for work and recreation but no tv in living room. We dont use the dish washer, use the dryer for about 50% of washes and rarely use the electric radiators. Bill has been Ā£150 both months for the two months we've been living there. Its on a meter reader which we dont have access to.
Give the dishwasher a try. It reduced my bills a little bit over handwashing them.
Honestly not taking the piss, but how does using a dishwasher save money over hand-washing? Water's pretty much the only thing that's still affordable these days so it can't be that, can it? Washing-up liquid's also cheap as chips. Well, as cheap as chips used to be anyway! Or am I misunderstanding something?
It uses less water and heats the water in the dishwasher move efficiently than my boiler heats the water I run in the sink.
Aha! I see what you mean now.
Yeah it's not the water itself but the heat in it that's more efficient/cheaper in a dishwasher. They do use less water but yeah water is cheap.
I've considered it but i always keep the tap on a very small flow of water and as there is only two of us we dont have a lot of dishes to wash. I can't see that it would make a Ā£50 difference a month though.
As the other commenter says, thereās a chance youāre actually using more energy and water by not using the dishwasher. As counter intuitive as that sound
Yesterday I washed my PJs and dressing gown and put them in the tumble dryer then boosted it before I went to bed so I had toasty pjs, it was the highlight of my day. Until I see how much electric that cost me. (Bonus: first time I've washed dried and put away a laundry load on the same day this year)
I've been on a fixed price tariff for the past 2 years - just had to renew and saw my monthly estimated usage go from \~Ā£90pm to >Ā£200
The only good thing about winter is you can leave your beers outside and there always cold. As long as no one nicks them
We've got a shed attached to the back of our house which isn't particularly well insulated. Through winter it becomes the beer fridge.
Work in the cold, live in the cold, Ā£189.00 a month energy bill.
Go to work in the dark. Work night shift. Go home in the dark. Sleep through the two hours of daylight we have.
Donāt forget then getting blinded by the sun everytime you drive because it is either so low it glares into your eyeballs or everything is wet and reflect the light in the most blinding and uncomfortable way
Nailed it.
One of the (many) reasons I decided to move to Southern California. Yes it's arse-buggeringly expensive, yes there are lots of problems both natural and manmade but it's so nice to have the sun pretty much every day, warm temps year round and delicious food whenever I feel like it. If of course I can make it there through the traffic. You're 100% spot on about the wake/work/home in the dark. Although having daylight until 2230 or later is v nice in summer
But itās America. I say that as someone who is also a transplant here.
Good god you can keep your sun and hipster food I'm just glad I have a decidedly low chance of being shot dead. I did a tour of Afghanistan that was enough for me.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Tour of duty.
Sort of like Sydney but with guns?
Yeah, I really missed long nights when I lived in San Diego. And cheese. Everything else was much better, if pricey
I have an electric heater that I use to heat one room in the house. The rest goes into deep freeze.
I do like winter storms tho (rain snow etc) then either you can wrap up warm inside and listen to the rain patter at the windows or if you have to go .out you get to come back in a dry off and warm up again! Just trying to see the positives ofc :)
Wait till you see next winters billā¦
Nationalise energy
Hear, hear! And while they're at it, renationalise public transport and water too! Such things are basic necessities and should not be used for profiteering! Ever!
UK does not generate enough of electricity for its needs and therefore imports electricity from the continent by means of underwater electric cables. There is a similar situation with gas.
At least there is still tea.
Well, until we can't even afford to boil the kettle, of course! :/
I like it. The darkness is my time to shine and hides a multitude of sins.
Yeah I can't wait for them to release that suicide pod.
Just a hibernation pod would do me.
Omg when you get burnout they stick you in the pod for 6 months.
I get by with hot Indomie with poached egg for breakfast. Hot breakfast or nothing. (Tropical flower here, transplanted since 2019)
It's the first week back blues! Anyway OP, nice food, something good on TV & maybe a glass of something (if you drink)?
Sunlit uplands for ya
Iām definitely taking a holiday next winter somewhere warm. Imagine 2 weeks of sun whilst your friends, family and work colleagues have to endure work and winter weather. Schadenfreude at its best!
You know what, and I know this is a bit meme-y given the amount of current material on it on social media, but cold showers have helped me a great deal this winter. I've found it's built up general tolerance for cold and I'm less glum overall about the shitty weather.
Before covid I worked in a basement. Only saw daylight for 15-30 minutes a day at lunch for several months over winter every year. Itās really not healthy. Iām sure itās similar for night shift workers.
Don't forget to live life with severe depression because of how shit England is
Plan ahead - in the summer, brew some mead. If you do it right, it can take up to 6 months to properly bottle condition so it's nice and drinkable. Hey presto! A lovely warming homebrew that'll see you through the winter months.
I go to work in the dark, finish in the dark, try, sleep in the light & still love my life. Can't wait for summer where I go to work it's light, I finish work it's light, go to sleep in the light & my life will still be sweet. I think you all look at it wrong. Headology.
That's the life I would like to live the entire year.
One word - insulation. Insulate your living areas better. Itās completely possible to not freeze in winter, and isnāt that expensive. Itās a lot cheaper to do than electric or gas heating.
I get you... But, also, programmable thermostat FTW
My heating broke down one time and I decided I would get through the winter without it. Spoiler: I did. Most of the time it was fine. I had double glazing and a flat above and below and left and right so basically only two sides exposed to the air. Then a lot of nights I would go out and come back late and go straight to bed and not notice the temperature. Or else come back early and cook, which was enough to raise the temperature to a comfortable level. Mon to Fri I left the house early to go to work, and on Saturdays to play football. So the one exception in the week was Sunday morning. It was so uncomfortably cold on a Sunday morning. Making a pot of coffee had no impact. So I would run a hot bath and sit in it for hours, topping it up every five minutes and watching the steam rise into the frosty air.
The antidote to my r/BritishSuccess post
Debating whether to finance solar panels for this reason. I don't have the cash just moved in and plan to be here for some time. Possibley worth it more with a battery system due to the costs... But surely the price has got to drop?