First month paying since my switch to variable/the rebate - a mere £42.42. Octopus wanted me to pay £194 a month on the fixed dd when we moved in…
You’re right about people’s heating - I’ve stayed over and woken up with a sore throat and blocked nose at houses where the heating comes on in the early hours.
I tend to use my heating just to regulate the houses humidity via Tado.
Well this afternoon I’ve installed another 2 BG Home smart double sockets. I bought my first one a few months back as a tester to see if it was worth the effort. I bought them off Amazon for around £16 each, a considerable saving over the normal cost. Easy enough to install with all the usual electrical safety precautions taken.
Anyway the point of changing from standard double sockets, was so that I could control individual sockets around the home from my armchair or indeed, from anywhere in the world when connected to the internet. Some might call it lazy or completely unnecessary, but I can set up individual sockets to work on timer schedules, the whole point being, to exercise even more control over my energy spend. Not only that, I’m very much a gadget freak!
Completely get this. We have programmable sockets all around the place. Not intended initially to save on costs but more because I am very lazy and couldn’t be ar**d t switch things on and off. That plus I would sometimes forget! R-
Good strategy, but frankly, I’d have started with this 
I’m currently working my way through a bottle of single malt, so I feel nothing, not even Graham’s cruel jibe at my gadget freakiness 
I have to say, a couple of large glasses of Scotch, don’t arf make ya feel warm 
Smart sockets are fab but I wouldn’t replace any fixtures with ‘built in’ ones personally. I have a couple of integrated USB ones (on fused spurs) but that’s the limit in terms of complexity I want hardwired in to my home.
I’ve bought some motion sensors for the main hallway, because apparently I’m the only one who knows how to press a button or say hey siri, kill the hallway lights.
Now, they’ll come on when they detect motion after sunset, and shut off 2 minutes later. After 11pm they’ll still come on, but much dimmer to aid the night walkers without disturbing the one sleeper who leaves their door ajar.
Should hopefully save me about 22p over the year! 
Probably whatever they’d save is negated by having a bulb (several bulbs?) on 24 hour standby as opposed to completely off.
But yeah, it’s a quality of life thing isn’t it. All my bulbs are Hue, I love it.
Off-topic, I know, but which single malt, may I ask?
I’ve currently got two on the go, an Aerstone Sea Cask and a Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve. Both are very drinkable 
Me too, Hive motion sensor in the entrance hallway switches on lights in the house after sunset etc.
So much stuff I own now has built in WiFi, even the dishwasher. I do have a rather excellent router though, not the utter garbage the ISPs hand out, so I can configure it properly and lock everything down.
My best buy in the last 2.5 years, has been our heat pump tumble dryer, it uses knack all energy and doesn’t need a vent through the wall because it collects the water and you just pour it away.
A heat pump dryer will be our next household purchase.
We’re trying to time it with the next price hike so the impact feels bigger. Logically it makes no sense to wait, but with how things are feeling these days, I’m banking on waiting being a better decision psychologically for our mental well-being, since I suspect pay rises for most won’t be rising in line with inflation. Won’t be a fun year for some of us.
I’ve calculated it, and not only should it offset the upcoming increase entirely on its own, it’ll actually lower the bills a bit further than that and pay for itself over the year as a result. Varies slightly by tumble dryer granted. Any you’d recommend looking at?
I bought a Blomberg model. Though a famous German brand, actually made by Beko who produce the same version under their own brand name. Literally no difference except the Blomberg model came with a three year warranty. It cost about £550 but worth every penny in my opinion.
I’m the same when it comes to washing machines, I can’t just go out and buy a £200 machine that’ll last for less than 5 years if one is lucky. Eleven years ago, I bought an Asko front loading machine that cost £1000, better than a very famous name German brand. It’s built to last for at least 25 years with minimal maintenance. Very energy efficient and does its job brilliantly. If/when my current machine packs up, I’ll happily fork out the £1999 it costs for the latest hi spec model.
We live in a Flat which has district heating system. We don’t get to choose the supplier so stuck with Switch2 - This 
is what they decided to do, got this letter yesterday - From ~5p to ~32p 
Jesus. How many KwH do you use? 5 figures?
Last month we used over 9k. Going to put some control measures in place this month 
There are other charges on top of this, Admin standing charge maintenance charge. Other charges use to make up about 60% of the total bill.
Yikes. That is horrible. How often do they review the rate, annually?
Never come across district heating before but it sounds incredibly inefficient if you have to use 9K kWh to keep warm…
Surely. The tenants should all have a common vote and have control over the supplier and tariff the heating is on. Feels uncompetitive and disadvantaged for you 
Presume that’s an annual figure, as stated on last month’s bill.
