My energy bills are far from typical, but my saving principles still apply to your household bills
I live in a large family home, with over 6000 sq ft to heat, so in one respect, my monthly energy bills are far from ordinary. I can spend in a month what some people spend in a quarter, or even longer, but on the flip side of that coin, if I use my knowledge, tools and technology wisely, my bills can often be below a typical household's monthly usage.
For context, the Ofgem price cap currently sits at £1,723 per year - or £143 per month if you spread it across the year - but in real terms, it's actually more like £70 in the summer and over £200 per month in the Winter. I try to use these figures as a benchmark when monitoring my own energy usage, although it's unlikely I'd ever get my numbers this low.
The downside of living in a large new build is that the heating system isn't designed how I'd like it to be, or at least not at the moment. The entire ground floor runs on underfloor heating - which is very expensive - with the first and second floors powered by a gas boiler, and traditional radiators. Currently, to heat a room, I have to heat a floor, so it's not ideal.
But that being said, there are plenty of tools that I use to try and keep things under control. That includes Fuse Energy's app to monitor my daily usage, smart thermostats in each area for the underfloor heating, along with an app to monitor usage, set temperatures, and set up schedules.
I have Nest thermostats for the traditional heating side of it, with different schedules depending on the weather, and in terms of lighting throughout the house, I use Tapo smart bulbs that are set to switch on and off at different times.
My main rule is that I never go cold, so even if I'm trying to keep my energy bills under control, I'll never sacrifice warmth, especially as I live with my retired parents. It's not worth it, and we're lucky enough to not need to go to those extremes, which unfortunately is not the case for a lot of people in the UK at the moment.
So whilst my energy bills are probably far beyond what a typical household uses over the Winter, the way that I go about trying to keep them under control. still applies.
I'd be really curious to learn about the tools and methods you use to keep your energy bills down. Do let me know, and I'm always happy to share any tips and tricks that I've discovered along my own energy saving journey!