Bringing down my gas and leccy bill challenge (start August 2008)

Confusedconsumer_2

Lauren & Bongedone

Can you please tell a new person to the forum what your 3 graphs represent, please?

acjc

My fridge freezer is now 10 years old. It was rated D with an annual 529kWh when I bought it. There's nothing wrong with it, still working fine, but 529kWh is about 20% of my annual electricity consumption.

If I replace it with an A++ fridge freezer, will it save me much money, given the cost of new fridge when it's not needed yet?

Andy_Hamilton

I went and priced up a new fridge yesterday.
The best I could find was a Whirlopool fridge freezer with a usage of 270KWH. Mine is measured at 633KWH. The total saving for me would be around £50 per year making it pay for the new fridge in 6 years. If I was happy that the fridge would last 6 years and keep it's rating I would invest. When I was there I looked at the chest freezers rated at 170KWH per year. If it was converted to a fridge it would drop to around 100KWH per year saving it's price in just over a year. People who I talked to about the conversion were horrified that I would not have a convetional fridge.

lauren_1

Confusedconsumer wrote: »

Lauren & Bongedone

Can you please tell a new person to the forum what your 3 graphs represent, please?

The first graph reprisents my avaerage daily combined energy use, the second it the gas and third is electric i think (gas is the blue one)

geoffW

John_3:16 wrote: »

light bulbs equivelent to 325 watts

Have you a link to this the best I seem to find is 125watts

I can't remember where I got mine from but I googled 65watt energy saving light bulb and in a brief search the highest wattage I could find was 40w=200w at :-
www.ricamstore.co.uk
Geoff

HarryH_3

Magentasue wrote: »

Can someone recommend an online chart or spreadsheet to record gas/elec/water meter readings?

I use http://www.imeasure.org.uk/ which allows you to put in weekly gas and electricity meter readings (though not water). It graphs results and compares you with averages and tells you how much you've used in cash.

demo of what it looks like here

http://www.imeasure.org.uk/results.php?demo

HarryH_3

Confusedconsumer wrote: »

Hi, everyone

I'm new to the forum and enjoy reading the postings.

Single, living in a 2 bedroom semi-detached house. To save money on electric and gas, I only heat water on override once a day for 20-30 minutes - in the evening is good then I have enough to do washing -up, clean top of cooker and wash kitchen floor if necessary. In the morning the water is hot enough to shower with some over.

To save money on the heating last winter I only had heating on in the evening, and was OK in the morning. However, when it was really cold, put heating on in the morning for a short time. Do not do this if you are ill or elderley.

Does anyone have any comments on EBIC, Scottish & Souther Energy? Thanks.

One good method of saving money on heating is to not use a timed heating pattern but to press +1hr whenever you are cold. It tends to make you wait a bit longer, not bother heating if it is really ok, just for a bit of extra effort. Plus doesn't heat if you go straight to the pub from work, are away but forget to override your heating system etc.

Many people on timers could save 30% just by not heating the house when they are out!

greenbee

HarryH wrote: »

I use http://www.imeasure.org.uk/ which allows you to put in weekly gas and electricity meter readings (though not water). It graphs results and compares you with averages and tells you how much you've used in cash.

demo of what it looks like here

http://www.imeasure.org.uk/results.php?demo

There's now an MSE carbon club on imeasure.

dunloadin

If you really want to go for it install one of those wind powered generators, seen them for sale a while ago in BnQ....was speaking to a guy who was intending to fit two, and selling back the excess power to the National Grid (they still generate electicity even if your not using it).

I didn't follow his logic at the time as the initial expense seems to overide any real gain, but with prices on the up he could be onto a winner.

digimortal_2

great post btw... alot of useful info.. I started monitoring the gas and elec meters in early may, just after we had a new boiler fitted, we didnt have a combi fitted, as a friend of ours who is a corgi fitter said that within the next 5 to 10 years there will be a big push on solar panel hot water, so we decided to keep the hot water tank and use the emersion with a timer on E7 night rate... he also said that most new houses were being fitted with tanks ready for solar(not sure how true this is)..

dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer are set with timers to come on at night, and we dont use them much in the daytime.. which i think also saves abit of money.. other house appliances, tv,dvd,computers etc also switched off when not in use.. and use lamps insted of the celing lights(10 bulbs) and dimmers in most rooms.. we use the bye bye standby plugs as this makes it easy switching everything off with one press.. and is next to the alarm keypad so we dont forget..

think at the moment whilst it is summer we are down to about 8 units of elec and less than 1 gas unit per day.. the real testing will come with the winter and the dark/cold nights... but after reading this post, il will be on the lookout for a batt lcd radio alarm clock and fridge themonitor..