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

oldMcDonald

24 hour reading -

Gas 0.5 unit - same as previous 24hrs
Electricity 11 units - 2 units less than previous 24hrs

I used the dishwasher once yesterday (I was aiming for not at all, but I am so weak and lazy ), rather than the usual 2x loads, other than that my electricity usage was pretty much the same as usual. So 2 units saved by hand-washing up during the day.

I went around the house yesterday looking at all the little users of electricity that I never really give a second thought to. I need to buy some low energy light bulbs - we have about half our lights running with them at the moment. Does anyone know of any reasonably bright low energy bulbs? The ones I have were free from Eon and are quite dull - certainly not bright enough for the kitchen where I like a good light.

I hunted round in the loft and found our old wind-up alarm clock, radio alarm is being freecycled today - it was really comforting listening to the tick tock as I went to sleep last night! Kids have all been threatened with homelessness should they leave any mobile / PSP chargers plugged in when they have finished charging them up.

I'm writing loads of 'to-dos' down from the 'Avoid using Gas and Electric' and 'Preparing for winter' threads so that I can try to limit how many units we use over winter.

Anyone else got an update?

Magentasue

Hi, oldmacdonald, I'm doing weekly readings (our elec meter is down in cellar) but will do one today and work out daily since Monday. Have been going round house shouting "Who left the TV on? You know that's carbon naughty" and "Why is this light on?" etc. Thing is, I think they'll just stop listening. Nobody else is worrying.

I'm going to do a baking session this morning (bread and cake) so might check the gas before and after.

Scarlett.1974

I've been taking my gas and electric readings daily for the last few days too. Electricity is between 10-12 units a day (I'd really like to get this below 10 but I don't know how - I'm already turning everything off at the wall, not using the tumble dryer at all etc.... I'm hoping it will go down a bit when the kids go back to school; extra tellys on, PS2 etc) but it's the gas that's annoying me most. We're using 1 unit a day and I'm not sure how at the moment The oven is electric, only gas hob which yes, is used most days. We have a combi boiler, so heats the water as we need it and there's only been 1 bath took in the last few days, everyone else has had showers (electric).

Scarlett.1974

Magentasue wrote: »

Hi, oldmacdonald, I'm doing weekly readings (our elec meter is down in cellar) but will do one today and work out daily since Monday. Have been going round house shouting "Who left the TV on? You know that's carbon naughty" and "Why is this light on?" etc. Thing is, I think they'll just stop listening. Nobody else is worrying.

I'm going to do a baking session this morning (bread and cake) so might check the gas before and after.

I know the feeling Magentasue I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. H wanted the heat on yesterday :eek: I told him to go and put a <insert rude word here> jumper on.

Magentasue

Just done readings and more confused than ever.

Last week we used 4 units of gas and 86 elec. Obviously quite pleased with gas because that heats water and I cook by gas. Also I do put heating on for an hour in the evening to dry towels and 'warm up' although I can't remember if and when I did it last week.

Anyway, I did do it last night but we've still only used 2 units of gas since Sunday so that's good, I think.

Elec, then, averaged 13 units a day last week but this week, since Sunday so three days, we've used 25 units which is only about 8 units a day. I should be well pleased with this but it seems too low! I wonder if our meter readings are accurate now! The elec meter is one of the old dial ones so room for error.

Magentasue

Just turned oven off! Have just posted this on another thread about cost of gas oven so will paste here:

I have just had my oven on for an hour and a quarter. Started on full and then turned down to 6 after about half an hour. I also had a gas ring simmering for about 25 mins.

I read the meter before I started, and have also run two 6l bowls of washing up water. My meter reading hasn't moved suggesting I've used less than a unit. Not what I expected.

espresso

Magentasue wrote: »

Just turned oven off! Have just posted this on another thread about cost of gas oven so will paste here:

I have just had my oven on for an hour and a quarter. Started on full and then turned down to 6 after about half an hour. I also had a gas ring simmering for about 25 mins.

I read the meter before I started, and have also run two 6l bowls of washing up water. My meter reading hasn't moved suggesting I've used less than a unit. Not what I expected.

What did you expect then? What type of meter do you have? Is it imperial or metric? One unit recorded on an imperial meter equates to approximately 32kWh and on a metric meter approximately 11kWh. Units are just meaningless numbers unless you understand their real meaning in kWh.

SuiDreams

Magentasue wrote: »

Just turned oven off! Have just posted this on another thread about cost of gas oven so will paste here:

I have just had my oven on for an hour and a quarter. Started on full and then turned down to 6 after about half an hour. I also had a gas ring simmering for about 25 mins.

I read the meter before I started, and have also run two 6l bowls of washing up water. My meter reading hasn't moved suggesting I've used less than a unit. Not what I expected.

Might be worth reading the points of a unit (if you meter shows them), then converting the units into KWH's. That may give you a better Idea of how much your using. Our meter is in cubic feet, so one unit is approx 32 KWH, which means our meter only goes round a unit every few days so I only read the meter weekly (and always convert to KWH), but am also taking an average over a month for more accurate usage.

Little_Star_3

we have an electric oven...i try to cook everything that needs oven cooking at once...came in the other day to find flat mate with oven on for over 40, 50 odd minutes for one small piece of fish...fuming was not the word.

Magentasue

Yes, you're right - there are no points of a unit so I suppose I'm not going to be able to work out how many kwh cooking takes on anything more precise than a weekly or monthly basis. Have never really kept a check on gas use like electricity because it's only ever been for heating and hot water until now, so I've always known how to make effective cutbacks there.