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

Magentasue

1carminestocky wrote: »

I suppose the only way to check this is to take a gas meter reading before you use your oven, note the length of time it was being used for, then take a further reading immediately after you turn it off (assuming the heating isn't on at the same time, of course!). Convert that figure into hourly cost and compare it to the Remoska's consumption (475w for the standard, 650w for the Grand). Of course, then there's the purchase cost to be taken into account (£90 standard, £110 Grand). We bought ours as a medium to long-term energy-saving measure but, for us, I genuinely believe we will at least get the money back within the first year, but only time will tell...

Bit difficult to do this accurately with our gas meter because it's imperial so we use less than a unit a day anyway. I'm wondering how long the Remoska would be on for a typical cooking session for me? I normally put the oven on to preheat 10mins, put in a pie/lasagne or whatever at the top, some potatoes, veg or whatever underneath. After 30-45 mins, I put in a baked pudding and a tray of buns, scones, biscuits and turn the oven off after about ten mins. So for that lot, I'd have the oven for an hour and a quarter tops. How long in the Remoska?

whatatwit

Magentasue wrote: »

Bit difficult to do this accurately with our gas meter because it's imperial so we use less than a unit a day anyway. I'm wondering how long the Remoska would be on for a typical cooking session for me? I normally put the oven on to preheat 10mins, put in a pie/lasagne or whatever at the top, some potatoes, veg or whatever underneath. After 30-45 mins, I put in a baked pudding and a tray of buns, scones, biscuits and turn the oven off after about ten mins. So for that lot, I'd have the oven for an hour and a quarter tops. How long in the Remoska?

It does sound like you are your using your oven efficiently, the Remoska pan is only about 4" deep, I got a rack to use in it...so last night, I put new potatoes in the bottom, then sat my chicken pieces on the rack over the potatoes. The potatoes cooked in the juices from the chicken ( I suppose I could have done chopped carrots also) done in an hour.
But, there would have been no room to do any baking.
I'm never organised enough to combine making tea with baking so my oven would get switched on to heat a lasagne (not got a microwave).

Even with your imperial meter, does it not have a tens of units reading, as well as the whole units?

Lily-Lu

:eek: Had my Maplin monitor plugged into the chest freezer for a week, and it's used close to 7.5kw:eek:. It's probably 8 or 9 years old and I don't have any instructions for it, so don't know what the best setting would be. It has an eco setting, but not sure when that one would be appropriate. Does anyone know when you'd use the eco setting? ie is it for when the freezer only has a small amount of food in there?

Magentasue

My tall, upright, A rated freezer uses about 10-12 units a week so I don't think 7.5 is too bad!.

Andy_Hamilton

390KWh per year for a 10 year old freezer is not too bad, it's probably costing you around £50-60 per year. When I looked in Comet last month the best chest freezer I found used 120KWh for the year. For you, the price difference would take 3-4 years to pay back if you invested in a newer freezer. (consider the fact you only get a warrenty for 1 year with most new appliances).

To make your freezer more economical, defrost it, fill it and vacuum the radiator style grill on the back (if you can).

If you have not got enough food to fill it put a couple of cardboad boxes etc into it.

Lily-Lu

Andy_Hamilton wrote: »

390KWh per year for a 10 year old freezer is not too bad, it's probably costing you around £50-60 per year. When I looked in Comet last month the best chest freezer I found used 120KWh for the year. For you, the price difference would take 3-4 years to pay back if you invested in a newer freezer. (consider the fact you only get a warrenty for 1 year with most new appliances).

To make your freezer more economical, defrost it, fill it and vacuum the radiator style grill on the back (if you can).

If you have not got enough food to fill it put a couple of cardboad boxes etc into it.

Thanks for that, Andy. I'll try those things before considering a new one. Never thought of vacuuming the back, and now wondering if it will infact help considerably - never been cleaned there, and now 6 (furry) animals running around. Was 11 of them at one point:eek:

Right, I'm off to do that right now. Thanks :T

Andy_Hamilton

The radiator grill is fitted to the rear of a fridge or freezer to dissapate heat(normally feels warm when running) If the gas/fluid inside this grill is not allowed to cool properly the returned fluid to the compressor is hotter than it should be and it takes more energy to cool that fluid, causing more heat. It's a viscious cycle. Removing the radiators wollie jumper of fluff will allow the fluid to cool, breaking the cycle and saving you energy. A dry paint brush and hoover is all you need.

Lily-Lu

Vacuuming done. But surprisingly enough, not much there apart from a few tiny bits of fluff behind the grill.

wellyella

Wow what a great thread

I am new to these forums and have read this entire thread and realise how much money I am probably throwing away.

So today I have...

Unplugged my 2 digital phones and just left the base unit on at the wall and will rotate the phones.

I kept the plug off the tele/sky/wii/ps2/computer/laptop/dvd player all day, and tonight only plugged back in the Laptop (although switched it off as soon as reaches full charge), TV and Sky.

Have switched my oven off unless I will use it.

Have pulled plug on microwave.

Am sat here with one side light on which is fine, as opposed to 3.

Have unplugged kids TVs (they are only allowed them on at weekends so no point them being on standby in the week).

Have pulled out all plugs (kettle/toaster/bedside lights/mobile charger) unless in use.

Keeping lights off when not in use.

And once I work out where to turn my water temperature down and work the timer I will be doing that.


Think that is it - and hoping it will bring my bills down
Any other

Magentasue

We're still high users but comparing now to last year, we're making progress.

This quarter last year, we used 1748kwh. This year 1228. Our Dec quarter last year was 1964. I'm aiming for less than 1400 to continue our 70% reduction. Our gas usage has dropped too, by 1560kwh for this quarter from same time last year. Have to put this down to a combi boiler - we're cooking by gas now but still using less.


This is partly because we no longer cook by electric but it must be more than that - last year we were away for three weeks with the fridge/freezer etc turned off!