can i do anymore?!

Theo_Cupier

Yikes.

We're a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 young kids) in a 4 bed semi. House was built in the 1930s so the external walls are single skin. We extended last year and the new external walls are all double skin with rockwool insulation in the cavities. I also put loads of insulation in the loft (at least 30cm). We're double glazed throughout. Energy saving bulbs everywhere, apart from 5 halogen bulbs in the kitchen. Almost all our appliances are A+ rating.

Both adults work from home, so I'm hoping this is why in the last week our usage has been as follows:
Gas 15 cubic feet
Elec 148 units.

Our daily consumption of electricity varies between 19 - 35 units and the main difference is washing and tumble drying, but with that much uniform & bedding to get through there simply isn't enough space in the house to dry stuff without using the drier.

I'm sure there was an article recently that suggested using radiators to dry washing was overall less efficient than a good tumble drier since the heating needed to work so much harder to heat & dry the house that it cost more than tumble drying. It was on the Old Style Board of this very website, in fact.

I guess that on balance I have to offset higher utility bills with the fact that our petrol & general transport bills are that much lower since we work from home & walk the kids to school. Not sure what more we can do to reduce our gas & electricity to be honest. Certainly the only thing that springs to mind is washing at 30C, but that just doesn't get rid of the sort of mess which small children make unless you use washing powder so full of chemicals that you ruin the environment in other ways (which we try not to do).

Am I right in thinking that one can get far more efficient LED bulbs to replace Halogen bulbs, by the way?

Magentasue

Theo - that's very high for electricity if you're not all electric. We are a family of six (adults, 20somethings and teens) and we have cut our consumption to 8-16 units, averaging twelve. Yesterday was Sunday, we were all home all day and I did two loads of washing and drying - our total was 15kwh.

I do all washing at 30deg apart from a weekly boil wash for whites and use a mixture of washing powder and soda crystals. In poorper times, I used to hang washing over an airer during the day or overnight and then tumble dry for 20mins. Heavy things can hang in the airing cupboard or over radiators if they've been over the airer. It means folding and moving clothes around throughout the day but it works.

We were averaging 18-26 units a day and cut it down to 15-20, then down to our present 12-13 average - expect this to rise with tumble drying but not to more than 16 a day!

Ken68

The most radical measure that I have taken to reduce heating bills is to make up some polystyrene sheets to fit into the EXTERIOR window recess's at the back of the house, in the coldest quarter.
About £50 a year savings. Put them up about 5pm and down at about 9am.
Not only does that part of the house lose less heat, but no CONDENSATION on the inside of the window. Cost £20.
Don't do this inside the house.