The 50% Electricity Challenge - Everyone welcome!

Different_Corner

Couldn't resist , just had a sneaky look at meter, already over 100 this week. Today being Sunday and all of us at home can't see me beating the target by much. Thinking cap on.

bestpud

Ok, took my readings at exactly a week later (yesterday at 5pm) but only just got round to posting them! I had a lovely evening sorting xmas presents yesterday while dd2 was in bed and DH and dd1 were both out!

The readings were:

Gas: 8/11/08 - 11158
15/11/08 - 11179 = 21units

Electric: 8/11/08 - 51747
15/11/08 - 51863 = 116 units

I wrote down the wrong set of figures last week for the gas reading - it was 11158 as above. Could I have that changed please?

Will now see if we can lower those figures over this week, especially for the electric! I am going to start with the lights and standby equipment and see how we go - small steps and all that!

Different_Corner

Come downstairs this morning to see light flooding through the hall, one of my little 5ft angels has left the front room light on all night. Very considerate of them.
Energy monitor says we used 22 units (as opposed to 11 on Friday !!!) yesterday, so will be posting my meter reading later today.

hayley11

Does it save electricity to have plugs switched off? Say I had a phone charger, hair dryer etc plugged in but it wasn't being used? Is it best to have the plug switched off?

I'm thinking of slapping my boyfriend round the head everytime he leaves a light on, he'll get the message then :rotfl: I went upstairs last night and every light was on! :mad:

We only had the heating on for two hours y'day morning and two hours in the evening and we didn't have the fire on at all which is very good for us. We had a lazy day watching Lost DVD's so we were all snuggled up in quilts and we had about 10 brews :rotfl:

Today has started off bad though, I've got the fire on and I've just put the heating on to warm the rest of the house up, it's sooooo cold!! :snow_grin

tyllwyd

hayley11 wrote: »

Does it save electricity to have plugs switched off? Say I had a phone charger, hair dryer etc plugged in but it wasn't being used? Is it best to have the plug switched off?

Something like a hairdryer, kettle, iron doesn't draw any power when it isn't being used so you don't need to unplug those (except for safety in case they got accidentally switched on etc).

A mobile phone charger I think does use a small amount of power when plugged in, so do switch that off.

Anything with a digital clock will draw some power, so maybe your oven, microwave etc will use a tiny bit.

Things like set top boxes, wireless routers for the pc will use some power but you need to think about whether they are designed to be left on all the time so whether it is a good idea to switch them on and off. (My OH tells me that our the internet service provider tests the signal to the router at night, so if you switch it off you might not get such good speed on your internet connection.)

Different_Corner

Todays meter reading 4299 - 128 units last week. 3 units up, I'm nothing if not consistent ! Really must try harder.

fletch3163

fletch3163 wrote: »

Oh dear

My reading for this week is 1087 which, compared with last week's 969 equals 118 units. That's rubbish!! Am up by two units.

Right, that's it, sleeves are rolled, lights are out.

This thread is jinxing me, I swear it. My reading for this week is 1208 and that equates to 121 units for this week. Week two went up by 3 units and week three has too. What's going on?

Lula-Hula

Hey guys, how's everyone doing ?

I havent posted during the last week as forgot last monday ... anyway I've had a shiny new meter fitted today so obviously the first reading is 0 for both rate 1 & 2 :rolleyes: .

I'm on a mission to use the washing machine during the night rates from now on, havent worked out whether its best to stay til midnight or get up at 6.30 , I cant bear to leave washing in the machine when finished as it gets sooo creased & therefore needs to be ironed which uses more electricity :rolleyes: , think I'll go for an early morning start...

lula

Different_Corner

fletch3163 wrote: »

This thread is jinxing me, I swear it. My reading for this week is 1208 and that equates to 121 units for this week. Week two went up by 3 units and week three has too. What's going on?

Fletch I'm suffering the same here. I swear I'm trying to get it down, my meter must have some sort of withdrawal symptoms if it doesn't hit the 100 mark by Saturday !

biscotte

So, have finally got two readings that make sense and they are probably a little on the low side because we were away the weekend. So,

T1 (high) 10/11/08 = 12731, 17/11/08=12822 difference = 91 units.

T2 (low ) 10/11/08 = 14026, 17/11/08=14107 difference = 81 units.

Total -=172 units.

This is pretty high isn't it. Hate to think what the gas would be like!.

First aim is to use more of my electricity in the nightime period, which for us is 9pm through to 6 am.
i'll have another read through the thread to get some more ideas.