Bringing our energy consumption under control

aliette

Pssst, I'm slightly envious of your bills and that's motivating me a lot!

OP has gas CH running off a combi, and gas cooking?

Yes. we have a combi boiler, no extra heater.
I expect the daily readings to be lower than 'normal' as our electric oven is broken so no baking for us except steamed puddings . Bread machine also gets used every other day, no idea what it uses. We have several computers & we both work from home so PCs are on all day.

(almost)-daily readings over the last 6 days indicates 1.5 cubic feet of gas and 29 Kwh of electricity.

Got the plug-in meter so I'm going to check a few things.
And we'll try turning everything off to check the meter tomorrow morning.

no more letters saying the direct debit is going up.

Yes they're awful aren't they! Keeps going up and up.

You'll also have to switch the switches to normally ones. Its not beyond the competent DIYer but if unsure contact an electrician.

dh loves the dimmers so I'll have to prove first that it's indeed the culprit and will make a big difference to the bills.

Thanks again everyone for all your help. There's a lot at stake for me, given our current finances, we can't afford to stay in this place but if I can bring a lot of costs down, maybe we can. :think:

Cardew

aliette wrote: »

(almost)-daily readings over the last 6 days indicates 1.5 cubic feet of gas and 29 Kwh of electricity.

Actually it is 150 cubic feet(a gas unit on an Imperial meter is 100 cubic feet) - so approx 46kWh. Which is very good for mid Oct. Way below the UK average. Are you sure of that reading?

29kWh of electricity per day is still extremely high. Over 10,000kWh pa which is 3 times the UK average.

aliette

Are you sure of that reading?

It is possible that I made a mistake, it was the first time I looked at it. I've set up a spreadsheet and will keep monitoring it this week.

29kWh of electricity per day is still extremely high. Over 10,000kWh pa which is 3 times the UK average.

That doesn't sound good! :eek: I'll turn everything off tomorrow and make sure the meter stops. Then I'll check day by day to see if there are peaks. I'm also ordering an owl.

Fire_Fox

Seriously forget about the lighting, dimmers, energy saving bulbs or lack thereof. I live in a two bedroom flat with wasteful 50W halogen lamps everywhere and a dimmer controlling the eight bulbs in the main living area. The flat is north-facing, I am home a lot and rubbish at turning lights off! I am frugal with the heating (electric blanket on bed and duvet on sofa) and hot water (shower off while soaping up), no tumble dryer, washing machine on 30C: as a result we pay £34 a month which covers our annual usage.

amcluesent

FYI, dimmers don't waste energy, if they did they'd be scorching hot.

Pssst

BallandChain wrote: »

Well done! Sorry for being thick but what is the blue top for? I have just changed over to quarterly billing as I have been messed around with when having direct debits. I feel I'm more in control now and no more letters saying the direct debit is going up.

Its a thermal vest. Put one of these on and you will be warm all day and less inclined to put the heating on or at least you will tend to have it on less/at a lower temp.

Why spend fortunes heating up the fabric of the house when all you really want to do is feel warm and comfortable.

aliette

This might be a very stupid question, when I take daily gas readings, do I worry about the last 2 red digits? Thanks

Cardew

aliette wrote: »

This might be a very stupid question, when I take daily gas readings, do I worry about the last 2 red digits? Thanks

No ignore them.

You have an Imperial gas meter so each gas unit(9774 in this case) is approx 31 kWh.

EnergyInsider_2

£2500 / yr is stupid money, should be nearer £1000

If you don't have Economy 7 then seriously consider it, then get some plug in timers and use them to set your Washing M/c, Tumble dryer and DW to come on off peak (between 00:30 and 07:30) this will save you more than half the cost compared to running them in the daytime.

DONT tumble dry if you can hang washing out - it is bl...y expensive

Heat by gas if you can, it is less than half the cost of normal rate electricity and still cheaper than off peak electric.

aliette

Thanks Cardew, that helps.
EnergyInsider, I agree it's stupid money, I'd rather it was spent somewhere else! I'll change tariff eventually but first, I'd like to figure out why we're using so much.