I think my useage seems excessive. What do you think?

mrsdumplin

right, going to log off now
one past my bed time
two..wanna see how much this all uses !!

Thanks

mattcanary

I strongly advise against switching to NPOwer, MrsDumplin. Their lecel of customer service is normally woeful, and they have a really unfair way of billing Standing Charges (that is unique to them)

macman

mrsdumplin wrote: »

Thanks everyone...

Have installed monitor and commenced operation find the dam leccy burning appliance.
Its now 11.31, only a lamp on downstairs, computer on, tv on, all usual, 2xfridge, microwave,kettle, baby monitor, alarm clock etc on standby....and we are running at 650- 700 ish...sp still quite high
Gonna turn everything off at mains tomorrow, check there is no reading and check meter..
Will also check hot water macman....hubby is a nitemare for leaving the emersion on...but the hot water is steamingly hot I did turn the thermostat down a while ago, might knock it down a few more degrees, Out of interest whats yours set at?
yes my bills are extortionate? currently around the £200 a month...
They have always been high, I was just allways told by the companies they were normal....so Mark, in his defence the Npower guy may have done me a favour, and for once, he wasnt a pushy one...
I'll keep you posted.

Hang on, if you have gas central heating, why do you have the immersion on at all? Most people only use an immersion as backup, or in the summer when the CH is off. Your gas boiler should be heating the water, vastly cheaper.
And if you don't have the immersion on a timer you are throwing money away. How many hours a day is it on? Is it switching off properly?
What electricity tariff are you on-not on an Old Economy 7 tariff by any chance? Lots of stories on this board about people ripping out old storage heaters for GCH and forgetting to change their tariff).

Mrs_Thrify

Hello Mrs Dumplin, can I join in?Your journey to be more thrifty with the fuel bills?

Is your house well insulated?
I am on my own personal journey to cut down the fuel bills. I have been working on it since January and can see the small changes i have made bring down the bills. My fuel bills are low compaired to some.
Mrs Thrifty.

RadoJo

I can confirm the completely extortionate cost of running an immersion heater - we left ours on for a month once (by accident - faulty timer!) and our electricity bill did go up by about 300%. We thought that was excesive and did an experiment similar to yours and the difference the immersion made was extraordinary - the little wheel was literally whizzing around with the immersion on, and barely moving when we switched it off, so I would say that would be my primary culprit to check on in your position.

mrsdumplin

Sure Mrs Thrifty...

I am an end terrace so I have 3 exposed walls also a sun room, which is not well insulated its single brick and nothing in the roof I suspect but it was here before I moved in so not much I can do about it unless I rebuild it..
I've had cavity wall insulation done, roof insulated but could probably do with topping up, but the eves are foam insulated and we are bar 2 doors all double glazed...

Well, a few eye openers today....
Hubby has the power to the garage turns out he has two florecents that are on with the power and a sterio on standby, killed it at the mains and the monitor dropped 500w...YES I KNOW...turns out it was mainly the security lights which were set to on low perminantly then come on bright when something goes past them....they've been re set now...

Tumble...bl**dy Hell......I use washable nappies and have needed to get them dried, they are bamboo so take ages unless you tumble them for an hour or so...just turned it on and the monitor has jumped from 665 to 1.94....they may save me money on disposeables but not sure on electric bills...

Its easy to see now where it all goes....

Hi macman, we only use the immersion if we need a temp top up or we are having a bath after each other...we switch it on for say 10 mins but then forget to turn it off, but to be honest its not that often on.
I'm on EON fixed ionternet 5 or something, its not economy 7....
Its not the cost so much i'm horrified its our useage that is at fault. I'm going to order one of those monitors that monitors each appliance, run it for 24 hrs on each appliance and see how mcuh each item is really costing us...

Gonna look at the lights I have 10 spots in the lounge and 6 110w lights in the kitchen, can you get low energy halogens and low energy spots??

something keeps kicking in and out ( boiler & fridges poss) as the monitor is jumping from under 1kw to 1.86 to 2.0KW !!!!
well, off to turn more appliances off!

mrsdumplin

Thanks radjo, hubby had a shower this morning....better just go and double check he did turn it off,

mrsdumplin

Something big is kicking in every now and then tumble is on and we are at 724....and now at ....
so that last big jump cant be the tumble....gonna flick the thermostat up..see if boiler kicks in......nope nothing...
any ideas what could be kicking in and out at that power useage?

macman

Most likely that is the heating element cutting in on the tumble drier? Some of them have a cool tumble phase and the heating element won't be full on all the time.
10 spots in one room? Yikes! What wattage? Sounds like you need to fit low-energy bulbs-and, more to the point, just turn things off when they're not in use.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

mrsdumplin wrote: »

I'm on EON fixed ionternet 5 or something, its not economy 7....
Its not the cost so much i'm horrified its our useage that is at fault. I'm going to order one of those monitors that monitors each appliance, run it for 24 hrs on each appliance and see how mcuh each item is really costing us...

Hi mrsdumplin

Your usage, particularly the electric, is definitely high. Might be able to help you do something about this

Have a chat with our Energy Efficiency team. Have a list of all your appliances to hand and they will be happy to advise of ways to cut back.

Ask for a copy of a booklet called '100 ways to save money by saving energy.' It's free and contains lots of useful energy saving advice.

Check out our website (there's a link in my Personal Profile), particularly the interactive house, energy menu and Winter Advice Bureau. More good tips here.

You might also be interested in the 10:10 campaign. This is a climate change campaign aimed at helping people reduce their energy usage by 10 per cent by the end of 2010. Again, details are on our website.

You're doing exactly the right thing in seeing where this energy is going, mrsdumplin. Hope this helps with your efforts. Give me a shout if you need any more info and good luck with your cut backs.

Malc