Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

cw18

I was wondering the same thing about my chest freezer -- it's 17 years old this December (I only remember that 'cos I bought it just before my younger son's first Christmas). Plus it's in the kitchen, and even though it's against an outside wall I can't help wondering if it would be more efficient in the garage

The only problem being it's going to take me a month of Sundays to make room for it out there -- and [strike]if[/strike] when I do make room in the garage then I'd like to upgrade to a larger one, so I'm not sure it's really worth looking at the expense of replacing it now

But I'm another has just got an energy monitor, so I think I'll hook that freezer up to it in the next couple of days and see what it's like -- there has to be something that's eating our electricity, and it's one of the few things I can think of that could be the 'energy hungry' culprit

cw18

Primrose wrote: »

I normally cook caseroles in our electric oven but in future want to try putting my Le Creuset pan on a low simmer on the gas hob as I think it might use less fuel. However, I find that this method has a tendency to burn the base of the pan so need one of these low simmer protector plates to put over the hob. Does anybody know where I could buy one and what their proper name is? Thanks.

Or get a slow cooker - love mine to pieces, even though I haven't used it much yet. I don't know how many you're cooking for, but Aldi had a 6.5litre one (the larger size that seems to be common) for just under £20 this week. They cook a whole chicken (over 3kg!) or a gammon joint beautifully, and they're really cheap to run too.

bertiebots

cw18 wrote: »

For three people in a 4 bed-detached (water and heating is by gas), running 3 rooms pretty much all the time (different interests than encroach into each others), some energy bulbs (haven't yet found the money to change the 7 spots in the kitchen, so we're running with only two of them working on standard bulbs!), tumble drier on a couple of times a week, and using the oven (but mainly the micro combi as an oven) most days, our averages are

6/10/2007 - 6/10/2008 (incl) : 14 units a day / 98 units a week
30/08/2008 - 6/10/2008 (incl) : 13 units a day / 91 units a week (94 days, so the closest I have to your 8 weeks from August)
23/09/2008 - 6/10/2008 (incl - I'm now reading weekly and watching like a hawk for things being left one!) : 12 units a day / 84 units a week

After reading your post I feel a bit better!! we are a family of 5 living in a 3 bed house and tend to do everything in the same room!:D This helps to not use the heating ,and I can keep any eye on what the kids have plugged in all over the place:rolleyes: I was convinced that I had read people only using 20 units a week but it must have been per day:eek: :rotfl: All our kitchen appliances ,we have washer ,fridge freezer ,eco kettle ,microwave all A rated as they have been replaced over the past few years. The cooker came with the house and is 14 years old. Its door wont shut and makes a terrible racket, and doesnt like been on for more than 30 mins! The kitchen is in a bad way and we are saving up to get it replaced so dont want to "waste " money replacing it temporerally iyswim! We are hoping to do this in about 18 months so every penny counts. But I love baking so may get a remoska (actually want one for xmas:eek: ) I never thaught I would see the day when I wanted a kitchen appliance as a pressy:rotfl: :rotfl: .

cw18

My 22nd birthday present from my parents (1988) was a fridge!! I'd bought my first house 11 months earlier, and took the previous owners old fridge off her hands for a matter of a few quid -- but it needed replacing. When I then asked for a decent deep fat fryer the Christmas of the following year (1989) my parents thought I was nuts. Our wedding present from them (1992) was a sewing machine, so I could make curtains for the house we'd bought the year before (had been "make do and mend" until then). And the money we got from my parents and my BIL for Christmas 2006 replaced our tumble dryer (the old one was about 11 or 12 years old and no longer efficient enough for all the bedding we were having to wash and dry almost daily -- but even with that warning it was snapped up on Freecycle!)

Am currently debating whether to put an energy efficient small chest freezer, a Tefal ActiFry or an electric slicer on my Christmas list for this year !!!!! I have a slow cooker and a bread maker, so can't justify a remoska as well.......

Emily_Hall08

I have a question..
We've just received our latest gas bill. It's over £300, for 3 months. One of which, nobody was in the house. And most of the other 2 months, only one person was in the house. Previously our bills have been around £50/60 for 3 months. We were warned there were going to be price increases, I think they said a max of 20% maybe (haven't got the details with me), but this seems completely unreasonable, and we've had quite a shock to say the least!!
What are people's first thoughts about what's happened here? We've discussed the possibilities almost endlessly..

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Have you checked the bill against your meter reading,maybe it's been esimated.Sorry not much help I know but all I could think of.

cw18

first check that neither reading on the bill is estimated

then check the controls for your central heating (and if you have a hot water tank also check the controls for that -- including the thermostat on the cylinder if it's easy to get to or has been recently 'serviced') -- just in case someone's knocked a switch to 'always on' or has accidentally turned up the temperature on either of them

assuming everything looks OK, then all you can do is start taking daily readings and see how it's going now,


the only other thing I can think of (not trying to panic you) is that you have a leak someone on your side of the meter -- but if it's up by that much I would have through you'd have noticed it by now

cw18

I knew I'd done some number crunching about the increasing price of g&e for someone else (on another thread) recently. Have mananged to find it, and will paste it below to show what I reckon the gas increase has been...


If I've done my look-ups right (pretty certain I have), then for my supply area paying by monthly DD.....

1/9/2007 - electricity was 7.191p per kWh, gas was 2.382
7/10/2007 - electricity was 7.191p per kWh, gas was 2.382 (same prices)

the last I have on a bill before I swapped to fixed price (no standing charge version)

9/07/2008 - electricity was 8.415p per kWh, gas was 2.771

According to the Scottish Power website, the non-fixed price is now

30/09/2008 - electricity is 9.281p per kWh, gas is 3.798


So, for me electricity is up by 29% and gas is up by a whopping 59.4%

:eek: at the gas increase -- especially as most of that is in the last 2 months since I fixed my price. thank heavens I finally took the plunge and did that !!!!

bertiebots

I am totally confused as to how the bills are worked out, maths not being my strong point.
Dont know if anyone else has bills like this but for my Gas and its shows units used (from meter reading)
then metric units used,
then converted into kilowatt hours.
Then it gives me the price per kwh which at the mo is 3.520p each. How do you get from metered units to kwh ...I cant figure out how its done!
Our electricy bill on the other hand is priced on metered units at 14.19p each for standard
and 10.12p each for discounted energy .
...is this the same as price per kwh?
Sorry if this has been explained somewhere else .......:o

Magentasue

bertiebots wrote: »

I am totally confused as to how the bills are worked out, maths not being my strong point.
Dont know if anyone else has bills like this but for my Gas and its shows units used (from meter reading)
then metric units used,
then converted into kilowatt hours.
Then it gives me the price per kwh which at the mo is 3.520p each. How do you get from metered units to kwh ...I cant figure out how its done!
Our electricy bill on the other hand is priced on metered units at 14.19p each for standard
and 10.12p each for discounted energy .
...is this the same as price per kwh?
Sorry if this has been explained somewhere else .......:o

Gas - there are more complicated ways that give accurate conversions but put simply ... if you have a metric meter, multiply the meter units by 11 to get approx kwh. For imperial meters, multiply by 31. Again approximate but close enough.

Elec - metered units are kwh. Much easier!