Reducing Electricity Usage

greent

Evening all!

I've been using imeasure for several months now and it helped a bit to get my electricty down. However, my elec co (Eon) thinks I am a high user (and seem incredulous that I admit to using that much!)

I use about 117 units a week - more this last week as it has been wet so I've been using the tumble drier at times (not something I like doing, for several reasons) - up to about 135 this week. And this is SUmmer!!

We have quite a big house and there are 6 of us. 3 of the 4 children can be in their own roooms of an evening with the lights on (turned off around 9- 10pm, depending which one) (that late due to Summer hols) I'll then be downstairs and have the lounge lights on (3 wall lights - 1 switch) and I've also got the iron on right now and the tv (nipped on here in ad break ) Landing light is on and washing machine is doing a load...

Light bulbs are low energy. Heating is gas (combi boiler) Hob is gas and ovens are elec - 1 used once a day (sometimes twice, but 5/7 days once)

Does this seem a large usage to other people? What can I do to reduce it... I'm waiting for my EON energy monitor thingy

I pay £125/ mth combined gas and elec and I don't thnk it'll be enough (only just switched to EON - was with ATlantic at £169/ mth)

Cardew

Seems you are using about 4,000 kWh which IMO is good for 6 people.

macman

117 kWh is about 6,000kWh pa. Not that high for a large property with 6 people, but as you say this is summer. The only really meaningful figure is the annual consumption, you can get that from your bills or by contacting your supplier.
Your tumble drier is probably the most expensive item mentioned, a couple of room lights on really don't make much difference.
Put your annual gas and electric consumption (don't use your monthly DD amounts as these will not give accurate results) into one of the comparison sites and recheck your best tariff.

greent

Thanks. I put my annual consumption in to USwitch about 3 months ago - hence why we've switched to Eon. Things like f/freezer, dishwasher, w/machine combined with t drier are all A rated goods max 3 years old.

Tumble drier is used generally about 2 or 3x/ week for 20 mins at a time (min time it can be used) to fluff towels. I rarely use it for drying clothes in cold weather - they'll dry over/ in front of radiators (other than the fluffing of towels) That's why I have a washer-drier - I don't use it enough to warrant losing a cupboard to just a drier.

I do about 10-12 loads of washing a week (on quick wash @ 30 degrees 99% of the time) Dishwasher is on once a day (maybe three times over a 2 day weekend)

Over the 12 months May 2009-May 2010 we used 8695 units. I no longer have the info going any further back than that


I put my weekly readings into imeasure. We tend to come in the same place on the MSE carbon club graph every week - between numbers 25 & 30. Not brilliant, but not *that* bad, I thought...

I'm home all day and have a toddler at home with me.

macman

176 kWh pw. That's much higher than your earlier figure of 115 kWh per week would suggest-about twice the national average, but then your house and household is larger than average.
However it sounds like you have taken steps to reduce your consumption, so maybe your next bill will show a reduction August 209-August 2010.

greent

I hope so I am more aware of usage now than this time last year. I know we're a bigger family than some so can't expect to come in too low, but I would like it to be a little lower than last year!!

Dustykitten

Thanks for this thread. Your usage and family are similar to ours.

There are 5 of us, 4 bed detached. I've borrowed an energy monitor from a friend which has been a real eye opener in the past 24 hours.

Things I have noticed so far are. Kitchen and bathroom we have halogen downlighters (here when we moved in) and they really eat up energy so we are all making an effort not to leave those on.

Peak usage for us is evening when like you kids are in bedrooms with laptops and lights. DH in his study with the same. Also when kids have tvs/game stations on.

I do similar amounts of washing to you but don't use the tumbler. I dry outside but do have the luxury of an AGA for drying which makes our gas consumption huge.

i thinking of switching to EDF eco20:20 as that gives 20% off after 9pm and weekends which ties in with a lot of our heavy usage.

If you can borrow a meter it is really helpful.

zaax

Dry clothes by eletric is very expensive . Use the washing line or radators and airers during the winter. If you really can not stop using a tuble dryer, least get a gas tumble dryer.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

greent wrote: »

Evening all!

I've been using imeasure for several months now and it helped a bit to get my electricty down. However, my elec co (Eon) thinks I am a high user (and seem incredulous that I admit to using that much!)

I use about 117 units a week - more this last week as it has been wet so I've been using the tumble drier at times (not something I like doing, for several reasons) - up to about 135 this week. And this is SUmmer!!

We have quite a big house and there are 6 of us. 3 of the 4 children can be in their own roooms of an evening with the lights on (turned off around 9- 10pm, depending which one) (that late due to Summer hols) I'll then be downstairs and have the lounge lights on (3 wall lights - 1 switch) and I've also got the iron on right now and the tv (nipped on here in ad break ) Landing light is on and washing machine is doing a load...

Light bulbs are low energy. Heating is gas (combi boiler) Hob is gas and ovens are elec - 1 used once a day (sometimes twice, but 5/7 days once)

Does this seem a large usage to other people? What can I do to reduce it... I'm waiting for my EON energy monitor thingy

I pay £125/ mth combined gas and elec and I don't thnk it'll be enough (only just switched to EON - was with ATlantic at £169/ mth)

Hi greent

Looks like you're already pretty clued up when it comes to saving energy. We might be able to help you cut down a bit more, though.

Give our Energy Efficiency team a call and tell them what appliances you're using. They specialise in advising of ways you may be able to cut back and will be happy to talk to you.

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

Check out our website, too; particularly the Interactive House. More good tips here. :cool:

Hope this is of some use greent. Give me a shout if I you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

xoixoi

I am a single male on modest income. Here are the things I've done to reduce my electricity usage. I've successfully cut my monthly bill from £75 a month (annual average) to £42 a month in two years!

1) I bought a halogen oven. I no longer use my conventional oven at all. My food cooks in half the time and my new oven is so easy to clean.
2) I change my supplier (using advice from this site!).
3) I now shower at the gym whenever possible and on the days I don't work out I use my power shower (turn it on, get wet, turn it off, scrub up & wash hair etc, then turn on and rinse off).
4) I bought a medium sized plastic bowl to do my washing up & I use boiled water from my kettle for washing up water.
5) Because #3 and #4, I no longer use my central electric boiler to heat my water - WHAT A SAVING!
6) I am someone who doesn't like the cold in winter so I have to have some heating but I only have 1 central heater on now (in my living room). I am on economy 7 so it comes on during the night. Turned the temp down from lvl 6 to lvl 4 which means my average living room tempreture in winter is only 17C but I've taken my nans advice and decided to wear a jumper and socks indoors during the winter. I have an electric heater in my bedroom which I've timed to come at 5am during the winter to warm my room before I wake up at 6am and then it turns itself off.
7) This one sounds strange but I draw my thick curtains closed during winter evenings (its dark outside anyway!). Thick curtaining provides extra insulation.

I know that some of the measures I've taken seem a bit extreme but its was surprisingly easy to adapt to. I've cut my monthly bill by £33 (about 40%) even though electricity prices have, on the whole, increased over the last two years.

I'm posting this mainly as advice for younger, single people. It also feels good that my carbon footprint has now dropped dramatically too but I consider that more of a bonus than a goal.

One last thing. Ask your grandparents for advice. Many of them lived through much tougher times with no trouble at all. It did them no harm, so why should it you?

victor2

I've been monitoring my gas and electricity usage on a daily basis since the start of this year, having already started to economise where possible without greatly changing our lifestyle. Average electricity is working out at around 11kWh/day and is pretty consistent throughout the year. Gas varies tremendously with the weather as we have gas central heating and a boiler which is over 20 years old and probably not terribly efficient. Have got it down to 16kWh/day when all we neeed is hot water (we have a water tank heated by the boiler and a gas hob for cooking), although it is between 100 and 200 kWh/day when the heating is needed. Did reduce the house thermostat to 19 degrees which helped a little.

I do use a Powerdown adapter on the TV to disconnect attached devices when not needed. The TV itself is quite efficient, being fairly new. It costs me about 20p a YEAR to leave it on standby, which is worth it for the convenience of always being able to switch it on with the remote in my opinion! These adverts telling you to switch off your TV and not leave it on standby really bug me, even an old TV doesn't use that much on standby.

Monitoring your usage can be helpful. I read my meters every day and record it in a spreadsheet. Bit sad I suppose, but it makes you aware of what it's costing you. I now have a monitor on my electricity (free, courtesy of e.on), which is quite interesting and does make you switch things off when they're not in use.