How much electricity do you use in a day?

Maddie

moonrakerz wrote: »

Yes ! and No !

Gas is an inefficient fuel in most cases, because you have to convert it to something else (usually heat) to make use of it; electricity is very efficient because it is ready to use.
As you correctly say there will be losses in converting gas to electricity before you use the electricity. But this is taken into account when electricity and gas is priced. I should imagine it would be quite a long complicated mathematical process to work that out. Also I should imagine there are quite large differences in efficiencies between, gas, oil, coal, hydro and nuclear power stations.

This is why (BG Click 2 prices) electricity is 8.0950/kWh and gas is 2.2103p/kWh.

My gas fire sends 45% of the heat it produces straight up the chimney but it is still a lot cheaper to use that than an equivalent electric fire. However gas is not so good for powering your TV or PC, so really it is a case of using the best, and if possible the cheapest, fuel to suit your needs.

So therefore, am I not correct in saying that if you want to heat something, it is more efficient to use gas (providing of course that you are not completely inefficient in the way you do it - eg boiling water with the gas really high and no lid on the saucepan)?

Cardew

bigpaws23 wrote: »

:eek: :eek:
Well, I *really* hope I did something wrong.
In the past 24 hours, we have got through 3983 units _pale_ I mean, that can't possibly be right can it??

I noted that in the past 24 hours we've had 2 baths, 1 load of washing has gone through (new machine with an economy cycle that I always use), I used the oven for 1/2 hour and we had an electric heater running for 2 hours.
I have always blamed my oven for eating electricity (it;s very old and has those dreadful solid plates on the hob) but this is utterly ridiculous.
I can't imagine how much that is in money.

There is only 3 of us living here fer cryin' out loud!! I feel so embarassed.

I need one of these gadgets people are talking about to find out what it is that is using so much (can anyone tell me where to get one and how much they are please?) and I *really* hope I'm just rubbish at reading meters and got it wrong.

ho hum
Salad for lunch then

Bigpaws x

I can 100% garantee you haven't used 3983 units in 24 hours. You would be looking at a monthly bill £12,000.00 if you were.

I suggest that might be 39.83 units?

Still very high but not if you have electrical heating at normal rates.

bigpaws23

Cardew wrote: »

I can 100% garantee you haven't used 3983 units in 24 hours. You would be looking at a monthly bill £12,000.00 if you were.

Ah right - I need an eyesight check and a calculator before taking tomorrow's reading then. Phew!

I suggest that might be 39.83 units?
Still very high but not if you have electrical heating at normal rates.

It could be; I'll get a better idea tomorrow.
We only have 1 electric heater, which gets used about twice a month when one of us is working in that room. The rest of the heating is wood. I thought our electric consumption would be minimal and we put in the woodburner partly for this reason.

We do have an immersion on all day and I have been on at my dh to put a timer on it for months now.
So, feeling very naive; will it make a lot of difference, do you think? Having the hot water on for say, an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening compared to all the time?
With a mud / poo / other disgusting things magnet for a child, I really need access to at least warm water all day for those 'emergency' washes that come up in the course of the day. It's not so bad in the summer, I just throw her in a cold paddling pool

*any* tips on cutting down would be gratefully received.

Bigpaws x

little_miss_thrifty

Hi, have just taken my reading for the past 24 hrs and it is 59344, so we have used 8 units. This is for a family of four and have not changed our usual pattern (dishwasher and washing machine on, tv, lights etc), so if i try and cut usage we'll hopefully use less. I'll check my past bills too and see what we are averaging per day.

P.S - i thought that having a vivarium on 12 hrs a day would hike the units up, but obviously not!

cazrobinson

my leccy reading:

34191.3 at midnight last night

will look again tonight.

* Yes, am washing those nappies, but baby is now using the toilet (even at night!!) at 20 mths. Soon, we'll be able to use the washing-lines more often/baby completely out of nappies, and save more money!

; )

moonrakerz

Maddie wrote: »

So therefore, am I not correct in saying that if you want to heat something, it is more efficient to use gas (providing of course that you are not completely inefficient in the way you do it - eg boiling water with the gas really high and no lid on the saucepan)?

As I said Yes and No ! You might be - you might not be, you would have to work out the whole chain to arrive at an accurate figure - which is just what I said.

You have actually partially destroyed your own point, when you say, " providing of course that you are not completely inefficient in the way you do it". It MAY actually be more efficient to boil water with the gas full on and no lid on the pan, I can't prove that it is, anymore than you can prove to the contrary.This is the problem, people are inefficient in many cases and they just don't realise it.

The problem is with "energy saving" many people look at it in a VERY simplistic way. I said in another thread that people who doggedly turn the TV off from 'standby' quite happily use tungsten filament lamps. A TV in standby uses 3W, a tungsten filament lamp uses 80W more than a low energy lamp.

Another post on this site advocates spending thousands on double glazing to save energy and money - sorry, but this is rubbish ! Spend a couple of hundred on some heavyweight lined curtains - this will save energy and you will recoup your money in a few years.

How thick is the insulation in your loft ? Not thick enough I can guarantee.

Why buy a gizmo (which will use power itself!!!) to tell you how much electricity an appliance uses ? save the money and read the rating plate on the appliance !

A post above asks, 'is it better to leave the immersion on all day', Yes and No ! It might be ! It depends ! How much hot water do they use ? When ? How often ?

Poor old bigpaws23 is worrying her(him)self into an early grave because they don't know how to read a meter properly or how much electricity their cooker uses.

There is no simple answer, if only there was; if you want to fall downstairs in the dark trying to save energy, go ahead; I'll lag my loft, line the curtains, change my lightbulbs AND save a lot more energy than you will !

Cardew

moonrakerz wrote: »

As I said Yes and No ! You might be - you might not be, you would have to work out the whole chain to arrive at an accurate figure - which is just what I said.

You have actually partially destroyed your own point, when you say, " providing of course that you are not completely inefficient in the way you do it". It MAY actually be more efficient to boil water with the gas full on and no lid on the pan, I can't prove that it is, anymore than you can prove to the contrary.This is the problem, people are inefficient in many cases and they just don't realise it.

The problem is with "energy saving" many people look at it in a VERY simplistic way. I said in another thread that people who doggedly turn the TV off from 'standby' quite happily use tungsten filament lamps. A TV in standby uses 3W, a tungsten filament lamp uses 80W more than a low energy lamp.

Another post on this site advocates spending thousands on double glazing to save energy and money - sorry, but this is rubbish ! Spend a couple of hundred on some heavyweight lined curtains - this will save energy and you will recoup your money in a few years.

How thick is the insulation in your loft ? Not thick enough I can guarantee.

Why buy a gizmo (which will use power itself!!!) to tell you how much electricity an appliance uses ? save the money and read the rating plate on the appliance !

A post above asks, 'is it better to leave the immersion on all day', Yes and No ! It might be ! It depends ! How much hot water do they use ? When ? How often ?

Poor old bigpaws23 is worrying her(him)self into an early grave because they don't know how to read a meter properly or how much electricity their cooker uses.

There is no simple answer, if only there was; if you want to fall downstairs in the dark trying to save energy, go ahead; I'll lag my loft, line the curtains, change my lightbulbs AND save a lot more energy than you will !

Agree with all of the above except:

"Why buy a gizmo (which will use power itself!!!) to tell you how much electricity an appliance uses ? save the money and read the rating plate on the appliance !"

The rating plate is quite meaningless for almost every appliance when it comes to measuring the power it uses, as they are all thermostatically controlled.

My freezer is 500 Watts. Washing Machine 3kW, Dishwasher 3kW, PC 500 Watts, and my cooker 20kW. etc etc

Calculating consumption of a freezer left on 24/7 by using the 500 Watts figure on the plate would indicate that it would use 4,380kWh a year. In reality it will take less than a tenth of that.

That is the advantage of the 'Gizmo'. Plug it in for a week and you can see what power it uses.

moonrakerz

Cardew wrote: »

The rating plate is quite meaningless for almost every appliance when it comes to measuring the power it uses, as they are all thermostatically controlled.

Calculating consumption of a freezer left on 24/7 by using the 500 Watts figure on the plate would indicate that it would use 4,380kWh a year. In reality it will take less than a tenth of that.

My TV isn't thermostatically controlled, nor my kettle, nor my lights, nor the Dyson, ...............

What is the point of knowing that your freezer uses so many Watts per day to 4 decimal places, what are you going to do to save energy, pull the plug out at night ?

Joking apart, my point was that most people haven't got a clue about how much electricity different gadgets use. Look at the plate, it will tell you that an electric cooker uses 10 times as much power as a TV. It will also tell you that switching off the electric towel rail in the bathroom is a much better idea than turning the TV off at the wall; but people have been brainwashed into believing that if no appliance had a standby button the planet would be saved !

bigpaws23

well, today we used 20 units - still loads compared to folk on here, but I am willing to change!

The person (forgive me, I have trouble keepng up with posts on this forum) who was using about 5 units a day - do you have gas as well? We got through 4 units between going to bed and getting up this morning :mad: Nothing is on - just the 'fridge and freezer (I'm thinking the immersion must be clocking things up for us??)

Ours is just for electricity and both dh and I are at home all day.

Thanks
Bigpaws x

ViksB

We were using 20 units a day until we turned everything off!! Turned TV, video and aerial booster off at the wall, anything with a clock (except the alarm clock) gets turned off at the wall when we are not using it. The showers get turned off to stop the little red light shining. Any plug sockets with a red light when they were one are turned off.
Basically anything with a light or clock is off!!
Our electricity is now down to 8 units a day which is still high as the bulk of our heating is oil.
Hope this helps