lower my energy costs

bloomsberg78

I have a 4 bed detached house, build mid 80s (2 adults and 2 young kids) and my electric is £28 per month and gas is £30 per month and 99% of that is used in the 6 coldest months.

The key for me is understanding how much each appliance costs and which appliances cost the most. When I move into a new property (and I have moved around alot), one of the first jobs for me is to understand the property and your appliances in it.

Firstly, turn everything off....and then check your meter (or energy monitor)....is it still spinning?, even slightly? if so have another look around, there will always be something else plugged in!

Only when your energy meter stops spinning or your energy meter reads 0, should you be happy. Then start turning on the key appliances that have to be on 24x7. The only things in my house that run 24x7 are the fridge/freezer, clock on oven and burglar alarm. Nothing else. my background usage (whilst I'm asleep or out) is just under 0.5p per hour. Getting your background usage down to minimum is key to saving on your electric bill.

Track your energy usage at first by the hour (I mean write down and record usage) and as you get comfortable, do it by the day until you are fully confident. Personally I have found the Owl monitor a god send and for the first few weeks in my new house carried it around everywhere! - tracking everything.

Things I have done, once I have monitored my energy usage:
1. I work from home, so need a computer, but now just use the laptop instead of the docking kit which connects to a monitor.
2. Broadband Router is now on a timer...comes on at 7am and goes off at 10pm
3. Just be conscious when using high energy appliances, understand the cost..personally I carried my Owl monitor around with me tracking everything until I was confident of all my usage
4. Don't use a tumble dryer or dishwasher...have never had them...they are luxuries in my opinion.
5. All the usual energy saving stuff...energy saving bulbs everywhere, only boiling the kettle with the water you need, keeping showers as short as practically possible (when you monitor your usage you'll find electric showers are hideously energy intensive)...and as soon as you have finished with the TV, switch it and all its appendages off at the wall! - and making sure you're on the cheapest deal...personally I prefer to fix, so I know the price for a given period.
6 Before you go to bed, check your energy monitor/meter is it running at the background rate? - if not, you've left something plugged in.
7. I looked at what we were using the washing machine for, once our usage got up to 3 times a week and found we were sticking in kids clothing because they had been worn once. Now the stuff that goes in is underwear and dirty clothes. We are back down to just 1-2 washes a week.
8. Where you have options, such as a choice between the main kitchen oven or the convector oven function on the microwave, understand the costs of both options and use the cheapest.
9. Earlier this year I got free cavity wall insulation and loft insulation...check with your energy supplier, I expect these deals are still there.

Thing with Gas and heating I suppose it depends on how much you really want to save money....here's what I do:
1. Gas/heating goes off as early in April as possible and is turned on as late in October as possible. Once its off, its off. Grab the heavy bedding, thermals and wooly jumpers!
2. In this new house we have one of those boilers with pilot lights, previously I have had Combi's....again when monitoring the usage daily I found the Pilot light alone was consuming a lot of energy, too much to justify it been on 24x7. So......I turned it off, and it will stay off until October when I turn the heating on. My Gas usage now is just what I use on our gas stove which is next to nothing, and is averaging at 50p per month in the 6 warmest months.
3. What about hot water? - we use the electric shower, and have a couple of kettles which we boil up for the kids baths (yes of course you need to be careful and fill the bath with cold water first!)...and again boil up the kettle for doing the washing up. For hand washing, we have antibacterial soap which does not require hot water. I honestly have not missed at all having hot water in the summer.
4. Only have the heating on specific/important hours such as getting up time and tea time and only in specific areas of the house, i.e the rooms that you use. The rest of the time its tough...get another jumper.
5. Go round a draft proof everything from the letterbox to the doors and get thick thermal curtains

As I say, it depends on your values and what you consider a hassle and a necessity. For me the investment in time and the small inconveniences I encounter (whilst I wait 1 min for a kettle to boil) are more than worth putting up with. And the monitoring, tracking and analysis of your usage can be an excellent investment of your time, especially if you're hard up or are just keen on keeping bills low to save the money for something else.

aelitaman

You are consuming a heck of a lot of gas for a 2003 built house.

I have a four storey 1820 house (i.e zero concept of insulation when built) and I consume 15,000 Kwh per year and this is for heating and water.

Also your useage patern of water heated 4 hours per day then heating at 20C from 6am to 10pm is not excessive.

So is the house drafty? Do you have windows open when the heating is on? Is the boiler in a cold location?

I would focus on this 27,000 gas usage because the average in the UK is about 16K if I remember correctly.

becksfaz

aelitaman wrote: »

Is the boiler in a cold location?

Would this contribute to high gas useage? I'm also a big gas user and our boiler is in our garage (it was not installed by us)

Wywth

becksfaz wrote: »

Would this contribute to high gas useage? I'm also a big gas user and our boiler is in our garage (it was not installed by us)

Not a lot.

The boiler will be protected by a frostat which may cause the boiler to fire up more often in freezing temperatures to prevent it from freezing, but that won't be the reason for your large gas consumption.

aelitaman

The answer is yes it does, but how much depends on other factors.

The best place for a boiler is within the space that you want to heat and you surround with insulation, kitchen is good and the reason why is that the boiler gives of some residual heat (even 95% efficient ones) but also the copper pipes give off heat as well and if all of this is in the space you want to heat there is no problem, just think of them as mini radiators.

When the boiler is located in a cold room that you do not want to heat and do not insulate then you will lose the residual heat from the boiler but it is the pipe runs that are the problem. If you have long runs of bare copper pipe from the boiler then they cool down and lose heat. More heat lost the longer the run.

I once found a report from the SEDBUK testers and this report was them testing boilers in location in peoples houses. When they say a boiler is 95% efficient it is tested in their controlled location. They "in situ" testing was an eye opener, 95% efficient combis were testing at 18% efficient when a hot tap was run to wash hands, then with central heating efficiencies of 50% to 60% were being recorded for some boilers that were 90%+.

The common theme - all the inefficient boilers were installed in cold utility, garages or outbuildings.

Why was I interested my boiler is in the old coal shed, great for cats but not my wallet.

The only thing you can do is get as much pipe installation as you can around the hot pipes that leave and return to boiler. Get the pipe installation from standard diy store and the thicker the better.

becksfaz

aelitaman wrote: »

The answer is yes it does, but how much depends on other factors.

The best place for a boiler is within the space that you want to heat and you surround with insulation, kitchen is good and the reason why is that the boiler gives of some residual heat (even 95% efficient ones) but also the copper pipes give off heat as well and if all of this is in the space you want to heat there is no problem, just think of them as mini radiators.

When the boiler is located in a cold room that you do not want to heat and do not insulate then you will lose the residual heat from the boiler but it is the pipe runs that are the problem. If you have long runs of bare copper pipe from the boiler then they cool down and lose heat. More heat lost the longer the run.

I once found a report from the SEDBUK testers and this report was them testing boilers in location in peoples houses. When they say a boiler is 95% efficient it is tested in their controlled location. They "in situ" testing was an eye opener, 95% efficient combis were testing at 18% efficient when a hot tap was run to wash hands, then with central heating efficiencies of 50% to 60% were being recorded for some boilers that were 90%+.

The common theme - all the inefficient boilers were installed in cold utility, garages or outbuildings.

Why was I interested my boiler is in the old coal shed, great for cats but not my wallet.

The only thing you can do is get as much pipe installation as you can around the hot pipes that leave and return to boiler. Get the pipe installation from standard diy store and the thicker the better.

Just gone to check the pipes - all are insulated to and from the boiler.

Broadwood

All our bulbs have been fluorescents (strips or compacts) for quite a few years now, but 2 years ago I bought 3 LED bulbs (from Lidl about £5 each) for the 3 table lamps which are all on from dusk til bedtime 365 days a year on timers. These are the only lights on for 90% of the time and they use about 3 watts per bulb and each gives out the same light as a 40 watt tungsten filament or an 11 watt fluorie compact so must have paid for themselves a few times over already. Their life-span is many times longer too.

p.s. I've also changed the car side light, tail light and brake light bulbs to LEDs too which must help to improve MPG very slightly, also they last for years and the brake lights are instantly full brightness helping to prevent rear-end shunts. Ordinary bulbs take nearly half a second to light up. Watch the LED indicator and brake lights on some newer cars and trucks and you will see the difference.