£743.63 CHQ back from EON in 1 year

Eco_Warrior_4

This is my first post on this forum and wanted to share withyou all how I saved on my Electricity/Gas bills.

The reason I have turned into an eco freak is because 2years ago we were paying £100 a month to EON for both our Electric/Gas (we moved in the house in September so wehad the costly winter months ahead) come March we were nearly £600 in debtwith our fuel bills Then my eco quest started.

Our boiler was over 20 years old and on even when on fullthe radiator were only warm so the house was always cold. We got a really gooddeal on a new A+ rated condensing boiler so we took the plunge and had oneinstalled which would help save on gas bills.

From May 2011 we were £3.51 in credit with EON and in May2012 we were £743.63 in credit still paying £100 a month, so that’s an averageof £38.03 a month for both Electricity/Gas in a 3 bed semi pre 1930 old house with2 adults and a baby.

I went around the house with the energy monitor to seewhere we could save,

Electricity

· Only use energy bulbs and 4w LED spot lightsinstead of 50w halogen spot lights, and use the lamps instead of the big light

· I have the TV set the highest eco mode, as it’sa LED TV with eco mode it only used 14watts of electricity

· Laptop screen brightness turned down and onenergy saver mode.

· Fridge freezer and stand alone freezer dials turned down

· Use the eco setting on the washing machine washingat either 30 or 40 degrees

· Use the eco rapid setting on our dishwasher andalso saving water at the same time

· I don’t pre heat the fan oven and I turn theoven down for the last 10 mins of cooking as its already to temperature

· I have standby savers on TV/DVD/Gadgets

· Only boil enough water in the kettle.

· I use Belkin energy saver socket for mobilechargers/baby monitor

Gas

· Installed new efficient boiler

· Use Radflek foil behind each radiator

· All radiator have a terrier I-temp fitted tothem (electronic valves), this is the largest saving I’ve made. I program each radiatorto come on at different times and set what temperature I want each room,once the room get near the set temperature on the radiator the valve automaticallycloses so the boiler does not need to work as hard to keep the radiator hot thenit will re-open but only about 15% then close again so it saves on a lot ofGas. I have programmed the bedrooms to come on for 1 hour in the morning as weget up and 1 hour just before we go to bed. The lounge radiator is set to 21 degreesand the hallway and kitchen set to 19 degrees and the house is warmer than everand the boiler is not on half as much as before. These little gems have savedme a fortune and cost just under £30 per radiator so £180 for my house.

· I have fitted a thick jacket around the watertank and lagged the pipes, the hot water is only heated for 30mins in themorning by the boiler and we still have red hot water all day.

· Loft/tanks insulated and pipes lagged, we can’thave cavity wall insulation as we have solid walls as it’s an old house.

I have even saved on our water bills by fitting an ecoshowerhead, hippo in the toilet, baby bath dam, water butt in the garden andchange our water tariff to the So Low tariff so our water bills are about£17-£18 a month

All the hard work paid off and I got Nearly £750 back fromEON I have since change supplier to a better deal and possibly might even savemore andI am already incredit with the new supplier.

macman

Good work all round, but it will still take you many years to recover the capital investment on the new boiler in gas savings, assuming that was in the region of £2.500. And most of the changes you have made were not dependent on that new boiler.
I'd be wary of comparing year on year data, because we had two very different winters in 10/11 and 11/12, so your consumption would not have been the same anyway.
Interesting info on the timed TRV's though.