cutting down on costs

tryingtobegood75

hi,

I'm appalled at our energy usage - currently £175 per month dual fuel. Been through our bills and paying approx £55 per mth on electricity - consistent throughout the year, our gas heating obviously fluctuates. Been with Npower for a year now, (oct 13 tariff, moving to Nov 14 tariff soon - got in before the price increase !)

Trying to reduce costs - Npower tried to decrease our DD to 163pounds recently but decided to stay at 175 to build up a bit of a buffer for winter.

We live in a extended semi-detached 100year old stone built cottage with 3beds 2 kids. Not the most energy efficient of houses to say the least but does have double glazing, insulation where it can be put, (no cavity) and there is someone in the house at some point all the time. Not sure I can do much more about the heating we do turn it down to the cool side of normal, (live in scotland also !)

As for elec. we do have a tumble dryer and a dishwasher. Have started in the last month to dry the clothes on a airer, (tumble is being used a heck of a lot less - perhaps 20mins a couple of times a week to finish loads off) and the dishwasher is down to a couple of times a week......this from 1-2 times a day for both !

Have noticed a big difference in usage from ~450-500kwh per mth to ~375kwh which is cool.

Question - are these figures now reasonable ? any other tips and hints - been on the energy saving website and done as much as poss without starting to think about radical ideas.

many thanks

K

matelodave

It might be worth looking at your lighting - our kitchen lights 10x50watt halogens = 500 watt an hour are now 4watt LEDs = 10x4 = 40 watts a saving of 460w an hour which is a fair saving especially if the lights get left on a lot.
Try turning off stuff that's on standby especially computers, x-boxes and playstations - anything that has a push button to start rather than a switch will consume power even if its not on, so do phone chargers if they are left plugged in.
Even our powered reclining chairs use 15 watts each when they are plugged in which costs £30-35 a year for the pair of them so we turn them off overnight or when they aren't in use. It's not a lot but it all mounts up.

We've got our summer electricity consumption down to an average of about 280kw a month and we are all electric, hot water, lighting, washing, dishwasher, cooking etc etc. for two of us at home all day both with computers on most of the day - so I reckon you aren't doing too badly.
Ours goes up dramatically in the winter when we are heating as well but our total energy bill for the year is less than £950 (£79 per month) at present. Our next fix will take it up to just over £1000 but it's my plan to try and keep it just below if I can by keeping a careful check on the meter and investigating any anomalies.

[Deleted User]

Yes the LED s make sense but theres been reports on here about some cheap Chinese LED s for sale on Ebay which only last a few weeks . Prob best to pay out the extra for well known brands

tryingtobegood75

thanks,

just counted the 50w halogen bulbs we have in the house - 4 in the bathroom, 6 in the kitchen and 13 in the hallway/landing. Admittedly there not rooms where lights are left on for very long periods and the lights we do leave on most of the time - table/standard lamps are eco bulbs. However will start to swap them out for leds - might try the hallway first to gauge the quality of light.

Have started to turn things off at the plug as well, just getting into good habits. Had a look at Npower usage for last Nov, its the first full mth with Npower and we used close to 500kwh for elec last year - it'll be good to see a direct comparison with this year.

K

M0ney

I don't know how much energy I'm saving by doing this but, we have a woodburning stove which has a hot plate on it. I always put a pan full of cold water on it, if the burner is going full throttle I'd say the water gets to about 60-70C then if I want a cup of tea I put that water in the kettle. If there is any excess after making my cup of tea I put it back in the pan and top the pan up and put back on the hotplate. I was thinking of getting a couple of tennis headbands to put round the pan so the water will get closer to boiling, I HATE seeing my spare cash going to utility companies!