Are people using too much energy

Nicklt

Hi,

Just before xmas I submitted my meter readings for the last quarter. Before this my elec/gas provider had done a few estimated reads. I submitted my readings and was shocked that for the quarter we used only £30 of gas and electricity. I had the energy company check it and they said it was correct. (The actuals were quite a bit lower than their estimates)

Anyway this got me thinking. With the average annual energy bill now £1400 are people using too much energy? Or more than they need and not making the effort to cut down.

Now I live in a new house that has all the insulation under the sun so naturally we save money there. However me and my wife are both sticklers for saving energy. Every bulb is enery saving or the lowest watt possible. We only have the radiators on in the rooms we are in and only the light in the rooms we are in are on. Everything is turned off before bed and while we are at work/school.

I don't even leave the LED clock on on the cooker (bit extreme I know)

So yeah are people using more energy than needed or is it maybe due to poor insulation in houses/old appliances. I know plasma TV's are a massive drain we changed our Plasma to LED and noticed quite a sizeable drop in electric use.

I think it's shocking that the average bill is now £1400, of course the energy companies need be brought in line/nationalised as this is just not sustainable. And maybe properties should be looked at in terms of insulaiton and people educated in what in their house is using a lot of energy.

[Deleted User]

I think many of us can be a bit lazy without wanting to be but as the price of energy increases it should make us all check that things are switched off and unplugged to save money.

Being unplugged is important as some modern devices use energy even when switched off - TVs for example - we have a Sony Bravia which the manual says consumes electricity in this way and should be switched off at the socket to save energy.

I think we're all going to have to accept continuing increases in energy prices as world demand keeps rising and as gas supplies dwindle (hence the govt supporting the controversial fracking process).

There's no easy answer to all this and I don't think that re-nationalisation is the cure as world prices would still affect things although I was against privatisation in the first place.

I've just had to accept that energy has to take a bigger slice of our income because apart from making savings here and there there is very little I or anyone else can do about this problem, now that there are seven billion people on the planet - all needing energy!

closed

Nicklt wrote: »

. (The actuals were quite a bit lower than their estimates)



.

the actual readings were lower than estimates? if so the usage was higher.

A fridge freezer typically costs more £120/pa to tun, tv's are similar if left on, kettles/heating/showers/cookers use a lot, so I suspect you are missing something, because £120pa equates to having a kettle on for an hour a day, and absolutely nothing else.

oldskoo1

I'd say the vast majority of the wider population waste energy. MSE does not count as people here are of a certain kind.

There is someone 2 doors down for example who has had their outside light on for months now. I have never seen it off, even in the daylight. It is one of those old bulbs too.

I see people leave lights on all night, and people who leave lights on all over the house if i look out of my window. I see friends and family leaving everything switched on or on standby.

I would guess that most people don't sit in front rooms heated to temperatures not too dissimilar from saunas, those days are long gone for us too. I think most people are quite careful with their heating but people could do much more on their electrical consumption.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

In general people are using less. OFGEM have recently announced the average gas people use has gone down from 16.5 MWh p/a to 13.5 MWh. Electricity has also gone down, although only from 3.3 to 3.2. This will probably decrease further, the review they conducted took place using data from the previous two extremely cold winters.

That said there are an incredible amount of profligate people out there. If everyone in this country were on PPM's, consumption would plummet imo.

Bark01

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

This will probably decrease further, the review they conducted took place using data from the previous two extremely cold winters.

The Ofgem analysis used weather correction for gas and profile class 2 electricity but not for standard electricity.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Bark01 wrote: »

The Ofgem analysis used weather correction for gas and profile class 2 electricity but not for standard electricity.

Just studied the document, correct you are! I fully admit to jumping straight to the recommendations table!

Nicklt

closed wrote: »

the actual readings were lower than estimates? if so the usage was higher.

A fridge freezer typically costs more £120/pa to tun, tv's are similar if left on, kettles/heating/showers/cookers use a lot, so I suspect you are missing something, because £120pa equates to having a kettle on for an hour a day, and absolutely nothing else.

Maybe you have a different meter to me. But, for example, they estimated 3300 on the gas, but the actual was 2800 so less than what they estimated so less usage.

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I have also seen people leave outside lights on all night and day. There is a house next door to me and they leave their halway light on all day and night. I can tell that all the houses in our row have the heating on full blast as you can see steam coming out of the flu (we all have eco boilers, if you have it on eco you get little to no steam).

I think heating is a biggy, most people i know say they have all teh radiators on in their house, even in the rooms they are not in.

page3

Nope, I use precisely how much I need to.

The Plasma Vs LCD/LED TV is a well documented misconception. You need to determine what sort of programming you watch. LCD/LED's are constant, where as Plasma usage is dependant on content and can be less than LCD/LED in some circumstances.

Also remember MTBF (Mean time between failure). Powering devices off can cause premature failure and can result in big bills for replacement and all the energy usage involved in manufacture and transportation.

Additionally, many devices take time to stabilise and take more power until that point. Again, switching off can cost more depending on when you plan to switch it back on again.

bondy01

I take it this doesn't include standing charges as mine come to more than £30/quarter? I'm surprised anyone can use so little in autumn. How many units of gas and elec have you actually used in this period?

alanwsg

I leave my outside light on all the time, it's a 4w CFL lamp. I think I can afford it.

Tried a CFL lamp with a built-in light sensor a couple of years ago. Switched itself on at night, off in the daytime. Cost £18.95, blew after about 9 months. Pointless.