How can I be more energy efficient?

snowathlete

Hi,
I live in a mid terrace house, which was new in 2007. It had a good energy rating. But we are only on average with other comparable houses according to Eon and my guess is that these comparable houses are actually not built as energy efficent as ours.

Me, my wife and young daughter are at home most the day and night. At the moment the hot water is set to constant, but I wonder if we can save money by being more efficient. When we moved in the guy said it was most efficient to set it to continuous, but it seems to me that we should be able to save money by putting it on the timer?

The question then is how much time do we need it on, and when?
We run a dishwasher which i think (may) use a hot water pipe. The washing machine only has a cold. We use the bath or shower at least once a day. Tends to be in the evening but sometimes the time can be unpredictable.

I dont know if the make model matters. We have a megaflow boiler. We also have an emersion heater switch, which if i recall is for it we need extra hot water quickly, which we hardly ever use (because the boiler contantly provides hot water as it). We have a honeywell timer that we can set.

Hope someone can help, we really need to cut our bills.
Also, the boiler doesnt have a jacket. Some of the pipes have foam covers and I guess the boiler has internal insullation built in but is it worth getting a jacket as well?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

snowathlete wrote: »

...the boiler doesnt have a jacket...

I presume you mean the hot water tank. Does it look like it's made of copper? Does it feel hot? If it does that's your first point of action.

If not, it's probably got integral insulation. It should feel barely warm. Check by pressing it with your fingers and see if it deforms slightly.

snowathlete

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

I presume you mean the hot water tank. Does it look like it's made of copper? Does it feel hot? If it does that's your first point of action.

If not, it's probably got integral insulation. It should feel barely warm. Check by pressing it with your fingers and see if it deforms slightly.

Yes, hot water tank. It' a little warm but defo not hot. I think it's made out of some kind of hard insulating material, not copper/metal.

System

snowathlete wrote: »

Hi,
I live in a mid terrace house, which was new in 2007. It had a good energy rating. But we are only on average with other comparable houses according to Eon and my guess is that these comparable houses are actually not built as energy efficent as ours.

Me, my wife and young daughter are at home most the day and night. At the moment the hot water is set to constant, but I wonder if we can save money by being more efficient. When we moved in the guy said it was most efficient to set it to continuous, but it seems to me that we should be able to save money by putting it on the timer?

The question then is how much time do we need it on, and when?
We run a dishwasher which i think (may) use a hot water pipe. The washing machine only has a cold. We use the bath or shower at least once a day. Tends to be in the evening but sometimes the time can be unpredictable.

I dont know if the make model matters. We have a megaflow boiler. We also have an emersion heater switch, which if i recall is for it we need extra hot water quickly, which we hardly ever use (because the boiler contantly provides hot water as it). We have a honeywell timer that we can set.

Hope someone can help, we really need to cut our bills.
Also, the boiler doesnt have a jacket. Some of the pipes have foam covers and I guess the boiler has internal insullation built in but is it worth getting a jacket as well?

You don't actually say what type of tariff you are on or what your projected usage is. Without this information, it is difficult to know whether you are an energy efficient household or not. I believe that the Megaflo is a system boiler connected to an unvented HW cylinder: but correct me if I am wrong.

My wife and I are retired so we are at home most days. We heat our HW and cook with gas and my monthly bill for Jun/Jul shows that we spent £16.84 (incl VAT) on gas of which £8.46 was for standing charges. Our 12 year old system boiler is probably not as efficient as yours. We have HW heating on twice a day between 0630 and 1000 and again at 1600 through to 2030. HW is controlled automatically by a controller that takes its reading from the tank sensor. When the tank temperature drops to 50C, the boiler comes on. When the HW reaches 60C, the boiler shuts down. This device is saving me about 15% on gas usage but, of course, nothing for the standing charge. Never use the immersion heater to heat your water as electricity per KWH is about 4 times the cost of gas.

Finally, I should add that by leaving the HW heating on continuously you are adding to your costs. Each time that HW is water is drawn off from the tank, the temperature sensor will detect a drop in temperature and the boiler will cut in. With my timings and a 250Litre unvented tank, we have never been short of HW even when our house is full of children and grandchildren. Try it: if your wife finds that the HW tap is starting to run cool all she needs to do is boost it for an hour. Trial and error will result in the timings that work for you. Sadly, the savings will not be great.

snowathlete

Hengus wrote: »

You don't actually say what type of tariff you are on or what your projected usage is. Without this information, it is difficult to know whether you are an energy efficient household or not. I believe that the Megaflo is a system boiler connected to an unvented HW cylinder: but correct me if I am wrong.

My wife and I are retired so we are at home most days. We heat our HW and cook with gas and my monthly bill for Jun/Jul shows that we spent £16.84 (incl VAT) on gas of which £8.46 was for standing charges. Our 12 year old system boiler is probably not as efficient as yours. We have HW heating on twice a day between 0630 and 1000 and again at 1600 through to 2030. HW is controlled automatically by a controller that takes its reading from the tank sensor. When the tank temperature drops to 50C, the boiler comes on. When the HW reaches 60C, the boiler shuts down. This device is saving me about 15% on gas usage but, of course, nothing for the standing charge. Never use the immersion heater to heat your water as electricity per KWH is about 4 times the cost of gas.

Finally, I should add that by leaving the HW heating on continuously you are adding to your costs. Each time that HW is water is drawn off from the tank, the temperature sensor will detect a drop in temperature and the boiler will cut in. With my timings and a 250Litre unvented tank, we have never been short of HW even when our house is full of children and grandchildren. Try it: if your wife finds that the HW tap is starting to run cool all she needs to do is boost it for an hour. Trial and error will result in the timings that work for you. Sadly, the savings will not be great.

Thank you. I'm on E.on Energy Fixed 1 Year v4, both gas and electric. The fixed bit ends in October. We are not very good at not wasting energy. Well, I should say that my wife is not. She is terrible at leaving lights on, etc.

We use between 270-350 kWh a month in electric at the moment (over the last year).

As you'd expect, gas usuage fluxuates much more over the year. In Dec and Jan we were using 1,500 kWH a month, compared to about 400kWh in the June, July, and somewhere in the middle in between.

We have a gas hob and electric oven.

I notice that our honeywell control panel has an auto setting. Perhaps this is the same thing you have and it would be a good choice to set it to that? There is no manual and no model number for me to look it up.

System

snowathlete wrote: »

.
I notice that our honeywell control panel has an auto setting. Perhaps this is the same thing you have and it would be a good choice to set it to that? There is no manual and no model number for me to look it up.

The controllers that I am familiar with usually have settings like OFF, AUTO, ALL DAY, ON and Boost with the ability to set times on a 7 or 2/5 day basis. You can usually set a number of ON/OFF settings - I think that mine allows for 3 - AM, Lunch, PM. I set timings for AM and PM but not over lunch. With a young child that might not work for you. Setting AUTO - usually separate switches for CH and HW - will run HW and CH in line with your settings.

To me, your electricity consumption looks to be on the high side for what, I assume, is a smallish property. I assume that you have looked at LED and CFL bulbs. For example, I have 8 LEDs in the kitchen which provide excellent light with a total consumption of 28 Watts/hr. CFL bulbs are just about as good energy-wise but they do have an annoying warm up time. You may, of course, have these already.

Your gas consumption is higher than mine (about 6 KWh per day more) - probably, because you have a child in the house. Before you send your Dear Wife out on an energy reduction course, you need to see this in the context on what it costs you which is probably about 18p more than me a day. Things to check: (a) your tank thermostat setting which need not be above 60C - the higher the temperature in the tank the greater the heat lost over time. With a young child in the house, I personally would not drop below 60C as it eliminates any possibility of legionnaires disease. (b) that your controller is on AUTO and you have set periods when you will need HW; i.e., turn on, say 30 mins before you get up, OFF at 9.30/10AM and ON again at 4.30PM until 9PM.

And finally, I found it useful to borrow an energy monitor just so I had some idea about what appliances actually consume. Fortunately, our library has energy savings kits which include said device. After a week, of me saying things like 'just look at that' and 'would you believe it' the message that things need to be turned off hit the spot. Well it worked for a month or so. Best of luck.

snowathlete

Hengus wrote: »

The controllers that I am familiar with usually have settings like OFF, AUTO, ALL DAY, ON and Boost with the ability to set times on a 7 or 2/5 day basis. You can usually set a number of ON/OFF settings - I think that mine allows for 3 - AM, Lunch, PM. I set timings for AM and PM but not over lunch. With a young child that might not work for you. Setting AUTO - usually separate switches for CH and HW - will run HW and CH in line with your settings.

To me, your electricity consumption looks to be on the high side for what, I assume, is a smallish property. I assume that you have looked at LED and CFL bulbs. For example, I have 8 LEDs in the kitchen which provide excellent light with a total consumption of 28 Watts/hr. CFL bulbs are just about as good energy-wise but they do have an annoying warm up time. You may, of course, have these already.

Your gas consumption is higher than mine (about 6 KWh per day more) - probably, because you have a child in the house. Before you send your Dear Wife out on an energy reduction course, you need to see this in the context on what it costs you which is probably about 18p more than me a day. Things to check: (a) your tank thermostat setting which need not be above 60C - the higher the temperature in the tank the greater the heat lost over time. With a young child in the house, I personally would not drop below 60C as it eliminates any possibility of legionnaires disease. (b) that your controller is on AUTO and you have set periods when you will need HW; i.e., turn on, say 30 mins before you get up, OFF at 9.30/10AM and ON again at 4.30PM until 9PM.

And finally, I found it useful to borrow an energy monitor just so I had some idea about what appliances actually consume. Fortunately, our library has energy savings kits which include said device. After a week, of me saying things like 'just look at that' and 'would you believe it' the message that things need to be turned off hit the spot. Well it worked for a month or so. Best of luck.

I have OFF, Auto, once, and continuous option, each seperate for CH and HW. And overide and extra hour switches for each. We tend to just have the CH on and control it on or off with the therostat as required. I can set three on off times I think anytime i like with ten minute increments. I'll try setting these and putting it on auto.

It is a small house. Just the kitchen and living room downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs plus the bathroom.

We use energy saving bulbs everywhere we can except the living room. Once the bulbs we have run out (bought a large pack) we'll buy LED ones. THe cost of hte bulbs themselves against the saving doesnt justify throwing the already purchased bulbs out and replacing with LED now.

I'll check the thermostat on the tank. Not sure where that is, but I'll have a good look tomorrow. Thank for that tip. Could be on anything, no idea.

Good tip about borrowing an energy monitor too, thank you.

macman

A dishwasher is fed direct from the rising main. Cold feed only-it heats it's own hot water.

Pincher

Average usage means you are where you are supposed to be.


Megaflo refers to the hot water cylinder, and has nothing to do with the boiler. I have a Megaflo cylinder 250 litres, and it's over-priced for a little bit better pressure/flow rate, and a little bit quicker recovery time.


The Megaflo cylinder is well insulated, so the heat loss is fine.


If you understand what condensing mode is all about, try to get a boiler that optimises for condensing mode when it comes to replacement time. Weather compensation is worth having for a big house, for not that much money and effort.

snowathlete

Yes, I realise what average usage means but I doubt our home in being compared properly to similar house types as ours is smaller and midterace, and a particularly efficient build in terms of heat retention compared to others on the estate in surrounding area.

What's weather compensation?

Pincher

Weather compensation is where you have a temperature sensor outdoors (not in direct sunlight, which gives false readings), as well as a temperature sensor indoors (NOT the click-on click-off thermostat, which does not report actual temperature).
You set the temperature you want the house to be, and the boiler computer works out how to maintain the set temperature in the most efficient manner, which usually means keep condensing as much as possible.


Obviously, not all boilers have this, but the ones that do are not noticeably more expensive.