Help us to reduce our energy costs

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

We were having a discussion with friends last night about energy bills and ours are a lot higher than most. One family who live near us, with a similar sized house and the same number of occupants, pays £35 a month for electric and £65 for gas. We spend £120 on electric plus £40 on heating oil and £40-£60 a month on logs and coal over the winter.

I just cant get my head around the fact that our energy costs are double those of our friends.

We have a standard 3 bed semi with a small single storey extension. In the last few years we have replaced all the windows, upgraded the loft insulation and had the cavity walls done. We have an old oil fired central heating system (live rurally so no gas) and one open fire plus a multi fuel stove.

I work from home some of the time and rather than put the heating on I have a small oil fired radiator in my office. My eldest son has health problems and is at home a lot too but we keep the multi-fuel stove ticking over during the day to avoid using the heating.

So, I need your tips for cutting our energy consumption. I feel that we could probably do a lot more.

I have bought a halogen oven and I am going to try and use the slow cooker more this winter. Obviously things like the tumble drier and dishwasher use a lot of energy and could be used less. We need to think about upgrading our old freezer too. What else?

torbrex

Its not much but have you tried freecycle/freegle for logs?
On my local site there are always offers of logs being posted, you might need to dry them out before use but it's all in the rotation.

Southend1

Fridge and freezer use a lot of electric so if yours are very old it may be worth replacing with more efficient models.

Anything that heats is going to be expensive. Avoid using the tumble drier if there's any way you can dry outside instead.

Also have you replaced incandescent light bulbs with cfl or LED energy efficient bulbs?

matelodave

Start by reading your electricity meter every day for a couple of weeks to see when and what is using it all.

The only way to reduce your energy cost is to use less so turn stuff off at the wall if you aren't actually using it.

TV,s, computers, printers, games machines, Sky boxes etc all chew up power even when they are just plugged in so turn them off when not in use (the SKY box has to be left on if you use it to record). Do you leave computers and stuff on overnight.

We leave the router on but it does cost over £10 a year a SKY box on standby is about £40 a year. Just one extra watt on continuously will cost you at least £1 a year.

Our washing machine, dishwasher, cooker, microwave oven and even our electric reclining chairs use power when they are just plugged in, so we switch them off at the wall as well when they aren't in use (we've got a couple of remote controlled sockets for the chairs)

Heating water using electricity is expensive so only heat it when you need it - don't leave it on all day. Don't waste hot water, have shorter showers, shallower baths and fewer of them. A 5 minute shower uses 50% of the water and energy of a 10 minute one

Only use your washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer etc with full loads - they cost just as much to run when half empty.

Older fridges & freezers do cost more to run than newer ones but be careful - spending £300 on a new one to save £25 a year on electricity will take 10-12 years to pay back so you are probably better off waiting until it needs replacing.

You can save on lighting as well especially if you've got a lot of halogen downlighters - a 4watt LED gives out as much light as a 50watt halogen but uses 80% less electricity. Turn lights off in rooms when you aren't in them. Our kitchen now has 40 watts of LEDs instead of 500 watts of halogen saving about 6p for every hour that they are on.

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks all, helpful advice.

I think we need to change our attitudes. I am ashamed to admit that sometimes I think, well this is only going to save me £10 a year so why worry? And believe me we are not well off by any means!

Reading the meter every day is a good idea, hopefully this will focus my thoughts.

We can get a new A rated freezer for £150 so this is definitely something to think about when we have got some spare cash.

Oh and lighting, we have got 11 halogen bulbs in our kitchen/diner so have dug out a little table lamp with a low energy bulb. If we are just going in there on an evening to make a cup of tea we dont need all the bulbs blazing.

Hoof_Hearted

The electricity element does seem to be very high if you're not using it for heating.

Southend1

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Thanks all, helpful advice.

I think we need to change our attitudes. I am ashamed to admit that sometimes I think, well this is only going to save me £10 a year so why worry? And believe me we are not well off by any means!

Reading the meter every day is a good idea, hopefully this will focus my thoughts.

We can get a new A rated freezer for £150 so this is definitely something to think about when we have got some spare cash.

Oh and lighting, we have got 11 halogen bulbs in our kitchen/diner so have dug out a little table lamp with a low energy bulb. If we are just going in there on an evening to make a cup of tea we dont need all the bulbs blazing.

I would swop the halogens for led replacements. The investment will pay off in the long run as halogen spotlights are very energy hungry.

r2015

We spend £120 on electric

Do you actually spend £120 per month on electricity or is that your DD?

I_have_spoken

£ per kWH, gas is best value so I'd expect you to pay more being on oil/coal.

If you use an immersion heater for h/w rather than a back-boiler from the fire, that'll cost plenty ££ to heat water.

High humidity can make house feel colder, so check if you could benefit from a dehumidifier to keep the air dryer, esp. if you have poor ventilation and folks in the house all day.

YORKSHIRELASS

r2015 wrote: »

Do you actually spend £120 per month on electricity or is that your DD?

Thanks, that is our DD, but I know that its about right.

We only use the immersion heater in summer and put it on for a maximum of half an hour twice a day. During the winter the heating is usually on at some point anyway so that heats the water.

And yes I know it does seem high, even factoring in me using our 1100 watt oil radiator in the office on a medium setting 2 or 3 afternoons a week.

I am going to keep a very close eye on it. And yes we have already talked about switching to LED bulbs in the kitchen.

Any more suggestions welcome!

dippydolly

Two things not mentioned that I have noticed over time - The meter spins at speed when I use my microwave, so sometimes it pays to use the cooker top for heating drinks etc. Slower but definitely cheaper. Putting items for ironing the right way out before you start, or folding items ready to press can cut your iron time in half. Not massive points, but it all adds up if you are bill cutting. :j