Cutting Electricity Costs

Canucklehead

Good morning: Apologies to the OP but here is an excellent PDF from the BMA on shower controls which will clarify what constitutes a power shower ... http://www.bathroom-academy.co.uk/pdf/showercontrols.pdf

HTH

Canucklehead

Cardew

A power shower delivers around 20 litres/min.

The valve blends hot and cold gravity fed water supplies to achieve the showering temperature that you desire, whilst the pump boosts the flow of water to give a powerful, invigorating shower.

An high rated electric shower(in winter) will deliver as low as 3 litres/min.

lynseydee

Well it looks like you have all been really busy since the last time I logged on. I will try to answer all the questions and comments.

Hi Mech, the £107.00 is for both gas and electricity but apparently we use £96.00 of electric a month so going on that our gas is extremely low.

Hi Terrylw1, unfortunately our supplier has up to date readings on both gas and electric meters so the consumption is pretty much accurate.

Hi PasturesNew, I was going to take readings every month but I might do what Terrylw1 has said and do it every day for a week then I can work out what my rough annual consumption is over the year. At least doing it this time of year means I will be overestimating than underestimating which is better.

I do tend to watch tv with the light on but we're usually eating dinner at the same time so I guess I could turn the light off once we've finished. I have said to my hubby about lighting candles again.

Luckily, my freezer is usually always full as I have a bad habit of buying in bulk even when we don't really need stuff.

Washing machine gets filled every wash as I never wash if I don't have enough.

I usually spend about 10 minutes in the shower depending on what I need to do. The thing is I tend to have a shower 6 days a week and a bath 1 day a week. And we are money saving when it comes to baths as we always have one together.

Hi Cardew, I thought our power shower only used water from the hot water tank too. I know they use more water than electric showers but we like them better than electric showers.

Thanks Canucklehead, I will have a look at that link.

Terrylw1

Hi lyndsey,

Why not have a look at sites like the Energy Saving Trust and others found in Google under Energy Efficiency. They might help you understand your appliances and usage a bit better.

Good luck

Terrylw1

Sorry Cardew, I did a search but didn't read any further.

I thought all they did was use a gravity fed system and add a pump. I've heard off people that they use more but I can't see that given the set up as you have stated.

lynseydee

Well, have been monitoring our electric usage for about six weeks now and have worked out we use on average 24 units of electric a day. It probably doesn't help that my husband is currently out of work and so is home most days all day. We also received an updated bill the other day and despite paying off the outstanding amount and still paying £70.00 per month we are still in debit by about £85.00.

Have done all the usual turning off the lights/tv when not in use. I only use the washing machine/dishwasher in the evenings and still we are using excessive electricity. Tried to see if Powergen would send someone out to advise us where to cut back (as advised by a colleague) to be told they don't do that. I'm convinced something's not quite right as I don't believe we can be using as much electric as we are. When we had separate suppliers we managed to use not much more than £70.00 per month so can't see where we're going wrong.

Sorry, rant over :mad:

espresso

Depending on the age and size of your plasma TV and surround sound system, it may be consuming more than you think, especially if it is in use for extended periods due to being at home. What make/model? You say that you only use your washing machine/dishwasher in the evenings. If you are on the economy 7 tariff, you would have to use them during the seven hours night rate to save any money. I would suggest that you pick up one of the cheap plug-in type energy monitors to check the actual consumption of your appliances.

Cardew

24 units a day is 8,760kWh pa. Given it is winter(lights on longer etc) that is an annual consumption around 8,000kWh - still very high.

Just a thought, given your gas bill is low. Is it possible that you are heating water with an immersion heater instead of gas? Given 10 minute power showers every day for you(and husband?) that will consume a huge amount of hot water. Power showers use around 20 litres a min!!

Poppycat

lynseydee I am at home most of the time. We are a family of four 2 kids 2 adults. On a evening we have one 14" portable tv on most of the evening (in youngest daughters), one 24" tv on a few hours (eldest daughters), 3 computers (mine and each child) on and a large 40" LCD on most of evening.

Rarely watch tv during day and only computer on

My consumption is as follows I been taking readings for 11 months now.

we take readings on 25th of each month

Sep 25 to Oct 25 (372) (12 units per day) (we got the large tv in that month)
October 25 to Nov 25 (440) (average 14 units per day)
Nov 25 to Dec 25 (463) (average almost 15 units per day)

I spend some time around the house switching off things when not needed I got some large extension leads that tv/amp/wii/pvr each have the individual switch so I turn off the wii, amp and bass speaker for amp off when not needed on a evening. At bedtime I turn the whole tv entertainment (tv, pvr) lot as above off at mains switch. I also turn lights off when not needed and most lights are using low energy bulbs including candles bulbs which did cost us quite a bit of money but worth it in long run. We spents about £80 or so on low energy bulbs this year as most of lights dont take cheap low energy bulbs. I also replaced 3 dimmers so that they can take low energy bulbs, we did this ourselves

We have a dishwasher and washing machine washing machines used about 5 times a week and dishwasher about 3-4 at most. No tumble dryer, cooking is gas. Heating is only central heating again it is gas. We have a log burner which is turning quiet expensive to use we have spent since Sep 07 £160 on seasoned logs and barely have enough for 2 weeks left.

The kids are the main problem leaving things on when not needed, we also turn off battery chargers etc again when not needed. Also have pc set so it turns monitor off after 15 minutes energy saving

lynseydee

Espresso

The plasma is about a year old 42" (managed to convince hubby not to get the 50"). Not sure about the surround sound. Hubby doesn't tend to watch much tv during the day and we probably watch about four hours in the evening and probably about the same at the weekends and always turn tv and surround sound off and not leave on standby at night to try to help. Hubby is spending most of the day updating the website for the business he set up last year and the pc is about a year old also.

We don't have economy seven, just thought it might be cheaper running them at night

Cardew

I know our consumption is high but I don't know what else we can do to bring it down.

As far as I'm aware the water is heated by gas although it is run by a timer in the airing cupboard. Not sure if this could have anything to do with it. Will ask hubby to see if he knows more.

Unfortunately I can't seem to take less time in the shower compared to my hubby's 5 minutes, where he can use a 2in1 and I have to use a separate shampoo and conditioner and all the other bits a woman has to do in the shower