What energy saving are you aiming for this year?

Coffeekup

pensionpawn said:

My ghast is completely flabbered. With 7.1 kWs of solar panels, and as a result no gas usage June to Aug inc, I still import 3,300 kWhrs electricity (actually use 4,600 kWhrs) and 9000 kWhrs of gas. 4 bed detached, 3 adults.

Like I said it's just my daughter (14y/o) and I. I control completely what gets turned on and off in the house.
I do the cooking (so we eat together), washing, cleaning and control when the TV goes on and off. I'm the one that turns on and off the shower for her (which may sound strange however she is special needs and doesn't understand how to operate much or doesn't see the need to), we also wash hands in cold water so the boiler doesn't kick in for hot water which has calmed down our eczema massively since I have. 
I see to do things like cleaning the bathroom with the shower running on hot water to rinse the cleaning fluid off and leave it running whilst I cleaned another section, now I just rinse the whole bathroom with cold water, I realize this is a small saving of gas once a week but over the year all adds up.

I turn everything off at the wall when not in the house, or in bed that alone saved me 600 kWh's on the previous year. The items I turned off (and still do) are microwave, washing machine, toaster, kettle, TV, sky box (which is used as a Freeview), dvd player, pc and monitor, cd player and amplifier. Microwave and sky box were the biggest saves in energy over the day, annoyingly I didn't even use the microwave either it's been there 5 year's and been used 4 time's.

For gas I was really strict when the boiler went on and off (no thermostat used, no point having it running when when out the house or in bed), we sat on the sofa with a blanket over us and we more than comfortable, but I did turn it on for an hour or two here and thereon the coldest days to take the cold out the air.
I still use the gas hob much the same but put lids on saucepans so it heats up quicker, and turn off stuff like pasta once it's got to the boil and keep the lid on and it'll finish cooking in much the same time. 

That being said if I had another person in the house over 15 year's +, I'm 100% sure my usage for gas and electric would go up. As that person would be having a shower and taking as long as they need. They'd more than likely have a games console, TV and/or a PC turned on with the bedroom light on when in the bathroom on the loo doing whatever it is on their phone, only to come down and turn the oven on and make something because they're hungry.

yasy15

Thank you for sharing that I only use the cooker now to bake Christmas and birthday cakes. The air fryer slow cooker and microwave has cut down on usage hugely. 
I also steam all my own veg in the microwave and blanch them in there now. I do grow all my own veg and this year loads of aubergines, turmeric and ginger it has been hot enough. Fruit I have cooked in the microwave and slow cooker jam which I did not know would work out so well. 
Everything is off like yourself apart from the fridge freezer unplug it all now. Goodness knows what else I can cut down on all I have in the bedroom is a bedside lamp with a 20v bulb in. 
We must plod on and once again thank you all for the amazing ideas you are coming up with Stay safe 

Spoonie_Turtle

Our actual target is 'however much we can without impacting on quality of life'.  I voted 1-10% because that's realistically what it will probably be.
Last year we used 10,100kWh electricity, of which ~9,000 was the heat pump if its little controller panel is correct.  Our heating is set to 18℃ and we don't use a huge amount of hot water, so apart from some of the more specialist settings (such as weather compensation) I have no idea how much we can realistically cut down.  We also have two CPAP machines running overnight, don't yet know how much those use but obviously whatever amount we cannot cut down, those are non-negotiable.

Going round with an energy monitor to see where unplugging things will make any difference (our microwave for instance has no LED, no clock, and registers 0.0W in standby - although we turn it off at night anyway for safety), and we have replaced the couple of halogen light bulbs with LEDs (the rest are CFLs, no point replacing until they die, or already LEDs).  The electric shower we use on eco now when it's warm enough to … but it's not warm enough for that any more.  Looking at extra lining for curtains, and considering how to put up a curtain for the front door but far enough away so it doesn't get wet from the condensation and go mouldy like the last one did.

The other thing will be getting rid of a freezer and replacing our very old fridge, but unsure what savings a new fridge would be.  I'm hoping that new fridges being colder without freezing things will also help savings with food lasting longer, it's just a heck of an outlay right now.  Not sure when we'll be able to do that.

We'll be comparing washing machine cycles in terms of energy used, and we already use the tumble dryer as minimally as possible.  Already use the air fryer and especially the slow cooker more often than the oven, and I don't know whether the hob or microwave are cheaper (but the hob is usually quicker for e.g. noodles or veg).  Router (5.5W) can't be switched off overnight because the phone is VoIP, although that is a conversation to have because the people most likely to contact us in an emergency would phone our mobiles … hmm.  That would save £5 a year anyway

Ally_E.

We already made savings of 25%+ in our electricity since April, will tackle heating this winter season, but already have the thermostat at 18.5C and rooms that are not used have TRVs turned down. Only savings we are hoping to make will come from adding a curtain to the front door, blocking ventilation portal in downstairs bathroom and maybe adding antidraft strips to some windows.

We perfected the hot water heating set up to be just enough for daily activities, saved around 2h of the boiler running time from previous settings. Also washing clothes in lower temps where appropriate, just started doing it a few weeks ago, hopefully that shows some savings too. 

RelievedSheff

I have put savings of 1-10% but in reality it will probably be more. I was working from home last winter but will be in the office this winter.

We are low users anyway. Last year we used 2700kWh of electricity and 5500kWh of gas.

It should come down from that with the heating being on less hours and me not being at home as much.

Much will depend on the weather I guess.

michaels

Coffeekup said:

pensionpawn said:

My ghast is completely flabbered. With 7.1 kWs of solar panels, and as a result no gas usage June to Aug inc, I still import 3,300 kWhrs electricity (actually use 4,600 kWhrs) and 9000 kWhrs of gas. 4 bed detached, 3 adults.

Like I said it's just my daughter (14y/o) and I. I control completely what gets turned on and off in the house.
I do the cooking (so we eat together), washing, cleaning and control when the TV goes on and off. I'm the one that turns on and off the shower for her (which may sound strange however she is special needs and doesn't understand how to operate much or doesn't see the need to), we also wash hands in cold water so the boiler doesn't kick in for hot water which has calmed down our eczema massively since I have. 
I see to do things like cleaning the bathroom with the shower running on hot water to rinse the cleaning fluid off and leave it running whilst I cleaned another section, now I just rinse the whole bathroom with cold water, I realize this is a small saving of gas once a week but over the year all adds up.

I turn everything off at the wall when not in the house, or in bed that alone saved me 600 kWh's on the previous year. The items I turned off (and still do) are microwave, washing machine, toaster, kettle, TV, sky box (which is used as a Freeview), dvd player, pc and monitor, cd player and amplifier. Microwave and sky box were the biggest saves in energy over the day, annoyingly I didn't even use the microwave either it's been there 5 year's and been used 4 time's.

For gas I was really strict when the boiler went on and off (no thermostat used, no point having it running when when out the house or in bed), we sat on the sofa with a blanket over us and we more than comfortable, but I did turn it on for an hour or two here and thereon the coldest days to take the cold out the air.
I still use the gas hob much the same but put lids on saucepans so it heats up quicker, and turn off stuff like pasta once it's got to the boil and keep the lid on and it'll finish cooking in much the same time. 

That being said if I had another person in the house over 15 year's +, I'm 100% sure my usage for gas and electric would go up. As that person would be having a shower and taking as long as they need. They'd more than likely have a games console, TV and/or a PC turned on with the bedroom light on when in the bathroom on the loo doing whatever it is on their phone, only to come down and turn the oven on and make something because they're hungry.

The toaster and kettle (unless it has an always on LED) will use zero energy when plugged in but not switched on.

Not sure on our usage, have put in water saver shower heads which should equally save about 10-20% of our hot water energy use (so about 1000-2000kwh of 10,000).  Heating last year was 18k kwh down from 22k but that was because the winter was mild, we may try slightly cooler on the thermostat but with people at home 24/7 there is limited scope.

Electricity we are more looking at time-shifting rather than reducing demand as we hope to move to a time of use tariff with 4.5p overnight units.  WE have also added a heat pump to the heating circuit which in theory will save 2/3rds of any kwh we heat using that rather than the gas boiler but this is pretty cost neutral given the relative prices except for any heating during the TOY night rate period.