First month of heating: reduced gas usage by 33%

Spoonie_Turtle

silverwhistle said:

Another low user of gas here, less than 2000kwh per annum as I have a wood burner that does most of the heavy lifting and PV solar panels doing the bulk of the hot water via a diverter.

I've an inner terrace and my north facing lounge hasn't been lower than 18.5c so far this autumn, without heating. Could posters on these threads indicate where they are so we can take that into account when we think to ourselves "blimey, that's a lot!".

I'm in balmy (barmy?) southern Hampshire.

We're only in central England, but our heating kicked in halfway through September.  It only kicks in once the temperature drops below 18℃.  (Not gas though, electricity - heat pump.)

markin

EssexHebridean said:

chris_n said:

EssexHebridean said:

pensionpawn said:

casjen said:

Heinzbean said:

Well done Alley_E

I started a similar energy saving plan.

I turned the flow down on the radiators. Just basically started at the closest rad to the boiler and opened that valve ¼ of a turn next rad ¾ of a turn etc.

Turned the gas regulator knob on the front of the boiler from 8 clock position to 5 o-clock position.

I don’t use the stat . I just turn the stat up for 20 minutes then turn it off.

This saves me money 62cf3 per month using the stat . Manual control 42cf3 per month.

My boiler used to use 0.3cf3 per 20 minutes now it uses 0.2cf3 for 20 minutes. That’s 33% difference. The hot water turned that down so its the right temperature not to add cold water.

I like the way I use my heating I know at 35.31p per Kwh it costs me £0.65p for a 20 minute blast .

Electrically I swapped all my older energy saving lamps (20w) for the newer led lamps (9W),

The kitchen fluorescent light I swapped the 58W lamp for a 20W Led lamp.

So effectively cutting my lighting bill by 50%.

I stopped using the old electric kwh hog oven. And bought a “instant pot duo”.This is 700w . The pot can steam a 3lb chicken in 24 minutes faster than the Kwh hog(2500w).

I turned off my second freezer that was a 25 year old freezer. What s the point of freezing food and never eating it. I don’t leave anything on standby apart from 5g modem which has an my Voip landline running on it.(might put this on a timer ).

When I make tea if its 2 cups I measure 2 cupful's exactly boil the exact amount of water.

Previously on a Sunday when the old cooker was used , extra freezer, old lighting etc it could be

10Kwh for that day. Now im down to below 5 Kwh .Yesterday 3.66 Kwh. Yes I am sad . While I am waiting for the kettle to boil in the morning I pop my head under the stairs and take a daily meter reading takes me less than a minute. No good trying to energy save without being able to check your results.

Meanwhile I look at my neighbour that uses a tumble dryer in the summertime and has every single

light on in the house .

 BIB   Why on earth does this have any relevance whatsoever to you.... Homes are to be enjoyed not stressing yourself to death hunting every nook and cranny to save a penny.. If that's your idea of living then good for you but passing judgement on another persons use of their house...isnt...

I tend to agree. There's certain 'low hanging fruit' like double glazing, cavity / loft insulation, solar panels / battery, a new more efficient boiler, Nest thermostat, curtains on external doors, switching off electrical equipment (with smart switches) overnight when you don't need them. Some of these wins are a large capital expense (with large savings) that take time to repay and others are low capital expense (with lower savings) with more immediate returns. I am a self confessed data junkie and it's a daily routine to check performance characteristics of my house / pension and tweak. I have a new Viessmann (wifi enabled) gas boiler which I can learn about and tweak flow / return temps and watch the modulation etc. I (sadly...) enjoy optimising systems however that was my early career and I'll never change. However I know that when I've found the optimal settings I'll kick back.

 We cannot insulate for heat loss upwards as our neighbours upstairs would probably object to us replacing their flooring with insulation. Our walls aren't able to take cavity wall insulation as they have no cavities. 

Don't really see why you can't insulate, you can certainly insulate upwards by covering your ceiling with insulation, vapour membrane and plasterboard, same for the walls.

Absolutely - if we wanted to shrink our already quite small flat to an even smaller size, I’m sure we could, but back in the real world… 

Yes 40mm per wall will make you very claustrophobic.

....

The 70's drop ceilings were heat saving as well as stylish.

Ally_E.

silverwhistle said:

Another low user of gas here, less than 2000kwh per annum as I have a wood burner that does most of the heavy lifting and PV solar panels doing the bulk of the hot water via a diverter.

I've an inner terrace and my north facing lounge hasn't been lower than 18.5c so far this autumn, without heating. Could posters on these threads indicate where they are so we can take that into account when we think to ourselves "blimey, that's a lot!".

I'm in balmy (barmy?) southern Hampshire.

I'm in London and the lowest so far this autumn the house had gone down to is 15C and gets to 16C on the daily basis now. It's not only location dependant, but construction of the house too. 

Ballymoney

Yes, it’s a very mild October but looking at my usage compared to the previous 4 Octobers in this house we are averaging 28kwh of gas a day compared to an average of 72kwh a day since 2017.

We have turned our thermostat down to 18c this year instead of 20-21c in previous years.

Very happy with that. Our eon next account is £850 in credit and I’d have been happy for Oct to be a standstill month (usage = direct debit payment) but it looks like we’ll actually increase our credit going in to Nov.

Filklore

My CH control is in the hall, upstairs; this has proved to be the most stable place in the house, away from outside doors and not prone to temporary variations caused by people coming in and out, and cooking. As a result, my CH controls are about 1° less than my living space - this is consistent and predictable.

So, my CH used to be set with multiple timings - come on for an hour at 20°C for 7am, then drop to 19° at 8am until 10pm, when it went "off" (7°C). I worked from home. So the heat was on all day.

Last year, I decided I only keep my home that warm because I am used to it. I changed it simply to be 18°C all day, from 7am to 10pm. (So actually 19° in the living room).

This year, I dropped it further to 17°, and am still keeping comfortable. As I have also just retired, the CH now only comes on at 8am, as I don't need to get up so early.

I have also started using a fleece over my lap in the evenings - I started doing this because my dog likes to lie on it, and it doesn't get my trousers messy. But the I thought about it, and decided I could afford to set the schedule to turn off at 9pm, rather than 10pm.

I think it has worked for me because I dropped it a little at a time. Who knows, next year I may even try 16°.

What I am finding at the moment is the heating is coming on first thing, after being off all night, but once warmed up the house holds its temperature really well. So it is currently only on for about an hour a day. As the weather gets colder. That will change, of course.

Another thing that has made a difference is my CH controller (Hive) can be controlled by Alexa. This actually means I can afford to set the default cooler, because if I get cold, I can boost it for an hour just by speaking. This is much better than just keeping it warm all day.

k_man

Filklore said:

My CH control is in the hall, upstairs; this has proved to be the most stable place in the house, away from outside doors and not prone to temporary variations caused by people coming in and out, and cooking. As a result, my CH controls are about 1° less than my living space - this is consistent and predictable.

So, my CH used to be set with multiple timings - come on for an hour at 20°C for 7am, then drop to 19° at 8am until 10pm, when it went "off" (7°C). I worked from home. So the heat was on all day.

Last year, I decided I only keep my home that warm because I am used to it. I changed it simply to be 18°C all day, from 7am to 10pm. (So actually 19° in the living room).

This year, I dropped it further to 17°, and am still keeping comfortable. As I have also just retired, the CH now only comes on at 8am, as I don't need to get up so early.

I have also started using a fleece over my lap in the evenings - I started doing this because my dog likes to lie on it, and it doesn't get my trousers messy. But the I thought about it, and decided I could afford to set the schedule to turn off at 9pm, rather than 10pm.

I think it has worked for me because I dropped it a little at a time. Who knows, next year I may even try 16°.

What I am finding at the moment is the heating is coming on first thing, after being off all night, but once warmed up the house holds its temperature really well. So it is currently only on for about an hour a day. As the weather gets colder. That will change, of course.

Another thing that has made a difference is my CH controller (Hive) can be controlled by Alexa. This actually means I can afford to set the default cooler, because if I get cold, I can boost it for an hour just by speaking. This is much better than just keeping it warm all day.

How much difference have your changes made to your energy usage?

Mstty

I haven't read this fully and like your reductions but for info this must be one of the warmest October's on record. We have not had our heating on at all and it's not by reducing temps of thermostats or boilers just the fact it's not been needed.

Last October 662 kWh this October so far 275 kWh.

However good prep for moving into November when it looks like the temps will plummet from where they are now.

chris_n

All of the people saying ' I have dropped the temperature to x on my controller and it is fine' are forgetting the fabric of the building is still warm. The outside walls have not been exposed to proper cold temperatures for any length of time so the internal wall temp is still in the 18 degree range. When the walls get down to under 10 degrees you will know about it.

Raxiel

So far for October we're looking at just under half the amount of gas used compared to the same period as last year: 12kWh/d rather than 26 (in 2021, 2020 was 33!).

Biggest contributor to this will be the internal wall insulation we had fitted in the summer, finally bridging the gap between the insulation in the loft and in the cavity wall on the ground floor. We've also made settings changes like turning off the pre-heat permanently (it was on a program before) and lowering the thermostat by a degree.

I realise this isn't a particularly cold October, but looking at the 2021 records for our area, it isn't significantly warmer either. Obviously our usage will go up in November and onwards, but as long as its better than previous years I'll be happy.

BethP

Began by switching off all plugs when not in use.  Now avoid 6pm-8pm and switch dishwasher on in the morning and wash clothes in the afternoon to go on the line outside next day.  Lights are off unless we are in the room.  Bought a slow cooker: it’s great but we’re still experimenting!  Inside house temperature today 17.3° and last few days it’s been 16.8° and the windows are open. We have cats who love sitting on our laps so lots of heat from them. Each cat & human has a fleece blanket that we fold in half and cover ourselves while watching tv. Not turned on our GCH yet.