How was your month? 1 November 2022 at 11:42AM in Energy 92 replies 8.9K views

Magnitio

The extremely warm October has made a big difference. Our gas usage this year was 142kWh. Two years ago it was 754kWh for the same period. Part of that reduction in usage is heating water with an immersion, although savings elsewhere (e.g. less tumble dryer) means that consumption is much the same as the last couple of years. Another positive is that, even in October, the solar panels are producing more than we consume.

Workerdrone

There must be some hardy types on here. I thought I was doing well with 210Kwh Electric and 662Kwh of Gas. Gas combi so no tank. There are 4 of us so 4 showers a day, heating on for a minimal amount in the morning and a little in the evening, We also have a gas hob. Not used the oven in months. 3 bed semi, cavity wall and loft insulation, double glazed in Northumberland. Evohome and new boiler 5 years ago. Daughter has incontinence problems so we do wash a fair deal and have no choice but to use the tumble drier on some days... Grr

Alnat1

@Workerdrone have you tried urning down the temperature on your combi boiler to 50-55C? The radiators are a little cooler. as is the shower water but you probably won't really notice much difference and it will make a saving on the amount of gas you use.

Also try to get all the family on board with washing your hands using the cold tap, rather than firing the boiler up each time. Many of us on here realised this was what we did, hot tap on, wash hands, it's just getting tepid when you've done, all the hot water is in the pipes going cold again.

ManMadeWays

1930s semi with large modern 2 story side extension, 5 adults , 3 WFH

Action taken mid January to install Drayton Wiser e TRVs to 12 rads leaving 3 bathroom ones uncontrolled.

Also reduced CH and DHW temperatures a tad, installed underfloor insulation in a very cold north facing room,

Circa 40% drop in gas consumption since then. Bonus 18% drop in Electricity as well.

Very pleased.

	Gas Kw/h
	3 year average	2022	Change
Jan	3,603.5	3,671.8	1.9%
Feb	3,151.8	2,297.6	-27.1%
Mar	2,788.0	2,044.8	-26.7%
Apr	2,069.3	1,704.0	-17.7%
May	1,781.5	659.6	-63.0%
Jun	1,025.1	550.0	-46.3%
Jul	615.4	548.4	-10.9%
Aug	874.3	358.2	-59.0%
Sep	1,372.7	418.0	-69.6%
Oct	2,125.4	967.0	-54.5%
Nov	2,857.6
Dec	3,513.3
Feb-Oct	15,803.5	9,547.5	-39.6%

Electricity
		2022		3 year average
W	-7.1%	586		630.8	Jan
W	-17.9%	468		569.8	Feb
Spring	-16.0%	518		616.6	Mar
Spring	-15.7%	483		572.8	Apr
Spring	-16.0%	472		561.8	May
S	-0.7%	486		489.5	Jun
S	-20.5%	521		655.2	Jul
S	-17.3%	542		655.3	Aug
A	-32.9%	414		616.6	Sep
A	-23.9%	476		625.3	Oct
A				600.4	Nov
W				634.9	Dec
				7,229.1
	-18.3%	4,380		5,363	Feb-Oct

MuckChucker

@workdrone my UK geography isn't great but I'm fairly sure Northumberland is not far off Scotland. Yeah I can imagine things are a bit crisper up there. I was back home in Dublin last week and could feel significant difference in temp at that kind of latitude level. We're getting away very lightly down here in Essex, it's 12c right now, I've not bothered to get the winter coats down from the attic yet. 

SensibleSarah

I've always been very stingy with the heating - so most years don't start using it until Nov and this year is no different - the balmy temps have definitely helped me stick to that. Live on my own in a 2-bed terraced house, North West England. 
Last Oct I used 95 kwh electric and 112 kwh gas, this Oct I used 90 kwh electric and 43 kwh gas. I think I used the heating a couple of times last Oct and haven't at all yet this time. Also take shorter and fewer showers (mixer - so gas powered) these days and I've been using the slow cooker more often than the gas oven for cooking. 
I don't think I'll get the electricity use down much more, if at all - but I'm aware that I have very low usage anyway in comparison to most. I work from home and therefore have computer, some lights and TV on all day and evening. Electric heated throw for cold mornings as I'm working. I do one load of washing a week, no tumble dryer, no dishwasher so use one bowl of hot water for washing up daily. Last 12 months use is just over 3000 kwh for gas and 1700 kwh for electricty, so if I can beat that over the next 12 months then I'll be happy. 

thriftytracey

Coffeekup said:

thriftytracey said:

We are using 14 kwh electricity per day (October).  Detached house, two retired adults. 

We do have two fridges and two freezers ....

Hardly ever use oven or grill.  
Started using dishwasher once a day so not washing up three times per day.
Measuring water into kettle to boil
Stopped leaving phones on overnight to charge
Nothing on standby
two laptops - on permanently, but sleep mode after few minutes
One TV and humax box
Iron once a fortnight
toaster occasional use
Haven't started using halogen heaters yet (one in kitchen and one in bathroom)

The large freezer is A+ rating, the other is probably 20 years old so I am sure is not very efficient.  I am thinking of turning one of the fridges off as it stores wine.  The larder fridge is at least 15 years old I am reluctant to replace it as it still works.  I did go and look at larder fridges last week - the suitable ones were a poor efficiency D or E rating.

I still think we are using a lot of electricity per day

Your fridges and fridge freezers will be around 9-10 kWh's a day. At 50p p/kWh this amounts to over £4 a day to run those bad boys. I'd get rid of 3 of them and cool the wine outside the backdoor or in the garage this time of year, and for the summer get in the habit of rotating bottles of booze.

As for fridges/freezer's look at the energy usage a E rated model can use 140kwh a year for example and a D rated model can use 138 kWh's a year. A few factors come into the rating some we may never really understand but size of the unit is something I have noticed, so a slightly bigger appliance may fit into a better rating because it's bigger. So I'd say do the math and make sure it fits where you want it and it's big enough for all your chilling needs.

Thanks.  I turned off the wine fridge yesterday.  Now looking at replacing the smaller ancient freezer.  Having two freezers is so handy as I buy a lot of "reduced" items and also batch cook.  

Alnat1

There's no real saving on the reduced items if it's then costing a lot to store them. Better to leave what you can't use for the supermarket to store.

Raxiel

thriftytracey said:

The large freezer is A+ rating, the other is probably 20 years old so I am sure is not very efficient.  I am thinking of turning one of the fridges off as it stores wine.  The larder fridge is at least 15 years old I am reluctant to replace it as it still works.  I did go and look at larder fridges last week - the suitable ones were a poor efficiency D or E rating.

Bear in mind, they changed the rating scale for appliances not so long ago, what used to be an A++ Fridge Freezer is now a C. That's why they all seem so low rated now. The new scale has room to grow.

Spoonie_Turtle

I actually don't know yet how October was, as I've been taking meter readings every 2-3 days depending on how much the Tracker price changes, and I need to actually work it out if I want to start tracking monthly usage.

But some good news from October: less energy used by the heat pump for DHW than September and about the same as August (when we weren't here for 2 weeks and had  no real need for *hot* water) so the setting change has clearly made a difference.  Also our estimated annual consumption has come down by 700kWh from what it was in August!  So I'm pleased with that.