How much gas and electricity are peoplenow using compared with last year? And the cost?

Steve182

My electricity is 9300kwh which now costs around £3300/annum (ouch)
Heating and hot water are cheap by comparison, around 1500 litres/oil @75p = £1125. For this reason we're not worried about heating cost so have not had to skimp on it. I'm just glad we're on oil instead of gas

[Deleted User]

Steve182 said:

My electricity is 9300kwh which now costs around £3300/annum (ouch)
Heating and hot water are cheap by comparison, around 1500 litres/oil @75p = £1125. For this reason we're not worried about heating cost so have not had to skimp on it. I'm just glad we're on oil instead of gas

Ouch indeed!  Is that electricity use something you're trying to cut down, or are you like our forum colleague with the horse walker and a heavy user even after cutting?

You're right with that oil price though - I think that's something like 30% cheaper than gas?

moneysaver

[Deleted User] said:

moneysaver said:

My boiler was actually on for 12hrs yesterday, used 90kwh. Live in a 2 bed lower cottage flat in central Scotland. My wife really feels the cold so my heating needs to stay on most of the day.

Moneysaver

Not a Combi boiler? Combis use 25kWh. 90kWh would be miraculous though it is Christmas. 🙂 Guess you mean it wasn't actually running full on all that time.

Yes a combi boiler.  The 12hrs is the total time on for the day. I have a Nest thermostat & this gives me a total run time in 24hr period.

Moneysaver

Steve182

[Deleted User] said:

Steve182 said:

My electricity is 9300kwh which now costs around £3300/annum (ouch)
Heating and hot water are cheap by comparison, around 1500 litres/oil @75p = £1125. For this reason we're not worried about heating cost so have not had to skimp on it. I'm just glad we're on oil instead of gas

Ouch indeed!  Is that electricity use something you're trying to cut down, or are you like our forum colleague with the horse walker and a heavy user even after cutting?

You're right with that oil price though - I think that's something like 30% cheaper than gas?

I've spent some time analysing what we use but need to break it down a bit further, maybe using a plugtop power monitor in conjunction with the smart meter and producing a spreadsheet.

I've done the basic stuff like removed/hidden the decorative incandescent bulbs my wife bought and reinstated the original LEDs,  put the 60w electric towel warmer on a smart plug to just run a couple of hours a day, but definitely need to do more 

captainhaddock

I've managed to cut down on energy usage and was waiting to see how the measures I've taken reflects on the quarterly bills - the results quite surprised me this morning!

captainhaddock

just to add the measures I've taken are: switch off the boiler at night completely, using a hot water bottle in bed,got rid of the electric kettle and use a gas kettle, heat only the main room and hallway during the day.

michaels

We are down yoy from 38k kwh to 25k kwh for gas, hopefully on track to fall to about 20k depending on how winter temps go. Up a bit for leccy but on a very cheap night rate.

Had to do something as otherwise we would have gone from 2k at  cheapest available tariff to 7.5k on price cap. Hoping to be 'only' 3.5k for 12 months... 

Cirrus1

michaels said:

We are down yoy from 38k kwh to 25k kwh for gas, hoefhlly on track to fall toabout 20k depending o.n how winter temps go.

That’s very impressive. What did you do to get down from 38k kWh?

InvertedVee

I dug out records from 6 years ago when we got through 500kWh of gas in a day in the coldest weather.

In the recent cold snap we used less than 50kWh per day. (Very different houses)

ian1246

August 08th 2021 until 21st December 2021: An Average Electricity Consumption of 10.81 Kwh & 62.61 Kwh of Gas each day.
August 08th 2022 until 21st December 2022: An average Electricity Consumption of 8.93 Kwh (82.53% of 2021's use) &  34.74 Kwh of Gas (55.49% of 2021's use) each day.

In real terms, that means over the 136 days of the above time periods (August 08th to December 21st), we have used 256.969 Kwh's of electricity less in 2022 vs. 2021, and 3790.66 Kwh's of gas less in 2022 vs. 2021 - 17.47% reduction in electricity use & 44.41% reduction in gas use.

If we were to then use exactly the same electricity and gas for the rest of the year (December 22nd 2022 to August 07th 2023) as we did in the same period in 2021/2022 (December 22nd 2021 to August 07th 2022), it means our Annual Electricity use will be 3,430 Kwh's, whilst our Annual Gas use will be 15,164 Kwh's. 

If however we can sustain the above reductions (17.47% in Electricity & 44.41% reduction in gas use) across the entire year, our Annual Electricity consumption will be 3043 Kwh's & 10,517 Kwh's. 

Our house is old. The oldest map I can find for the area showing individual properties is 1880 - with our house on it. Albeit its been extensively modified/extended over the years so there's not much left of the original. Its a detached 4 bed property in the West Midlands.

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I suspect the reality of our consumption will be somewhere in the middle of the 2 projections - but either way, our house is actually warmer now than it was this time last year. This is due to a combination of factors, since we moved into the house in June 2021:

- we now better understand our house I.e. shutting the kitchen door, which has a utility room with a back door leading off it, massively reduces temperature loss/draughts in the living room itself
-  The house is now much better maintained - i.e. some of the TRV's were stuck in the "off" position, meaning some of the radiators weren't working at all, whilst our boiler's heat exchange-thing was also leaking, meaning a loss of pressure every day - now replaced with a new heat exchange. I've also resealed the majority of the windows - reducing draughts.
- We have fitted blinds AND Curtains to some of the windows, further helping insulate the windows (double glazed) and reduce any remaining draughts.
- We paid £875 to get the Cavity Walls insulated (although about 1/4 to 1/3 of our houses external walls are solid walls however).

On the plus side - I have realised the EPC certificate (D Rating - score of 58) for our house was a load of rubbish. It stated our 18 square metre living room flat roof (with a balcony on it) was assumed to have no insulation, whilst 2 of the 3 room in roof's were also assumed to have no insulation due to the age of the upgrades. Last weekend I drilled a load of holes into various parts of the Room in Roof ceilings - in one of the rooms (the oldest) there is 110mm of Fibreglass insulation in the pitched parts of the ceilings, whilst the "Flat" part of both rooms ceilings have somewhere between 300mm to 400mm roughly of Fibreglass laid above them, albeit I can't physically measure this since our "loft" is merely a ventilation space with the tiniest entrance possible (I don't even know if my shoulders can fit through it - and even if they could, I'm not sure I could manoeuvre through given the lack of head space available). In the 2nd (more modern) room in roof, the insulation in the pitched part of the ceiling isn't fibreglass - but instead multi-layer reflective foil insulation.

I have subsequently brought a infrared laser thermometer - all the relevant parts of the ceilings are showing temperatures above 17.5 Celsius, including many hours after the heating has switched off, confirming that whilst the insulation isn't going to be up to 2022 standards, it is reasonably effective (& likely done to 2007 standards, given that is when the house had its most recent extension), since otherwise it would be showing far lower temperatures (I.e. the solid walls are as low as 11 Celsius at times).

Thats basically 3 of the EPC's key recommendations (insulate flat roof & the 2 room in roof's) already done, whilst we have then actioned the 4th (Cavity Installation). The 5th recommendation was installing Solar Panels & the final (extremely expensive) recommendation floor insulation.

We're aiming to have sufficient funds to install Solar in 2024.

All told, we're doing Ok.