December 2022 compared with previous Decembers

InvertedVee

Central England temperatures:

• December 2022: 2.9C (provisional)

• December 2021: 6.3C.

A lot more energy was required to maintain temperatures in December 2022 compared with December 2021.

If you have used the same or less this year, you've economised through efficiency or energy reduction.

dunstonh

Sterlingtimes said:

My gas usage was: 2019: 3,561 kWh, 2020: 3,710 kWh, 2021: 3,426 kWh.

My expected usage for December 2022 is 3,400 kWh, although I have invested in making savings. I appear to have failed.

Has this December been unusually good or unusually bad in terms of heating demand? 

We are on oil and have used around 1000 litres less this year than normal.   Mainly due to Winter being milder and Autumn starting later.   However, December was colder than normal for just over a week.    It was more typical of late Jan to March temperatures.   Although, we still used less oil due to shorter heating hours on the timer and a few rooms effectively mothballed for winter.  Plus, I put draught-proofing (squishy padding) on the windows and doors that are more prone to draughts.   That can wear out over time and in several cases, there was none.   So, that was a very cheap win (under £10 for three rolls) and made a noticeable difference. 

We have used more wood on the burners than usual in December as we ran multiple burners to take up the slack from the reduced central heating.

strawb_shortcake

annabanana82 said:

Dec 21 331kwh electric 
Dec 22 290kwh electric  - no gas

Compared to November our consumption has increased by 50kwh, this is due to eldest being home from uni and the gaming PC back in action, as well as youngest playing on the x-box significantly more over the holidays. 2 sets of Christmas lights and my oven being on far more than usual. 
Still building up credit though

I should have added our oil usage, for 12 months from Oct 21 we used 750l, we paid around £360 for our heating and hot water for those 12 months. This year we expect similar usage but cost us around £640 for the 750l which still seems pretty good value imo.

Max68

Gas       

2022                       28 Imperial Units

2021                       55

2020                       50

2019                       59

2018                       75

 

Electric

2022                       195 kwh

2021                       253

2020                       298

2019                       287

2018                       337

Gas reduction I understand but I used to average 300 kwh of electricity a month and now it's between 180-195 so does not using a boiler save that much electricity?

Frightening though £97.73 for 871.12 kWh (28 imperial units) of gas and yet in February 2021 I used 75 units of gas, nearly three times as much, and it only cost £61.64!

Brebal

December 2021
Gas - 2126
Elec - 314

December 2022 (if stays on track for the next couple of days)
Gas - 1000 
Elec - 230

My house is cold and before this year, I'd just have the heating on loads, keeping the house at about 18 degrees, couldn't get it much higher.  This year I've restricted my usage and got wrapped up more, wearing a heated gilet, and managing fine. 

Electric I've only made little cut backs like not leaving things on standby (Xbox used to be on some sort of instantly ready mode and now changed that to power saving), more careful about leaving lights on etc. I used to be pretty slack with leaving lights on all over the house, leaving the tv on even when I'm off in another room doing something else, so I've stopped that now.  I'm also not using my electric heater in my home garage gym - I just get wrapped up to start with and I'm warm in ten mins anyway.

molerat

Gas 21 kWh down on last Dec so am pleased with that.  The better news is that 2022 has been my lowest gas use year since 1991 beating the previous best, 2014, by 5.2%.

Chrysalis

Sterlingtimes said:

My gas usage was: 2019: 3,561 kWh, 2020: 3,710 kWh, 2021: 3,426 kWh.

My expected usage for December 2022 is 3,400 kWh, although I have invested in making savings. I appear to have failed.

Has this December been unusually good or unusually bad in terms of heating demand? 

The first 2-3 weeks was arctic air, not normal weather for south of England. In my city was a swing downwards of almost 10C compared to last December.

Even I used GCH for one day (when house dropped to 5C).

The cost was extraordinary at £16 for the day, GCH is a true cash vacuum.  Also smart meter data showed as expected for my home and quality of boiler, that the usage did not plummet after the first few hours, hour to hour was fairly consistent.

Thankfully once we got normal air again I havent used it since only for water every few days for an hour.

Electric blankets should allow you to decrease your gas usage substantially., if the current warmer air is too cold for you.

Jami74

Dec '21 - 1079 (£184)
Dec '22 - 1109 (£232)

6417 (£1749) for the whole of 2022.

Have family visiting so knew Decembers would be high. Octobers and Novembers were much lower this year though (less than 350).

SAC2334

I have used 699 kwh s of gas in 31 days , 30 Nov to 31 Dec . average 22.54 kwhs a day 
electric use  225 kwhs  average 7.25 kwhs a day . Halogen heater on quite a lot has bumped that up to over 7 kwhs a day from its normal 4 kwhs a day 

I am aiming to half my normal gas usage of 8000 kwhs a year to 4000 and well on track for that by April 1
and on track to lower my electric from 2200 kwhs a year to approx 1800 kwhs a year .

Experimenting now with a switch to Octopus Tracker for a while to see how that go s

Nebulous2

Very old stone house in North of Scotland.

Dec 2021  gas 3120kwh  elec 491kwh
Dec 2022  gas 2684kwh  elec 429 kwh

Given the temperature has been lower this year than last, I'm pretty happy with that. I'm on a fixed deal, so cost last year was £234.89 the highest month of the year and this year should be £204.82.