December 2022 compared with previous Decembers

The_Green_Hornet

I have used 15% more gas this December than l did last December however overall I have used 19% less gas in 2022 than I did in 2021. But then December 2022 was colder than average and 2022 was warmer than normal so it was to be expected.

Financially, due to the council tax rebate, EBSS and a credit from EDF for moving over to a fixed rate tariff I have spent slightly less this year than I did last year although actual energy costs have more than doubled.

With less government support next year I forecast that I will spend close to three times more on energy in 2023 than I did in 2022.

Qyburn

We've used quite a bit less electricity,  336kWh compared to 447 in Dec 2021 and 477 in 2020. The only major things I can think of are the new freezer which might be saving on kWh per day, and setting the desktop PC to hibernate instead of sleep. Aside from that it must just be minor things like leaving lights on less etc.  That December figure is also less than Sept, Oct or Nov 2022 which is interesting but mysterious.

Qyburn

dunstonh said:

We are on oil and have used around 1000 litres less this year than normal.

What's that as a percentage or fraction of overall use, if you don't mind me asking? 

Our oil meter only reads in increments of roughly 250Lso it's quite hard to get exact live figures, for example when we got a delivery and the reading rose to 8 you don't know if that's really 8.001 or 8.999. So really only descending readings can be relied on, in that example when it drops to "6" I know we've used 250L since it read "7" but not how much we used since the fill.

dunstonh said:

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.

We've used a pile more wood as well, in fact we're running low due to the fact that half our stash is unexpectedly unusable for a variety of reasons. I hope the local merchant still has stocks, this time of year they are usually "existing customers only".

Mstty

Qyburn said:

dunstonh said:

We are on oil and have used around 1000 litres less this year than normal.

What's that as a percentage or fraction of overall use, if you don't mind me asking? 

Our oil meter only reads in increments of roughly 250Lso it's quite hard to get exact live figures, for example when we got a delivery and the reading rose to 8 you don't know if that's really 8.001 or 8.999. So really only descending readings can be relied on, in that example when it drops to "6" I know we've used 250L since it read "7" but not how much we used since the fill.

dunstonh said:

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.

We've used a pile more wood as well, in fact we're running low due to the fact that half our stash is unexpectedly unusable for a variety of reasons. I hope the local merchant still has stocks, this time of year they are usually "existing customers only".

Long wooden stick with incremental marks and dip the tank (most tank manufacturers you can find the increment and literate)

ariarnia

The_Green_Hornet said:

With less government support next year I forecast that I will spend close to three times more on energy in 2023 than I did in 2022.

thats the bit thats really scary. we're fine now and will probably fine then. but the what if is huge. 

Spoonie_Turtle

2020: 1139kWh  cost £162.37
2021: 1170kWh  cost £244.80
2022: 1083kWh  cost £289.86 (EPG £391.26!!  Thank goodness for Tracker.)

I haven't looked at heat pump consumption for the month yet, but many of the non-savings come from needing the shower on full power instead of eco, and needing to use the tumble dryer because of freezing temps or endless rain.  Using it sparingly,  but nonetheless still more than not using it most of the rest of the year.  Plus the oven has been used more this month than most others, using up food from the freezer and food on seasonal offers.

Edited: typo

MuckChucker

So I really stopped the kwh pinching in the last month. We're well under my annual projections and frankly, it's gotten a bit boring and I'm sick of moaning at people. 
 
        2021    2022
Elec  534     407
Gas  1512   890

Elec, while down a lot on last year is up almost 100kwh on last month, this is purely the condenser dryer. A couple of extra long oven sessions haven't helped but it's xmas so what can you do?

Our gas use is awesome. The old relic of a boiler was really screwing us last year, we'd only have the heat on a couple of hours a day and you can see what it amounted to. The new thermostat is set to 18 for most of the day with a boost to 19 in the evening. We're doing 20-30kwh a day but usually closer to 20. The really cold snap it was more of a 40-60 range and I believe we've that to look forward to again next week.

Qyburn

Mstty said:

Long wooden stick with incremental marks and dip the tank (most tank manufacturers you can find the increment and literate)

I've tried but didn't manage to find manufacturer's data to calibrate a dipstick or sight glass, neither for the Balmoral at a previous house, our our current Titan. The geometry makes it not quite trivial to work out for yourself.
  
When we used to dip we just recorded heights in mm, and compared with previous times to estimate how long before needing to refill, and by how much.

[Deleted User]

Reduction in usage for both utilities compared to last December when it was 2C warmer

Dec 2022  1260 kWh Gas 248 kWh Electricity (Bungalow)
Dec 2021  1496 kWh Gas 282 kWh Electricity (Bungalow)
Dec 2020  1599 kWh Gas 353 kWh Electricity (Semi-Detached)
Dec 2019  1922 kWh Gas 475 kWh Electricity (Semi-Detached)
Dec 2018  1566 kWh Gas 444 kWh Elextricity (Semi-Detached)

Not sure how much low-hanging fruit left for further economies.