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Winter energy use is over? How did you do?

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  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,410 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    dealyboy said:
    Winter officially ended on Sunday Mar 19th ... to be pedantic

    If you want to be pedantic, winter can be defined in a number of ways and your definition is only one of these.   

    The definition that makes most sense to me, in the north of Scotland where day-length is important, is to divide the year into four equal seasons and centre each season on the appropriate solstice or equinox.  So for me, the sun was visibly returning and winter over, in the first week of February.  The sparrows agreed with me and started to clear out the nesting box that week, as they do most years. 

    Spring will take me through to the first week of May, which again feels right for the start of summer - I've never understood those that can place the "first day of summer" and "midsummer's day" on the same date!
  • Nebulous2
    Nebulous2 Posts: 5,666 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 30 March 2023 at 12:36PM
    It's still cold here, we had ground frost this week, and March has been a big month for heating. I'm on a fix until Oct 23, so haven't been impacted by the rises to date. 

    My previous usage was around 18,000 KWh for Gas and 4,500 KWh for electric. We've worked at taking it down and from 31st March 22 until today we've used 14,497 KWh of gas and 3,866 KWh of electric. Not quite as far down as I would like, but a useful reduction anyway. 

    Cost of £1525 for the full year, with £400 for EBSS, £150 for council tax and £100 for switching to smart meters. Net cost £875 for fuel for the year...... 
  • Krakkkers
    Krakkkers Posts: 1,285 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    Its Spring, Winter is over. Winter ends and spring starts at the moment of the March equinox, which occurs every year between March 19 and March 21
  • Raxiel
    Raxiel Posts: 1,403 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 5 April 2023 at 11:41AM
    Pretty good.
    The last 6 months (October to March) have cost us £1154, or £754 after the EBSS*
    The same 6 months in 21/22 cost us £538, so an extra £35 a month out of pocket.

    This was with some pretty hefty savings on usage though.
    Electricity usage over the last few years averaged 10kWh/day fairly consistently, since August 22 we've got it down to around 6kWh/day, firstly with behavioral changes, then we got solar panels just as the cold weather meant we had to go back to using the tumble dryer for laundry. Hoping to average 4.5-5kWh a day of import once we can benefit from both.
    We've made less use of the oven, and run the dishwasher on its 'quick' cycle for most loads. There are a few other minor efficiencies here and there that add up to a little bit, but not much.
    Export payments came to about £70 (or they will when Octopus actually pays it)

    Overall that's a 40% reduction in electricity use import.

    We use gas for heating and hot water, and that's down a lot too. Obviously it varies with the weather so a direct comparison of consumption doesn't tell the whole story, but looking at average temperatures for each month, some were up some were down, I'd say winter 22/23 was, overall,  a little colder than 21/22 in our part of the country but not dramatically so.

    Last winter we used about 8,375kWh of gas, this winter we used 6,137kWh. The first two weeks of March, with their cold snap, have dragged the average down, September - February saw a 30% saving, with October saving 51% compared to the previous year.

    The big change with this year was replacing the single skin of plasterboard (plus ratty rockwool and external tiling) on all our upstairs external walls with insulated plasterboard that added 50mm of solid insulation, finally bridging the gap between the insulated cavity on the ground floor and the loft insulation. Warming the house, cutting our bills, and finally fixing our condensation & mold problem.
    Another substantial change was to turn off the pre-heat for the DHW. I'd been told it was bad, but always assumed it can't have that much of an effect and was worth it for the convenience. Based on the impact it had before the heating came on, we'll be cutting usage in non-heating months by half.

    Overall, we saw a 26.7% reduction in gas use, or to look at it another way:



    If we'd had the same usage and no EBSS (but did have the EPG), I estimate our costs would have been about £1730 or around £200 a month more. If prices hadn't risen we'd have paid £365

    There was an up-front cost though. Between the Insulation and PV, we spent around £11k on the house last year. Payback purely in energy bills would be significant, but it needed to be spent, and we got the house cheap precisely because it needed work. I just wish I'd had the insulation done 5 years ago.

    * There's also about £30 to come from saving session payouts, and a £1 Octopus 'wheel of fortune' prize on top of that!
    3.6 kW PV in the Midlands - 9x Sharp 400W black panels - 6x facing SE and 3x facing SW, Solaredge Optimisers and Inverter. 400W Derril Water (one day). Octopus Flux
  • dealyboy
    dealyboy Posts: 1,928 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Its Spring, Winter is over. Winter ends and spring starts at the moment of the March equinox, which occurs every year between March 19 and March 21
    ... now don't wind up @Apodemus.
  • Mstty
    Mstty Posts: 4,209 Forumite
    1,000 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Looking back historically and not to derail my own post the winter energy months usage has sat October-March and even the EBSS scheme was paid during those months which suggests this is how the government/Ofgem see it as well.
  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,410 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 30 March 2023 at 2:13PM
    dealyboy said:
    Its Spring, Winter is over. Winter ends and spring starts at the moment of the March equinox, which occurs every year between March 19 and March 21
    ... now don't wind up @Apodemus.
    ...Easily done!   :D   "Winter" is a cultural concept, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise that different groups define it in different ways:

    Astronomical winter:  21 December to 20 March

    Meteorological winter: 1 December to 28 February

    Celtic winter:  Samhain/All Hallows (1 November) to Imbolc/Candlemas (2 February).  I find it interesting that the Celtic tradition matches what "feels right" to me here in the North of Scotland.

    Other cultures shift the dates to suit their local conditions and it has been suggested that St Valentines day was originally a "first day of spring" fertility celebration prior to being sanitised and brought into the Christian calendar.
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,145 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 30 March 2023 at 2:28PM
    If I extrapolate today and tomorrow's usage to complete the month my autumn/winter (Oct-Mar) from 21/22 was 3,060 kWh and my usage for 22/23 is 2,116 kWh, so I have reduced my usage by just under a third. However costs were £518 in 21/22 and £804 in 22/23 so a 55% increase in gross costs, although factoring in the £400 free money a net drop of £114 / 22%.

    Edit for clarity, electricity only property. 
  • I've always been very stingy with the central heating  - when you live alone then there is no one to complain about it! I don't count the dirty looks that the pets give me. 
    Before all this started, annual gas usage of around 4000 kWh and electric usage of around 1800 kWh. That's a 2-bed terraced house in the North West of England. 

    So, I wasn't expecting to be able to reduce it much over this past winter but I did actually do a decent job of it. I don't have a thermostat, so the heating is either on or off but, thanks to an electric throw that I bought when they were cheap last summer in preparation, I didn't use the heating nearly as much as I expected to, so was able to keep usage down a bit that way. Not a whole lot I can do with electricity as I work from home, but was extra vigilant with turning of lights when not needed, unplugging things I wasn't using etc. Used the slow cooker more often than the oven but that's about it really. 

    I used the heating a few times during Feb for a couple of hours at a time, and once or twice in March (the day it snowed a lot I had it on for a few hours) but otherwise I've not had it on since January on a regular basis. Amazing how warm you can feel in a room with a temp of 10-12 degrees when you've got an electric throw to help. Thankfully no mould issues so far from not heating the house regularly. 

    Ended up with using around 35% less gas and about 7% less electricity in '22 than I did in '21 across the year - most of that saving was in the last six months. 

    The upshot is that after the £550 from the government since Oct, I've paid around £100 for the period Oct-March, which I really can't complain about! 
    Last winter, I used about a third more gas in that period and slightly more electic kWh, but paid less than £300 for the same six months when I was on a fix. 

  • Alter_ego
    Alter_ego Posts: 3,842 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 30 March 2023 at 2:21PM
    Apodemus said:
    "Ne'er cast a clout till May is oot"!
    Agreed, but it refers to May blossom not the month of May

    I am not a cat (But my friend is)
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