Winter energy use is over? How did you do?

The_Green_Hornet

My central heating thermostat doesn't care what season it is. If it is cold enough it will fire up the boiler whether it is February or June.

kuratowski

Mstty said:

Did you manage to reduce your usage as much as expected?

Were you surprised at the cost considering the EBSS and other payments handed out?

I reduced my usage more than expected.  The last 12 months of electricity usage was 1212 kWh (a 22% reduction).  The last 12 months of gas usage was 3268 kWh (a 51% reduction).

The resulting cost came in below budget, even before the EBSS.

Primarily, I had the gas central heating on at a lower temperature for less of the time; I also refrained from using any form of electric heater.

mmmmikey

Apodemus said:

dealyboy said:

@Krakkkers 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!      "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.

Hi - so this astronomical spring that @dealyboy and @krakkers are talking about - is it some ancient thing to do with stone circles? Do they belong to some weird cult or are they just very old and/or behind the times? Interesting to read how you Apodemians define spring, I thought your tribe had vanished years ago.....

Krakkkers

No its science, due to the Earths 23.5 degree tilt and the Earths orbit around the Sun.
The Earth is actually nearest to the Sun in January but cold in the northern hemisphere due to the shallow angle sunlight hits the northern hemisphere at because the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the Sun and in Summer the northern hemisphere is tilted 23.5 degrees towards the Sun. Nothing to do with stone circles or cults?

InvertedVee

I'm keeping the heating on. But results so far are encouraging. We moved to a much smaller, better insulated house last spring.

Gas use for heating and hot water Oct 22-Mar 23 is 4,768kWh, which compares with 20,279kWh in Oct 21-Mar 22 so a reduction of over 75%.

The costs for gas in Oct 22-Mar 23, including standing charge, is £514, compared with £586 in Oct 21-Mar 22. A saving of just 13% because I came off a fixed tariff onto the much higher standard variable rates.

In short, I saved nearly £2000 on gas bills this winter by moving house.

Freebird53

Krakkkers said:

No its science, due to the Earths 23.5 degree tilt and the Earths orbit around the Sun.
The Earth is actually nearest to the Sun in January but cold in the northern hemisphere due to the shallow angle sunlight hits the northern hemisphere at because the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the Sun and in Summer the northern hemisphere is tilted 23.5 degrees towards the Sun. Nothing to do with stone circles or cults?

I do love a good old-fashioned no-nonsense technical explanation.

njm123

On an annual basis based on my data to last weekend

Electric ~ 1700 KWh pa   (approx 10% reduction)
Gas ~ 7500 KWh pa (approx 10% increase)

That's in a large old (1938-1946) 3 bed semi, with some unusual construction in places due to repairs for bomb damage in the war.     Essentially a wooden frame construction between two windows at the front - oddly never gets cold. Plus the back wall is partially rebuilt so the join to the side wall is bit patched up (perfectly sound just not how you'd do it if building both at the same time.) 

Extra gas use not unexpected as 

a) I was much better at combining ventilation/heating and a dehumidifier to manage condensation.
b) There were a couple long cold snaps when heating needed to be on longer to keep the fabric of the building warm enough.  These came with easterly prevailing winds which hit the back of the house which is already the cooler side.
c) Some health issues flared up and I had to keep the house warmer at times to bring them under control as they lower my body temperature.

Electric hopefully I can drop a little more as I've just got rid of a device that appears to have been using a lot of electric when it was supposed to be on standby overnight, standby use when I tested it in the day was negligible but based on the week since I removed it was using 2-3 KWh a week overnight.

SAC2334

Drastic drop in  gas kWh use in December which was truthfully a real pain to keep up stuck in a sleeping bag and using a 400 watt electric bar instead of my central heating.. This was an experiment to see if I can handle it without heating the whole house..I can but I did nt like it especially with that sub zero week we had.
Thankfully I have got onto the Octopus Tracker in January when I could see that E.U. had lessoned the demand for gas and the wholesale price dropped .
Rest of the winter has been a big success for daily wholesale rate tracking as the rate continued to keep around 6.4 p kWh and less in March .
I have been using the CH much more especially in the evenings with the bills being pretty low compared to late last year. 
I could have kept it up all winter if needed using the sleeping bag and electric fire but I hope I don t have to. 
Well done Greg Jackson and Octopus..You are up there along with Martin Lewis ..You both deserve Knighthoods .
Total for year is a drop from usual 8000 kwhs gas to 4500 kwhs

Electric drop from 2200 to 1700 kwhs .
I probably won't keep this level up 

bob2302

SAC2334 said:

Drastic drop in  gas kWh use in December which was truthfully a real pain to keep up stuck in a sleeping bag and using a 400 watt electric bar instead of my central heating.. This was an experiment to see if I can handle it without heating the whole house..I can but I did nt like it especially with that sub zero week we had.

Bear in mind that electricity is much more expensive than gas; 3.4 times under the price cap. Controlling your CH better, would have given greater savings for the same level of discomfort.

GunJack

Leccy Mar 21 - Mar 22 = 4897 kWh
Gas    Mar 21 - Mar 22 = 8300 kWh

Leccy Mar 22 - Mar 23 = 3479 kWh
Gas    Mar 22 - Mar 23 = 7900 kW

Oct 22 - Mar 23 = 5700 gas, 1675 leccy