Results of experiment with my energy usage

FlorayG

I thought people might be interested
Like most, I'm usually careful with my energy usage in winter and a bit stingy with heating and my bill is around £45 for gas and £50 for electric. Because I got a 'Customer Service Gesture' of £150 just before Christmas I thought I would experiment with just keeping the entire house as warm as I wanted it and not stint on the usage to do so. Of course it has been a lot colder but I just had my bill for the last month £123 for gas and £114 for electric! More than double!

Back on the stingy usage this month!

MikeJXE

I’m not careful with my energy use (gas heating)

Normally it would be on to keep me warm, 18 daytime with boosts to 19/20 if I wasn’t warm enough, 16 night time

December I set it at 18 daytime with boosts to to 19/20 and night 18 

The bill for November was £27 and for December £33 so a fiver more 

January I am doing the same 18 degrees 24/7

MattMattMattUK

FlorayG said:

I thought people might be interested
Like most, I'm usually careful with my energy usage in winter and a bit stingy with heating and my bill is around £45 for gas and £50 for electric. Because I got a 'Customer Service Gesture' of £150 just before Christmas I thought I would experiment with just keeping the entire house as warm as I wanted it and not stint on the usage to do so. Of course it has been a lot colder but I just had my bill for the last month £123 for gas and £114 for electric! More than double!

Back on the stingy usage this month!

Why did your electricity usage rise as well?

debitcardmayhem

£s Don’t count, kWh does

teaselMay

MikeJXE said:

I’m not careful with my energy use (gas heating)

Normally it would be on to keep me warm, 18 daytime with boosts to 19/20 if I wasn’t warm enough, 16 night time

December I set it at 18 daytime with boosts to to 19/20 and night 18 

The bill for November was £27 and for December £33 so a fiver more 

January I am doing the same 18 degrees 24/7

Is your house very well insulated?

I have my heating on at most a couple of hours a day, usually not that long. I turn the thermostat up to 12 so that it comes on and then back to 7-8 (frost setting effectively) after at most a couple of hours, usually less. That alone costs me £1 a day, plus standing charge. (my bill month to yesterday was £36). On the very cold days recently to make sure the pipes didn't freeze I left it at 10 overnight and that cost £1.50 overnight a couple of times. I'm looking forward to moving to somewhere better insulated! (it's an old boiler but the house is rented)

FlorayG

MattMattMattUK said:

FlorayG said:

I thought people might be interested
Like most, I'm usually careful with my energy usage in winter and a bit stingy with heating and my bill is around £45 for gas and £50 for electric. Because I got a 'Customer Service Gesture' of £150 just before Christmas I thought I would experiment with just keeping the entire house as warm as I wanted it and not stint on the usage to do so. Of course it has been a lot colder but I just had my bill for the last month £123 for gas and £114 for electric! More than double!

Back on the stingy usage this month!

Why did your electricity usage rise as well?

Because I wasn't doing things like waiting to use electricity until the sun was out/solar battery was topped up from my solar panels as I usually do (also, we had very little sun last month so electric would have been up anyway but perhaps not twice as much)

MikeJXE

teaselMay said:

MikeJXE said:

I’m not careful with my energy use (gas heating)

Normally it would be on to keep me warm, 18 daytime with boosts to 19/20 if I wasn’t warm enough, 16 night time

December I set it at 18 daytime with boosts to to 19/20 and night 18 

The bill for November was £27 and for December £33 so a fiver more 

January I am doing the same 18 degrees 24/7

Is your house very well insulated?

I have my heating on at most a couple of hours a day, usually not that long. I turn the thermostat up to 12 so that it comes on and then back to 7-8 (frost setting effectively) after at most a couple of hours, usually less. That alone costs me £1 a day, plus standing charge. (my bill month to yesterday was £36). On the very cold days recently to make sure the pipes didn't freeze I left it at 10 overnight and that cost £1.50 overnight a couple of times. I'm looking forward to moving to somewhere better insulated! (it's an old boiler but the house is rented)

Built 2006 1 bed ground floor flat 

teaselMay

MikeJXE said:

teaselMay said:

MikeJXE said:

I’m not careful with my energy use (gas heating)

Normally it would be on to keep me warm, 18 daytime with boosts to 19/20 if I wasn’t warm enough, 16 night time

December I set it at 18 daytime with boosts to to 19/20 and night 18 

The bill for November was £27 and for December £33 so a fiver more 

January I am doing the same 18 degrees 24/7

Is your house very well insulated?

I have my heating on at most a couple of hours a day, usually not that long. I turn the thermostat up to 12 so that it comes on and then back to 7-8 (frost setting effectively) after at most a couple of hours, usually less. That alone costs me £1 a day, plus standing charge. (my bill month to yesterday was £36). On the very cold days recently to make sure the pipes didn't freeze I left it at 10 overnight and that cost £1.50 overnight a couple of times. I'm looking forward to moving to somewhere better insulated! (it's an old boiler but the house is rented)

Built 2006 1 bed ground floor flat 

That'll explain the difference - mine's a 3 bed 1951 terrace, albeit only a couple of rooms heated usually. I'm curious how much difference it'll make when we move to what's likely to be same size but new build

wrf12345

My five and a half year old boiler does 35p for half an hour on economy setting (full on as the thermoset does not work)  but that is just heating two rooms in the middle of the house with curtains closed, about 35sqm, and will raise the temp from 8 to 12C, anything over ten is fine as I am layered up a bit. Older boilers are not worth turning on IMO, I'd rather use a gas fire to heat one room or halogen heaters placed to warm me rather than the house. Down south so if the winter carries on relatively mild I will end up with a record low gas bill, £25-30 for three months plus s/c. Normally over £200 but previously covered by the winter fuel payment.