My Energy use Diary

A_fiend_for_life

On a C at the moment border line B.

You have been taking readings for 30 weeks

Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 3,244 kWh (Gas: 2,349kWh | Electricity: 895kWh)
Carbon emissions are 952 Kg CO2 (Gas: 484 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 468 Kg CO2)
Last week you spent:

* £0.00 on gas
* £6.48 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (30 weeks ago):

* £82.20 on gas
* £107.40 on electricity


Carbon emissions Kg CO2
...............Last week..Last Month..Last Quarter
Per person.....28 (56)....37 (59).....37 (59)
Per household..28 (136)...37 (145)....37 (142)

Gas use as kWh
...............Last week..Last Month..Last Quarter
Per Person.....0 (203)....0 (214).....91 (211)
Per Household..0 (485)....0 (515).....91 (494)

Electricity use as kWh
...............Last week..Last Month..Last Quarter
Per Person.....54 (29)....71 (30).....36 (30)
Per Household..54 (73)....71 (76).....36 (78)

belfastgirl23

Hi everyone, back on a D and 42/47 in the club. But pleased that my gas use went down a good bit this week, down to 592kwh (was 930 last week :eek: ). considering DH has been at home and in the house most of the week this is pretty good. However electric is still high - 76kwh this week. I know it's not what I'm doing :rolleyes: so I'm guessing DH was watching daytime telly...still he had been working like a madman lately so he deserves his downtime. And it will gradually go back to normal over the next week or two. Though when I think of it i did use the TD a couple of times very quickly just to finish stuff off - it is the thing with line drying and not having the heat on, sometimes you need the last little boost to get the stuff to a stage where you don't risk it smelling mouldy!

Hope everyone else has had a good week.

Frugaldom

Hi guys, this week I am still on 'E' rating and currently showing as 18/48 in the Carbon Club. It's really irking me that I can't get this down but I just don't know how when I refuse to freeze, can't just pop out for a takeaway and have to cook at least once per day. I'm going to try turning the storage heaters down and burning more logs. This will certainly drop our carbon rating and electricity costs but might prove to be too expensive as we still need electricity to cook, heat water etc. Will see how the coming week works out with the livingroom heater on low and will keep my fingers crossed for a surprise next week. We did manage to come in at less than the average carbon emissions per person this week:

Carbon emissions Kg CO2
Last week Last Month Last Quarter
Per person 51 (55) 65 (59) 0 (59)
Per household 152 (134) 194 (144) 0 (143)
Electricity use as kWh
Last week Last Month Last Quarter
Per Person 97 (29)124 (30) 0 (30)
Per Household 290 (73) 371 (76) 0 (78)

thriftyscotslass

Hello everyone, I'm new to this thread :wave:

It is a really inspirational read - well done to setmefree2 for starting it :T I'm up to page 12

I would like to join in, if I may - my last gas and electric bills were :eek::eek::eek:. We pay by DD and currently have a £150 deficit :mad: So rather than up the DDs yet again, it is time to take action.

At the moment we average 12 units of electric per day, 51 units of gas per day in winter and 18 units of gas per day in summer. Baby steps to start with - so here goes.

We bought a load of energy saving bulbs at the weekend so the main job today is to bin the old bulbs and replace with energy saving.

Next job today is to go around the house and find the off-switch to everything - no more items on standby in this house.

From today onwards, dishes will be washed by hand and washing will be line dried or dried on the airers.

The gas central heating has been turned off - it will be turned on for 1/2 hour at a time when needed.

So far so good.

Hope everyone is well and a big thanks for setting me off on this journey :T

Frugaldom

Hi Thrifty Depending on where abouts you are in Scotland, it may be wiser to leave your heating on a low thermostat setting for background heat in case there's a sudden drop in temperature overnight. 12 units of electricity per day isn't too bad if you are doing a lot of cooking, washing and drying for a family, good luck with your challenge. Have you joined the i-measure.org moneysaving carbon club as well?

mrsm

Thanks for the welcome everyone.
Ben84 I guessed that would be the way, only thing that heats up here is the cooker, I tend to use 1 ring a day and will try to bake several things at once if I need the oven on but I'm going to time how long it takes to get to temp. as I tend to bung it on to heat up and I think it may be on longer than needed.
nykmedia I didn't mean who I meant what :rotfl:. Your visit was certainly an eye opener though, and yes I too have similar dreams.

I'm quite impressed here, had all 3 terrors home all week last week but thanks to the good weather the results are not too bad

You have been taking readings for 5 weeks
Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 2,393 kWh (Gas: 1,975kWh | Electricity: 418kWh)
Carbon emissions are 626 Kg CO2 (Gas: 407 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 219 Kg CO2)
Money Spent

How has my energy spend been calculated?
Last week you spent:

• £9.87 on gas
• £9.72 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (5 weeks ago):

• £69.13 on gas
• £50.16 on electricity

Still a B and currently no 33 in the mse carbon club (not sure how that works, was no9 at one point last week)

And can someone please please tell me how to post my results without loosing all the formating, I'm sure my electricity has just gone through the roof the length of time and no of windows Ive opened trying to copy and paste it :rotfl:

belfastgirl23

thriftyscotslass wrote: »

From today onwards, dishes will be washed by hand and washing will be line dried or dried on the airers.

Just to say I did debate the washing dishes by hand. My compromise is that anything that takes up a lot of space (eg larger bowls, saucepans) I'll wash by hand unless they're really dirty or I'm in a big hurry. Cereal bowls too I'll often handwash since they only need a quick rinse if you get them straight away. But I do use the DW for eg cups, glasses, dinner dishes that would need a proper wash. This small measure means the DW goes on about once every two days rather than once a day, which is a big saving for me without being too time consuming.

The other thing I noticed is that washing clothes on 30 deg or cold wash also saves a fair bit of energy. For whites I use napisan and do a cold wash since this will kill any bacteria etc anyway and this would mostly be sheets etc. For colours I use baking powder in the wash and a little bit of vinegar in the rinse instead of fabric conditioner and this takes care of any other bacteria I hope - although I do tend to do these at 30 degrees just in case. I also tend to try to air or line dry everything but find it's sometimes cost-efficient to whack them in the TD to finish off rather than risk them going smelly and having to wash them again, usually it's max 15 mins just to be sure they're fully dry.

Hope that's helpful

thriftyscotslass

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the tips belfastgirl.

Am pleased to report that all bulbs are now energy saving

I did have fun crawling about under tables and behind cupboards trying to locate all the off-switches and plug sockets - Mr TSL is going to have a fit tonight:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Have found out that the only things that have to stay on are the fridge-freezer, the cordless telephone set (won't work without being plugged in), the door bell, the wireless modem thingy and the radio-alarm clock (overnight).

It's a bit early to say whether we'll be going back to our old phone and a wind-up alarm clock - but who knows :rotfl:

Surprisingly ds (16) and dd (13) are up for the challenge - we may turn into a family of eco-warriors yet :rotfl:

Next on the todo list is to find the washing machine instructions - currently washing whites at 90 and coloureds at 60 - reducing to 30 / 40 degree washes and using overnight power should help with the savings.

Also on the list to investigate is a Slow-cooker - can anyone recommend one?

Also need to buy a couple of flasks as the kettle gets a LOT of use in our house.

Thoroughly enjoying this - will also investigate imeasure later.

Take care all.

cw18

thriftyscotslass wrote: »

Next on the todo list is to find the washing machine instructions - currently washing whites at 90 and coloureds at 60 - reducing to 30 / 40 degree washes and using overnight power should help with the savings.

Also on the list to investigate is a Slow-cooker - can anyone recommend one?

Also need to buy a couple of flasks as the kettle gets a LOT of use in our house.

I've washed everything at 30 for years, with the odd cycle on 40 (or higher) to give an odd 'blitz' to things (mainly towels and bedding). You mention using overnight power to reduce costs..... are you on Energy 7 or the new one I've seen advertised that's cheaper in the evenings/weekends? My electricity is the same price whenever, so I just wash when I have a load.......

I have a Morphy Richards slow cooker - it's one of the larger ones, and does a 3kg chicken with no problem :T

As for flasks - that's a no-go for me. Water has to be 'just-boiled hot' to brew my tea strong enough, and I can't stand tea that's been sitting around in a flask for hours

[Deleted User]

I am one of the happy ones too as our gas usage is now half that during the cold spell. I was expecting more re electricity as we had to buy a white noise machine, which is on all night in our bedroom (insomnia due to low grade noise) and yes it helps a lot

Last week you spent:

• £6.58 on gas
• £6.12 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (29 weeks ago):

• £184.96 on gas
• £176.88 on electricity