My Energy use Diary

cw18

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

The boiler in my previous flat was good as it had a 1hr boost on it.

We had that at our last house -- but the water heater was always on with the radiators, whereas they're on separate timers here. I reckon I'm actually much better off with the current system -- even if I do forget to turn the heating off a few times a year

Penny2myName

Money Spent

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

• £17.47 on gas
• £6.84 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (25 weeks ago):

• £512.61 on gas
• £234.24 on electricity#

Gas has gone back up again, so need to tackle this more.

setmefree2

cw18 wrote: »

4 weeks since I last generated my on-line bills, so have just been to do that. Looks like it's going to come in around £10 less than the last one -- so I'm happy with that. Also makes it just £5 (or thereabouts) more than my monthly payment -- so still heaps in credit, and now heading in the right direction to stop using that until the end of the year :T (My aim is to not see an increase in my Direct Debit during 2009)

well done you :T:T

jw00081

Hi, i am a student living in a 3 bedroom mid terrace house with my gf, i worked out how much energy kw/hr i use but how to i convret this to units? (or is this the units)

Also want to calculate how much each unit costs?

Does anyone know why the cost of energy cost is different for gas and electric and how it differs?

Can anyone sugest a comparison site to find a cheaper provider as i want to establish if switching to a green provider will be worth the hike in price??

Frugaldom

jw00081 wrote: »

Hi, i am a student living in a 3 bedroom mid terrace house with my gf, i worked out how much energy kw/hr i use but how to i convret this to units? (or is this the units)

Also want to calculate how much each unit costs?

Does anyone know why the cost of energy cost is different for gas and electric and how it differs?

Can anyone sugest a comparison site to find a cheaper provider as i want to establish if switching to a green provider will be worth the hike in price??

Hello,

Front page of moneysavingexpert website has links to energy comparison sites.

When we talk kWh then 1 = 1unit

Cost per unit depends on your supplier, it will tell you how much each unit costs on your bill or, if you have a modern prepayment meter, the cost per unit is on that.

Hope that helps

jw00081

Thanks for that,

So do i devide the total cost per month (or whatever it is) by the total units used to reveal the cost per unit? or will it say somewhere on the bill to make things easier??

Does anyone know why the cost of energy cost is different for gas and electric and how it differs?

Frugaldom

Gas is naturally occuring and piped without having all that much done to it, electricity has to be 'manufactured', so it costs a lot more to generate, allegedly.

For costs, I would divide the amount of money you spend by the total number of units you used and this should give you a rough estimate of your average cost per kWh (or unit). If you get a printed bill then the cost is on that. Other costs can be involved, too, such as daily or weekly standing charge, VAT, different rates at different times but it's best to have an idea how much an average unit costs you overall.

Edited in: I just did similar calculations, never thought about it before you mentioned, so thank you for that

In January, I used 1733 'units' at a cost of £135.20, so my average unit cost was 7.8p
In February, I used 1343 'units' at a cost of £104.56, so my average unit cost was 7.8p
In March, after cutting down further, I have used 428 'units' at a cost of £35.28, so my average unit cost is 8.2p

I can't believe I hadn't thought about this before now! It costs me more per unit, average, the less electricity I use!! :mad:

cw18

Your electricity meter shows your useage in KwH

If you have any gas, then this isn't the case. For this you need to find out whether your meter is showing cubic feet or cubit metres, and then there are (slightly) different calculations to work out what this is in KwH

Your current provider(s) should be able to tell you what your current unit price and standing charges are. If you're on pre-payment meters then your costs will be more than for 'standard' meters

jw00081

Ok, i'll take a look.

Does anyone know what the top say 10 main energy utilising culprets are?

cw18

The most energy hungry appliance I discovered I had was an old small chest freezer (bought in Dec '91). I replaced it for a larger capacity upright last November, and it uses less than a third the electricity of the old one.

My younger son's desktop computer uses a lot more than my laptop, but I see a big increase when my elder son is home and spending hours on his X-box (so it seems that's quite energy hungry in comparison too!)