My Energy use Diary

Frugaldom

GC81 wrote: »

I do have Oil heating, but I have no way of really telling how much I use of that. (stupid plug sensor doesnt work and there's no dip-stick/metre on tank)
So I dont suppose my readings will be that great of a comparison.
All in all just thinking about the useage and working out how much is wasted is educating though.

Boo hooooooooo.................. I was hoping to have found someone to compare notes with each week but alas, it still isn't to be. I'm starting to feel like the only person on the whole site who doesn't have central heating by way of gas, oil or logburner. Oh well, welcome GC81 (and everyone else I haven't said hello to, yet )

What have they done to the i-measure site? I've just had to sit and edit all my readings because my storage heater column had disappeared completely, just wiped like it had never existed. It's all sorted now and I'm still a 'D'. Last week we used 267kWh and it cost £21.49, so I still haven't managed to get it below £20 for the week, but it was so cold at one point that I'd to break the ice on the hens' water dish one morning. (Average unit cost last week was 8p/kWh)We did get a couple of nice days, but I spent them in the garden, so no extra baking etc. We have gales here today again! I did a washing overnight hoping to get bedding hung out this morning but the rain has seen off that bright idea. :rolleyes: On the plus side, we were discussing electricity use with neighbours and the young couple in the next house down are feeding their meter up to £70 per week!! :eek: And they still have coal to buy over and above that! :eek:

Setmefree, I'll bet you're glad to be able to update your charts with latest figures :T :j You'd be celebrating when you saw the meter man! :rotfl:

setmefree2

Magentasue wrote: »

Ages since I've posted too. Partly because there were so many similar threads before Christmas and I couldn't keep up with them all. I have kept up meter readings and imeasure though and it's motivated me to keep on track.

My use is now close to September readings but I don't think I'll get down to August levels until the evenings are a bit warmer. I do feel quite smug that I'm the only six person household if I do gas and elec households and 15/49 with so many single person households at the 'bottom of the league'. Also I went from a C to a B during the cold snap when I was using more energy than any other time.

well done with all that :T

A_fiend_for_life

imeaure just multiplied by 11 to go from units to kWh.

setmefree2

nykmedia wrote: »

Setmefree, I'll bet you're glad to be able to update your charts with latest figures :T :j You'd be celebrating when you saw the meter man! :rotfl:

tbh I was worried when I saw the meter man because I wasn't sure I'd done that well last quarter as it was so cold_pale_.

I'm now trying very hard as the weather is sooo nice. However, I have been washing everything in sight - sofa covers, bedding, towels, etc, etc for the free drying but of course this pushes up the bill for using the washing machine...LOL:p

Kind Regards

SMF2

Frugaldom

Setmefree, I wouldn't worry too much about it because, at the end of the day, it's the reason for cutting back that matters most and, hopefully, it's not about trying to make ends meet at the expense of home cooked meals, clean clothes and hot water for washing. It's the 21st Century and electricity has almost doubled in the past few years. By the time I'm old enough to get the Government's cold weather payment, it'll probably only heat the house for a week! :rotfl: We are at home fulltime here and could easily spend a fortune heating the place. I'm still sometimes tempted to try and find out what it would take to get a house to 'room temperature' of 21 degrees. Mind you, I'd even like to find out what it would take to get all the rooms to 16 degrees. :rotfl:

You have a REALLY good tariff! I wish I could get mine for 7p ish per unit, I'm 12.88p day times.

belfastgirl23

I don't understand the new imeasure graph. My electric use appears to have rocketed on it (but it's actually a bit lower than the last few weeks) and my gas use appears to have plummeted - it is down a bit but I didn't think it was that much.

Overall still an E as well

Decola

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

I don't understand the new imeasure graph. My electric use appears to have rocketed on it (but it's actually a bit lower than the last few weeks) and my gas use appears to have plummeted - it is down a bit but I didn't think it was that much.

Overall still an E as well

The CO2 graph on the results page is very hard to read - for example, this week I generated 17kg of CO2, but there's no way I could tell that from the graph. Fortunately it's written in the carbon rating table below - making the graph pointless.

The carbon club has also been rendered redundant - as it's no longer possible to see your ranking within.

So far I think the 'improvements' are damaging. Catherine says that it's a transient stage though, and that further features will be introduced.

My concern is that as the new graphic representations are uninformative and hard to read, adding extra layers of features on top of something bad in the first place doesn't seem the best option.

Frugaldom

Belfastgirl, what's the weather like in Belfast? You're probably only about 50 miles from me as the crow flies and we have gale force winds here, I'm sure they're approaching hurricane force and the ferries can't possibly sail out in this! It's at the stage you can hardly stand upright! The storm has already taken out the power for several hours this afternoon (saves on the meter, but not so good for the incubators!) and the winds appear to be getting worse instead of better. Meanwhile, BBC weather says umm... light showers and 29mph winds Who makes this rubbish up, I wonder? Since the lashing horizontal rain & hail we had earlier, we now have glorious sunshine with a light spray of droplets being whipped up from the marsh opposite. I've completely given up on the washing as it's impossible to stand against the wind to hang anything and when I did get it pegged up it came within danger of blowing the poles over, concrete blacks and all! :rotfl:

belfastgirl23

nykmedia wrote: »

Belfastgirl, what's the weather like in Belfast? You're probably only about 50 miles from me as the crow flies and we have gale force winds here, I'm sure they're approaching hurricane force and the ferries can't possibly sail out in this! It's at the stage you can hardly stand upright! The storm has already taken out the power for several hours this afternoon (saves on the meter, but not so good for the incubators!) and the winds appear to be getting worse instead of better. Meanwhile, BBC weather says umm... light showers and 29mph winds Who makes this rubbish up, I wonder? Since the lashing horizontal rain & hail we had earlier, we now have glorious sunshine with a light spray of droplets being whipped up from the marsh opposite. I've completely given up on the washing as it's impossible to stand against the wind to hang anything and when I did get it pegged up it came within danger of blowing the poles over, concrete blacks and all! :rotfl:

It is pretty mad here. Although the maddest thing is, as you say, that we are having periods of sunshine and it's lovely and warm (although still a little chilly breeze underneath it all) but then all of a sudden the sun goes in and the wind blasts and the rain starts. Got soaked this morning on the way to work

Don't think it's quite as bad here as with you but pretty gusty and the gusts are enough to make you worry about your slates although we are in the middle of the city and reasonably well protected so it would be much much worse on exposed areas. You're right, I wouldn't want to be on a ferry though

Frugaldom

I think we are quite exposed here. The jets fly about 100' above the house and I can see the wind turbines. Thankfully, we have no trees round about us, I think they probably all got blown over years ago. :rotfl: I wonder how easy it is to make a DIY mini wind turbine? I could save a fortune if the power production is based on strength and frequency of the wind. It blows here every day without fail. I wonder what my landlord would say if I even suggested a small wind turbine... or a little water wheel on the stream... or... OK, best go look out more candles whilst we have electricity just in case it disappears again. :rolleyes: