My Energy use Diary

greenbee

BelfastGirl - do you have access to read your meters yourself? None of the people on this thread are relying on their suppliers to do it (I heard yesterday from a pretty reliable source that your supplier is only required by law to do this once every 2 years!), they're doing it themselves. You'll see references to people watching the meter go round, but its not compulsory, and you don't have to watch it 24/7 :rolleyes: ... it is one of the easiest ways of seeing what uses more, by switching things off, then on again gradually and seeing what makes it go faster!

If you can't get access to your meter, it might be worth getting hold of some kind of electricity monitor (try borrowing one rather than buying it, as you don't necessarily need one long-term), either for individual devices or for overall consumption, to help you see where you might have scope to cut back.

Don't forget if you're trying to save money overall, switching the heating off won't do you much good if you decide to buy cashmere jumpers to keep yourself warm (although its a great excuse) and end up spending more! You need to achieve a balance.

I think you need to have a word with Mr BG about curtains - I assume you don't have any neighbours to see into your windows - how does he feel about blinds or shutters?

belfastgirl23

Believe me we have had many many words on this subject and he won't budge. And alas he has the final say on the decorative aspects in the house. Luckily there were already curtains in the bedroom when we moved in and he hasn't insisted on taking them down. We do have blinds but they are not of the keep the heat in variety, although they do provide some privacy. I'm currently debating whether it's best to get the windows refurbished (which apparently does make quite a difference to keeping the place warm) or to buy some of the blinds that apparently do draughtproof the place. Not a big difference price-wise I suspect.

I have started reading the meters myself more recently which is where I got the figures I quoted from but alas I don't have the same level of historical info some of you have...which means it's hard to judge how well I'm doing.

The other tricky thing is that mr BG works from home so in winter the heating is also on in the daytime. Again because it's an old house there are no heating 'zones' so end up heating the whole house for one room. And mr BG firmly believes that if you turn the heat off in a room then everything in it will go mouldy so we have a little battle of turning heaters off and on Oh and our boiler is F rated for efficiency just to add to the mix.

At the minute we're paying £130 a month DD for gas and £29 for electric (the latter will def go up soon, at a guess to about £40) :eek: :eek: which feels outrageous to me. And very carbon inefficient.

Phew sorry this turned into a rant but it's one of the few areas we haven't managed to find any compromise in...

**edit** just to add mr BG is in london next week for a day so I might get to try the 'turning everything off' experiment then!!

greenbee

If he won't compromise, you should go for the cashmere jumpers and tell him he can pay for the heating if he wants it on!

Good luck. We'll look forward to hearing how the figures tumble in his absence. I'm on my own at home at the moment, so am currently getting away with no heating, HW on for half an hour in the evening only (if there is no hot water in the morning I HAVE to go to the gym before work ) and eating (cold) leftovers.

Had to have the tumbledryer on today, which won't have helped, but have been avoiding doing any ironing since SMF2 worked out how uneconomical it was :rolleyes: I'm sure the same applies to hoovering as well...

Join the MSE carbon club on imeasure (www.imeasure.org.uk) if you want to track your usage. Sign up, and then go to carbon clubs and type in MoneySavingExpert. You put your readings in each week and in draws graphs and tells you how much you've spent (based on an average figure) It might help focus Mr BG when you tell him how [STRIKE]your [/STRIKE] his usage compares to other peoples'!

bigpaws23

I'm getting "A club with that name does not exist" when I copy and paste 'MoneySavingExpert' into the carbon club field.


I'm already a member and tracking my own readings, but it would be good to join in with this club too.
Any suggestions?

belfastgirl23

I'm having this problem too bigpaws...would appreciate advice as well.

A_fiend_for_life

Try just 'Money' it might give a list.

Frugaldom

bigpaws23 wrote: »

I'm getting "A club with that name does not exist" when I copy and paste 'MoneySavingExpert' into the carbon club field.


I'm already a member and tracking my own readings, but it would be good to join in with this club too.
Any suggestions?

Same problem here, already joined the site but can't find the MSE 'carbon club'. Off to search for 'money'.:rotfl:

A_fiend_for_life

mmm see what you mean

greenbee

Just checked - it's MoneySaving Carbon Club... Sorry:o

setmefree2

Hi:hello:,

I think I will be brave and blog my actual DDs each month. We have a dual fuel tarriff with BG - capped in 2005 until 2010.

Year ....Gas ...Elect .......Per Mth...... PA

.............£..........£..............£...................£
2003 .....41.... ...29............ 70............. 840
2004 .....44 .......54.............98........... 1176
2005 .....37....... 43............ 80............. 960
2006 .....49 ...... 53.......... 102........... 1224
2007 .....34....... 41........... 75.............. 900
2008 .....51....... 43............94.............1128 (this is 7 months only)


:eek: