My Energy use Diary

Frugaldom

Hello

Another week gone but I'm slightly up on last week and still can't get below £10 per week into the meter, it seems impossible for our household situation.

Your household's total energy spend over the last 35 weeks is £658.53
Weekly average including standing charges = £20.43

For week ending 9th August, 2009 your household spent £10.15 in total.

Electricity A Rate: £7.99
Electricity B Rate: £2.16
Electricity C Rate: £0.00
Standing Charge: £1.61

Badges C & E

You have been measuring for 35 weeks and began on 14 Dec 2008.
Total household emissions 4,223 kg CO2
For week ending: 9th August, 2009 your household emitted 52 kg CO2

Used 99kWh costing £10.15 + £1.61 SC = 11.87ppu average

Hope everyone else is managing to keep on top of the energy bills. I'm juggling figures for winter fuel and trying to keep to carbon neutral supplies of locally grown wood rather than coal. If I can gather up as much as possible then I may not need any electric heating before November. Here's hoping.

Just checked back, my weekly average is still dropping slightly.

belfastgirl23

Hi all

Well slightly down this week on last week - 54 kwh gas and 64kwh electric. I would have hoped the elec would be down a bit more since DH was away a few days but I guess I did a lot of washing.

But more important, my year end figures from Imeasure are in. In my previous full year, I used 26,914kwh gas (and I had been bringing it down from our all time high in 05-06 of 42628 :eek:). Anyway our total this year for gas is 19,309 - I make this a 28% reduction :T:beer:. For the electric, my last full year had been 4070 and current year is 3,453, a 15% reduction :beer::j

So thanks to you all for helping to keep me on the straight and narrow and get over some of my wasteful ways. I'm really delighted!

A_fiend_for_life

17kWh of electricity this week. 8kg of carbon and a B for 'overall' and 'low rise flats'.

A_fiend_for_life

belfastgirl,

Excellent reduction - less than half the consumption of gas compared to the all time high is a really impressive percentage.

I love the sound of those pennies in my pocket.

setmefree2

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Anyway our total this year for gas is 19,309 - I make this a 28% reduction :T:beer:. For the electric, my last full year had been 4070 and current year is 3,453, a 15% reduction :beer::j

BRAVO :T:D

Frugaldom

:T Well done, Belfast Girl! You've done incredibly well cutting down that amount. I hope you are feeling the financial benefits, too. :T

cw18

Both badges for last week on ('D' side of) 'E' again !!

I did have high hopes for the next 4 weeks, as I've increased the household headcount from 2 to 3 (due to elder DS being home on extended leave), but having looked at my reading - particularly gas - for this week I'm not so confident now, and think the best I can hope for is getting back to a 'D' for both

Just read for this week.....

Electricity is actually down 2kWh to 74kWh, despite having mown the lawns in the past 7 days. But this could simply be due to reading the meter a few hours earlier than normal (I'm off out shortly for the day - hanging wallpaper for DD - and know I'm likely to forget when I get home!)

But gas has shot up from 34kWh to 57kWh :eek: Only thing I can think of is that I had to boost the hot water, but it was only on for an extra half hour on one day - so I guess the rest is just it needing to heat more on it's normal slot due to more being used (elder DS does love his showers, which are fed from the water tank!)

Queen-Bee_2

Setmefree2

Great thread. My gas consumption for last year was an eyewatering £682 (for a 3 bed Victorian terraced house :eek::eek::eek:). The previous year, it was even more...

I was so shocked by my bills that I asked British Gas if my meter could be faulty. They said it'd be £70 for them to come out and check it, but that 99% of the time the meters were fine.

How does my gas bill compare with other peoples'? I use electricity for cooking - the electric bill was another £380 for the year.

So... I intend to read this thread through from beginning to end and see what tips I can pick up!
Queen Bee

PS - the way British Gas actually charge for their product bewilders me - the bills always seem to be quite hard to unscramble. Here's hoping that I'll learn how to do interpret them on here as well!

Queen-Bee_2

Apologies for posting again so quickly, BUT... can anyone tell me how much it costs to leave a laptop computer plugged in per year... or a mobile phone?

And do TV's (and other things like kettles) really continue to consume electricity when they are plugged i but not working??? (ie fully turned off and not on standby?)

amtrakuk

setmefree2 wrote: »

So we have:-

1) Replaced bulbs with energy saving
2) Cut down use of tumble drier, dish washer & washing machine
3) Am using a flask for hot water
4) Bought a carpet sweeper
5) Make sure everything is switched off when not in use
6) Reduced hot water being on to 1ce per day.

I have been doing this for 9 days. Our average electricity use for this time of year is 15 Kilowat hours per day. For 7 days we have managed to use less than this (range 5 to 13) and matched it twice.

Also use washing liquids in your washing machine that work on a cold wash - you must have seen the ads with the ice bergs I have been trying these and find they work well, formally 40 degree wash, now 15 degree wash. I understand a 40 degree wash uses about 2 units of electric, a cold wash uses 1 unit - half the cost, cant be bad! :j