My Energy use Diary

belfastgirl23

So we were out of the house a lot today which gave me a perfect chance to look at our background electricity use (ie what we use before we switch anything on). The answer is that we use roughly 1kwh every 4 hours or 6kwh per day BEFORE we 'do' anything. This is accounted for by the following:

applemac desktop on full time (Mr BG strikes again)
Big old fridge
Cooker and micro left on standby
Small TV in kitchen left on standby, also dvd player
Dvd recorder and satellite box on standby (set to record so can't be switched off)
Wine fridge
Phones in charger cradles.
Outside light which triggers when anyone walks past the house (busy street, motion sensor can't be moved)

So at a rate of 12.66p per KWH we are spending 76p a day before we do anything :eek::eek:

My big uses aside from this are
The dishwasher (once a day or so)
Washing machine (3-5 loads per week)
Oven for about an hour at top temp x 3 times per week
Kettle x4 times a day
Tumble dryer around an hour a week to 'finish off' stuff
Iron about an hour a week
Big plasma TV for about 4 hours a day
Charging phones, laptops, ipods etc

Having a think about what/where I can cut down....

Thanks for the carbon club info greenbee, have joined. though have only found a list of members for now and haven't updated details yet cos it's been pelting it down and I haven't got around to reading the gas meter - it's around past the overgrown hedge so I'd get soaked

greenbee

Some simple suggestions...

Switch off cooker, microwave and kitchen TV & DVD player at mains when not in use. Also the main TV, even if you can't do this with the DVD recorder etc. I also do this with DW, WM & TD, even though they don't draw anything when off... just in case I leave them on by mistake. Make sure you make maximum use of the oven when its on - make an extra batch of something for the freezer, make stock from chicken bones to freeze etc. Then use MW to reheat frozen meals.

Give up ironing... :rotfl: it's no fun and it wastes energy...

Outside light - do you have an override switch in the house, so you can switch if off once you're all in for the evening, and when you're away?

Beg/borrow/steal an energy monitor to attach to Mr BG (or just his applemac!) to show him how much energy he is wasting :rolleyes: . Does he also leave his router, monitor, printer etc on with the desktop? If he likes gadgets you could try getting him an intelliplug to play with, so he can switch everything off when he shuts the mac down.

I also switch off the phone charger cradles at the mains unless I'm actually charging the phone. I did put a monitor on them, and although they don't draw much, it all helps (and helps everyone to get into the habit of USING the off switch!).

You can get solar/wind-powered chargers for ipods/phones etc, but I'm not sure whether or not they cost more than the electricity. I try to make sure my work laptop (the only one I use) is fully charged when I leave work each day. I also charge phones/ipod either in the car (not ideal) or at work if I remember, as I spend more time there then at home

There are lots of other threads with energy saving ideas on them, so if you have a hunt through I'm sure you'll find lots of inspiration. Good luck :A

SuiDreams

Well its 11.55 on suday and the TV hasn't been switched on yet, have altered the boiler settings yet again so just need to wait and see if it makes a difference or not.

belfastgirl23

Hi Greenbee and thanks for all the tips. With the oven, I am reasonably good and do try to do as much as possible when it's on. And I would LOVE to give up ironing but alas most of my work wardrobe is linen. So I will experiment with keeping the iron as low as possible. I have also just changed the bed and put on the cheaper cotton bedclothes that don't need ironed. And when mr BG is away on Tues I am going to plug his computer in to the energy monitor. You're right about the router and because it's applemac it's an integrated monitor. It is bugging me a bit because he only ever uses it to download stuff...

As for the outside light, where we live we need it to come on alas, it is apparently the no 1 area for burglaries in NI (just found out that happy nugget lately) although I am going to ask someone I know with a ladder to try adjusting the sensor so it doesn't come on when anyone walks past in the street, just when they come into the garden. I guess I should look out for a low energy bulb for it too....

And not switching off the kitchen stuff is my own lazy fault, can't blame anyone else for that, so I will start to do it, thanks for the very gentle kick up the you know what

Mr BG being otherwise engaged this morning I have been playing with my energy monitor (finally figured out what I was doing with it too although I can still only really figure out the KWH setting).

Did my first cold wash on bedding which came in at 0.12kwh or 1.5p. Also did 'my' normal wash which is a 40deg fast wash for smelly gym stuff (I usually go for the higher temp but faster to get it on the line before going to work) and this came in at 0.396kwh costing 5p. Which is not as bad as I expected, I did invest in a good miele machine and I think it must be pretty energy efficient. I will follow the advice and try it on the iron later ...

So I am off to try to figure out the timer settings on the boiler. I know Mr BG will insist on leaving it on timer when we go on hol in September and I want to reset it so that it only comes on for 10 mins AM and PM rather than the hour or more three times a day that it was set for over last winter. this will save us a small fortune I think

Please keep any tips coming, I'm very grateful for them...

And I will update the carbon diary thing when it changes to week of 10 September...

greenbee

BelfastGirl - I was going to suggest that you bought Mr BG shares in your energy supplier... but it would make more sense to buy them for yourself. That way at least you'd know that you're making money as he spends it

belfastgirl23

Wow our boiler is SIMPLE. And I am a bit of a lazy idiot for letting himself get away with doing the programming for so long.

For the record, the steam generator iron used 0.512kwh to iron all my work clothes plus the pig-to-iron 300 thread count bedclothes. A total of 6.5p cost. I did keep the temp low for the clothes but had to go to top whack for the bedding and this used two thirds of the energy consumed. I will be using the easy iron sheets from now on

I have a feeling this will be addictive - just trying out the monitor on the tv now

greenbee

It is addictive... but it might be worth reading the meter and then doing a week with things as normal, so you've got a comparison for Mr BG to see. Presumably you'll be the one to decide what to spend any savings on... like new curtains :rolleyes:

gingababe

I have just stumbled across this thread & I am amazed I thought we were really good at cutting down our energy costs, but now I am sur I can do it a lot more, so is there a device that I can get to see how much my laptop & desktop take & thing like my bread maker etc, where can I get one from??? I am sorry if this is a really silly question !!

Many thanks for your help.

Ps off to do my spread sheet to keep an eye out.

Ginga

belfastgirl23

Here you go ginga - this is what I have

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1081169&highlight=maplin

I ordered it online...

belfastgirl23

greenbee wrote: »

It is addictive... but it might be worth reading the meter and then doing a week with things as normal, so you've got a comparison for Mr BG to see. Presumably you'll be the one to decide what to spend any savings on... like new curtains :rolleyes:

yay yay I got him to agree to getting the sash windows in the sitting room refurbed - this would pretty much eliminate the need for curtains since they use some kind of insulation system though I'm going to check the references to make sure it does work. Got a quote a couple of years ago for just shy of £500...hopefully won't have gone up too much in the meantime...

Oh and our tv costs about £1 a week in running costs...not bad for a plasma. Comes down by about 5p if I turn off standby....