My Energy use Diary

belfastgirl23

Hi everyone :hello: long time no see, been really busy and then off on hols. I did keep taking readings when I was here but didn't manage to either update imeasure or on here. In good news I finally made two Cs for the last full week (ending 15th). However in less good news this was for when I was on holiday so I have no mission at all of ever getting an A if I'm at a C when the house is empty. We did make a real effort to turn off absolutely everything except the fridge so I'm assuming it is a real energy guzzler since we used 3 kwh electric per day during this time which is about a third of our normal usage when we are here.

Managing to do without heating still but probably not for much longer, it's getting a bit chilly at nights but I'm taking hot baths rather than putting on the heat. Since end August we've used less than 250kwh gas which is pretty good.

And in other good news my gas bill arrived and I am in credit to the tune of nearly £400 :j:j our consumption was spot on 20000kwh which I was really pleased about. I don't think we'll manage to get it much below that. Last year was nearly 27000kwh so a good reduction. Although I was properly cold last winter for the first time in years. Our direct debit has been £90 a month for the last six months so hopefully will come down to a more manageable £50 or so. Especially since we will have a 19% drop in prices as well from 1 October.

Well I'm keeping trying anyway, A or no A it's still a lot better than it was!

setmefree2

I have updated Page 1

Well the bills are in for the Qtr end and both the gas and electricity have tended towards the norm for this time of year....neither bad nor good. Given that we never went away for a long holiday this year, on balance I'm quite pleased.

Anyhoo, still don't have the CH on. It is currently set for 19degs. I noticed the weather report had the temp falling below this next week and I'm wondering if our CH will turn itself on?

setmefree2

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

And in other good news my gas bill arrived and I am in credit to the tune of nearly £400 :j:j our consumption was spot on 20000kwh which I was really pleased about. I don't think we'll manage to get it much below that. Last year was nearly 27000kwh so a good reduction. Although I was properly cold last winter for the first time in years. Our direct debit has been £90 a month for the last six months so hopefully will come down to a more manageable £50 or so. Especially since we will have a 19% drop in prices as well from 1 October.

Well I'm keeping trying anyway, A or no A it's still a lot better than it was!

well done :T:T

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

It's also now 52 weeks since I started using i-measure. In that time I've logged 3,535kWh for my electricity and 7,549kWh for my gas, which - according to imeasure - equates to 3,316 kg CO2.

Just been and picked up my bill from the readings I submitted on Tuesday (all done on-line), and added the figures from that to my spreadsheet.

Over the last 52 weeks my actual costs have added up to £699.07 - which equates to £58.42/month.

(And due to change in calorific value, my gas useage over the 52 weeks is actually 7,552 kWh rather than 7,549!)


Given my prices have now changed, I've done some number crunching to see what the cost would be over the next 12 months if the new prices remain constant (unlikely), the calorific value changes to exactly the same value at the same point though the period (also unlikely), and I use exactly the same gas and electricity on a week by week basis.

This has given a figure of £668.74 - or £55.88/month

They've reduced my payments (starting 1st Oct) to £47/month - which is just £564 in the year. But I'm £155 (and pennies) in credit, so that should cover the (potential) £105 shortfall comfortably

It'll just come as a bit of shock when my DD goes up again in 12 months time - especially as that's the same point as my income is threatening to drop by over 70%

Frugaldom

Well done CW, Belfastgirl and Setmefree! Belfastgirl, I kept an eye open for you last week whilst visiting Belfast so if you saw any maddies waving from the big red open top bus, it could have been us!

OK, here goes... I'm sitting at a 'D' and an 'E' on imeasure and consumption is ever so slightly up, as I've needed more hot water over the past week. Doing without it isn't an option for me.

Your household's total energy spend over the last 42 weeks is £739.80.
For week ending 27th September, 2009 your household spent £12.09 in total.
Electricity A Rate: £10.05
Electricity B Rate: £2.04
Electricity C Rate: £0.00
(Plus standing charge: £1.61)

This brings my weekly average down to £19.22 per week, as opposed to my predicted £20, so I'm still ahead after allocating £1,200 for the year. Mind you, we do still have 94 days to go and the heaters will be on long before the year ends.

My actual spends on the meter from 1st January 2009 to now have amounted to £697.29 so the real weekly average for this year is only £18.01 including standing charges. I'm happy with this as it's for 3 adults, 2 working fulltime from home, all meals are homecooked every day and I do a lot of baking & preserving.

Hoping to leave the heaters off for a little longer but have had to light the fire a few tmes over the past month because it was too wet to hang out any washing at times. No fire over past week, though

A_fiend_for_life

I got two A's for last weeks meter readings. Just got the bill for 12 weeks at £26 for 83 days. Last year was £84 for a similar period, about 90 days, so I am really happy with that. The heating is still off not sure how long for. I refuse to give a date as the weather will almost certainly conspire against me.:)

I plan to do more batch cooking to help keep costs down.

setmefree2

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

I got two A's for last weeks meter readings. Just got the bill for 12 weeks at £26 for 83 days. Last year was £84 for a similar period, about 90 days, so I am really happy with that. .

well done :T:T:T

setmefree2

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

The heating is still off not sure how long for. I refuse to give a date as the weather will almost certainly conspire against me.:)

Our CH was set for 19 degs - so it would have come on if the temp dipped below 19. When I got up this morning for the first time it was 19 degs. So I've reset it to 18 degs to stop it coming on.....it's definitely becoming colder in the mornings in SE...

Frugaldom

WOW! AFFL! Well done! I am still completely in awe of anyone who can keep their power consumption as low as that. :eek::T:beer:

And WOW Setmefree! If we had central heating and we set it at 19 degrees on the thermostat, it would be on practically all year round! :rotfl:

Maybe I need to relocate south and see just how much it would cost me to live down there with a similar lifestyle to here. Trouble is, it would cost me at least 3 times as much in rent, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts, barring getting a coucil flat on the south coast. Anyone know how much council rent costs these days?

cw18

AFFL - :T for the outstandingly low bill

Yesterday I was showing as 2 x 'E' badges for last weeks readings, but now showing as an 'E' against all and 'D' against all g&e detached properties - so another 'heavy' user must have entered last weeks readings since yesterday morning

Just entered today's readings - very little movement in the last 5-6 weeks......

Electrity has gone 82 (!), 66, 62, 67, 66, and now 65 kWh
Gas has gone 45, 45, 46, 46, 46, 46 kWh - and the change in kWh is only down to a change in calorific value (from 40.0 to 40.3)

I just wish other people would start running their heating systems, as I'm sure that's the only way my badges are going to improve (But mine will then nose-dive again when my heating comes on :eek: )

My thermostat is normally at 18 degrees over the winter, and I've had it at 16 degrees (which has been enough for it to not kick in) for almost the last 5 months. It kicked in about 10 days ago, so after the second morning with it warming up (just a touch, but still on) I turned it down to 14 degrees...... When it starts to kick in at that setting, then I'll consider doing gradual increases as and when necessary - but I can't see [strike]m[/strike]any other ways of decreasing my useage over the next year