My Energy use Diary

Frugaldom

ktpie wrote: »

I'm becoming a little obsessed with our energy use, does this happen to everyone when they first start paying attention to it?

YES, it does become an obsession. I prefer to think of it as a good habit now - but it doesn't end after the initial 'settling in' period - I'm still obsessing after umm.... 5 years :rotfl:

Door curtains and window fleeces/thermals make a HUGE difference in our house, especially bedrooms - so snug in mornings that I don't want to get up and that's before switching on a heater in there - delaying that as late as possible! :rotfl:

ktpie

I even bought a new torch this morning to make it easier to read the meter, one of those ones where you squeeze a lever to generate the power, it was £2.50 from Tesco, I'm actually quite impressed by it and may go back for some more for camping, ours always seem to be running out of batteries.
DH is bringing home an electricity meter today from work so I will be going round checking how much everything uses. One of my big vices is that I keep leaving the laptop charger cable plugged in and switched on when it's not attached to the laptop. In my (shaky) defence the plug isn't in the easiest place to get to and as I get more and more pregnant the bump is getting in the way of me reaching over to it. Hopefully seeing how much power it is using will spur me into either trying harder or moving it to somewhere more sensible (but where a toddler can't get to, tricky!).
Dug out a solar mobile phone charger today and it had enough power stored in it to top up my mobile but isn't recharging itself as it's too dull today but should work on the rare occassions the sun comes out.
Have managed to not light the fire today, the heating has been on for 2 half hour stints on the timer so I think that has taken the edge off.

A_fiend_for_life

There's a programme on R4 today on energy saving and grants that might be worth a listen to. It's on at 3pm.

The page on the programme can be found here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ox/8309444.stm

setmefree2

ktpie wrote: »

SMF2 - do you have a curtain over the door? Is it practical to put one up?

There really is no where to put the pole. Next spring I think we are going to have new glass put in (seems bad to take out the orginal glass!) but we might have a porch door put on....need time to sort it out....

Well done on all your progress so far!

Frugaldom

Setmefree, would it be possible to fit thick bubblewrap over the glass in the door without it looking too bad? I've done this to both our skylight windows and have velcro'ed a piece of fleece over the window in the back door. It cuts out a lot of the light but it does seem to have reduced the chill factor. I found the tip on the MSE preparing for winter thread. The fleeces cut to fit over glass instead of hanging as curtains had been great here - it means I still haven't had to switch on the storage heater in livingroom or bedroom yet, although I have been lighting the open fire every couple of days and dehumidifier is running 24/7.

ktpie

SMF2 - I agree with nykmedia, there is a lot of discussion at the moment on the Preparing for Winter thread on draughtproofing doors, you might find an idea that would work for you. Maybe there would be some way to attach fleece or similar to the door just over the glass is that you could remove during the day and in the summer. I think people have been using velcro and the like, but that might not be suitable on a nice old door. I agree that it sounds like a shame to take out the old glass.

I've been busy with the energy monitor since yesterday measuring everything. Interestingly the laptop charger hardly uses anything when it isn't charging the laptop, a tiny amount but not enough to register any kWh (or fractions of, it reads to 0.00) over 4 hours, so not going to worry too much if I can't manage the balancing act to switch it off all the time, will get DH to do it at night.
My electric toothbrush charger uses a small amount, I think it took 8 hours to clock up 0.01kWh, but it uses it the same whether the toothbrush is there or not so as I only charge it every couple of weeks I'll now be unplugging it when not in use.

Better get going, got electrical items to test!

setmefree2

for all your ideas - I will have a think.......quite warm here today. Washing out:D

Frugaldom

It's fairly mild here, too, but I have the washing machine, slow cooker and breadmaker all on the go, so that's heating the kitchen for now. Fingers crossed the rain stays away long enough to get washing out and dried, as it's mild enough to do without the fire being lit today.

Frugaldom

Good morning, another week has passed and the electricity consumption is slowly creeping upwards as the days grow shorter, the nights longer and the temperature lower. So here goes...

My imeasure badges say D and E

Your household's total energy spend over the last 46 weeks is £794.00.
For week ending 25th October, 2009 your household spent £14.18 in total.
Electricity A Rate: £10.69
Electricity B Rate: £2.04
Electricity C Rate: £1.45
Plus standing charge of £1.61

This brings my average weekly amount over the year to date to: £18.87

Mixed weather here but still not cold enough to switch on the other heaters. Logs, on the other hand, will need replenishing very soon.

cw18

Even with last weeks readings showing higher useage than the week before (an extra 2.5kg CO2 per person), I've somehow managed to retain both 'C' badges :T

Guess I must be being really mean about putting the heating on :rolleyes2