My Energy use Diary

SuzyWuzy_2

danjackson999 wrote: »

Im not exactly sure as im only 25 and not great with this type of stuff. As i said before the house is only 4 years old so it has a pretty decent combi boiler. I have the hot water come on once in the morning for 2 hours and at 5pm for 2 hours. Heating is never on and i just press boost when it gets too cold.

If you have a combi then you should have a constant supply of hot water anyway. Why would you need to put it on to come on for 2 hours in the morning etc so you have hot water? It sounds to me like your putting a immersion heater on. You asked what a immersion heater was?.. ..It'll be seperate from your combi, normally just a switch which you flick on/off and it then boils up the water in the tank which could be in the loft or a cupboard somewhere...like a big kettle!! Is that what you have ?

Dan also - (sorry to go on) you live with your brother and a friend -I take it that you've raised it with them about the high useage? Maybe they are leaving things switched on / plugged in in their rooms? You also said that your useage came down in the first 6 months of living there . why? What changed?


Annie - It is fab! I spent the other night looking through it all and dreaming! lol

cw18

I assume the boost is to heat the radiators?

An immersion heater is an electric element inside a hot water cylinder which means you can get hot water even if you've no gas, but as you've got a combi boiler I very much doubt you have a cylinder. And I was told, 8 years ago, by our builders that very few new properties have an immersion (even when - like us - they do have a hot water cylinder). I'd double check in the roof if possible though, as the council (in their wisdom) put my daughter's water cylinder into the roof space in order to improve the pressure of the hot water to the taps !!! Her gas bill useage always seemed sky high to me, but in the last month she's been changed to a combi boiler and the cylinder has been removed - so we're now watching her useage with interest......

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

CO2 for the household was 43kg last week, but is up to 51kg this week - so I'm not expecting to retain the 'double C' position I managed to hand on to for the third week in a row

Well, I was right!! I didn't maintain my 'double C' badges!!!



I've now got a 'C' against all users and an amazing 'B' against g&e detatched properties :j

I'm totally shocked by the latter - we're showing as 25kg CO2 per person, but against an average of a whopping 45kg !!!!!

Will be interesting to see what tomorrows readings come in like though, as I've used the washer more, used the dryer a couple of times, had to boost the hot water, had the heating on (and slightly warmer) all weekend, and even been using the iron (I've used it more this last week - for my uniform - than I have in the entire previous 12 months )


Looking back at my records, it appears I didn't better with my badges over the colder months of last winter than during the warmer months - so I'm assuming this indicates our everyday useage is slightly high but the property is well insulated, hence meaning the use of the heating doesn't increase our bills as much as for others

ktpie

Dan - If you've overlooked something it could be hardwired into the house, something that was there already, not on a plug, and would also be different to your previous house.
Do you have electric showers? They normally have a seperate electric cut off switch, sometimes like a light switch, showers use a lot of electricity.
Do you have an electric oven? Do you have any security lights outside the house? What sort of lighting do you have inside the house? If you have a lot of spotlights they can be using lots of electricity.

I think there is some confusion about your heating. As Suzy said if you have a combi you wouldn't need to have the water coming on on a timer. When you turn a hot tap on does it cause your boiler to fire up? That would happen with a combi. Do you have a hot water cylinder? Usually in an airing cupboard and has a lot of insulation around it, you wouldn't normally have one with a combi and that would be where the immersion was if you had one.
This may be a daft question but the heating is definitely gas is it? It's not some new fangled electric thing is it?

ktpie

I've gone to double 'C' badges this week, not surprising as this is reflecting having the heating on more I think.

Well done cw18 with the 'B's!

ktpie

Nykmedia - I've just had a look at your website as well, what a great lifestyle! Whereabouts are you? My Grandma lives near the Mull of Galloway.

SuzyWuzy_2

I got a A+ against all users and a D.

Please -can someone explain to me in plain english (ok im blonde so go easy on me) what these badges mean and if my result is good or not. I don't understand it when I read the explanation. The badges are last weeks results aren't they ?

We came in at 70 kwh this week so I'm really pleased as the Tv's and playstations have been on constantly with a new game coming out.

A_fiend_for_life

This will be the last week of low readings. The previous week was only 15 kWh of electricity so still on double A this week. This week was 18 kWh plus 87 kWh of gas. Carbon for this week has jumped from an average of 8.5 kg to 27 kg. This weeks all households is 38 which is about 70% (C) so I'll be on a B or C next week unless weekly emissions jump to 70 kg or more.

Readings are still lower than this week last year when I used 29 kWh of electricity and 141 kWh of gas. So over all consumption and emissions are still going down. Emissions and annual spend will drop more in Feb March because I was heating with electricity for 6 weeks last year.

Frugaldom

Hi guys and thanks for all the compliments on my blog site (all embarrassed now ) We're not far from the Galloway Forest but it doesn't make it any easier to get cheap logs for the fire and choice of suppliers for anything is very limited. I can SEE a windfarm but can't get supplied with green energy on the same tariff I have.

So, here we go for this week's massive increase that should boost the challenge average and enable many of you to record below average results. :rotfl: My exact words when I saw the readings were, 'HOLY ****!"

Your household's total energy spend over the last 49 weeks is £853.53.
For week ending 15th November, 2009 your household spent £28.73 in total.
Electricity A Rate: £16.87 (day use)
Electricity B Rate: £3.62 (night use & hot water)
Electricity C Rate: £8.24 (heaters)
Standing charge: £1.61

Which means I spent £30.34 this week on electricity alone! :eek:

DanJackson999 - I think if you have your hot water on for 4 hours a day being used by 3 of you plus boosting your heating whenever you feel chilly then you could be about right on your useage. What you want to do is get yourself cheap thermometers and see what temperature each of your rooms is, including your attic if you have one. I am now using just over 50 units per day to get my house to maintain 15 or 16 degrees and that's with hot water only being on for 45 minutes per day with an occasional boost. We are a household of 3, all electric and still have coal & lpgs to pay over & above this.

danjackson999

annie123 wrote: »

Dan 2 thoughts
1. have you looked in the loft?

when we moved many years ago, we were shocked to find 2 oil filled elec rads on in the loft 24/7 :eek: only found it when we put packing boxes up there and were surprised at the heat as it was march and the place had no heating except for a gas fire!!

2. My son found out the expensive way that someone else had hooked into his elec supply whilst it was empty, between the previous renters moving out and him moving in. Guess you will know if you turn the mains switch off and the meter is still running, which is what my son did.

Just to give you and idea of younger guys usage, my son pays £40 pm elec, has 5 elec guitars, amps and earphones;), 2 computers and 3 lcd screens, one is BIG!, and one computer is on 24 hours, home projector for watching films on the wall, cooks elec, heated fish tanks, games consoles, mobiles etc, but no TV, (uses the computer) and no iron:rolleyes:
His oven once shorted which ment when he put a hob on the oven would heat up too, other than being dangerous it nearly doubled his elec bill. Do you cook elec, if so check the cooker.

Yeh i looked in the loft and there was nothing there. I cannot believe your son is only paying £40PM for all of that.I just have no idea why i cant get down to that.
Im not 100% sure whether the oven is Gas but i know the hob is.Does this usually mean the oven is aswell?
I am going to take pictures of boiler,heating controls etc in a minute and post them on here to see if anyone can help me figure out where im going wrong.