My Energy use Diary

Frugaldom

Hi guys and hello Hannah,

I'm all electric, no gas, and am currently using about 14 units per day without any heaters and hot water only on for a couple of hours during cheap rate. Your 30 kwh per day, I would imagine, is possibly your hot water being on for a little longer or else you might already be using an electric heater or storage heater somewhere. During last winter, the useage here peaked at 90 units in ONE DAY just trying to fight the -7C temperatures.
This year, we have fitted a logburner, so that should make an enormous difference. All I can suggest is that you don't try to compete with other households, it just gets you down. Accept that all electric houses relying on it for heat and hot water are never going to be as low as those with other types of fuel. Don't forget that many others aren't declaring things like oil, calor gas or coal. First thing I did was get thermometers, so I knew for sure I wasn't overheating the house. Good luck. I can recommend the 'preparing for winter' thread so your house is as warm and insulated as possible before the heaters need to go on, then it saves the heat for longer.

101kwh units used last weeks and a C rating. Still no storage heaters on, as the logburner has been enough on the cold days. It dropped to zero here last night again, so 'George' the stove got lit first thng this morning to warm the place before anyone else got up. Daytime temps have been in the high teens past few days, so that's been brilliant! Wish we had solar panels!

hannah:-)_2

Thanks Frugaldom for the suggestions and to everyone for making me feel welcome

Another week has passed and I've started spotting ways that we're wasting electricity, but we've had to put a storage heater on to cope with the erratic weather - I figure one storage heater has got to be cheaper than running the tumble dryer! - so that has cancelled out much of the positives. Last week averaged 29kw/hrs Oh well, onwards and upwards as they say. I suppose at least it's not going up

hannah:-)_2

Oooh, I've just realised that the day / night split is changing week to week too! What a thing to get excited about :rotfl: I'm on economy 7, so altho I'm not using much less electricity, it will be costing me quite a lot less for the bit I've shifted into the night zone

Frugaldom

Hannah, make the most of the E7. The comparison sites suggest that the average is around 55% so that's the one to beat. I think I'm at around 60% cheap rate, which gives a lot more for your money, but I would prefer it to be closer to the 75% It's trying to get the daytime stuff down that's my problem - looks like the flasks and hot water bottles will be coming out again soon, rather than resort to electric heaters. I'd still love solar panels or wind power. Even if it was just enough to run the computers and fridge, things that are on all day every day.

Did my readings, slightly up on last week as I've been doing quite a lot of baking and grilling but have still maintained a C rating, so I'm pleased about that.

setmefree2

Hi All :hello:


Our CH is still off and I'm still line drying :j


Keep up the good work

smf2

wilf55

line drying as we dont have a tumble dryer but heating has been on for a couple of hours in the eves here and there

wish everyone else would turn things off though!

still usage is down from this time last year a smidgeon on the elec but a reasonable amount on the gas

am trying to get enough money together for hot water bottles for all of us!

[Deleted User]

I just re-joined imeasure after having moved house 3 months ago and have managed to get some readings in plus some estimated ones in between. Our rating is A as we are in an eco house now with some renewable energy. It used to be a C. We have had work done by someone powering an electric concrete mixer in the past couple of weeks, so the results are skewed but he has finished now and it is back to normal life with, as always, an eye on the weather re drying washing

Its a bit topsy turvy, moving house and I have just got back to using the pressure cooker and sometimes the remoska but I still have to work out if that is still better than my new oven, which is small

[Deleted User]

The electric bill came today and we are all electric apart from a wood pellet stove. Our use per day is 4.7 kwh.

Our last house was a new one and our total energy cost per month was £55. We all have to eat and wash and wash clothes so energy efficiency is very much down to insulation and house position ie the sun makes a massive difference

Frugaldom

Kittie, you are so lucky to be able to average such tiny amounts - impossible for us here.

-6C this morning, so the temps are dropping again. Have only just switched on storage heaters at low but won't know the impact of these until next week - stove is in daily use now but also had to light open fire a couple of times, so ploughing through the log pile. Managed to maintain my 'C' rating last week but used the cooker less over the past week, so I'm hopeful of a 'B' for next week. 96kwh used since last reading, but that's being measured agains 146kwh used over same period last year - a definite improvement since the stove has been installed.

Energy_Saving_Trust_company_representative

Hi,

we've lined up one of our experts to answer any questions related to saving or generating energy. This includes things like feed-in tariffs and the free solar panel schemes, as well as more general energy saving tips. It starts at 2pm today here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2815438

Cheers,

Matt