My Energy use Diary

belfastgirl23

nykmedia wrote: »

Must Google 'insulating paint' as I've never even heard of that. Is it like insulation that you paint on? would it be ideal for my frugal house when I eventually buy one?

Here's the link

http://www.thermilate.com/insulating_paint_additive.shtml

It's a powder you add to the paint. My (very experienced and very nice) painter said about 5 times that he couldn't guarantee the results in terms of the insulating effects but he has also ordered some for his own house ... so at least I'll have someone to compare results with. We're getting it all done while we're away .... will update you all with whatever info I have....

A_fiend_for_life

Good work people and Hello to all the new members:hello:

My apologies to Scottish Power for nearly halving my bill compared to the same quarter last year.

Carbon Rating C:j

Rank 26/34

You have been taking readings for 5 weeks

Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 213 kWh (Gas: 89kWh | Electricity: 124kWh)
Carbon emissions are 83 Kg CO2 (Gas: 18 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 65 Kg CO2)

Last week you spent:

* £0.00 on gas
* £2.52 on electricity (21 kWh)

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (5 weeks ago):

* £3.10 on gas
* £14.88 on electricity

Carbon Emitted & Energy Used

You chose to compare your household with (All users/All housetypes) - to change your comparison go into your user detail settings.

Compared with the averages of 102 households.

I said no GAS!! but I still gave up. I checked how much I'd used and didn't use enough to turn the whole unit:rotfl: That's not cheating is it? - it was by chance.

The carbon rating of 'C' has made my day. I've noticed this doesn't seem to update straight away as I was a D on Monday morning so worth checking again.

matty2767

its my first week of results

happy with them as well. my wench and the two kids are at home all day but are being really good about keeping things turned off when they dont need them.

i am currently rank 13 out of 34 although not sure if all of you guys have now entered your details




Gas use as kWh
Last week Per Household 55
Electricity use as kWh
Last week Per Household 35

setmefree2

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

My apologies to Scottish Power for nearly halving my bill compared to the same quarter last year.

WOW - that's totally fantastic - well done you:T:T:T

Fill_7

hi folks.

congrats to all on your achievements so far, its inspired me to try and reduce my usage as much as poss.

ive noticed when looking at my dial that if i turn off the supply to the gararge, the dial almost halves its pace. thing is, theres only a freezer in there. its possible it could be very frosted up. could this be a factor in why its using so much electricity? its not a new freezer either so i doubt its very energy efficient.

thanks for any help....

fill

Frugaldom

Fiendforlife those are amazing results! :T Congratulations! I have no hope of coming anywhere near that low unless we all get jobs away from home and leave the place empty 5 days per week :rotfl:


Belfastgirl thanks for the insulating paint link, I've been reading up about it and if NASA say it works then it has to be worth considering in the future

Fill, if your meter readings half when you switch off the garage link then I'd seriously consider working out how much electricity is being consumed by the freezer, if that's the only thing that's switched on in there.

i-measure got back to me regarding my query about the 8 day week and it appears that there was some sort of error on the site but when the details are fed in, it reverts to the 7 day week. I think it's to allow for full days. They also said that there would be a new version of the site launched this autumn with improved feedback - graphs, tables, carbon clubs. I wonder if they'll allow calculations for anyone who uses oil, as this is missing at the moment and I know quite a few people who heat their water etc from oil central heating systems. Off to check everyone else's progress now

Edited in: I'm now 19/35 in the Moneysavers carbon club but still don't know how the ranking is calculated. :rotfl:

More editing in: Just checked Scottish Power website for the new prices for our tariff:

Daily standing charge - 21.85p
Daytime units - 13.49p
Nightime units - 6.097p

These prices include VAT but exclude the online savers discount, and I used the following during week ending 31/08/08

£1.53 standing charge
£5.66 daytime units
£1.16 nighttime units

Last week's amount on the new figures would have been £8.35 less online discount, the i-measure website estimated £8.16 so it isn't that far out. I wonder if they will alter the figures to reflect the latest price increases? It's a bit scary calculating costs on previous years' figures - If we used exact same this winter as we did last winter, it could cost us about £7.50 PER DAY (£52.50/wk) :eek: and I'm working on a household budget of £76.50 per week!

setmefree2

Fill_7 wrote: »

ive noticed when looking at my dial that if i turn off the supply to the gararge, the dial almost halves its pace. thing is, theres only a freezer in there. its possible it could be very frosted up. could this be a factor in why its using so much electricity? its not a new freezer either so i doubt its very energy efficient.

thanks for any help....

fill

Hi:hello:,

I switched my freezer off when we went on holiday - it's a small one (the size of a regular fridge) but quite old (13 years). I was amazed how much energy it was using and haven't switched it back on since;). Thing is I don't miss it as I shop everyday - it only had bits of bread in it, few pizzas, etc....

Is yours a chest freezer?

Best Regards

SMF2

Fill_7

hi SMF2...

its not a chest freezer, just a small fridge type one like yours. checked it last night and its VERY frosted up, not alot of food in it either. might try and squeeze what there is into the already excessively filled main freezer.

need to do something, nice letter off EDF yest informing me they're upping my gas monthly DD to £70 from £45. elec currently £50, but after i entered a meter reading 2 days ago for the 1st time in a long while, we're now £170 in debt on that account, so no doubt that will be increasing too.

fill

setmefree2

Hi Fill7,

Good Luck with your attempts to reduce your electricity - let us know how you get on.:D

All The Best

SMF2

Little_Mama

Popped into the Gas & Elec board and spotted the thread asking if your CH is on yet, one of the posters said about testing out your CH and I remembered that I'd not done that yet and the heating has been off permanently since end of March.

Well to make the most of the 20 mins it was going on for I cleared the airer in the conservatory and put all the washing over each radiator so that I could kill 2 birds with one stone. 20 mins done, all rads ok (two furthest from boiler didn't warm as much as others, will get OH to look) but as least I've got the washing a bit drier and know that it is working.

All the best
LM