My Energy use Diary

setmefree2

chardonnay wrote: »

our electricity use is very high :eek:, we are both at home all day . i wanted to get one of those energy meters from aldi and was met by the (sensible response), what if one of our appliances is high? - what will you do? - unfortunately / or not, we are not in the position to just go out and buy a more efficient model :mad:

Hi Chardonnay,

Both me and Mr SMF2 work from home alot - though not all the time. For us this has meant that actually there is quite abit of scope to cut costs. When I discovered our spare (old) fridge was eating electricity I realised I didn't actually need it to be on:rotfl:Same with the freezer...

SMF2:D

CaroB_2

I was seriously tempted to put our central heating on last night - we don't have a thermostat so it's just a case of putting it on timer (usually 1 hour in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening) or just switching it on and remembering to switch it off again!
After checking with OH whether he was cold (he wasn't) I decided instead to wear a thicker jumper and some socks and warmed up quite nicely after that.
I really don't think we'll last until the end of October though as it's getting colder every day up here. We have a small card thermometer which tells us roughly what temperature it is - last year our heating wasn't working properly for the majority of the winter and so it was generally about 15-18 degrees in the living room, and 12 when the heating wasn't on. And OH was unemployed, in during the day, but refused to put the heating on and instead I'd come home from work and find him wrapped in a fleecy blanket wearing three jumpers!!
We now have a new boiler & loft insulation so it'll be interesting to see how much gas we use over the winter, gulp...

A_fiend_for_life

Winter scares me tbh. Though if I'm reasonably frugal and armed with a diary I should be better than last year. I also had a distinct lack of planning last year. In Jan / Feb I had the heating on all day and quite high too.

No heating yesterday though I was tempted. Temperature was still 16 C but didn't feel as bad as the previous night so I am wondering if a higher humidity makes it feel chillier.
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Ken68

The plan for me this year is to reduce the actual hours the heating is on.

One hour in the morning instead of two and two hours in the evening instead of 4. No heating on yet, get to Oct 1, then next target will be clock change time. Maybe change time of daily walk to later. Winter woolies on , double curtains up, now making quilts for windows. Thought to hang 'em like net curtains into the reveal and take them down in the a.m.
Have some exterior polystyrene shutters which will come out later.

Ken68

Just got two free energy bulbs from Southern Electric, and a leaflet about Better Plan, where you get a free energy monitor worth £45 and cashback for reducing energy.Suspect it's part of a selling plan, but just rang up and they assured me no change of tariff.

Frugaldom

Hi meterwatch crew

I got my email from Scottish Power reminding me this was the last day for submitting actual meter readings to avoid an estimated bill, so I have read the meter (ok, so it was actually my daily chart that I read ) and added on enough to cover to the 30th September. My last year's bill for the same period was £182.66 and electricity has increased in price. I had set aside the exact same amount for this year, in the hope of beating the price increases by meter-watching...

My bill is £112.30! :T :j :beer:
I have just made £70.36 for my savings pot!

Now for the ultra-geeky part!
The bills are shown in meters cubed or cubic meters, whichever it is, and I have just worked out the price difference. This time last year, a cubic meter of power (which is roughly 1 unit) cost me an average of 6.589p but this year it is costing me 11.05p :eek: In real money terms, that's an increase of 67.68% in the space of 12 months??!! :eek: Is that correct?

A_fiend_for_life

nykmedia wrote: »

I have just made £70.36 for my savings pot!

Woop Woop! thats a really good saving! Outstanding!


I'm not sure about the geeky part I suspect the initial gas price of circa 6p sounds a bit low. I'll check back later.

Hows the dehumidifier doing by the way?

Frugaldom

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

Woop Woop! thats a really good saving! Outstanding!


I'm not sure about the geeky part I suspect the initial gas price of circa 6p sounds a bit low. I'll check back later.

Hows the dehumidifier doing by the way?

That's electricity, we don't have any gas. The bills aren't quoted in kw units, they are in M3 for some reason but a cubic meter seems to equate to around about one kwu. My unit prices are an average of cheap rate and standard rate as we have E7 meter system.

The dehumidifier is doing an EXCELLENT job! I left it on for 24 hours and had to empty the drainage bucket as it was full! :eek: We can already notice the difference in the air quality in the hallway as it's no longer musty/damp smelling and the clothes on the drier are drying overnight.

A_fiend_for_life

I thought had mentioned you didnt have gas previously (I was in too much of a hurry earlier on) strange unit measurement though.

that sounds a lot of water moisture. There's no obvious damp patches or anything but you can feel the air is a bit damp at times. and particularly when I got back from hols as I had kept the heating off. Price might be a problem.

A_fiend_for_life

By the way not sure if any of you have seen it there is a competition on the comps board with a prize for solar thermal energy. A search for Good Energy should find it. It is a also transferable to friends and family if your property is not suitable so still worth doing even if your property is not suitable or you rent imho.

Just checking for the link...to comp

Hopefully it is ok to post this.:)