My Energy use Diary

lingojingo

Hi everyone, just finished reading all your posts after Nyk sent me here last night.

I've been entering my readings on imeasure for 12 weeks, but didn't realise this thread existed.



Your Results in Detail

You have been taking readings for 12 weeks

Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 1,271 kWh (Gas: 596kWh | Electricity: 675kWh)
Carbon emissions are 476 Kg CO2 (Gas: 123 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 353 Kg CO

Money Spent

How has my energy spend been calculated?
Last week you spent:

• £3.29 on gas
• £5.28 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (12 weeks ago):

• £20.85 on gas
• £81.00 on electricity

Hoping the spend calculations are reasonably correct, as if they are My next bill, due in a week or so, could be lower than the same time last year. Given the amount prices have gone up, that would be amazing!
I can't work it out as I'm on one of those 'so many units at this price and then the reat at that price' tariffs, and it's beyond the capacity of my little brain at the moment!.

Bill Summary (Oct 2007)

Total Electricity Charges
£81.85

Total Gas Charges
£30.50

Energy Online Discount
£12.39 CR

Total (Ex VAT)
£99.96

VAT @ 5% on £99.96
£5.00
Total (Including VAT)
£104.96

Penny2myName

Now this looks more realistic for me

MoneySaving Carbon Club 45/47
I have a general carbon ranking of E:o:o
Just wasn't sure if the carbon club one was different or the same, as noticed people seemed to have different carbon rankings. or is it jsut me really confused

CaroB_2

Argh! I've just checked my meter again (having merely trusted my gas statement previously) and it turns out it measures in cubic feet rather than metres, gulp. So with some trepidation I changed my user details on i-measure but fortunately I've only gone down from a B rating (thought we were doing so well!) to a C...

I'm assuming that the gas company will know this? My statement tells me how much I've used in cubic metres which is what confused me, however they have the metre number so in theory they should know... Here's hoping!

cw18

Another one who's found this thread thanks to Nyk's link last night

I saw mention of i-measure and the Carbon Club on another thread almost a month ago (probably the 'avoid using gas and electric' one) and signed up for it then, but like lingojingo hadn't realised there was a seperate thread for this

Anyway, I've entered my 4th set of readings today (initial set plus 3 weekly readings), so one more set next week and I should "earn" myself a carbon rating.

In the meantime if I compare to all detached houses using gas and electricity I'm showing up as 13/47 for the Carbon Club (or 2/47 against g&e/all house types!)

This week is the first time that my electricity useage (per person and for the household) hasn't been way above the averages (we've always been well down on the gas) -- so as our electricity useage hasn't dropped by the sort of figures we've been over by I can only assume everyone else has used more than last week


Your Results in Detail

You have been taking readings for 3 weeks

Since you started measuring your total household -
Energy use is 389 kWh (Gas: 155kWh | Electricity: 234kWh)
Carbon emissions are 154 Kg CO2 (Gas: 32 Kg CO2 | Electricity: 122 Kg CO2)
Money Spent

How has my energy spend been calculated?
Last week you spent:

• £1.54 on gas
• £9.00 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (3 weeks ago):

• £5.43 on gas
• £28.08 on electricity

Well, I don't agree with the individual costings...... but strangely the combined total isn't far off, and I'm on a NSC tariff which means the first so many units a week are a lot more expensive !!!!


My first week we used 75kWh of electricity, the second was 84, and this week was 75 again.

I've no idea why we had the peak in the 2nd week -- although it did include my freezer stocktake (last thing before I read the meters) when I pulled everything out, sorted/listed the foods, then packed it all back in. Whilst I didn't defrost at the same time (which I would expect to cause a spike as they cool back down again after), I guess they were open for longer than normal - but wouldn't have thought this would account for all of it !?!? Can only assume DH had his radio on more as well (DAB, which I've seen people say on the 'avoid using g&e' thread use more than a standard one).


The first week we used 46kWh of gas, the second week was 69, and this week is back to 46.

Some (if not all) of the spike in the gas will be down to me forcing the heating to kick in on the Sunday (9 days ago). The air in the house was feeling chilly and very slightly damp -- and whilst it wasn't enough to worry about the house getting damp patches (or enough that an extra layer of clothes wouldn't have done for me), my DH has health problems so I decided it was wiser to warm the house through. It was only on for a couple of hours though -- and I only turned the thermostat up from 18 to 20 degrees, so an extra 23kWh is actually quite worrying. But having read back I see others are reporting huge spikes due to giving the heating a 'quick blast', so probably nothing wrong with our (recently serviced) system. The thermostat is now back at 18, and I've not noticed it kick itself in (which the readings seem to support)

We use gas for the hot water tank, the central heating (no other means of heating the house, as we don't have a fire of any description), and the hob.

The main thing of interest I've noted comparing against a similar period from last year -- by including the 25 days prior to using i-measure and number crunching on a spreadsheet -- is that our daily averages are exactly the same for the electricity, but down by 4kWh a day for the gas (down from 11/day to just 7/day). The only thing I can think of that I've changed on the gas side is reducing how much the water heater comes on (which, if memory serves me right, would coincide with the start of this 46 day period).


We're quite lucky with the heating though, in that our house is only 6.5 years old and well insulated -- plus the rear of the house is south facing and a real suntrap. As our house is 'back to front' this means the kitchen faces north and the living room and the bedrooms that are in use are all south facing -- so we don't need a lot of sun for the rooms we use to warm up, and they retain it well too. I actually had to open a window one day last week (it was getting hot and stuffy) while local friends were saying they had to put their heating on


With regard to the water heating, I changed from 2 daily slots of an hour (one morning, one late afternoon) to just one slot of 30 mins in the morning about 6 weeks ago, and as that is more than enough for us I've dropped it for 20 mins this morning and will have to see if that's enough over the next week or so. I did notice this afternoon (while looking for a towel for a dog) that the airing cupboard was really warm despite the tank having a moulded insulation jacket (thermostat's set to about 55 degrees). Does anyone know if adding an extra padded jacket to it would help it keep the water hot for longer? It dawned on me that if the 20 mins heating it up in the morning isn't quite enough, then perhaps making it 'self retain' more of the heat may make a difference to that.


I've also just started to use one of those energy monitoring plugs, partly because the few (albeit little) changes I thought I'd made aren't showing any difference at all to our daily average from last year, but mainly because we've been so far above the i-measure averages for this whilst managing to be well down on the gas :eek: I've had my laptop connected for 3 days, and based on what I think was fairly typical useage of the machine I've been pleasantly surprised at how little this costs me to run. (I suspect that when I get to it my son's desktop will be a different kettle of fish.) But this morning I've moved it onto my chest freezer -- as I think this could be a [strike]gas guzzling[/strike] leccy lusting appliance as it's almost 17 years old.

There's no way I can manage without this (or a replacement) freezer, so was wondering....... what sort of payback period would people be looking for before replacing a 'functioning' appliance? and when I look at the 'annual usage' listed against new appliances, how realistic is it to actually achieve these figures (or what sort of factor should I add on to give what I'm likely to see?)


Oh grief! By using "preview post" I've just realised how much I've put into one post!! Sorry

cw18

CaroB wrote: »

Argh! I've just checked my meter again (having merely trusted my gas statement previously) and it turns out it measures in cubic feet rather than metres, gulp. So with some trepidation I changed my user details on i-measure but fortunately I've only gone down from a B rating (thought we were doing so well!) to a C...

I'm assuming that the gas company will know this? My statement tells me how much I've used in cubic metres which is what confused me, however they have the metre number so in theory they should know... Here's hoping!

Yes, your gas company should know.

The quick way to check is to look at the kWh they've billed you for in relation to the difference in your meter readings.

If the kWh is roughly the 'units used' x 10, then you've been charged based on a metric meter.

If the kWh is roughly the 'units used' x 30, then you've been charged based on an imperial meter.

Magentasue

CaroB wrote: »

Argh! I've just checked my meter again (having merely trusted my gas statement previously) and it turns out it measures in cubic feet

I'm assuming that the gas company will know this? My statement tells me how much I've used in cubic metres which is what confused me, however they have the metre number so in theory they should know... Here's hoping!

Your statement should convert the units (cubic feet) to kwh and charge for those. This is where they apply a formula that multiplies your units by 33.1

They shouldn't be converting your imperial units to metric.

whatatwit

Hi, I've just had nosey on the Imeasure site and I see that the bit about the prize draw has gone, so maybe our names are in the hat.

I was most surprised to see that my rank in the MSE carbon club has risen to 9/49 and that I'm now a C.

I was shocked to see how the averages for last week had risen....I think Catherine from the website has inputted her figures (did you see how much gas she had used in her email :eek: )

So, I'm sat here polishing my halo :A but the heating has been on for a couple of hours today, and I'm away Friday & Saturday night, so no doubt Mr Twit will have the heating belting out :rolleyes:

Anyway, back to the averages, I wonder if more people have been updating the site following the email and that's why my figures look good....I was 45/49 yesterday. My setting is all users/all households.

Yes, I know it's all just numbers, but it does make me feel good to know how much I am using compared to others.


CW18, your electric may have risen as the CH pump will have been on more during that middle week.
Re the hot water tank, remember to weigh up the benefits of having the warmth in the airing cupboard to keep towels etc aired.

cw18

The towels rarely make it as far as the airing cupboard, so needing heat to actually 'air' things really isn't an issue for me Hadn't thought about the CH pump needed/using electricity, so thanks for that pointer for my 'spike'

Water heated up for just 20 mins this morning.

Yesterday's pots were washed after brekkie as normal (it's one job DH is still just about capable of doing, I've finally convinced him it's not worth washing up after each meal with only a couple of bowls/plates and bits of cutlerys generated at breakfast or dinner, but he's generally shattered after tea -- so I resist temptation to do them and leave them for him the next day though I'd prefer not to be faced with a pile of dirty pots and pans while making my breakfast), I washed my hair today using the bath mixer tap (done every few days, but we mostly survive with the 'strip washes' DH and I were brought up on so don't use much for baths/showers in a week), and it's been used for a couple of other small tasks during the day (no washing machine use, but that's cold fill anyway!) -- and we still have hot water.....

Wish my timer would drop in increments of 5 mins, 'cos I'd be prepared to chance it at 15 but think dropping it to 10 is asking a bit much for DH to not notice !!!

Daredn't turn it off completely as the menfolk would kick up a major stink -- plus DH can't lift a full kettle to heat water for washing up that way. Have to be realistic about these things I suppose

cw18

whatatwit wrote: »

I was shocked to see how the averages for last week had risen....I think Catherine from the website has inputted her figures (did you see how much gas she had used in her email :eek: )

I thought she must have mistyped in her email, but have just been for a look. Boy have those gas averages gone through the roof :eek:

I knew our gas averages were always coming in well down, but compared to all house types using g&e we're now showing

Gas use as kWh
Last week

Per Person 15 (139)

Per Household 44 (310)



I'd best not mention to DH how little we're using compared to others -- he may insist I put the heating on 24/7 to see if we can catch up :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

I had to go and look! I have improved slightly and am on a D rating but have dropped to 30/49 on the carbon club. (I'm still not sure exactly what the carbon club figure is reflecting as I was at 22 on Monday.)

Weather is gradually getting worse here, so there's no hope of switching off any of the 3 heaters but at least I haven't had to use the tumble dryer and the hot water is only on once a week, so it's a huge improvement on last year when there were 5 of us here, 3 floors heated and hot water/washing machine/tumble dryer on almost every night. House move to get back to a log fire is looking more exciting by the day!