My Energy use Diary

setmefree2

Magentasue wrote: »

Oh dear. We're a large family with a combi boiler and no shower (yet). We also cook by gas.

Over the summer, we averaged 26kwh gas a day. What's that - about a £1 a day? I'm more than happy to pay that for us al to have a bath and do whatever washing/washing up in basins and bowl that needs doing.

I'm not criticisng anyone's choices and fair enough if you can't afford it, but washing in buckets seems a bit extreme - there must be easier ways to save that £1 a day. And £1 a day is for six of us - in 1,2,3 or 4 people households the savings must be less.

Hi:hello:

I take your point - but for many of us it's not just about the money it's about using less energy:D Personally, I fixed my gas and electricity rates in 2005 until 2010, however, I want to use less energy and I've been stunned by how much energy our CH uses.

All the Best

SMF2

cw18

In our family (3 people) we mostly stick to "strip washes" too..... DH and I both used to have these as children, so it's been no big deal going back to them.

In our case (and I assume I'm not the only one), it's not just the energy bill this reduces -- it also holds down our water bill as we're on a meter.

And for us/me it is (unfortunately) mostly about the money.

Our income for the first part of this year has been 22% less than the first half of 2006 (2007 was a funny year with me off sick for an extended period, so not a good one to compare to). From the end of next month we're going to have to manage with a further reduction of 24.5% on what we have now -- meaning we're going to start 2009 with 41% less income that we had up until July 2006 (due to long term illness of DH and my being off sick followed by my (unrelated) redundancy that was announced almost as soon as I got back to work on full hours).

I've trimmed down our groceries, I'm shopping around for car/house insurances more than ever (and I always did this anyway), and am looking at the few things I can move once minimum contracts finish (such as phone line, broadband and mobile phone contract) between January and August 2009. But the only areas this now leaves me to work on are our energy bills (and DH's illness means I've had to let the heating come on, so my readings this week are going to see a large increase on the last month) and my water bill.

I'm not wallowing in self-pity about any of this (which some of my so-called "friends" seem to think I should be), but I know what will be coming in, and I know what's going out that I have no control over. So I just have to make the remaining money stretch to cover the rest...... and reduction of bills is the only way to do that !!


But I am pleased that people consider me a bit of a "green freak" for watching our useage/waste/omissions to the extent I am doing, and see this as a fantastic side effect of events :T

setmefree2

SuiDreams wrote: »

Nearly gave up and put the heating on yesterday, but OH stopped me. Glad he did as the house did eventually warm up and its a much warmer day today despite the strong winds and the rain this morning.

Well Done you :T:T:T Our house is much colder when it's windy:D

setmefree2

nykmedia wrote: »

I seconded it - answer now posted about a bug in the system

You shouldn't be mentioning bugs;) that troll of yours will be back:rotfl::rotfl:

setmefree2

cw18 - Good Luck:T:T....it's nice to save money & help the environment to boot:D

SuiDreams

We're having a bit of an experiment this week have turned the temperature on the boiler itself up slightly and am trying to convince OH that towels do not need to be washed at 60 (I do most of the other washing but he tends to do the towels and bedding when he finds a good drying day). So we'll see if this makes any difference to our useage next monday.

cw18

This week hasn't been as bad as I feared !!

Even though I know our heating has been on for one day (and suspected it had kicked in on for at least 2 others) our gas useage (46kWh) is exactly the same as last week -- and is lower that the previous week (69kWh) which is the last time I know for sure the heating was on. The only change I've made is to reduce the water heating from 30 mins/day to 20 mins/day which started from last Thursday, but I can't see this completely offsetting the heating

Our electricity has gone up on last week though -- the last 4 weeks have been 75/84/75/79kWh


I now have enough i-measure readings to get an energy rating though -- and am impressed to see that (even though we have what I now know to be a very inefficient freezer) we've gained a 'B' :T


Compared to all gas & electric households our results are

Carbon emissions Kg CO2
Last week Last Month
Per person 17 (41) 17 (30)
Per household 50 (99) 51 (74)

Gas use as kWh
Last week Last Month
Per Person 15 (138) 17 (83)
Per Household 44 (313) 50 (195)

Electricity use as kWh
Last week Last Month
Per Person 26 (26) 26 (25)
Per Household 79 (69) 78 (66)


So our gas useage is our saviour here, and our electricity still needs more work. But I reckon replacing the freezer will save us 10kWh a week, so that should bring us down to around the average 'per household' -- rather than only just scraping in on the 'per person' figures.



*** toddles off to submit readings to Scottish Power ***

whatatwit

Well, I like the bug in the carbon clubs...I am now 3/53 :eek:

I think my usage for the next couple of weeks will increase, Mr Twit has no work on and Miss Twit is on half term,so they are both at home. :rolleyes:

Curley

Submitted my readings yesterday. I've used the same electricity as last time but my gas usage has doubled. I know it's still not much, but hmmmmpphhh, groan, mumble etc..

Last week you spent:

• £4.38 on gas
• £3.48 on electricity

Total you have spent on energy since starting imeasure (4 weeks ago):

• £12.07 on gas
• £14.64 on electricity

My (first) carbon rating is a C. Well, actually it was a D but I played around with the "compare results with" settings. Naughty and pointless, I know.

matty2767

whatatwit wrote: »

Well, I like the bug in the carbon clubs...I am now 3/53 :eek:

I think my usage for the next couple of weeks will increase, Mr Twit has no work on and Miss Twit is on half term,so they are both at home. :rolleyes:

i think the carbon club rating is upside down:)

so instead of 3/53 you are actually 50/53