Energy and water use?

[Julysea]

I am always trying to reduce our household use of energy and water and have been finding those 'average daily use' updates on the bottom of the bills these days really useful. I wondered if anyone else has been keeping an eye on those and fancied sharing their average daily uses so we can all try and reduce them by the end of the year? Especially those of us who have signed up to the 10:10 challenge this year?

I am hoping to be really inspired by seeing some really low usages and maybe those people could then share their secrets!

[crowsashes]

my average daily use for electricity is about a 3-4 units of electricity a day in the winter and under 2 in the summer. think thats down to having more cooked meals in the winter ( i have an elec cooker and no gas supply to change it) and more bbqs in the summer . if im burning wood/ branches whatever the time of year ill save a few pence and roast spuds on it for dinner.

[Julysea]

Wow, that's great, can I ask how many of you there are in the household and the size of house? Any tips for how you cut down your usage? That must be way below average!

My own usages are:

gas: between 10 (summer) & 40 (winter) kWh per day
elec: between 3.5 (summer) & 5.0 (winter) kWh per day
water: around 48 cubic metres per 6 month period.

And just for info, there are 4 of us, in a 1920s mid-terraced house, with gas central heating on a modern condensing boiler and all-gas cooking. No dish-washer or tumble dryer.

[Minnesota]

I have a Large house, it is setup for a Duplex.
But I Live alone, the upstairs apartment is vacant...but heated.
I do burn wood, but have a Gas furnace as a backup.

my usage:
Natural gas: between .04 (summer) & 2.05 (winter) Therm per day
elec: between 16(summer) & 12 (winter) kWh per day
water: 16 US Gallons per day.

note to you brits, I am not sure what your unit of measure is for Natural Gas.
But 1 therm equals :
2.75 cubic meters, or
105.5 Megajoules, or
100,000 Btu, or
97.3 Cubic Feet

[crowsashes]

Wow, that's great, can I ask how many of you there are in the household and the size of house? Any tips for how you cut down your usage? That must be way below average!

My own usages are:

gas: between 10 (summer) & 40 (winter) kWh per day
elec: between 3.5 (summer) & 5.0 (winter) kWh per day
water: around 48 cubic metres per 6 month period.

And just for info, there are 4 of us, in a 1920s mid-terraced house, with gas central heating on a modern condensing boiler and all-gas cooking. No dish-washer or tumble dryer.

all my lightbulbs are energy saving, i do my washing overnight ( as its cheaper and the washer isnt that noisy) i also negotiated with southern electric for a really good tarif ( always worth a try)

i use an energy monitor and do all the things youd expect, switch stuff off etc.

i dont have a tumble dryer or a dishwasher. i cook in bulk, ie ill make a large pot of casserole eat some, freeze some as reheating with a microwave is a lot cheaper. or if im roasting a chicken etc, ill bake in it at the same time/straight after.

simple things really, use lids on pans to help things cook quicker. i also use a steamer for some meals, boil the spuds at the bottom, veg on next level and a bit of fish at the top one meal cooked v quickly and cheaply.

i boil the kettle with jsut the right amount of water, keep the fridge full helps it run more efficently. i use the surplus freezer blocks and stick them in the fridge at the back ( i have enough to have one lot in the freezer for use then when i use them stick the others straight in)

heating goes off at 7 when the little one goes to bed ( i have new insulation and it rarely goes below 15 in the winter upstairs) i dont turn it on till about 5 pm and then its on low. im also accoustomed to around 15-18 degrees rather than the 20 + everyone else seems to enjoy!

curtains lined with thermal lining, draught excluders putting a jumper on first etc.

theres 3 of us here 5 days a week. in 1940s ish semi. thankfully south facing so we get the brick at the side of the house warmed up during the day :) it can be a nightmare mid summer but thats what windows are for!

probably seems a bit mad, but when you start doing the little things they eventually become habit then you find other ways of doing things.

like cooking on the fire outside rather than the cooker when your burning garden waste. or getting a bit of hose to drain the water from the bath tub onto the garden instead of down the drain. i dont have the washing machine outlet plumbed in to the drain, it runs into the sink so i can collect the water for reuse looks odd but its the only way at the mo to do it.

hope it helps :)

ps yeas it is way below average even had some guys come check the meter cos southern elctric thought it wasnt right my gas last quater ( sept-nov) was £15 i called them to double cheack but it was right! this quater however i think its much much higher as its been exceptionally cold

[crowsashes]

oh forgot to add i dont have a television either, or hair straighteners or related gadgets! and my mac is A rated. think it all adds up really if you think about it. never really thought about it until just , exactly what i do to make sure im careful with my cash. think my low income has a lot to do with it tbh

[brett53]

i really MUST do something about my consumption then - works out to about 30 kw average in winter and that's mostly the night storage heater ( flaming inefficient heap of junk ) - i got to look at opening up a chimney somewhere

as to water - well here i have the edge - ave = 3 x m3 per quarter - but then i do run my loo on rain water - saves a fortune - wash clothes only when necessary and always have a quick shower - but am looking at even recycling the "grey " water this year - need more tanks and pumps !! + a sand filter or two as even a A+A rated washing machine uses a fair bit and would probably provide enough water for "dry " periods

funnily enough - i think a LOT of peoples problem is this obsession with cleanliness - it is possible to be quite 'clean" both in clothing and personal hygiene etc without the constant need to wash all the time - well so far no one has ever complained - and now i live alone - unless the cat tells me different .......................

but seriously , apparently research has shown that TOO much washing is detrimental to health - certainly i wonder if this obsession with hair washing these days is why so many men seem to loose it early ?? - mine still grows like anything at 53 , and even my barber comments on how well it grows - it don't get done every day - but again is still "clean " if not a tad greasy at times

mind you its one of the FEW bits of me that DO still work as intended

so good with the water - but stand ashamed of my leccy consumption compared with crowsahes

[shiela_robins]

My electricity usage peaks during summer. What's odd is that during December it goes up as high as the usage on summer months. Usually, since I'm in an apartment, I go out of town for a week or two for the Holidays to spend it with family back home and so do my housemates. Yet the usage is still up there. Can't figure out why. And then on January when everyone is back in the apartment, this month has the lowest consumption.

[Julysea]

note to you brits, I am not sure what your unit of measure is for Natural Gas.
But 1 therm equals :
2.75 cubic meters, or
105.5 Megajoules, or
100,000 Btu, or
97.3 Cubic Feet

My gas bill charges me for cubic metres used but tells me my average daily usage of gas in kWh which must be a conversion but I'm not sure how to convert. Maybe someone else can?

Brett53, I'm interested in converting my toilet to run on rainwater - can I ask how you did yours? Do you have a diagram or anything you can share? I'm really *not* very good with DIY stuff, but I'd really like to give this a go.

[Millymollymandy]

Electricity - I'd have to find a bill and would need a calculator to tot it all up - but we pay about €600 a year. That includes a fairly hefty standing charge for a 12kW (not sure if that is the right unit) supply, as we are on 3-phase - otherwise we'd only need a 9kW supply. Otherwise we trip the leccy if too many things are on at once. But to achieve that low consumption we're on a horrid tariff whereby we have many days in winter where we can't use much electricity because it it about 9x more expensive than normal. It's made up for by most of the rest of the year being 1/2 price leccy.

Water consumption depends on how dry the summer is.

2 x bottle gas for the hob about €50 p.a.

Propane for the ch - don't ask! Even with brand new boiler it's a no-no except for a few weeks here and there to have a break from the hard work of lugging in firewood every day.

Firewood - very expensive in this part of France but a LOT cheaper than propane. Still use about €1,000 a year, ish.

Paraffin - about 2 x €16 20 litre bottles a year.

[brett53]

note to you brits, I am not sure what your unit of measure is for Natural Gas.
But 1 therm equals :
2.75 cubic meters, or
105.5 Megajoules, or
100,000 Btu, or
97.3 Cubic Feet

My gas bill charges me for cubic metres used but tells me my average daily usage of gas in kWh which must be a conversion but I'm not sure how to convert. Maybe someone else can?

Brett53, I'm interested in converting my toilet to run on rainwater - can I ask how you did yours? Do you have a diagram or anything you can share? I'm really *not* very good with DIY stuff, but I'd really like to give this a go.

no prob - i will do an article with pics - as soon as i have time - and figured out how to do drawings as well - watch this space

[KathyLauren]

My gas bill charges me for cubic metres used but tells me my average daily usage of gas in kWh which must be a conversion but I'm not sure how to convert. Maybe someone else can?

1 cubic metre is 38.3 megaJoules.
1kWh is 3.6 megaJoules.

To convert from cubic metres to kWh, multiply by 38.3 and divide by 3.6.

cubic metres * 38.3 / 3.6 = kWh

[Julysea]

Thanks Keith. In that case I'm currently using between 0.94 and 3.75 cubic metres of gas a day. Is that good, bad, indifferent?

Does anyone know of any stats for average uses of energy in the UK? I know it's hard to define an average what with different ways of cooking, heating and different sizes of housing etc, but anything to give an indicator would be good!

[Minnesota]

Liz,
comparing yourself to the average isn't really the point unless you are in a contest or something. What is really important is to try a reduce what you do use, whether it's for saving $$$ or practicing conservation. IMHO.

[Julysea]

Yes, obviously I am trying to reduce my use irrespective of what other people do, but I'd like to know how I'm doing for starters. Like, are my efforts absolutely laughable and I've a long long way to go, or am I actually doing pretty well, considering, and that is why I'm finding it hard to cut any more. You see what I mean? Is that not how we learn, by seeing what others do?