Selfsufficientish.com

ytesterday was our best day so far. 7.4 kwh used but we were out from 4pm until 11.30 pm so everything bar the fridge, the freezer telephone answer machine and the sat box was switched off. Compaired with a normal day we would have used an aditional 2.6 kwh in the time we were out [ had we not been out that is].
got some of the 7 watt cft bulbs for the sons room instead of the 4 x 50 watt halogen bulbs so I'll find out tomorrow what we have saved as he will be up until 3 or 4 am again..... oh to be young again lol....

went away for 4 days so I took the opportunity to switch everything off and remove the plugs except for the fridge, the freezer, the house alarm and the digi box as it was going to record. The units used equaled 4.7 units per day so I reckon I will have to look at the fridge and freezer to see what they use.

ina wrote:Is it just me who's more interested in saving energy than saving money? I always look at the total energy used/wasted; money is important, OK, but there's not that much you can do about it getting more and more expensive. It's the wastage of energy we have to do something about if we care about the environment - cheap energy only promotes wastage!

When you use cheaper-rate electricity, you're actually using wasted energy and saving the environment by reducing daytime demand. Thermal power stations can't be turned off overnight, so they burn fuel and the power produced is wasted. The lower prices at night reflect the lack of demand for it.

It's been calculated that if electric cars were introduced and were charged overnight on this wasted power, a significant part of US oil imports could be cut. How true this is, I'm not sure, but it many cases, economic sense also makes environmental sense (although I certainly share your disappointment with people who sell their birthright for a mess of potage).

Rod in Japan wrote: When you use cheaper-rate electricity, you're actually using wasted energy and saving the environment by reducing daytime demand.

If you are using energy that you'd otherwise use during the day - you are right. However, if you are using energy on top of what you'd normally use, just because it's cheap, it's not quite so straightforward...

Anyway, I don't really have a choice. All my heating is electric (I'm fighting to get a wood burner!), all my hot water, cooking..

Overnight waste if not as high as most assume.

Even coal plants are able to down shift production, gas ones can be turned of completely, its only really nuclear that runs full blast 24/7.
Added to that, most big users use a lot of energy at night, think steel mill, oil refinery, chemical plant, and of course pumped storage is "recharged" over night too.

But yeah, with smart meters, and a bit of political will, it would be quite easy to shift a lot of electricity use to the evening.
As it is, economy 7 is horrificaly overpriced.

I recently bought an energy monitor which calcs how much elec I am using at 6 second intervals. It allows me to see how much my electricity usage is costing.

The results were suprising to me. My bathroom lights cost me more to run per hour than my TV, PC, broadband and other peripherals combined. Of course my bathroom lights aren't on for as long in an evening as my PC etc so in real terms they cost less. However it lets me know which electrical devices I need to replace first.

I have always made a point of buying white goods with A ratings or better, so my fridge freezer etc is fairly efficient. The electricity intensive things to run are anything that has to generate heat in short bursts, these include kettle, hair dryer, oven etc.

It's the height of summer, am at 10 KwH per day.

all averages of last 14 days

Electricity 15.84Kwh/day (been using the immersion heater a lot)
Gas 4.7Kw/day (or about £4 a month)
Water 230Ltrs a day

LBR wrote:It's the height of summer, am at 10 KwH per day.

Thats really interesting LBR, what do you use for 10 units a day ??

I ask because when I started this post I said I was using between 7 and 11 units a day from memory but on looking at my notes on paper I've found from when I started reading the meters in April on a daily basis I was using 18 units a day of elec.

Now this last 2 weeks has averaged 10.4 units a day but on 4 days we were away so that 4 day average was 4.7 units ( fridge, freezer, house alarm and sat box) so we went up 101 units to 12.66 units a day with no disernable difference in use. I'm perplexed at this as I've swapped the 4 x 50 watt bulbs in the sons room for eco bulbs and turn off everything at the plug, use the power down unit and winge like billy oh if there is electric on and no one in the room....

Oh well.

Alan

Last week it was 5.6/day (immersion heater on permanently - that is, only nights); the two weeks before that it was about 4/day on average. The freezer is off at the moment, but I do a lot of cooking (making jam and wine), which also needs a lot of hot water...

Hello!

Small 3 bed semi in Colchester, UK
Gas ch and hw,
2 adults 1 child

Have been taking weekly gas and electric readings since moving here in Dec 2007

Electric:
Average usage jan-feb between 10 and 12kwh per day
Average usage july-aug between 7 and 8kwh per day

Will be interested to see next years figures as various eco-friendly measures taken throughout year such as..

1. low energy light bulbs
2. use washing line rather than tumble drier
3. extensive training for partner's teenage daughter in light-switch management

redmower3 wrote:Hello!

Small 3 bed semi in Colchester, UK
Gas ch and hw,
2 adults 1 child

Have been taking weekly gas and electric readings since moving here in Dec 2007

Electric:
Average usage jan-feb between 10 and 12kwh per day
Average usage july-aug between 7 and 8kwh per day

Will be interested to see next years figures as various eco-friendly measures taken throughout year such as..

1. low energy light bulbs
2. use washing line rather than tumble drier
3. extensive training for partner's teenage daughter in light-switch management

Hi redmower 3. You are doing magnificent so far if you are down to those figures without the changes. I'm doing around 7 units of leccy a day now in winter and during the summer it was still 6 -9 (but the 9 bit was when our son was home from uni.)

there is a site called http://www.imeasure.org.uk/ where you can track your use on line but the prices are only a guess for now.

well done

alan

Hi there, have been monitoring since we got here last February.

Small farmhouse, all ground floor.

Wood heating (oil c/h not turned on yet)
Two adults
Three dogs
Hot water manually turned on every other day during lower rate period.

Average (with hot water) Day = 8 kwh / Night = 9 kwh
Average (without hot water) Day = 8 kwh / Night = 3 kwh