Electricity Usage Club

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Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 142353Post Big Al »

Elizabeth wrote:The heat from the laptop helps too.......
:wav:
There you are folks, I'm back to number 4 in the ishers club,lol.

I've spent in the first 10 days of this month £12.32 on electric and £42.69 on gas....

Sad part is I have no money to get an upto date boiler or a wood burner now...

Big al.
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Elizabeth
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 146003Post Elizabeth »

Have just put in this weeks reading - forgot last week.

I also have a spreadsheet with the actual cost in £s. After some adjustments over the last couple of weeks we are now spending £10 less a week! This is also a reduction in carbon of around 63 kg CO2.

In real terms a saving to me and a saving to the environment of 25% on what we were in January - and that is the result of really understanding our consumption and making some small savings.
Elizabeth

Remember! Turn off, when not in use

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Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 146023Post Big Al »

Elizabeth wrote:Have just put in this weeks reading - forgot last week.

I also have a spreadsheet with the actual cost in £s. After some adjustments over the last couple of weeks we are now spending £10 less a week! This is also a reduction in carbon of around 63 kg CO2.

In real terms a saving to me and a saving to the environment of 25% on what we were in January - and that is the result of really understanding our consumption and making some small savings.

Mega congratulations Elizabeth. £10 a week is £520 a year ! Sad as it is I actually enjoy taking the daily meter readings now to see how low they can be. I've got my gas down to 1.0 cubit ft recently but that was no bath so a lot of pain in the back that night and it was also cold but hey ho onwards and upwards.

I done the same green calculator that they use on Its not easy being green and my tally came out at 1.02 planets... Dick Strawbridge is 2.4 planets....

You are right with little changes... make a big difference.
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ellie12022
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 146936Post ellie12022 »

Hello everybody

I am depressed :( 3 out of 4 in the ishers club & gone down from a C rating to a D. And I thought I might have used a bit less gas this week than average but sadly, no. I've had my quarterly bills, abt £90 for elec & £155 for gas. i can't remember the details but I noticed on the back they kindly told me how much gas & elec I used compared to the year before, one was slightly less, one slightly more. Actually I felt I had done quite well based on that as now there are two of us in the house.

Elizabeth - that's :sunny: £10 less a week, in the winter. Wow!

Big Al - commiserations, I sympathise with the no money for woodburner etc. :hugish: Still, I have to remind myself that if we can pay the bills and eat quite well, we are well off compared to a lot of people.

Hopefully, it will stay a bit warmer now, so bills will go down a bit.

Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 146970Post Big Al »

ellie12022 wrote:Hello everybody

I am depressed :( 3 out of 4 in the ishers club & gone down from a C rating to a D. And I thought I might have used a bit less gas this week than average but sadly, no. I've had my quarterly bills, abt £90 for elec & £155 for gas. i can't remember the details but I noticed on the back they kindly told me how much gas & elec I used compared to the year before, one was slightly less, one slightly more. Actually I felt I had done quite well based on that as now there are two of us in the house.

Elizabeth - that's :sunny: £10 less a week, in the winter. Wow!

Big Al - commiserations, I sympathise with the no money for woodburner etc. :hugish: Still, I have to remind myself that if we can pay the bills and eat quite well, we are well off compared to a lot of people.

Hopefully, it will stay a bit warmer now, so bills will go down a bit.

I know it won't help pay the bills but here are my bills for elec and gas since September last year. Bear in mind these are MONTHLY figures... with the first being Electric and the second Gas :cry:
Electric Gas
September 35 30
October 36 62
November 39 85
December 42 123
January 42 127
February 35 98
March [expected] 33 76

So don't beat yourself up as you are doing fine. Not trying to preach but if you still want to try to reduce your useage do it a little at a time like cooking a lot in the oven at the same time and then leaving the door open when finished, take shorter showers [note to mrs big al here] hang clothes outside if possible even in the winter... wind drys as well as sun, wash up in cold water, wash clothes at 30deg c not 40 or above etc will help with the gas and leccy but keep going and the biggest factor now is to do a lot of searching for the cheapest supplier.
I'm going to be a bit cheeky here but I use a cashback site called greasy palms and if you join with this link http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/r/?l=958795 I can get £7 eventually but you will get a good deal and some cash also. Have a look here for switching deals as all of the major players in the power market have now reduced their prices.

Also if you are on certain benefits or over 60 then have a look at warm front as they can provide grants for a new gas boiler and radiators etc. http://www.warmfront.co.uk/ also check that you are getting all the benefits and help you are entitled to. I've just got my neighbour a top up of his pension by applying for pension credit . It was only £5.67 a week but that was a gateway benefit to a new central heating system worth around £2700.
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ellie12022
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 147009Post ellie12022 »

Thank you Big Al. I plan to have a reccy of the gas/elec situation quite soon. Last time I checked it wasn't worth swapping.

I am not sure if we would qualify for grants etc, as we do not own the house we live in. But it could be that a different boiler would be would be more efficient in the future - on another thread here I read that back boilers are not that efficient. But then there's the problem of where the new boiler would go, they seem to be huge things. Although it works fine, and the water does stay hot for a long time. As for other benefits, my husband works for the DWP (Department of Work & Pensions) so I have a hot line to info on benefits. (I am still a few years too young for any kind of pension :mrgreen: )

I actually have joined Greasy Palms already but not used it yet so I don't think I can earn you the money, sorry :( Have you used it a lot? I have just attempted my first go at using cashback so I will have to wait & see if it has worked. (signed up for BT Broadband, this is the only broadband available in my area).

I very rarely use the tumble dryer and do let things dry outside and in naturally most of the time. I do most washes at 40. My washing machine was new last year and is meant to be more energy efficient. Maybe I could try some at 30, I still feel I am experimenting & getting used to the machine. As you say, I would need to read the meter before & after to be able to compare properly.

As the weather warms up I will be able to use the boiler less. I will probably be able to have it on once a day, and no heating hopefully.

Knowledge is power, so they say :queen:

Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 147059Post Big Al »

ellie12022 wrote:Thank you Big Al. I plan to have a reccy of the gas/elec situation quite soon. Last time I checked it wasn't worth swapping.

I am not sure if we would qualify for grants etc, as we do not own the house we live in. But it could be that a different boiler would be would be more efficient in the future - on another thread here I read that back boilers are not that efficient. But then there's the problem of where the new boiler would go, they seem to be huge things. Although it works fine, and the water does stay hot for a long time. As for other benefits, my husband works for the DWP (Department of Work & Pensions) so I have a hot line to info on benefits. (I am still a few years too young for any kind of pension :mrgreen: )

I actually have joined Greasy Palms already but not used it yet so I don't think I can earn you the money, sorry :( Have you used it a lot? I have just attempted my first go at using cashback so I will have to wait & see if it has worked. (signed up for BT Broadband, this is the only broadband available in my area).

I very rarely use the tumble dryer and do let things dry outside and in naturally most of the time. I do most washes at 40. My washing machine was new last year and is meant to be more energy efficient. Maybe I could try some at 30, I still feel I am experimenting & getting used to the machine. As you say, I would need to read the meter before & after to be able to compare properly.

As the weather warms up I will be able to use the boiler less. I will probably be able to have it on once a day, and no heating hopefully.

Knowledge is power, so they say :queen:
I get around £100 or so a month from GP. I do all the little daily things and join most things for the cash backs then cancel the deals like gambling etc. I've just done a search for more than insurance and my building and contents came out at £255. Done through GP it was £245 with £30 cashback.

Having said that I then phoned my car insurance broker and told them of the cash back sites and he got my policy down to £186 so sod the cashback sites on this occasion, lol.

As for the meter reading i do daily meter readings.... sad old fart I know.......
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ellie12022
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 147064Post ellie12022 »

So the cashback can be a good bargaining tool, then?

Actually, contents insurance is the next thing on the list to sort out. My landlady(my mum!) has the buildings covered & a certain amount of contents but we need to investigate further. We had a quote from HSBC in the branch but I'd like to compare others to see. I don't think I've ever had contents insurance before but it may be a good idea now.

I may start doing more things with GP then, once the broadband is up & running (should be by midnight next Monday!) it may be easier to do things then, but I am wary of signing up to things to then cancel them as if I am unwell for a few days I may not be able to keep on top of things.

BTW I have checked my washing machine & the difference in elec use between the 30 & 40 wash that I usually use is 0.1kwh. The 40 wash uses 0.5kwh & the 30 0.4kwh, which doesn't seem a lot of difference at all really. I have worked out as well that my fridge/freezer costs about £1 a day to run and the tv & sky box are not using too much either. (I used my electronically trained hubby to explain these things to me).

I am just taking weekly reads at the moment.

Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 147806Post Big Al »

ellie12022 wrote:So the cashback can be a good bargaining tool, then?

Actually, contents insurance is the next thing on the list to sort out. My landlady(my mum!) has the buildings covered & a certain amount of contents but we need to investigate further. We had a quote from HSBC in the branch but I'd like to compare others to see. I don't think I've ever had contents insurance before but it may be a good idea now.

I may start doing more things with GP then, once the broadband is up & running (should be by midnight next Monday!) it may be easier to do things then, but I am wary of signing up to things to then cancel them as if I am unwell for a few days I may not be able to keep on top of things.

BTW I have checked my washing machine & the difference in elec use between the 30 & 40 wash that I usually use is 0.1kwh. The 40 wash uses 0.5kwh & the 30 0.4kwh, which doesn't seem a lot of difference at all really. I have worked out as well that my fridge/freezer costs about £1 a day to run and the tv & sky box are not using too much either. (I used my electronically trained hubby to explain these things to me).

I am just taking weekly reads at the moment.

That's another convert to the inain measuring lark... it will take over if you don't watch it,lol. It starts out as a weekly reading then twice weekly then daily then twice daily........ I'm sad as I know the power useage of every appliance........

0.1 kwh might not sound much but if you wash one load a day it's £5.47 a year in leccy.... ok I'm a tight arm as well as being sad..lol.

A few things about contents insurance you might find helpful are these. If you under insure then make a claim the insurance company can refuse to pay out because you have under insured. I had £20k of contents which is what i thought would cover my contents then had a claim for accifdental damage to a table and the assessor came out and done his thing then we were told that we were under insured and got no pay out. Aparently it's in the small print.

Always get a few quotes. use these to barter with. I once got my car insurance down from £774 to less than £235 by continually phoning one against the other. In the end the bloke on the last quote said if I go any lower it will be eating into my commision. i replied give me 50 pence of your comision and I'll buy now. He did and I bought a loaf of bread with the 50p,lol.

Check the excess part. Sometimes the cost of your insurance may be say £200 with a £200 excess. If you reduce the excess to zero your policy may go up by say £30 so if you have a claim it will have saved you £170 but the flip side is if you don't have a claim you have paid £30 more than need be.

I put the link into GP for ease of use but I'm on the computer every day and most of the day when really I should be doing the housework like now so it's easy for me but it's a good thing to only do things that you can control.

If you think of the fridge freezer costing £365 a year to run that is around 2400 kwh your FF is using in electric terms based on my unit price of 15p per kwh. A new FF, even one of those big swanky american type ones only use around 570 units. The ones i've been looking at use around 282 units a year but if you were to swap your FF for one of those swanky American type ones then you would save around £280 a year in running costs.

I only mention this because I got a real shock about my FF's running costs and need to change them asap but then the credit union takes 12 weeks to get a loan....
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Cloud
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155725Post Cloud »

I'm new here. Just joined the ish club on imeasure, and find I'm currently number 2. Yay :cheers:

Short short lived fame goes to my head :drunken:
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Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155788Post Big Al »

Cloud wrote:I'm new here. Just joined the ish club on imeasure, and find I'm currently number 2. Yay :cheers:

Short short lived fame goes to my head :drunken:

Welcome cloud. I'll probably be bottom again... bleeding Fridge freezer..humph.
Member of the Ishloss weight group 2013. starting weight 296.00 pounds on 01.01.2013. Now minus 0.20 pounds total THIS WEEK - 0.20 pounds Now over 320 pounds and couldn't give a fig...
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Cloud
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155794Post Cloud »

Big Al wrote:Welcome cloud. I'll probably be bottom again... bleeding Fridge freezer..humph.
Hi, Big Al. You weren't in the top four when I looked, sorry. I reckons it's my old C grade fridge freezer that letting me down too. I managed to improve by nearly 1kWh per day just by turning the freezer temp up from -23C to -18C, but my big gain happened when I started monitoring and I turned off all the things we normally leave on standby.

It's going to be short lived as we hope to be moving soon to an old cold stone house with no double glazing in a village with no mains gas.
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Big Al
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155798Post Big Al »

My fridge door doesn't even close properly as the hinge is bust so you have to stick a screwdriver in it to keep it closed somewhat but no money just now. We went through the standby phase and 2 years ago we were using over 7800 kwh per year. I've just done my year ending figures and the year to May 31st we used 3080.4 kwh of electric and 18590.790 kwh of gas. The average uk use is 4640 for leccy and 20582 for gas so well chuffed with these figures. We have just gone over to all leccy cooking but not really seen a lot of difference in the unit use. Maybe .7 to 1 kwh extra a day which could well be saved in a new FF.
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155801Post Cloud »

Big Al wrote:My fridge door doesn't even close properly as the hinge is bust so you have to stick a screwdriver in it to keep it closed.
Badly fitting doors are usually the one thing that are cited as causing fridge/freezers to cost lost of money. I calculated our fridge/freezer is costing us £80 a year over a new A++ model. But that still means it would take 3+ years to pay back. Your might pay back quicker. Might be worth the calculation. But if the screw driver works then why worry - it means you have a very cost effective screwdriver.
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ellie12022
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Re: Electricity Usage Club

Post: # 155814Post ellie12022 »

Hello Cloud

I've seen you on the imeasure forum,I'm there too :wink: good to have you, I have slipped to No 3 on the list.. :(

Still been taking reads, had a meter exchange (so now the meter is much harder to read from the ground :( cos the screen is tiny (and my old meter once it's checked out could end up with someone else :scratch: ). Our leccie use has stayed about the same, I think this is cos the computer tends to be on a lot more - now I have broadband I can go on in the day. Trying to persuade OH to switch off if he's going to be away from the computer for a while, although his argument is it could take more power to switch it back on..).

I realised not that long ago, that my hot water was coming on for longer than it needed (I must have changed it at some point & not changed back), so have reduced that, and will monitor that to see what else I can do...

Big Al, my mam bought a new fridge freezer for me last year - the other one was almost completely frozen up (the freezer part) - the door didn't shut properly.. It was amazing what I found still edible under all the ice & I had been wondering where that particular plate went :lol:

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