daily kwh used

[Big Al]

Hi folks,

I know a few people read their meters daily, me included but can I ask you all what your useage is ??

It's probably far to wide to work out as I know we are all different users of power etc but what would be an average use for electric and gas per day ?

We are on grid totally and use around 10 units of electric a day. This variey between 11 and the lowest was 7 so it's about £1.85 a day currently.

over to you good people.

Big Al

[ina]

To make it comparable, you'd have to say how many people that's for, and what you run on it (heating, hot water, cooking...). I used to read my meter weekly, but just realised today that I hadn't done it since March! Must start again; at the moment it's a lot more than usual, as I'm having a few lots of visitors, and they not being used to Scotland need the heating on (and a hotwater bottle!) at the height of summer...

[pumpy]

Do you have Economy 7? I don't know about nowadays, but you used to be able to get your electricity supplier to fit a white meter for free. (much cheaper tarrif from mid-night to 7 a.m.----put your washing machine,etc, on a timer). Worth enquiring.

[ina]

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! And no, I'm not a "big earner who can afford to think like that"; my income is way below national average.

[pumpy]

good point,well made.

[ina]

Actually, it took 4 years for me to find out that one of the switches on my immersion heater runs on the cheaper tarriff... Nobody had bothered to tell me when I moved in. Pure chance I always had that switch on, not the other. But, unless I have visitors, I only turn it on two nights a week or so. Enough warm water left in between for a wash. A friend of mine doesn't use the immersion at all now; there's a power shower anyway, and he says he manages fine washing his hands with cold water. That's another way of saving energy (and money). I know others who simply can't imagine not having hot water spurt out of the tap whenever they turn it on - despite power shower and dishwasher.

[LBR]

I use 7 - 10 KwH per day.

[farmerdrea]

Our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teens) use on average 30 kwh/day. Our hot water tank is electric, which we hope to change someday to solar, as I'm sure that accounts for much of the electricity usage. Our heat is from a woodstove, thank goodness, or I'm sure our usage would be much higher in winter. In that 30 kwh, we heat a small tank of water for cleaning the milking machine, run the milking machine every day, run 4 fridge/freezers and a chest freezer, watch tv, use 2 computers for several hours (have 2 computer programmers in the household), run the cooker and oven daily, as 90% of meals are from scratch, radio for several hours day, lights (halogen most of them), of course, for reading well into the night...

Andrea
NZ

[colhut]

We are a family of 2 adults 1 child.
Electricity: 12.63 Kwh/day (summer hot water is from an immersion heater until we can afford solar panels, has been as low as 9.9 Kwh)
Gas: 6.43Kw/day (higher in the winter as our central heating is a very innefficient, its a 20+ year old gas rayburn)

and I'll add
Water: 188 Litres/day, we have just gone on a meter and hope to improve on this.

[Brod]

Last time I kept an eye on the meter (many moons ago) it averaged out at 1.5 Kwh per day (single person, at work all day, wood heat, cooking on bottled gas, B&W telly, CFL all round) and I used to reckon that 1 Kwh of that was to run the (very small) fridge freezer !)

[contadino]

I worked it out last year and in the summer we averaged about 0.5 to 0.6 kWh/day in the summer and between 0.4 to 0.7 kWh in the winter. That's for two people working at home all day. The hot water's solar, we cook using wood or gas.

Unfortunately I can't tell you now, as the electricity company changed our meter so now only they can read it.

[LBR]

Contadino, what kind of meter is this that only the meter reader may read?

[Big Al]

To make it comparable, you'd have to say how many people that's for, and what you run on it (heating, hot water, cooking...). I used to read my meter weekly, but just realised today that I hadn't done it since March! Must start again; at the moment it's a lot more than usual, as I'm having a few lots of visitors, and they not being used to Scotland need the heating on (and a hotwater bottle!) at the height of summer...

Thanks for the input.

The useage is for 2 of us and a student home from uni. I reckon he has been bit by a vampire as he's nocturnal now.... gets up in the afternoon and goes to sleep in the morning....lol. It's only for the basic bits like low energy light bulbs, 2 computers ( although the son runs his off the charger as he only gets 1 hour out of the battery now.... maybe need to invest in a new battery and a solar charger) fridge, freezer and washing machine 5 loads at 30 deg c per week.

Since looking at this i've used a power down thingy for the computer. I think it's saved around 2 units a day because of all the power adapters that were plugged into the extension.

[contadino]

Contadino, what kind of meter is this that only the meter reader may read?

It's an electronic one that ENEL installed. Obviously, if you ask me, it's a crap one, hence my desire to get off-grid ASAP.

[contadino]

Since looking at this i've used a power down thingy for the computer. I think it's saved around 2 units a day because of all the power adapters that were plugged into the extension.

That's a really good point. I put in-line switches between the plug and the brick (hope you know what I mean) of all the peripherals (disc burner, external drives, printer, etc..) and switch them off when not in use.