Gas and electricity challenge

[watervole]

Last year, 5 October to 5 December, we used 1202 kWh of electricity.

When I get my next electricity bill, I'll see if I've managed to reduce that.

Think of it being like a dieting challenge. How much can you reduce your electricity usage without reducing your standard of living? Instead of shedding pounds, try shedding kilowatthours. Any reduction at all gains you Brownie points, as the general trend is upwards rather than static. (I'd award a prize, but we probably all get bills on diffent dates, so I couldn't really pick a suitable finish point)

Anyone else like to give it a try? fjm is going to go for it.

(I'd do the same for gas, but the mild weather means that we haven't switched on the central heating yet, so the comparison with last year would not be a valid one)

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

These are also called 'negawatts' - energy generation capacity saved by efficiency.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Sis and I are already trying to (albeit because we didn't much care for the last energy bill). Unfortunately, and probably because of global warming, we're going to have to upgrade the airconditioning (summer will be bad, they say), but we are looking at the most efficient we can get, both energy and water-wise.

It's a start...

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Last year, 5 October to 5 December, we used 1202 kWh of electricity.

Wow. That's approximately what I use in a year.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Is there anything additional you can do to keep the sun out using shades, blinds, etc. I know air-con is a big energy consumer, but I also know the problem. You can wrap up in cold weather, but when it gets hot, you are stuck.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

HOw many people in your house?

Our figure is for two adults and a student. It's also the highest quarter of the year as the lights are on a lot more. Although, looking back, I see that the same quarter for 2004 was only 752 units. The worrying thing is that I don't know what cause the massive increase between 2004 and 2005. On the other hand, the October figure is significantly down between '04 and '05.

I wonder. I'm trying to recall how long we've had the TIVO. It may be time to stick a meter in to that and see what it consumes. It's another of those devices that has to be left on all the time.

ACtually, looking at some quarters (I'm rooting through old bills as I type), I can see massive swings. I refuse to believe that the quarter leading to April '05 consumed one fifth as much as the quarter leading to April '06!

Okay, these figures are being screwed by times when they've estimated usage rather than reading the meter and they've got the estimate badly wrong. That's going to make it much harder to do a valid comparison as I need to work on a period between two meter readings.

I need to go and do some thinking.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

HOw many people in your house?
Only me and an energy efficient cat. :)

Like you I'm mainly heated through gas (one electric radiator in my bedroom) and cook with it too. I've energy saving light bulbs everywhere but the kitchen (which has an evil fluorescent tube) and I've very few non-rechargeable batteries anymore. Getting a new fridge recently dropped my bills by more than I would expect. I'd say my problem isn't the electric but the gas. I've only two gas fires downstairs and so I lose a lot of heat through the kitchen and bathroom. I could probably do with better insulation or central heating.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

So where is all my electricity going?

I managed to find two metered figures for consecutative Decembers. Between Dec '04 and Dec' 05, we used 4068 kWh. Just over 11 kWh/day.

I thought flourescent tubes were low energy? Or should I be changing my kitchen light as well?

I changed the fridge recently and have high hopes for savings there, but there's still a lot going somewhere. I need to wander around more with my little meter. The computers and the TIVO are next up for health checks.

How can I find out what my cooker uses? I'm thinking about a Remoska http://www.hoorayforhomecooking.co.uk/remoska.htm as that only uses 500W, but it does have some limitations.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Already got what we can of that, plus insulation... problem is, where I am, we tend to look at several weeks of high 30s to mid 40s over January and February. We try not to leave it on overnight however, except on the real scorchers...
A recent survey noted that the number of Australian households with ac has been going up steadily (my reaction was, well duh)

Power consumption figures

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

When did you actually *See* the meter readers? The Electricity companies are only legally required to actually *read* the meter three times in five- the other two times they can be estimated. and even that is best current practice if the meter is not mounted in an outside wall box they can go years without accurate readings - because there was nobody home-.

The only way you can actually monitor your energy consumption is to take your own daily, weekly or monthly meter readings.

At best your bills can only give an annual overview.

Been there done that, but for Water rather than electricity (and incidentally discovered that the local utility changed the meter without taking proper readings and charged us for an estimated 238 cubic meters of water in the relevant quarter - the meter wasn't zeroed, or an initial reading wasn't taken!) - long story, but for three years we monitored monthly consumption that way. now we just monitor on a more sporadic basis.