Electricity Usage Club

[Big Al]

Woop! just got confirmation through that we are moving onto a fixed tariff rate (I set it up in August before the bog price hikes, but it has taken them this long to sort it) Our Electricity costs have just gone down by about 25% - don't have the figures to hand but it is around that

Come on who else is going to join in?

I'm up for it. I take daily reading cos i'm sad like that so I'll have to remember to log on each monday and work out the weekly total but yup I'm for it.

My monthly readings so far this year are electric all @ 11.31p per unit:

June
296.8 kwh
July
379.2 kwh
august
154.1kwh
September
236.9Kwh
October
241.1Kwh
November
256.9Kwh
Gas all at 91.7 pence per unit.
June
21.7
July
16.2
Aug
17.3
september
23.3
October
48.5
November
70.5

I'll start weekly from next week.

BA

[Big Al]

I took some readings on Thursday 27th, my electric was 45651. (I have gas too). I have used 111 units since 10 November. This will cost about £16.

It is an interesting idea to see how much other people might be paying for fuel bills.

As it is nearly Monday this is my reading as of now: 45677 - 16 units in 4 days (£2.37).

How's everybody else doing?

Ellie, If you had been on ebico your price would have been £1.92. just thought I'd mention it.

Big al

[starchild]

I'd love to join in please - in fact I've *just* held a family conference because our electricity is scarily high.

We don't have gas and there are three of us at home all day long, so our usage is expected to be higher than those out at school / work. Still, I think it is far too high and I'm really worried about our 'settle up bill' (we pay a monthly dd).

Last week, when you started the thread we were on 95892
This morning we were on 96045

I haven't dared get the calculator out to work out the units or the cost because I'm currently in denial and need some serious help

I'm suspecting the immersion tank for some reason; but how would I find out how much that is using exclusively? It comes on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

ho hum - good luck everyone; I'm really embarrassed now I've read through all of your readings and compared them to mine..........

[pumpy]

Hello kiwirach, if you get the chance,& you are nearby,go visit the Blue mountains............brilliant! I expect that the leccy bill will have increased by,at least, 1 million percent, by the time you return,so start saving!

[ellie12022]

Hello Big Al

I am actually with Ebico, prices have gone up & my calculation included the VAT . Maybe electricity is cheaper where you are. I am in the Manweb area, one of the more expensive.

The meter reader has been round today, so I expect the quarterly bills to be around £200 in total. (thank goodness I have a husband to pay for that now!). That's trying to be fairly frugal as well.

I have seen a gadget on tv whereby you can plug things into it & see how much electric they use. I don't know what they're called or whether they're freely available. I wonder how much my laptop & the Sky box use up.

Starchild, I don't know how much your electricity costs although it should be on the bill, but I would have thought with DD all that would happen if you are underpaying is that your DD will be adjusted up at some point. Have your recent electricity statements been based on actual readings? Try not to be scared to look. The situation may be better than you think. And remember some of us are paying for gas as well..

[starchild]

Hi ellie,

I've just bought some new batteries for one of the gadgets you're talking about. I bought mine from Lidls years ago and I'm going to set it up and use it. My laptop cost next to nothing when I tried it last, but I'm going to take some weekly readings on all sorts of appliances and really try and sort this out.
I think the kill-a-watt is the thing you are referring to?
http://brightgreenideas.amazonwebstore. ... e-GB&id=uk

I'm all psyched up now - tomorrow I'm going to find a bill and see how much I am paying (I know I have a really good tariff which is capped, so at least that is in my favour). I'm going to take daily readings and also write down everything we do such as washing machine loads, putting the oven on, taking a bath or shower etc and see if, along with the plug in gadget we can really try and reduce our consumption.

To answer your question, yes, our statements are based on actual readings. I have an online account, so I need to find my login details and take a peek

Thanks for the words of encouragement; I'm feeling braver now LOL!

[Annpan]

Starchild, we're all in this together , I think we can all help each other find better ways to save energy.

Do put in some of the readings you get from your gizmo, I have never seen one for a reasonable price, but I will have to look at getting one again.

[ellie12022]

hi starchild, yes that gizmo looks like what I have seen, I am not sure if I will get one, at least at the moment but that looks a good price..Yes, please let us know what you find when you use it, I'm sure it will help us all. And I'm glad you feel a bit more positive.

I am at the level of trying to remember to switch lights off and trying to be economical with the heating . We have recently bought an 800W Quartz heater which can be moved around to heat whichever room we're in. From what I can tell so far, it seems quite good in terms of heat and cost. I know I will use more gas over Christmas as my sister and children are coming to stay, and I don't want them to be too cold.

I would love to be less reliant on gas/elec but it would involve drastic changes (and expense) to change things too much in the house at the moment.

[JulieSherris]

I've been looking at our usage ince we've been in this house - it seems quite heavy, so after this week once I'm by myself again, I shall definitely be looking at those standy buttons that hubby loves so much... grr!

Our reading today is 66989... we have a 2nd meter for the 1 nightstore heating, but we never use that... it costs 2.65 euros standing charge each 2 months, but then it's 185 euros to have it removed, so for now, it stays!!

This week will be a heavy leccy week as the 4 yr old is staying (tv, dvd player, oven, grill etc...) but from next week, the vigilance kicks in!!
I think since we've been here, we've averaged about 30 euros of leccy a week - I'd like to try & halve that.... am I in cuckoo land? Yeah probably.

Julie.

[starchild]

Thank you AnnPan and Ellie,

When I've got some readings from the gadgety thing I'll post them up.

I've just checked my account this morning and I'm paying 9.58p per unit plus 12.74p per day standing charge.

I went upstairs last night (we were all downstairs) and found 4 lights on this morning the router had been left on all night
I know these things don't cost a lot, but it all adds up, right?

Anyway, I'm feeling quite inspired this morning and raring to go with cutting our consumption. I was vigilant with using the hob this morning to warm up rice pudding for breakfast and have warmed water for hot drinks over the fire this morning.........

Good luck everyone

[Big Al]

Starchild, we're all in this together , I think we can all help each other find better ways to save energy.

Do put in some of the readings you get from your gizmo, I have never seen one for a reasonable price, but I will have to look at getting one again.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?cri ... &source=15

This is a link to the maplin site that has the energy monitors. once you see what they are you can search on the net to see if any come up cheaper although when I did it a while back maplin were the best buy.

HTH

Alan

[Big Al]

Hi ellie,

I've just bought some new batteries for one of the gadgets you're talking about. I bought mine from Lidls years ago and I'm going to set it up and use it. My laptop cost next to nothing when I tried it last, but I'm going to take some weekly readings on all sorts of appliances and really try and sort this out.
I think the kill-a-watt is the thing you are referring to?
http://brightgreenideas.amazonwebstore. ... e-GB&id=uk

I'm all psyched up now - tomorrow I'm going to find a bill and see how much I am paying (I know I have a really good tariff which is capped, so at least that is in my favour). I'm going to take daily readings and also write down everything we do such as washing machine loads, putting the oven on, taking a bath or shower etc and see if, along with the plug in gadget we can really try and reduce our consumption.

To answer your question, yes, our statements are based on actual readings. I have an online account, so I need to find my login details and take a peek

Thanks for the words of encouragement; I'm feeling braver now LOL!

Starchild,

I was with E-on because i worked for them and was the loyal salesman.... well you can't ( ethically or morally) convert people on the doorstep to eon if you are not with them yourselves can you. However when I left and went to ebico I had a "settlement bill" of over £900 which was mostly my fault for canceling the DD all the time because i didn't have the money,lol but don't be scared of your bill. If it's more than £100 your present supplier will not allow you to swap to another company and will block the transfer.

Don't automatically think that your capped rate is the best one. IT might have been when you took it out but it is worth checking again the pros and cons of your supplier.

Last year my power bill was over £1400 for the year and since june I've been taking daily meter readings and I estimate that my annual bill up to June 09 will be around £600. I've been asked by a few how i've done it and a bit of info is in my blog which is below.

It's a good idea to do a power diary and you can go further by doing an hourerly power diary. it gets on your partners nerves but after a few days they "understand" ,lol. In a power diary I wrote my daily meter readings and in the hourly version I would write the meter readings imediatly before i say... put the oven on then when I switched it off I would take another reading and work out how many units per hour of use the oven was costing. I would then do my cooking in batch form and freeze a lot of it for the following week thus using the full oven. After use i'd then open the oven door so the heat would "escape" into the house and not out into the vents to outside.

I have an excel sheet set up with formulas that i pin to the cupboard door to wriite the daily units down then transfer these to the computer once a month and it's amazing how it helps cut your bills. If anyone wants a copy email me via the blog email addy.

HTH

Alan

[Big Al]

Thank you AnnPan and Ellie,

When I've got some readings from the gadgety thing I'll post them up.

I've just checked my account this morning and I'm paying 9.58p per unit plus 12.74p per day standing charge.

I went upstairs last night (we were all downstairs) and found 4 lights on this morning the router had been left on all night
I know these things don't cost a lot, but it all adds up, right?

Anyway, I'm feeling quite inspired this morning and raring to go with cutting our consumption. I was vigilant with using the hob this morning to warm up rice pudding for breakfast and have warmed water for hot drinks over the fire this morning.........
Good luck everyone

A word of warning about the modems and routers. I kept switching them off and it meant that i'd have to start up the internet conections each time the computer was switched on which is many times a day for us. Therefore we leave these on and it makes for an easier life... oh we are on ntl / virgin for our broadband.

As for the tarrif, be aware that if you are on a mission then it might be better to change to a non standing charge tarriff. For example I pay 11.33 p per unit inc vat and use an average of 435 units a month ( last 6 months) so if I was on your tarriff I'd pay 41.67 for the power plus 21.60 standing charge or a total of £63.27. If that has to have vat on top the total is £66.43. My tarrif on the same figures means I pay £50.98 inclusive of VAT. It's only £13 over 6 months but that's nearly £30 over a full year which to a foodie like myself is a couple of domino's large dominator pizza's free.......( sadly they don't do pizza's)

Also some people pay a high tarrif for the first 900 units per quarter then drop down to a mor sensible tarrif. If you are reducing your amount of useage you don't want one of these tarrifs either becasue the example above means I'd only be paying the higher tarrif and never see the smaller tarrif.
Having worked for a couple of power companies we were aleways told to get people onto standing charge tarrifs...

Just thought I'd mention it.

[starchild]

Gosh, those energy monitors look like a lot of money. I'm sure mine was about ten pounds..........
Still waiting for the batteries, but I'm really looking forward to setting it up - sad eh?!

Alan, I shall have a shop around again to make sure I am getting the best deal and take the daily standing charge into account. Regarding the router, I only turn it off at night time and then boot it up in the morning; that works for us.

At the moment I'm going for a daily reading. I'll try that for a week, along with listing all the things we do - washing machine, oven etc and then might try some hourly readings. Apart from the cooker and immersion I'll be able to find out just how much something is costing me with the energy monitor, so that will be helpful.
DH told me that I can turn everything off in the house except the cooker, so I might try that one day too to see how much the oven cost to run for an hour.
I'll email you for your excel sheet - I love sheets, charts and lists

Yesterday I really noticed some of my habits and made changes. I thought I was economical with cooking, but realised I wasn't. I tend to bring something up the boil, simmer and then walk away and leave it. Yesterday I hung around and took things off the heat as soon as they were cooked. But then in the evening of my frugality, DH came along turned the immersion off and put the oven on just for a few oven chips
Never mind; at least he was turning lights off during the evening
One step at a time.

We used 17 units on Monday and it looks like the same yesterday, despite freezing my nuts off by refusing to put the electric heater on. Ho hum - today is another day :)

[Big Al]

I'm also a member of the I measure set up. This is something set up by some universities for experiments or something. It focuses on carbon reduction more than saving money but i use it to save money over carbon reduction.
Anyway there is a way to set up a "carbon club" so people can challenge others to reduce their carbon etc. As a bit of fun i've set up a carbon club at http://www.i-measure.org under the name of " ishers super carbon club"

If you want you can join this club by going to http://www.i-measure.org and clicking on the word carbon club then "join a carbon club" and you can join the ishers super carbon club if you want.

Take care,

Alan