Electricity Usage

[Kevin Milkins]

I think the time has come to make some informed decisions about the way I run my family budget and I have made some good inroads this month.

I have been learning to make better use of my computer and in particular Microsoft Office and have recently been concentrating my efforts on Excel.

Having got the jist of how spreadsheets work I thought it would be a good time to put my new found knowledge to work (use it or loose it)

I have never been much of a one for budgeting so I thought I would set up a spread sheet on how much electricity we use and what could we do to reduce that amount.

Since the 23 December I have been reading the meter on a daily basis and now have my first month to make some informed decisions .

I asked Mrs M to put on the calendar when she did her washing, made a loaf of bread etc so that I could see any variations in usage.

Although I have not studied in great detail yet what would cause great variations in usage it is apparent that day to day usage does vary quit a bit.

It would seem that from the 23-12-08 to the 22-1-09 we have used 556 units of electricity @ 12.79 pence per unit =to £71-11 pence. With a maximum daily use of £5-35 and a minimum daily use of 67 pence and an average daily use of £2-37.Meter readings were not taken at the same time of day.

I am sure that other orgers have done a similar project and I would like to compare if my usage is high or low or average and if anyone would like to check there own usage, but not sure about spread sheets I can email you a meter reading sheet for the next month so that you can have a go.

I have found it both interesting and informative and I am better able to make informed decisions about energy usage..

[Tugmistress]

are you an all electric house? if so i would happily send you my readings each day and you can work it out

[Kevin Milkins]

are you an all electric house? if so i would happily send you my readings each day and you can work it out

No Tugs.

We have coal central heating that use 2 bags of chinese doubles a week = £36-00, no gas in the street so it is electric cooker .

We live in an ex council house that is up to speed with insulation and double glazing, loft insulation etc, but our first indications are that we are spending about £215 a month on fuel.

Does that sound about right or could we do better. I would see the org as a good place for us to share each others experence on what would be reasonable for fuel in these testing times.

If you would like me to do a spread sheet on your daily use Tugs I can do that.

[Tugmistress]

it would make an interesting comparison for the main diference of all elec versus combination. I'll send you a pm in a wee while
just as a brief answer though, before nov when i got the meter changed i was on a card meter, and when neep was at home i was getting through aound £180 a month elec, after i booted her out it went down to around £50 a month! the main diference i can think of was she was constantly on the cooker, at least 3 times a day straightening her hair and whatever else teenage girls do

[Venture]

I live in a 4-apt ex-council house and have coal fired central heating. I too buy two bags of doubles per week for £36. I pay £80 a month Direct Debit to Scottish Power. This comes to £224 a month. Slightly more than you Kevin.

[joxville]

it would make an interesting comparison for the main diference of all elec versus combination. I'll send you a pm in a wee while
just as a brief answer though, before nov when i got the meter changed i was on a card meter, and when neep was at home i was getting through aound £180 a month elec, after i booted her out it went down to around £50 a month! the main diference i can think of was she was constantly on the cooker, at least 3 times a day straightening her hair and whatever else teenage girls do

Eh? She staightened her hair on the cooker!
No joking, one time I saw my niece switch on the iron and straighten her hair.

Keep us informed please Kevin, I'm interested in the spreadsheet too.

[Kevin Milkins]

it would make an interesting comparison for the main diference of all elec versus combination. I'll send you a pm in a wee while
just as a brief answer though, before nov when i got the meter changed i was on a card meter, and when neep was at home i was getting through aound £180 a month elec, after i booted her out it went down to around £50 a month! the main diference i can think of was she was constantly on the cooker, at least 3 times a day straightening her hair and whatever else teenage girls do

LOL,I will reserve judgment on that untill the neep has had her say.

We all go about our business in a way that we think we are getting the best deal for our phone, electric, broadband, gas, coal, dog food, etc and I think the org has a great cross section of all of the above that we could all benfit from. I am sure that with good lines of comunicaton that most all of us could benifit from one anothers expierence in one way or another and sureley thats got to be better than falling out with each other.

[Tugmistress]

ok so i didn't exactly phrase that quite right lol but i'm sure you know what i mean jox lol. it's been a long day and i'm off to ma pit now
sent you a pm kevin

[Kevin Milkins]

I live in a 4-apt ex-council house and have coal fired central heating. I too buy two bags of doubles per week for £36. I pay £80 a month Direct Debit to Scottish Power. This comes to £224 a month. Slightly more than you Kevin.

Does the £80-00 a month cover the amount of electric that you are using?

I am paying £65-00 a month to Scottish Hydro Electric and it now seems that that is not enough,( I suppose as an average over the year it will be) but the point that I am trying to make is that untill I embarked on this little exercise I had no idea how much per unit or how many units I was using.

I now feel as if I can do some possitive things to help me cut down in the future and and some fun looking at the comparisons. ( I just know some people will say I need to get out more )lol

[dirdyweeker]

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/pro...nergy-monitor/

this is a free device we applied for and now use. It is fascinating to use an appliance and know how much energy it uses. Makes you less keen to use some. If you want to keep an eye on electric usage this is a great gadget. Once set it works out costs and energy. Great wee thing.

[Kevin Milkins]

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/pro...nergy-monitor/

this is a free device we applied for and now use. It is fascinating to use an appliance and know how much energy it uses. Makes you less keen to use some. If you want to keep an eye on electric usage this is a great gadget. Once set it works out costs and energy. Great wee thing.

That looks interesting DW. Is it easy to work and understand.?
How do you go about getting one for free?

[LMS]

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/pro...nergy-monitor/

this is a free device we applied for and now use. It is fascinating to use an appliance and know how much energy it uses. Makes you less keen to use some. If you want to keep an eye on electric usage this is a great gadget. Once set it works out costs and energy. Great wee thing.

I collected tokens from the Daily Mail for one of these energy meters and they are fantastic! I watch everything on it and I have made a concious effort to reduce our electricity consumption.

I have a four bedroomed house and pay £140 per month in oil and £80-£100 in electricity. I had been paying less for electricity but with the price going up by 33% over the year, I had to increase my direct debit amount. We also have bottled gas for our cooker and living room fire which is about £10 per month.

[Kevin Milkins]

I collected tokens from the Daily Mail for one of these energy meters and they are fantastic! I watch everything on it and I have made a concious effort to reduce our electricity consumption.

I have a four bedroomed house and pay £140 per month in oil and £80-£100 in electricity. I had been paying less for electricity but with the price going up by 33% over the year, I had to increase my direct debit amount. We also have bottled gas for our cooker and living room fire which is about £10 per month.

This is starting to get interesting already.

I am with Scotish Hydro Electric and they put there's up at the end of August by 19.2% on average.

It s now 12.79 pence per unit. your oil works out £4-00 per month cheaper,but the bit more on gas and electric takes it up a bit.

Do you know how many units of electic you use per month and how much per unit it cost?

[Liz]

We have solid fuel central heating and use, on average, two bags of Chinese Doubles a week at £18 a bag.

We pay £50 per month by DD to Scottish Hydro and this more than covers our electricity costs. In fact we are in credit of £50.

We found the biggest saving on electric was not using the tumble dryer. Since we stopped using this our electricity bill has really come down.

[Venture]

Does the £80-00 a month cover the amount of electric that you are using?

I am paying £65-00 a month to Scottish Hydro Electric and it now seems that that is not enough,( I suppose as an average over the year it will be) but the point that I am trying to make is that untill I embarked on this little exercise I had no idea how much per unit or how many units I was using.

I now feel as if I can do some possitive things to help me cut down in the future and and some fun looking at the comparisons. ( I just know some people will say I need to get out more )lol

The DD was £59 up until the end of December but they increased it to £80 from January as they said it wasn't enough for what I was using.

My electricity useage varies throughout the year. In summer when I have no fire on and not buying coal the water heater is used instead.
I use my tumble dryer a lot in winter and less in summer.

[dirdyweeker]

That looks interesting DW. Is it easy to work and understand.?
How do you go about getting one for free?

like LMS I collected tokens from the Daily Mail. You are more than welcome to borrow mine as it is very interesting to see you electricity usage and costs at a glance.

[Bad Manners]

hi kevin we carried oyt this excercise some time ago and we are it the same situation as yourself we use two bags of doubles for the fire/heating and we are £45 per month on electricity which covers our needs not bad considering I work from home and power usage is part of that.
we are now up to date with all insulations etc and use energy saving bulbd etc. the old thing of stop leaving things on stand by does make a great saving it may take an extra few seconds to start up but time is free before all the above work we were on £75-80 per month on electric

[Kevin Milkins]

like LMS I collected tokens from the Daily Mail. You are more than welcome to borrow mine as it is very interesting to see you electricity usage and costs at a glance.

Thank you DW, thats very kind of you and I will PM you when I am up for a go at that.

Well the common denominator seems to be many of us use 2 bags of Chinese doubles a week at a cost of £36-00.

Although the electricity seems to be a big cost for most it seems powering the central heating is the bigest cost.

I have been having a bit of a play trying to mix dross (slack or small coal) with saw dust,shreded paper and peat with resonable success and I am looking at a way of compressing it into a brick for better handling.

I have done a couple of mixes in a cement mixer and put a shovell of cement in to make it stick. I have been saving old coke bottles or butter containers and filling them up with the mix.

It burns well ,but is messy and time consumming so it's back to the drawing board.

Thanks for all the PM,s there have been some very interesting comments.

[Thumper]

Hi Kevin, I am all electric and I spend £40 a week and thats with half the heaters turned off,the others turned right down and energy saving bulbs,the house is so bad that when Ormlie heating advice came round they sat with their coats on and their thermometer said danger of hypothermia!I cant afford to put anymore in heating though so I guess I just have to get on with it,any saving tips would be appreciated though! x

[Buttercup]

3 bedroomed, Total Heating Total Control = £100 per month DD