Last two meter readings

My head is swimming with figures! We've kept to putting the immersion on for one hour in the morning and not having it on again.

DH has just washed up and the water is certainly warm enough for every day washing up. It wouldn't be any good for a greasy meal, but that's only once a week on a Sunday anyway. For that, we can boil up the kettle.

There is a significant drop in our readings so far.

Yesterday's was 97609 (which was 19 - I used the washing machine twice and did a fair amount of cooking)
Today's is 97721 (which is just 12 units) and DH has just put the water on for a bath, so tomorrow's will be higher.

A tankless water heater is definitely the way forward. Although I have to admit, I'm still a bit perplexed. Today I made rice pudding on the hob, which cooked for 1 1/2 hours. It's a real minefield. I have a friend's OWL monitor, but it's next to useless as it doesn't give you the reading you want to know. It shows you that having the shower on, the kettle boiling and the hob on is using 70p an hour, but it doesn't tell you a cumulative total such as HOW MUCH the 5 minute shower costs.

I have a plug in kill-a-watt, but that is limited as you can only put it into things with a socket. Items like the immersion or cooker that don't have a plug, you can't use it on and these are the things I want to know most about! In addition, the plugs for the fridge and freezers are behind them, so I can't get to the sockets.

I thought it would be much more straight forward than this, but I guess there are some unknowns like refrigeration cutting in and out..............

ho hum. 12 units per day is very encouraging. And you know what? As I look up, I see DH has left two lights on when he went out the room. grrrr. Some habits die hard!

Interesting day

Right, in my quest for the dastardly mystery electric user, I turned off the immersion for 24 hours. I wanted to try and recapture yesterday's electricity usage to get a feel for what was going on, but I had to use the oven for 1 1/2 hours and one of the hobs for quite a long time too.

I checked the meter at the beginning of lunch prep and afterwards, and had used 2 1/2 units. That's a rough guide as we had computers and refrigeration running too, but at least it gave us an idea.

We've had no baths (obviously!), no washing machine, and tried to keep everything else as 'normal' as possible. I've been keeping water warm on top of the wood burner which, along with warm water kept in the hot water tank has been fine for washing up. We wouldn't be able to wash up after a greasy meal with that, but for every day food it was fine.

In addition, it took about 20 seconds to boil a mug of water for tea and coffee by using pre-heated from the woodburner poured into the kettle. Every little bit helps, right?

Annnnnyway, after all that, living as frugally as possible for 24 hours, turning off unnecessary lights and keeping things to a bare minimum, we have used 13 units. Our reading is now 97590

Shocking huhn? Two hours of water a day has been costing us a LOT of money.

You'll see over to the right my goals point towards tankless water heaters. Now we have decided that these are first on the list on necessity. Hot water gets used every day, whereas heating is only necessary for half of the year.

We've discussed that now we are going to have the water coming on for an hour in the mornings and if we want a bath in the evening, we boost it for another hour later in the day. I have to admit I LIKE hot water en tap (boom boom) all the time. It's great that I can have a bath whenever I choose and if Dd gets herself in a mess then I can clean her up. But it's coming at a huge financial and environmental cost, so it's time to change our ways.

No baths!

I'm like a woman possessed! Since our ridiculous meter reading I've been taking daily readings. Sunday was a 'usual Sunday' - this involves use of two ovens for making Sunday dinner, we had the washing machine going and I think DH had a bath. We used 26 units.

Yesterday I put my frugal head on. I went round the house like the light police, challenging anyone who left one on. I didn't use the washing machine, didn't put the oven on, stopped people having baths and we STILL used 18 units.

Now I don't know about you, but I think that is a lot. I used the hob really efficiently too. I've figured that all electric hobs are a big waste of money. You pay for heating the room. So I bought things to the boil, put a well fitting lid on and left convection to do its work. I also insisted that we ate things like soup; so nothing that actually needed 'cooking' only things that needed warming through.

That meant that 18 units was warming up food and paying for the lighting and computers. And the immersion heater that comes on for an hour, twice a day.

When I took the reading last night and saw how much we had still got through I decided to switch the immersion off. It will remain off for 24 hours until I do the next reading. I'm going to use everything else in exactly the same way for the day and take a look at the difference. There is no reason why this should not drop us into single figures; surely.

But now I'm concerned about our refrigeration costs. We have one under counter fridge and one full size fridge, plus one large freezer. The two large appliances are in a room with no heating; a bit like a garage, so I would expect them to be using very little juice. You just never know though.

This is a real mystery and one which is driving me crazy..........

Just for the record, the readings are:
Friday 6th 97512
Saturday 7th 97533 (21 units)
Sunday 8th 97559 (26 units)
Monday 9th 97577 (18 units)

All readings are taken 9pm

Meter reading post

After my big shock with the meter reading yesterday, I've decided to to daily meter readings until I can find out what is going on.

First thing this morning I put on three layers of clothes and I have to confess I haven't even needed to think about putting an electric heater on. With snow on the ground and only a bit of poor quality damp wood for company, the house is not getting above 18 degrees at the moment.

I like to pretend I am toughened up to it, but actually I'm not. I really feel it.

Except today.

I've learned the simple truth; which I am almost embarrassed to write. I've not been dressing appropriately for the outdoor temperature. Gosh, I can hear my mother now :D

I hate layers of clothes. I really do! I hate things around my wrists. I like to write, cook, I express myself with my hands, I like to stroke the cat, to hold my daughter and I just loathe three thick layers around my arms. I'm always pushing my sleeves up out of the way.

Still, today I have worm several layers and have not thought about supplementing the heating. I've been plenty warm enough.

I've just taken another reading, as this was the time I took it yesterday and it's 97487, which means we have used 20 units in 24 hours. It's still more than I would like to be getting through, but it must be better than what we were using (183 units a week)

Last night I had a bath, but I haven't used the oven today (I have used the hob) or the washing machine, so I feel it is rather a lot.

I feel now that tankless water heaters are the way forward. Immersion heaters seem to be such a waste. Ours is well insulated, but it is not an efficient way of heating water. The oven and washing machine are A rated, so not much I can do there except use the wood burner more for cooking. Tbh though, it's not reaching a particularly high temperature; it will take forever to cook a pan of rice!

I always keep a pot of water on there for making herbal teas throughout the day, but it's been tepid today. Ewwww!

Other than that we run computers and a router all day, but I'm not sure what else. Certainly nothing that produces heat which are the things that use up the juice.

I'll have to investigate further..........

This month's meter reading

We're taking a meter reading on the first day of the month which I forgot to post up. It's 97394. Now that is very scary and very high. I need to double check these figures because, oh my, that's just massive.

That means an average of 183 units per week for the past month. Which is unheard of!

My goal is under 100 units a week, and I have to confess I haven't been watching things. I used to take daily readings and got so fed up of it. Then I took weekly and recently I've got right out of the habit.

ouch! That really hurts!

I've just checked right now and we've used 73 units since I took that reading, which was three days ago. It's an electric heater we have; I'm sure of it.

Right, that's an extra jumper from now on and no electric heating. AND a daily meter reading.

I've had an extra duvet on the bed and I'm ok with that; but it's when I get dressed in the mornings. The fire has gone down, despite being kept in all night and it's just so cold to get dressed. I need to get over myself and leave that heater off.
I put it on for ten minutes before bed too and in the afternoons when I go up for a rest. Hmmm, now I think about it; I'll put it on if I go upstairs to make a phonecall too.

Ho hum.

There is nothing quite like a shock to warm you up!

I've just had the email from Gloucestershire Carbon Watchers about our challenge for this month.

I quote from the mail:

Our theme for February is using your heating system to best effect. It’s really worth getting to grips with this as about two thirds of the carbon emissions from our homes are due to heating.

And that's it! I assume there will be more information to come, as this in itself isn't exactly helpful.

We run a wood burner, which never gets too hot so there is no need for thermostatic radiator valves. It's unusual for the radiators to get more than hand hot.

We have a thermometer in the living space (kitchen, dining room and conservatory - all open plan) and we try and keep it at 20. It's around 16 when we get up in the mornings and by mid morning is about 20 degrees).

Any more than 21 degrees and we're peeling clothes off which is counter-productive in my mind. It's amazing what you get used too. I bake now whenever I go to my parent's house and I used to think it was cold when I lived there!

Our bedrooms are about 18 degrees.

As I mentioned on a previous post, we're thinking of supplementing the wood burner with an Eco Dan. We've been shocked at the price of wood this year.......

To be honest, I think the best way to use your heating system is to insulate your house. It's better to make sure that every kwh of heat you produce heats your home and not the outside air!

Anyway, I look forward to receiving some more information soon so that I can make a start for this month.

Results of January's zero waste week challenge

We took part in the January challenge for Carbon Watchers, which was to get involved with the Gloucestershire zero waste week challenge.

As I mentioned on previous posts, this wasn't a big deal for us as we have been reducing our rubbish since last June anyway.

Anyway, even though we are used to producing minimal waste, we were very pleased with our efforts. We produced just 9 gms. As a family of 2 adults, one child and a cat we were happy with our result.

Our landfill waste was made up from 1 crisp packet and some annoying non-recyclable plastic that came through the post. One was, and I'm very annoyed about this, a piece of plastic moulding used to deliver a PC Power Down from E-On.

Why oh why, does an item that is designed to help you reduce your carbon footprint come with such rubbish (ha ha!) packaging? They have lots of articles and features on their site about energy efficiency and even have a comprehensive 'Energy Challenge'. It seems ironic that a product sent in a cardboard box (big thumbs up) then gets placed in a piece of plastic.

The other plastic was the heat sealing from a new flashcard for my computer. Once again, instead of being happy with putting the thing in a cardboard box, it had to come HEAT SEALED with plastic.

Grrrr..

Anyway, 9 gms - that's cause for celebration and I think I'll be penning a letter to E-On.