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
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Rae we as a family use on average 130 units a week,
ReplyDeletethat is with electric cooking and all other appliances, 2 large freezers and a large fridge, dishwasher and washing machine (both on at least daily),
boys also have tv and games consoles in their bedrooms and obviously the computer and all its trappings.
Thanks Maisie; that's helpful to know. Is this for hot water and heating as well or do you have gas for that?
ReplyDeleteWe've since put the immersion usage to once a day for an hour and then we put it on again in the evening if anyone wants a bath. This is working out to be better. I'll be posting more about that soon and have re-iterated to DH that a tankless water heater is in order as a project for this year.
I think the thing that really annoys me is that we used (not so long ago) to use around 100 units per week, so a sudden hike really annoys me; when I can't figure it out!
I'm getting there though - British Rail, me :D
I'm interested in your immersion heater - for hot water, I expect?
ReplyDeleteCould you maybe arrange something together with the woodburner?
Today Uncle's been telling me that in the old days people used the power of the wood to heat water too.. (chimneys & pipe boilers or such were involved)
Uncle has a big wood stove & heats water in there, a separate compartment..
We have solar water heating on sunny days & wood central heating in winter.. (no electricity at all..)
No idea how much we actually use up though.. :) So you're far ahead on that one!! :)