I'm trying to get an idea of what sort of level our utility usage is and
whether there are any cost savings to be made. Unfortunately I've no idea of
what's high and what's not !

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting through

8507 Kwh per annum on electricity
23625 Kwh per annum on gas (Took the gas meter reading of 750 units and
mulitplied by 31.5 - think this is how the conversion factor works)

Annual spend is £1250

This is for a 3 bedroom end of terrace, 2 adults and one ankle biter


Does this sound about right or should I tell the Mrs to put a jumper on and
turn off the heating !

Cheers

Jim

On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:52:16 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

I'm trying to get an idea of what sort of level our utility usage is and
whether there are any cost savings to be made. Unfortunately I've no idea of
what's high and what's not !

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting through

8507 Kwh per annum on electricity
23625 Kwh per annum on gas (Took the gas meter reading of 750 units and
mulitplied by 31.5 - think this is how the conversion factor works)

Annual spend is £1250

This is for a 3 bedroom end of terrace, 2 adults and one ankle biter


Does this sound about right or should I tell the Mrs to put a jumper on and
turn off the heating !

Cheers

Jim


I have a 3 bed semi, built in ~1957, double glazed and with 4" loft
insulation but I doubt any cavity insulation. We're two adults, one at
work, one at home all day.

The heating is left on 24*7 throughout winter, controlled just on the
thermostat, which is set to 18C on the thermostat which actually
measures 20C on a couple of thermometers at the thermostat. We have
gas central heating and gas cooking.

We're pretty gadgety so there are lots of adapters left plugged in and
a Media Center PC and wireless router and Sky left on 24*7. The 32"
CRT and a laptop are on about 16 hours per day.

Annual electricity consumption is about 4,000 KWh and gas is 14,500
KWh. The annual bill is about £600 through Powergen.

So you're using twice the gas, twice the electric and paying twice the
price that we are for a similar sized property and one extra ankle
biter. It sounds a bit excessive to me.

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So you're using twice the gas, twice the electric and paying twice the
price that we are for a similar sized property and one extra ankle
biter. It sounds a bit excessive to me.

LOL my monthly direct debits for gas and elec are ~£60 each :-}

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On Thu, 9 Mar 2006 19:41:53 -0000, Colin Wilson
wrote:

So you're using twice the gas, twice the electric and paying twice the
price that we are for a similar sized property and one extra ankle
biter. It sounds a bit excessive to me.

LOL my monthly direct debits for gas and elec are ~£60 each :-}

Ouch! I've just had a thought about why my bills are as low as they
are - We don't use the third bedroom except very rarely when guests
stay over so the rad is off and the door closed for that room. Ditto
the dining room, which only gets used about once a month. So from a
heating viewpoint I guess my 3 bed semi is more like a 2 bed.

Also for the living room we now use a single low energy bulb, giving a
soft glow to the room, instead of 3*60 Watts on a dimmer that we used
to have. The kitchen is lit with a single flourescent tube and no
halogen underlighting or anything like that to rack up the bills.

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LOL my monthly direct debits for gas and elec are ~£60 each :-}
Ouch! I've just had a thought about why my bills are as low as they
are - We don't use the third bedroom except very rarely when guests
stay over so the rad is off and the door closed for that room. Ditto
the dining room, which only gets used about once a month. So from a
heating viewpoint I guess my 3 bed semi is more like a 2 bed.

2 of us in the house, the 2nd bedroom is a computer room and has very
heavy use daily - I did have a compact flourescent but it was failing
so I stuck a normal lamp in. 3rd bedroom is set up as a gym, but the
door is always open, so the heating is on.

Also for the living room we now use a single low energy bulb, giving a
soft glow to the room, instead of 3*60 Watts on a dimmer that we used
to have. The kitchen is lit with a single flourescent tube and no
halogen underlighting or anything like that to rack up the bills.

Hehe... kitchen - 9*50W halogens (yes, it blinds you temporarily if
you make the mistake of switching on more than one half at once...),
living room 4*60W regular lamps on a dimmer

Not to mention the multitude of wall warts, sky receiver, 2*computers
left on 24/7 since about 1993... every one of the 5 double sockets in
the computer room has a plug in it, and at least one has a 4-way
adaptor fully populated :-}

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The message
from Colin Wilson contains these words:

LOL my monthly direct debits for gas and elec are ~£60 each :-}

Grief - ours are £19 and that often puts us ahead of the game! It's a
late 60s terrace.

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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

LOL my monthly direct debits for gas and elec are ~£60 each :-}
Grief - ours are £19 and that often puts us ahead of the game! It's a
late 60s terrace.

Mid 30's "terrace" here - although to all intents and purposes the
downstairs is detatched. Its a slightly strange build arrangement
where every other house had a passageway, but we`re in the middle of a
row of 9, and therefore have a passage on both sides.

Upstairs, both are "terraced" in the normal sense of the word.

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Guy King wrote:

Grief - ours are £19 and that often puts us ahead of the game! It's a
late 60s terrace.

I bet Mary gets a rebate on her standing charges for lack of use!


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In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Jim wrote:

I'm trying to get an idea of what sort of level our utility usage is
and whether there are any cost savings to be made. Unfortunately I've
no idea of what's high and what's not !

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting
through
8507 Kwh per annum on electricity
23625 Kwh per annum on gas (Took the gas meter reading of 750 units
and mulitplied by 31.5 - think this is how the conversion factor
works)
Annual spend is £1250

This is for a 3 bedroom end of terrace, 2 adults and one ankle biter


Does this sound about right or should I tell the Mrs to put a jumper
on and turn off the heating !

Cheers

Jim

It sounds high to me - both the consumption *and* the price!

I have a 4-bedroom detached house with 3 adults - all retired, one of whom
is 96 and needs it hot! I use about 10,000 Kwh of electricity p.a. and about
30,000 Kwh of gas. The electricity is high on account of having a garden
pond with pump/filter running 24/7 - plus 2 computers which are on for all
the waking hours.

I'm on a capped Scottich Power tariff, and pay £88 per month (£1056 p.a.) by
DD which *does* cover my consumption - i.e. I'm not building up an
increasing debt.

Make sure that your house is well insulated, and consider switching to a
cheaper supplier - although they're all dearer now than when I switched.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Roger Mills (aka Set Square) wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Jim wrote:

I'm trying to get an idea of what sort of level our utility usage is
and whether there are any cost savings to be made. Unfortunately I've
no idea of what's high and what's not !

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting
through
8507 Kwh per annum on electricity
23625 Kwh per annum on gas (Took the gas meter reading of 750 units
and mulitplied by 31.5 - think this is how the conversion factor
works)
Annual spend is £1250

This is for a 3 bedroom end of terrace, 2 adults and one ankle biter


Does this sound about right or should I tell the Mrs to put a jumper
on and turn off the heating !

Cheers

Jim

It sounds high to me - both the consumption *and* the price!

I have a 4-bedroom detached house with 3 adults - all retired, one of whom
is 96 and needs it hot! I use about 10,000 Kwh of electricity p.a. and about
30,000 Kwh of gas. The electricity is high on account of having a garden
pond with pump/filter running 24/7 - plus 2 computers which are on for all
the waking hours.

I'm on a capped Scottich Power tariff, and pay £88 per month (£1056 p.a.) by
DD which *does* cover my consumption - i.e. I'm not building up an
increasing debt.

Make sure that your house is well insulated, and consider switching to a
cheaper supplier - although they're all dearer now than when I switched.
a good piont is the insulation!
i love insulation, it saves raw cash, insulate everything, look it up
and most/certain insulations make summer comfortable too!

my friend brother's house has just undergone the FULL treatment, floor
to roof, cost quite a lot to do, but he only runs his heating for a
couple of hours a day, thats in winter!

electricity is another subject, i wish i could devise a low
voltage/usage house system then i would market it!

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Gav" ""gavbriggs\"@[cut the spam]blueyonder.co.uk ""gavbriggs\"@[cut the
spam]blueyonder.co.uk" wrote:


electricity is another subject, i wish i could devise a low
voltage/usage house system then i would market it!

So do we all - especially considering that it costs 3 times as much as gas.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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"Roger Mills (aka Set Square)" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Gav" ""gavbriggs\"@[cut the spam]blueyonder.co.uk ""gavbriggs\"@[cut the
spam]blueyonder.co.uk" wrote:


electricity is another subject, i wish i could devise a low
voltage/usage house system then i would market it!

So do we all - especially considering that it costs 3 times as much as
gas.
--
Cheers,
Roger

I think a customer today has already sorted this. He explained to me (whilst
I rewired his lighting circuits) that if I used 12V insead of 240V then I
could use very thin wire and so make less damage to his plaster and it would
only use a twentieth of the power as 240 divided by 12 is 20. I nodded in
agreement as he wrote out a cheque for my services.

Adam

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
ARWadsworth wrote:


I think a customer today has already sorted this. He explained to me
(whilst I rewired his lighting circuits) that if I used 12V insead of
240V then I could use very thin wire and so make less damage to his
plaster and it would only use a twentieth of the power as 240 divided
by 12 is 20. I nodded in agreement as he wrote out a cheque for my
services.
Adam

Well, I hope he keeps nice and warm, sitting by his 50 watt electric fire!
g
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Cheers,
Roger
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On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:56:58 GMT someone who may be Gav
""gavbriggs\"@[cut the spam]blueyonder.co.uk" wrote this:-

my friend brother's house has just undergone the FULL treatment, floor
to roof, cost quite a lot to do, but he only runs his heating for a
couple of hours a day, thats in winter!

That is the thing that people who have it done tend to notice the
most. Many don't bother with heating in the morning if they are
going out to work, the house is warm enough from the night before.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

Jim wrote:
I'm trying to get an idea of what sort of level our utility usage is
and whether there are any cost savings to be made. Unfortunately I've
no idea of what's high and what's not !

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting
through

8507 Kwh per annum on electricity

eek ! you may have a leak )



Stop The Badger Cull - Respond by the 10th March

http://www.stopthecull.info/emaildefra.php

My usage, 2 people, three bed semi, 16,500 kWh gas/annum and about 5,000 kWh
electricity/annum.

I am pretty careful with the heating though.

Andy.

.. wrote:
Jim wrote:
Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting
through

8507 Kwh per annum on electricity

eek ! you may have a leak )

'swat I was thinking. Turn everything off, at the switches, and
see whether the meter indicates current is being drawn. Pull
fuses or off MCBs to isolate the circuit. Perhaps there's a
hot water leak, too!

Jim wrote:

Looking at bills from today and this time last year we are getting through

8507 Kwh per annum on electricity
23625 Kwh per annum on gas (Took the gas meter reading of 750 units and
mulitplied by 31.5 - think this is how the conversion factor works)

Annual spend is £1250

I am amazed at the huge cost of heating and all the equipment
needed, as discussed in this newsgroup.
We use 6000 Kwh per annum on electricity and don't have (or want)
gas or oil. All heating is electric. We don't need air
conditioning. There is never any snow outside here.
I suggest that people keep that in mind when comparing the cost
of living in the UK and northern NZ, or elsewhere.