Coldest December for 100 years - how did it affect your energy consumption?

[Terry Fields]

Apparently the 'average temperature' for last December was the coldest for a hundred years, at minus 1 deg C instead of an expected plus 4 deg C.

As we are told that turning down one's central heating by 1 deg C can save 10 percent of heating costs, then December's low must have ratcheted up the energy bill by some fair amount, possibly 50 percent at a first guess.

This is our first December in this house, so I have no idea what might have been a normal figure to compare to, but the gas meter readings for that month say we used 3600 kWh, for a four-bed detached house on the edge of some fields.

I'd be interested in any figures people might have for their December energy consumption, compared to the previous December.

TF

[philipuk]

We used approx 1200kWh for december, that's for a mid terrace using gas for cooking and heating. We do however have an electric heater in the living room which we only use for short periods and we went away for a week. This is up approx +25% on november.

Philip

[Mike Barnes]

Terry Fields :

Electricity: -14% (no idea why) Gas: +21%

[PeterC]

Very rough figures, somewhat obfuscated by extra curtains and some insulation, about 22% more.

[Halmyre]

I'm too scared to take a gas meter reading. I suspect I'll be rogered rather thoroughly when my direct debit is next reviewed.

-- Halmyre

[geraldthehamster]

We're on bottled gas. 4 bottles, replaced two at a time when they run empty. At the height of a "normal" winter, we replace a pair every 2 to 3 weeks. During December they were only lasting 8 days. In December we spent =A3400 on gas. Hence my questions in another thread about woodburning stoves ;-)

Cheers Richard

[Reentrant]

We used 3498 kWh, for a four-bed detached house on the edge of some fields.

Dec' 2009 was 3017 kWh. Curiously our electricity usage was 12% less than last December.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I started collecting accurate data on 12 Dec, so I can't compare with previous years. So far, it looks like this...

Date heating on call for heat hot water burner on Energy Cost (HH:MM:SS) (HH:MM:SS) (HH:MM:SS) (HH:MM:SS) (kWh) (£.p)

12 Dec 10:33:48 10:33:48 0:00:00 3:59:33 72.26 2.53 13 Dec 15:17:49 14:30:30 0:00:00 5:17:41 95.82 3.36 14 Dec 4:52:23 4:52:24 0:29:59 2:04:51 37.66 1.32 15 Dec 14:54:36 13:56:48 0:00:00 5:05:26 92.13 3.23 16 Dec 8:53:33 8:17:56 0:00:00 3:04:34 55.67 1.95 17 Dec 13:53:13 13:53:11 0:29:59 5:12:46 94.34 3.31 18 Dec 13:03:51 13:03:51 0:00:00 4:42:42 85.27 2.99 19 Dec 15:10:46 15:10:45 0:00:00 5:14:06 94.74 3.32 20 Dec 13:24:55 13:24:56 0:59:59 4:35:32 83.11 2.91 21 Dec 17:10:20 16:11:10 0:30:03 4:20:59 78.72 2.76 22 Dec 14:16:28 12:57:07 0:29:59 4:02:45 73.22 2.57 23 Dec 20:32:29 16:37:36 0:14:57 4:55:49 89.23 3.13 24 Dec 4:43:40 4:43:38 0:00:00 1:28:12 26.60 0.93 25 Dec 7:26:22 8:14:02 0:00:00 2:55:59 53.08 1.86 26 Dec 11:05:53 11:05:54 0:00:00 3:10:22 57.42 2.01 27 Dec 0:00:00 2:14:37 0:00:00 1:24:06 25.37 0.89 28 Dec 6:42:36 7:48:17 0:29:59 3:17:18 59.51 2.09 29 Dec 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0.00 0.00 30 Dec 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0:00:00 0.00 0.00 31 Dec 0:00:00 1:20:43 0:00:00 1:07:24 20.33 0.71 1 Jan 0:00:00 1:46:02 0:00:00 1:23:13 25.10 0.88 2 Jan 0:00:00 2:34:27 0:00:00 1:59:05 35.92 1.26 3 Jan 0:00:00 3:41:46 0:00:00 2:34:00 46.45 1.63 4 Jan 8:18:44 10:15:16 0:00:00 4:38:52 84.12 2.95 5 Jan 18:14:15 14:00:03 0:29:59 4:54:09 88.72 3.11 6 Jan 19:33:22 12:07:27 0:29:59 4:24:17 79.72 2.79

House was empty for about 8 days hence you can see "call for heat" time when heating wasn't on, which is the frost protection kicking in. Also, there are periods when house was empty when heating came fully on, as the frost protection in the house was not keeping the attic above freezing.

[Roger Mills]

We used 30% more gas (for CH & HW)compared with December '09 - but 13.5%

*less* electricity.

The increase in gas usage is what I would expect because the heating was on for a lot longer and we also supplemented it with the gas fire (which is less efficient) quite a lot. I can't explain the *reduction* in electricity usage - but other people seem to have reported the same thing. Curious!

[djc]

Turned off the lights and went to bed early? Having bought a new duvet in September I have probably saved quite a lot of gas by not having the heating on overnight at all this winter.

Not sure of my gas consumption so far this year as I only tale a reading and calculate a comparison when the quarterly bill arrives (Nov-Feb)

[Andrew Gabriel]

Snow is very reflective - less lighting? If the gas consumption is something like 10000kWh and the electricity consumption is 400kWh, then it's insignificant anyway.

[The Natural Philosopher]

we went for the bunker option, and turned the heating way down, using wood and occasional selective bursts of CH to heat specific rooms when needed. We actually have used LESS.

[A.Clews]

Thus spake Terry Fields ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Don't forget we had a pretty cold spell in December 2009 too, so figures may not be all that different.

[Chris J Dixon]

Usage 2010 Gas 2706 kWh, electricity 554 kWh, total 3260 kWh.

Comparison with 2009 Gas 126%, electricity 108%, total 122%.

Without fairly modest 35 kWh of solar generation, the electricity would have been at 112%, and overall 124%.

Chris

[dennis]

You need a ground source heat pump, some can get grants if they are elderly, disabled, etc.

[Jules Richardson]

Just as a FYI (and I don't have 2009 data unfortunately) December averaged at -12C over here, and our usage was about 4700kWH - around

2000kWH of that on the electric heat and the rest via the propane furnace.

cheers

Jules

[nnk]

4300kWh gas 4bed + converted garage (bedroom) detached near fields (only one garden between us) Range cooker +Heating old boiler - in all over the period sometines 2 adults and teenager rest 2 adults 2 teenagers and 2 kids - someone please make me feel better :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Burning oil but I have taken weekly tank level readings going back to

2000. For the 28 days covering December, sometimes late Nov or early Jan depending on when the weekends were the following is the number of cm of oil used: 2000 22.5 2001 25.75 2002 26.0 2003 22.25 2004 19.75 2005 21.5 2006 21.5 2007 18.0 2008 25 2009 24.5 2010 23.5

December '10 was pretty cold (lots of ice days and lows -10C or so) but not windy. It is the wind that really cools this place out.

Each cm of oil is about 25l so we burnt 580l or so of oil in Dec '10 that's about 5800kwHr of energy.

[Mike Clarke]

We averaged 72 Kwh per day in December 2009 and 92 Kwh per day in December 2010 i.e. 28% more

[Nutkey]

Electricity - practically the same Gas - up about 16%