Electricity costs.

[Richard Skeen]

I'm in a 1 bedroom flat, all electric. I'm on an Economy 7 tariff with EDF which charges 5.34p/unit night, 11.05p/unit day. The first 238 units are 17.66p.

According to the most recent bill, this quarter I used 7.73 units/day for a total bill of about £20/month. Last quarter I used 24.93 units a day (about £50/month). The difference being not needing the storage heaters on this quarter.

If it's a modern washing machine, I suspect it will use less hot water (and therefore electricty) than washing clothes by hand. Probably less than 1 unit of electricity for a 40 degree wash.

You could halve the cost by running the washing machine at night on cheap rate electricity.

There's a table of power consumption vs energy rating here:

He wants me to use the dishwasher less - I put it on every other day at

The immersion heater will be 3kW, so if you're running it for an hour at night that should be about 15p/day.

It sounds to me like you're not using a silly amount of electricity at the moment. It would be worth seeing if you could switch to a cheaper tariff if you're paying much more than 5p per night unit and 10p per day unit.

Regards, Richard.

[chris French]

In message , sweetheart writes

Regularity seems to just the same. I used to get a paper bill as well as the online ones for BT the paper bill would come through the door within a few days of the online one being ready.

As has been said, you can always view a pdf (I always save a copy of the pdf copy locally as well) or print it out.

I wouldn't say never, there are too many options out there. But none of mine suppliers. (BG, Npower and BT) Bg is a web specific tariff, were we don't get the option of paper bills, but I can still phone someone up with a query. The others are just paperless billing options for discount. I can still ring them.

Fair enough. But you are paying for that. Don't know what tarrif you might be on, but for us with BG we would pay about £150 pa more on the standard tariff compared to the online one we have

Re the original question. FWIW, I think your consumption is reasonable. I'd guess that maybe 2/3 consumption goes on heating and HW then around

300 GBP for all the rest seems reasonable.

I think you are right in you belief that there aren't significant savings to be made given that you seem to be using stuff sensibly. Sure you might trim a little off by using washing machines/DW less - but you still ahev to washup/do washing, but there are limits. eg. I'd not consider a couple of hours of immersion heater a luxury. Boiling water every time you want HW is a faff,as is having to plan ahead for wanting a shower or bath

For a possibly not very helpful comparison We are a family of 4 - 2 kids, around a lot in the day. Gas for HW and CH. Largish 4 bed Victorian house, with probably too many computers etc and lights getting left on.

Annual consumption up to end of July was about 8200 kwh, which on our tariff (Click energy 6) was about GBP 725

[tony sayer]

In article , js.b1 scribeth thus

Ummm ..

.. ever thought of publishing the good economic householder guide;?....

[tony sayer]

Ever thought of asking the neighbours if they have similar properties?..

[sweetheart]

[sweetheart]

Its about £30 difference a year between what I have and a paperless billing tarrif with BG

[tim....]

#1 Loft Insulation, £50-99-199.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Dunno where they get this figure from. Sis has just been quoted 2,500 of which only 300 was the labour. As she has specified some "allergy" free stuff I assumed that she was over paying for materials but I checked and even the cheapest stuff came out at almost 1500.

tim

[sweetheart]

Ah, well aside of the fact I dont know my neighbours well enough for that, I am afraid we do not have similar properties. I live in a rural hamlet and all the houses are different.

My one neighbour has a 1980's built four bed house and the other a two bed

1977 built house . Both use wood fires for heating.

I have a large detached bungalow on a smallholding with two beds ( could be three if some enterprising family wanted to shuffle up in the sitting room using it as a diner or even using the kitchen as a diner instead of having it as a large room and having separate kitchen and dining rooms. Mine was built in 1958. There were no other houses around back then. There was a small build of houses further up the valley in the 1980's but they are not comparable in any way.

But as I said, I really would not feel able to ask.

[tim....]

Really.

Sis has a wood fire, but only because it's pretty. She has to turn the CH on for heating

tim

[sweetheart]

I think both have central heating running from the woodburners. I know they get logs from those around who cut trees every winter.

My one neighbour is a real greenie type and he recently changed from oil to this wood fire but he only has one main living room even though the house is four beds ( was two bed but previous owners chopped the bed rooms in half and made it a four bed ) .

I suspect oil was too expensive.

The other neighbour is elderly and has always used coal fired central heating from a multi fuel fire with back boiler. He has E 7 but doesn't use much.

[js.b1]

Type "Loft Insulation" into Google. Price for labour & glasswood insulation for a 3 bed semi (easy access, 45m^2 loft area) varies from =A30 (free) to =A3199 depending on financial circumstances.

Does she specifically need anti-allergy stuff? You can get glasswool in foil bags (useful vapour barrier) with a few perforations. PIR to 165mm for 45m^2 is about =A3700-800, I think it is

200-220mm now for 2010 regs. Blown in polystyrene is not so good in well ventilated lofts (stream of polystrene beads blowing out in stormy weather and looks like a mountain range inside).

Anti-allergy stuff may move her into more exotic materials where price competition is simply not present.

[js.b1]

Sorry, missed that, stripping wallpaper between posting the past few days :-)

In which case what temperature are you running? You can pick up a cheap LCD inside/outside thermostat and they can be handy for fine-tuning storage heaters - even automatic ones.

Females in a living room without radiant heating tends to need a higher temperature with convective heating than a male. For example with a gas fire 21oC is "about right" and 22oC is "way too hot, open the door". Conversely with convective heating 23oC was required and

23.5oC felt "about the same, but missed the radiant heat". Did a lot of tests in 2009 winter.

Npower in NW are circa 4.9p unit including VAT for E7 with =A350+50 (dual fuel) annual discount on top. That is not the cheapest, I think that is 4.5p at the moment AND the NW is one of the most expensive areas for E7 (classed as North Wales ironically).

ok, what about water meter? Rateable charge is probably =A3450, water meter charge for 2 people is probably =A3200-250. You can reject the meter in the first year if you wish, but the next occupier has to have meter-based readings.

[tony sayer]

In article , sweetheart scribeth thus

Ever thought about going LPG gas or solid fuel heating or would that be too much up front Capx spend?..

[tony sayer]

In article , tim.... scribeth thus

Bloody hell thats gone up an awful lot since I did mine mainly 300 some

200 mm thickness..

Guvvermint ought to subside that to kingdom come rather than sub wind farms..

[sweetheart]

It would be a lot of mess opening up fire places and OH would do it - and I have had problems just getting him to fix a bathroom after 15 years of living in this house.

But I suspect it would cost more to run anyway and OH would embargo me making a fire. I can at least put some heating on when he isnt looking.

He thinks we can live in the cold. I have recurrent chest infections ( and pneumonia ) as a result. I am supposed to have a winter room temp of 21 degrees (C) but he insists on no more than 15 degrees or we have to turn off all the heating except in the sitting room.

I also need warm bedrooms in winter but he doesnt allow that at all. Whe the mould gets too bad I am ill and then he puts the heating on for a couple of days for me. He just wont spend the money.

[tim....]

As she has a bungalow it is more than twice this area *(though 45sqm seems small for a 3 bed semi).

But I still don't see how it can be done for 199. Material costs at B&Q are around 350 pounds and then there's the labour.

Her children do (not that they live there very often now)

tim

[js.b1]

Deja Vu? This seems identical to a question some months back?

With the insulation you have AND the electricity spend you should be getting higher temperatures than that.

How many 3.3kW storage heaters do you have?

- 3.3kW NSH charging 100% for 120 days (Nov Dec Jan Feb)

- 24 units @ 5.5p inc VAT x 120 =3D =A3158.40

- Typical charge

[Dave Liquorice]

All electric and total energy bill of =A31300 or there abouts. Oooo I wish. =A3600/year for electric but add 4,000l of oil at 40p (or more per litre) so another =A31600+, so thats an energy bill of around =A32,200+/year. Fuel Poverty? Yep that's us...

[js.b1]

It is *government subsidised* :-)

There would be a surcharge for double 45m^2, probably =A3199-249 extra.

Is the loft actually used or is this under a boarded-out loft?

The government subsidised deals are for "plane jane 300mm rockwool". It has gone up since 2007, I think it was 250mm then and is now 350mm or something just short of "lift the ridge tiles, pour in, refit ridge tiles".

[Dave Liquorice]

And they are dead easy to interface to a PC for data logging.

It might have made a marginal difference, but with the data being logged and a local web page of each days consumption you can work out what is taking the power in the long term rather than in short peaks like the kettle. The worst culprit is my old, slow PC, that chomps through about 150W with the (LCD) monitor, have that on for 16hrs a day and it uses 2.4 units...