Saturday, October 17
4 years of energy consumption
Decided to trace back through my old electricity bills this month, trying to work out how many units i'm using today compared to 4 years ago. Trouble is, I have some blank months in 2006 where I appear to have a bill missing. It is also made difficult by the fact that the billing periods vary from year to year and that I changed my supplier in the middle of 2006.
But I roughly estimate that my electricity usage is about one third of what it was in 2006! A 66% reduction in 4 years is good going, but I think it will be difficult to make similar big savings over the coming years, although I'll work on it.
I actually wonder what on earth I was using all that energy for in 2006?? In 2009 my computer stays on most of the day and I watch just as much TV. It's the gas guzzling appliances that make the difference, water heater, tumble dryer, convection heater, kettle etc. If you can change the way you use those things, or even cut them out completely (such as a tumble dryer), then it is possible to make big cuts.
4 comments:
That is very impressive ... there is no question about that. Our gas has increased quite a lot, and the electricity a little. That's probably due to heating more rooms due to the sprogs, their baths, and the provision of extra meals.
Found this recently:
http://www.imeasure.org.uk/index.php
Haven't joined yet, but it looks quite useful.
I assume you have to enter meter readings regularly??
Yes my wife loads the monthly readings into a spreadsheet :)
I achieve it by a mixture of 1960s and noughties style of living.
I think the biggest changes are that I no longer use a tumble dryer, I wear thermal underwear in the autumn/winter. I haven't had the heater on much this month, although it is warm IMO for October, more like a September.
It's amazing what a difference thermal underwear makes!
It gets to hot in a heated building, you start sweating.
I still probably use more electricity than my grandparents did in the 60s though.
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