The energy crisis

18C seems a little bit low (to me anyway).

Mine runs at 22C in the evenings, plus as a boost in the early morning (when little one gets up) - the rest of the time it runs at 21.5C.

Hive shows my boiler runs for an average of 3 hours a day atm (for heating).
On top of that, my water runs for 30 minutes, 3 times a day.

My current gas usage (according to my bills) is about 1000 kWh per month.

My electricity use is always way higher than the so called "average".
I have no ide how anyone manages to only use 3000 kWh per year, I use at least double that.

Could I cut either down ? Probably ..
I work from home and my grandaughter lives with us.
Therefore I'm not inclined to be sitting here getting cool.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Paul

18C seems a little bit low (to me anyway).

Mine runs at 22C in the evenings, plus as a boost in the early morning (when little one gets up) - the rest of the time it runs at 21.5C.

Hive shows my boiler runs for an average of 3 hours a day atm (for heating).
On top of that, my water runs for 30 minutes, 3 times a day.

My current gas usage (according to my bills) is about 1000 kWh per month.

My electricity use is always way higher than the so called "average".
I have no ide how anyone manages to only use 3000 kWh per year, I use at least double that.

Could I cut either down ? Probably ..
I work from home and my grandaughter lives with us.
Therefore I'm not inclined to be sitting here getting cool.

I am down to somewhere between 2500 and 2750 kwh electric. I am on my own and do not use the washing machine more than a couple of times a month as I wait till there are full loads but I do have a high powered PC and 2 screens on for 16 hours a day at least. My gas consumption should be less than 2000 kwh

Those who can afford should be comfortable in their home not matter the unit rate and fair play to those who have a nice toasty house. I could afford to have a warm house but I am choosing to spend the money on other things and wrapping up

I do expect a shortage of gas at some point over the winter and have media on my phones ready to stop me getting bored and a lamp to at least give me a little light

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

I am down to somewhere between 2500 and 2750 kwh electric. I am on my own and do not use the washing machine more than a couple of times a month

If there was only me, I would expect to use far less than I do.
However, there are four adults and a 16 month old child in my house, its basically never empty.

[Ms NTL]

Thanks for being part of our first Saving Session. Together with more than 200,000 other Octopus customers across the country, you just pulled off the largest home energy shift in UK history.

Collectively, you saved enough energy to effectively switch off an entire gas power station throughout the Saving Session.

Here’s a quick look at the difference your efforts made.

You saved 0.116kWh and earned 216 OctoPoints – worth £0.27.
Together, Octopus customers saved 108MWh of electricity. That's a lot of dirty energy the UK didn't have to generate. In fact, it was equivalent to effectively shutting down an entire gas power station throughout the Session. That saved 20,415kg of CO2 emissions.

I saved the planet! and I made a tonne of money!

So ... you saved 27p ?

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Ms NTL

I saved the planet! and I made a tonne of money!

I thought it was about avoiding potential blackouts by shifting when you used the energy. A similar total amount of energy would still be required, so no real saving on CO2.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Paul

So ... you saved 27p ?

That doesn't seem a bad return for only saving 116Wh. What was the duration of the Saving Session, Ms NTL? And did you intentionally reduce your usage?

Originally Posted by nomadking

A similar total amount of energy would still be required, so no real saving on CO2.

It will if it can be moved to a time when there is low-carbon generation. I assume it was done today because of the light winds.

[Ms NTL]

Originally Posted by Paul

So ... you saved 27p ?

Impressive, isn't it?

---------- Post added at 22:44 ---------- Previous post was at 22:39 ----------

Originally Posted by spiderplant

That doesn't seem a bad return for only saving 116Wh. What was the duration of the Saving Session, Ms NTL? And did you intentionally reduce your usage?

Between 5-6pm, we shut the main switch off and we went to bed for the hour. During the previous 3-4 weeks, we had focussed all electrical consumption between 5-8pm, clearly worth the massive amount of 27p

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Ms NTL

Between 5-6pm, we shut the main switch off and we went to bed for the hour. During the previous 3-4 weeks, we had focussed all electrical consumption between 5-8pm, clearly worth the massive amount of 27p

OK, something fishy going on there

[Taf]

Setting the boiler temperature for 50c is not working for me. 2 hours running has only got the bedroom to 17.5c and the hallway to 16.5c. It almost dropped to 0c outside last night, and is now only 2c at 10am.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Taf

Setting the boiler temperature for 50c is not working for me. 2 hours running has only got the bedroom to 17.5c and the hallway to 16.5c. It almost dropped to 0c outside last night, and is now only 2c at 10am.

At our Rutland house, we experimented with this. The internal wall radiators (single) are twice the height of a "normal" (double) radiator.
At 50C setting, the sitting room & hall heat up reasonably when the outside temperature is around 8C (not had colder than that).

The other rooms, not so well.

[Mr K]

I find staying under the duvet most economical and warm at this time of the year.
Hibernation is the way forward, hedgehogs have got it right.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Mr K

I find staying under the duvet most economical and warm at this time of the year.
Hibernation is the way forward, hedgehogs have got it right.

I wish one or two of the prickly hedgehogs on this forum would hibernate!

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I wish one or two of the prickly hedgehogs on this forum would hibernate!

I think most of us know of atleast 1 of those hedgehogs!

[nomadking]

Don't know what our maximum gas generating capacity is, but at the moment we're importing 4.5GW from Europe.