Happy New Year - How Much Energy Are You Using In the Home??

[Tom Wright]

Dear all

Happy New Year. Its a good time to take stock of how much energy you are using in the home. We have NPower for both gas and electricity and they were kind enough to include a summary of annual energy usage on our latest bill. 

- Gas - 17,083 KWH

- Elec - 3,488 KWH

I used the calculator on Climatecare.org to translate this to CO2 and it came to 5.62 tonnes. The last time I worked this out was in 2009 when we were using over 6 tonnes so I am quite pleased! I am not sure what to target for 2012 but will try a 10%-15% reduction.

I would be interested to know what KWH others are using annually?

Tom

 

 

[Nick Hartley]

Hi Tom,

Off the top of my head, our energy figures were 28,000 kWh gas in our first year here (1992),
electricity about 1000 kWh. (not sure why so low! but I was keen on CF bulbs even then).
We've gradually reduced this over the years to 15,000 gas, but 2500 electric, increase mainly due to the electric car.

With the installation of solar PV in July this year, hope to get 2500 -3000 units generated, so anulling the total
electricity demand.  Hope to get a solar thermal panel going by spring, bringing in a projected 4500 units.
Target: to reduce heating requirement below 10,000 units.

Incidentally, the ZOG house on Hazlemere road, which I saw recently, courtesy of  Brent FOE, is very low energy, but still consumes about 10,000 units gas annually.

Still puzzling over what to do after this year:  Internal or external wall insulation?  Transparent Insulation materials?
More efficient heat dispersal system?  Getting to 10% of 1990 level by 2030, as recommended by

George Monbiot requires 10% reduction year on year until that date!

All the best,

Nick

[Tom Wright]

Nick - this is impressive! You definitley set the standard for members of the buildings and energy group to strive for.

I think we should exclude the recharging of your electric car from household consumption figures for general comparison. For next steps perhaps you should get Tom from Green Tomato to give you guidance?

Tom  

[Nick Hartley]

Thanks Tom

The car takes between 500 & 750 units a year, but yes, I agree it shouldn't be included.

I think other members of my household aren't quite so keen on my energy saving regime, as it involves

getting in the habit of switching things off a lot and thinking ahead - by half an hour say - if you want

a warm room!

 

And yes, will consult with Green Tomato, and others.

 

BW Nick

Tom Wright said:

Nick - this is impressive! You definitley set the standard for members of the buildings and energy group to strive for.

I think we should exclude the recharging of your electric car from household consumption figures for general comparison. For next steps perhaps you should get Tom from Green Tomato to give you guidance?

Tom