Has anyone taken the time to think about how they could reduce their electricity bill by tweaking the way you use electricity less. The best I have come up with so far, which may change in the autumn, is seven units of electricity per day. I have done quite a lot using my own ideas and Octopusy’s ideas too.
I have a workshop/garage for my Mark 1 and other tools and equipment.
It has been recommended to switch of all wall sockets off and remove the plugs too as small amounts of electricity can leak from the switched off socket if you don’t. All lights in my bungalow and garage etc have all been changed to LEDs. We also use the microwave to heat up our cups of coffee that are usually half milk and half tap water rather than using the electric kettle. Both our computers are switched off and not left o stand by. But the largest saving is how we use our oil fired combi boiler. I wired the boiler, which is in a small outhouse attached to the outer wall of the bungalow. I did this so I could have the boiler switched off most of the time. As there is only two of us in the bungalow we have stopped using the dishwasher, and I do the washing up by hand in the kitchen sink. I usually switch the boiler on for only five minutes to be able to get enough hot water to do the washing up. We do something similar for when we have a shower too. You may ask “how will they keep warm in winter”. The answer is this, we have a twelve Kilowatt wood burning stove in the sitting room, where the tv is. Once it has got up to temperature the amount of wood required to keep it ticking over is not a lot. We leave all the doors open from the sitting room so that the warm air will slowly move around to the other rooms. The trick to get all this heating from a wood burning stove is to get the wood for it for almost nothing as far as money is concerned. It takes quite a lot of work on my part for about a total of thirty days to get and cut up and store this wood for the winter. I am speaking about wood pallets. I believe that although hard wood logs may burn longer the soft wood that palettes are usually made from, burn a lot hotter. I collect palettes from from a local business that is only too pleased to get rid of them. I collect about twenty plus pallets in my car trailer and give the business a five pound note for a charity the subscribe to. Now, the next problem is is you need a mechanised saw to cut them up to the size that suits the stove.
We’ve got ours down to around 3.5kwh electric daily and working out weekly the gas has 3-4 units (cubic m) per week.
I anticipate going on our annual usage our bill (estimated of course) will be rising to £2k. This time last year we were paying just over £600 for dual fuel.
Makes you think how folk will cope with £3k, £4k even some mention estimated £9k bills, start making those savings now.
I have a multi fuel and log burner at my place and I only use logs that have been seasoned for over 12 months with a 5% - 8% moisture content.
I fell trees in my part time occupation and so know how long they have been stacked after I have split them.
I also use the twigs as kindling.
As for using pallets, I would be very careful on what sort you use.
If they have MB initials on them, then they have been treated with fumigant Methyl Bromide and are unsafe to burn. You also don’t know if chemicals have been stacked on them and leaked out, which then you burn and release into the atmosphere.
Also, if you don’t remove the nails, then the coating on them can also release oxides when burned, as well as ping out when the stresses from the pallet wood is released.
Please be assured that I am not telling you what to do, just a heads up on the possibilities of what you might be putting on your fire.
Keep up the other savings👍
I won’t be trying to target us for a certain KW usage.
What I have been doing is investing in kitchen equipment (by far our biggest dual fuel culprit) and now have an Airfrier, Tefal leccy pressure cooker, and a 1.5 litre crockpot.
The double leccy oven is essentially redundant, but built in so needs to stay.
It now acts as extra storage.
We had a new GHC system done recently, but this house happens to be so well insulated, even in the worst cold spells, it runs on tickover if at all. If we need the living room a bit warmer, we have a new gas fire…supposedly high efficiency. Tumble drier maybe twice weekly, and we only need a weekly wash anyhow.
All our lighting is LED, and the telly is a low power user…I don’t savvy these things much.
I batch cook-slow cook in my workshop and freeze.
I bought a special freezer for the workshop which 2 years back would have been £60.00 p/a to run but TBH it will still pay it’s way the way I use it.
Showers? I wont compromise. If I feel like a 10 minute soak, I’ll have one and so does The Boss.
We never leave stuff on standby now, it all goes off at beddy byes…including the two Virgin boxes.
In any case, in other ways, we were already using far less taxable fuels like petrol. Our Sport’s tank still has July fuel in it. TBH that car is becoming an irritant. Costs to keep it but it goes nowhere now. Her deal though…so.
That’s all I can do. What will be will be. We were £78.00 per month 2 years back, now it’s looking like £240/280 by January…less the temporary discount. I’ll be keeping an eye on our supplier. Do not trust after the Bulb highway robbery scandal with Smart Meters.
In any case, we both made sure for a collective 94 years and doing without cruises and new cars bla bla that we instead paid into pensions, so with these coming in every month, we can sleep easy…and warm. No debt…rather do without. No regrets.
Choices are what you end up living with.
It’s a thought when The Cornwall Group and others concede those on State Pensions only will likely use 40 to 50% just heating and lighting. I was schooled by my amazing Grandfather as a kid when he was dividing all his pension pound notes into days of the week for coal, food, and the tally-man never ever to let it happen to me. They both died broke. He had worked all his days in the shipyard.
To this day, some 60 years later, I still have the new florin he spared me under the table.
Spend it wisely he said.
How about showering with a friend or maybe with the person next door, or sharing your bath water? Then you could watch a film together and share supper.
Save, save, save!
Given my next door neighbour is a very stunning, and shapely happy widow 30 years younger, I suspect my scrotal contents would be missing in action the next morning. 
Fair point and the shower might take a little longer, on a good day. 
Luckily I managed to get a 12 month fix at April’s prices which runs out on the 1st March next year, so will get through most of the winter without the massive increase.
Good idea! I’ll suggest that to the single lady opposite. Wish me luck chaps! 
Oh yes you must look after the single people first, as they will be struggling most with their new energy bills.
It was a fortutious decision when I decided to have solar panels installed in March 2013, taking advantage of the generous Feed In Tariff contract lasting 20 years. I’m expecting it to break even against the capital cost within 2 years.
The daily averages for April 2021 - April 22 were: electricity generation: 9.76kW, electricity consumption 3.26kW, gas consumption 0.96 (per 100) cu feet.
Daily min and max on a monthly basis were:electricity generation: 2.02 - 17.11kW, electricity consumption 2.11 - 5.14kW, gas consumption 0.01 - 2.86 cu ft. That’s with just myself rattling about in a 4-bedroom house.
With an excess power diverter to heat the water in the immersion tank, I’ve only had to use the GCH boiler for water heating for approximately 5 days in total during the period mid-May to mid-October.
I’m trying to work out whether adding a battery storage system at current prices is worthwhile, taking into my account my life expectancy (I’m 71), but I think the sums and assumptions probably rule it out.
I’ve recently added a 12 volt bilge pump to harvest the shower water for watering the pots. That averages about 15 litres a day for a 3-4 minute shower. What I object to is paying Anglia Water (I’m in Norfolk by the way, near enough the dryest part of the country) for the sewerage charge which is getting on for double that of the supply charge. As the Tesco ad says “every little helps”.
So I’m relatively well insulated against the energy price increases, but my heart goes out to the sizeable proportion of the population which will most definitely struggle in trying to make ends meet in the short to medium term.
Get a sparky in to bypass your leccy feed past the meter - illegal yes, but more and more people will look at options like that have seen people offering to do it for very little and for free on Twitter
I have a two year fix on my gas and electricity ending September 2023 and my solar panels were fitted in 2011 so I still benefit from the maximum FiT payment. My FiT payment of c.£1450 per annum covers all my current multi-fuel costs with £200 left over. Our Council is canvassing residents to join a scheme whereby the Council will seek tenders for one contractor to offer residents discounted solar panels and/or battery storage systems. I am interested in battery storage to make more use of the solar electricity that I produce but an “excess power diverter” to heat the water in the immersion tank could be a better investment with a quicker return on capital for this 79 year old.
I am very interested in your use of an excess power diverter to heat the water in the immersion tank using solar power. Can you recommend any particular system and give a ball-park cost estimate, please ? My existing immersion is rated at 3 kWh but my PV system usually exports between 1 and 2 kWh, would the immersion need changing to a lower power rating ?
Mine is the Solar iBoost costing around about £200 around 2013 from the local electrical wholesalers for installation by electrical contractors. Since I installed it, which is fairly straightforward procedure, I have had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever.
It comprises of two parts:
The sender unit which has a current measuring clamp going over the sheath of the live cable between the consumer unit and the meter, powered by a couple of AA cells that need replacing typically every 2-3 years. This sends a periodic reading to the control unit indicating the amount of power that the control unit will allow the immersion heater to use.
What I think the the control unit (which is in the airing cupboard adjacent to the original outlet to the immersion heater) does is should the immersion heater be in demand mode (i.e. the water needs heating), then if there is some generated power available, it chops the 50 cycles per second sine wave of the mains feed to the heating element up to the excess power - I think this is about 80% - 90%, less a certain wattage to guarantee enough headroom in case another appliance is switched on. So it will work even with a low amount of excess power available, adjusting the power feed accordingly.
I’ve set the maximum temperature of the immersion heater element (from Screwfix) to be a scalding 65 degrees to maximise the amount of hot water energy stored.
I hope you were in jest.
Don’t think for a moment the suppliers are not over these dodgy/dangerous wheezes like a bad rash.
It shouts out when your consumption usage either ceases or drops to near nothing.
On or off…You may imagine there will be a huge spike in people going “pikey” over it right now as well.
It’s also straight to Court for huge fines, possible jail time for fraud, and numerous other aspects eg endangering life.
Only takes 1 amp, or less, to kill you. And a lot less to set a premises alight.
Not something I’d do, you can’t see, smell or hear electricity and you might only feel it once!
I don’t doubt some people will go down that route and I don’t really blame them.
My consumption of electricity & gas has dropped dramatically - not had the gas heating on since April and won’t use it over winter. Everything is turned off at the plug, nothing gets left on standby and just try to use as little as possible. Many many more people will do the same, if not already doing so, which will give the power companies a bit of a headache trying to work out if people are bypassing meters.
Many thanks ! That looks to be the perfect and relatively cheap solution to make use of my currently exported solar generated electricity.