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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.

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  1.  
    Hi folks,

    Since we moved into our house we've been trying to get the utility bills down. According to our combined gas and electricity bill we use the following:

    Average Electricity daily use

    21.9 kWh currently
    23.6 kWh last year

    Average Gas daily use

    133 kWh currently
    139 kWh last year

    Annual Usage:

    6944 kWh electricity
    29207 kWh gas.

    We have 2 adults and 2 teens living in the main house and 2 pensioners living in an attached 1 bed apartment. We therefore have 2x fridges, 2x freezers, 2x washing machines, etc.

    I can't find any figures online that provide decent average UK energay useage in order to see if we are using excessive amounts of electricity/gas (I know we're not an 'average' family, but it would give us a ball-park to work from).

    I also feel that I have done as much as I can to lower our electricity bills (gas bill reduction is on-going with insulation, better glazing, etc.) as we have A+++ rated white goods, LED lighting almost everywhere, low energy consumer goods. I'm therefore struggling to think of other ways we could reduce our electricity consumption, except to get rid of the clothes dryer and get one powered by gas or that uses heat pump technology.

    Does anyone have any ideas on our consumption figures and/or how to reduce it?

    Thanks. :)
  2.  
    Just to add. The 1 bed 'granny flat' was converted and has a 'warm roof' with kingspan insulation, new double glazed windows, sheeps wool IWI, limecrete insulated floor with wet UFH running off a gas condensing combi boiler with individual zones in the bedroom, hall, livingroom and bathroom with individual heating controls.

    The lighting is all LED and the TV and white goods are all new and were chosen for their low power ratings.

    The main house is in the process of having similar IWI, insulation, ect. fitted but it's a slow and expensive business - hence why I'm concentrating on our electricity bills at present - though I would be interested to know how our current gas usage matches up before we upgrade our thermal elements.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 3rd 2013
     
    • CommentAuthorGaryB
    • CommentTimeMar 3rd 2013 edited
     
    Over the past 4 weeks my average electric has been 6.9 kWh/day and oil at 32.9 kWh/day.

    This is for 2 adults in a 1,300 sq ft detached 4 bedroom chalet built 1989, with ongoing mods to insulation and systems - although critically, still heated via the original 23 year old boiler (replacement imminent).
  3.  
    Bet your hot water usage is high with 2 adults and 2 teens. Solar hot water panels could be a help, plus flow restrictors on you showers (9 l/minute) and maybe a time limit on the showers - and a ban on baths?
  4.  
    Typical domestic energy consumption figures
    http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/domestic%20energy%20consump%20fig%20FS.pdf
    2011 medium consumption figure
    gas 16500kwh
    electric 3300kwh
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2013 edited
     
    Is that medium or median? or the median of the medium :bigsmile:

    Just had a quick look and there is 4000 kWh difference between newer and older on the gas.
    Say gas has an all in price of 5p/kWh, that is £200/year, 10 years to save £1000, 100 years to save £10,000.
    Puts the GD into perspective.
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2013
     
    1) draught proof, 2) air seal 3) insulate, 4) ?
  5.  
    4) jumper and slippers ? or should that be 1) :smile:
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2013
     
    May be 2)
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2013
     
    4 should be better management of demand
    • CommentAuthorSeret
    • CommentTimeApr 1st 2013
     
    Posted By: Pile-o-StoneI'm therefore struggling to think of other ways we could reduce our electricity consumption


    Do a power audit. Pick up a little plug-in power meter such as a Kill-A-Watt, make sure it's one that can read accurately down <10W, some can't. Figure out what everything is using on standby and as part of it's regular duty cycle. It sounds like you might be mostly targeting standby losses. Arm yourself with data and the opportunities will make themselves obvious.

    Some appliances are surprising, I found out that my toaster uses more on standby in a year than it does making toast! A lot of stuff can be put on timers so that it switches off at the wall automatically overnight, you can save a third of your standby losses without any inconvenience or retraining of fellow occupants! This could be several hundred kWh.

    Places like the EON shop:

    https://www.eonshop.co.uk/ShowProducts.aspx?Category=PowerSavingAppliances#

    do heavily subsidised energy saving gizmos (along with some nonsense such as the "eco kettles"), you don't need to be an EON customer. Ikea also do perfectly good timer switches for about £2. There's tons you can do, maybe put some lighting on motion sensors? Apply extra insulation to fridges & freezers? An hour in the stocks with rotten tomatoes for leaving things switched on? Or apply the carrot rather than the stick? Gamify energy saving, could be popular with the kids?
  6.  
    Posted By: SeretDo a power audit. Pick up a little plug-in power meter such as a Kill-A-Watt, make sure it's one that can read accurately down <10W, some can't. Figure out what everything is using on standby and as part of it's regular duty cycle. It sounds like you might be mostly targeting standby losses. Arm yourself with data and the opportunities will make themselves obvious.


    Amen: I had a cheap media centre in the kitchen for 10 years. It drew 50W in use, turned off (only LED clock showing) it used ... 50W. So that was 438kWh/year for a (not very accurate) clock.
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeApr 2nd 2013 edited
     
    Desktop computers ? I mean are they on most of the day or left on overnight doing backups?
    • CommentAuthorjamesingram
    • CommentTimeApr 4th 2013 edited
     
    uk domestic energy fact file 2011
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48195/3224-great-britains-housing-energy-fact-file-2011.pdf
    "The average internal temperatures of Britain’s homes in winter seems to have gone up by 5°C since 1970.
    We have achieved this mainly by installing central heating and burning more fossil fuels."
  7.  
    As you can see from many of the comments above, the place to concentrate is on electricity usage and hot water. We have got to the point where improving the thermal efficiency of the building fabric has little effect in the whole scheme of things. We insulate walls, roofs and floors so well that adding to it makes little difference to the heat losses. Modern houses now lose far more heat through infiltration / ventilation. BUt heating water from 10C to 55C takes a lot of energy, and electricity costs a fortune. We all love our PCs, phone chargers, alarms, TV's and game consoles - look at finding a way to get the kids to TURN STUFF OFF!!!!
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 8th 2013 edited
     
    Posted By: brazenscrolllook at finding a way to get the kids to TURN STUFF OFF!!!!
    Electricity is about 18p/kWh, a Big Mac is about £2.40/kWh, so maybe sanctions would help. So for every 13 kWh they save (about a 50W load on for 8 hours a day per month) you can buy them a burger and it will only cost you the transport price.

    Alternatively, lobby your energy company to raise the price till it hurts, say £1.20/kWh and stop all pocket money.
    Electricity really is cheap.
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