| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Penny |
Electricity Consumption CompetitionYou're all cordially invited to join the Downsizer electricity consumption challenge.The aim is to find the Downsizer household which can reduce its electricity consumption by the highest percentage during the challenge. This is how it will work: Starting on Sunday 26th March, all those taking part need to take a meter reading for their electricity (if you have both normal and economy meters, take a reading from both). We'll start on Sunday, as it's after the clocks have gone forward, which means that the change won't affect the result. If anyone that needs help with taking a meter reading - this may help: How To Read Your Meter A thread will be ready on that day for you to post your reading. No funny business in the result threads, my lovelies, could get a bit confusing otherwise, so just your results please, we'll have other ones for comments and suggestions. On Sunday, 2nd April, take another reading at about the same time of day, and post on the thread that will have appeared (as if by magic). Your total consumption for the week will then be calculated, and all amounts reported back. Then the effort begins - for the next week, try to reduce your household's electricity consumption by any legal means possible. Remember - it's the percentage that counts, so someone in a candlelit bedsit has as much chance of making an impact as someone living in palatial splendour, surrounded by their home entertainment systems and electronic gadgets. On Sunday 9th April, everyone should take a final reading and report their number of units. Total percentage reductions will then be calculated, and the winner will be announced on Monday 10th April. We're hoping to get press coverage for this, so we need as many people to take part as possible. |
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| Jonnyboy |
Excellent idea!
As some help, there are tips on saving energy, from my local supplier here |
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| judith |
Count me in - definite room for improvement here 
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| jema |
I'm in  though this is not going to look good 
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| moongoddess |
sounds great; count me in. I think I will be in for a steep learning curve - should be a real eye-opener......
mg x |
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| Lozzie |
I love this idea. Thank you for posting. | ||||
| sean |
I'm in. Takeaways/fried food/barbecues for every meal in week two then.Is that not in the spirit of the competition? | ||||
| Lozzie |
I have just realised that the second week will be during the Easter holidays. With the kids at school all day I would have thought this to be quite an easy task but now ... with them home all the time ... it will be much more of a challenge than I first anticipated!
 Let's hope the weather is good and we just go out all day every day.
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| jema |
Actually I wonder if that rather blows the proposed dates? Seems a bit pointless if an awful lot of us will be playing a different game from one week to the next
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| Penny |
Yes- but you can get them all involved  Great training!!
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| Penny |
May possibly be worth a re-think on the dates then? Does the whole country have easter hols over the same two weeks if we leave it till the following week? | ||||
| moongoddess |
our easter hols starts 7th April and finishez 24th April - I don't think that will change my electric comsuption much tho'
nine won't have been a fair comparison either because I am having repair work done on our chimney so the woodburner is out of use and I am using electric heating in dd's bedroom. By the proposed second week I would be back on wood so I would have been at an unfair advantage.......... mg x |
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| Cathryn |
Too honest MG - just think of all the glory you could have been basking in
We have reduced ours this year - yippee and our dd was reduced as well ~(without me even asking!) still happy to play the game though - children might see it as a bigger incentive. Student son however is home for Easter - he sleeps for most of the day then has too many things on all night. |
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| wishus |
Hallo!
I'd like to do this - I'll keep an eye out for any changes to the dates. |
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| Bugs |
I know we all have to make sacrifices but really, Ruby, is that not a little drastic? 
Not surprisingly we're up for this. I think if we try to adapt to different holidays etc across the country we'll run in to trouble one way or the other so we should go ahead as everyone is taking it in the spirit it's meant and not getting het up about "advantages"
See you here Sunday chaps. Then a week off the internet the following week, reading books and knitting by candlelight - oops, what did I say about the right spirit
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| moongoddess |
And I have a feeling I have let myself in for it, because I'll probably see little to no difference or something 
I mentioned it to dh and said 'obviously I'll need your help on this' to which he replied 'sure. I can read the meter for you'. I'm like 'I think I can manage to read my own meter, but I'll need help with you *co-operating*. 
methinks I am up against it somewhat - this is the guy who brushes his teeth with the water running <sigh> Maybe money will talk if I can get him on board...............
This looks good too: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_reduce_home_energy_usage mg x |
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| Lozzie |
I'm certainly up for it, but I don't hold out hopes of it being a huge success. For interest's sake, I might also measure my electricity consumption in the week after the sproglings are back in school. Then I can use those results to berate them with later
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| Penny |
Right we'll stay with the dates as is then, and just all try our very very best
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| Pilsbury |
I'm in and it should also prove intresting to see just how much electric we all use, at the moment i think i use quite a lot but then i have nothing to compere it with so i should be able to see if i'm in the high users or the low users. | ||||
| Fee |
We're definately up for this! Like jema, might be a bit embarrassing though, I think our lekkie usage is quite high I think...hopefully that'll mean a greater percentage change though! | ||||
| monkey1973 |
I'm up for it but to be honest, and a wee bit smug, I'm not sure where I can save leccie from as we're have pretty minimal usage but I'll endeavour to reduce it further.
Great idea btw |
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| gil |
I'll take part too, just to see how much I use, and whether it can be improved, though I suspect the computer is probably the main continuous user of electric, plus the CH pump, kettle, fridge and freezer. I think I don't use very much, but I seem to get through about 10 units a day nevertheless. All year round .
Of course, I could just avoid doing any laundry or cooking for a fortnight 
Even if people don't manage to save very much, this exercise will probably make us more aware of the amount of electric we do use, and what we use it on. That can only be a good thing. |
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| Rob R |
We haven't got a meter yet- would that make us the best winner, or the worst loser
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| gil |
Have you got any electric ? Unmetered electricity ? |
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| Rob R |
Only as far as the bit where the meter will go (and before you ask, the pc is run off someone else's electric) |
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| JB |
Of course the easy way to win this is to leave every light in the house running 24 x 7 for the first week
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| Penny |
(In her best teacher's voice) you'd only be cheating yourself! 
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| jamsam |
hahahaha... we dont start our holidays for another week!!!! im in!! |
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| Jonnyboy |
As a tip, set a reminder on your mobile phones etc. for sunday so you don't go online on monday and go DOH! | ||||
| Penny |
I'm starting to compile the spreadsheet for logging numbers now, so prior knowledge of who's in would be most useful (then I won't be rushing like a headless chicken on Sunday ) (well no moire than usual )
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| Lozzie |
Would it be useful, when comparing the results, to have some criteria for comparison?
Example: In my family the criteria could be - Family size: 5 Kids at home: YES Work from home: YES Or is that just complicating matters? I am only curious because I would like to know how my rating compares to - say, a childless couple who both work outside the home? |
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| Lozzie |
Good idea. Of course, you'll be needing one of these: 
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| Penny |
I think that may complicate matters a bit, and remember we're only comparing what we normally use with what we can actually force ourselves NOT to use. But it may be interesting for people to give a brief description of their situation, if they feel comfortable doing so? Especially those who do particularly well, or badly - there may be some similarities
But the Challenge is really is us against ourselves. Thought it would be good to clarify: For whatever reason, each individual person/family's consumption will be different. What's being judged is the impact we can have - if we really put our minds to it, on how much we consume personally. I really expect our personal weekly amount to be quite high for the first week - we have three kids, a big, cold, four bedroom house, but if we get all the kids involved (I've honed some very nice pokey sticks ready ) I think we will be able to reduce our percentage by a considerable amount.
Here's an example of how the sums might work House A: Units used first week - 210 Units used second week - 140 Percentage reduction - 33.33% House B: Units used during first week - 70 Units used during second week - 25 Percentage reduction - 64.29% Hope this helps explain why the set up you have at home doesn't actually effect the challenge, whilst it still may be very interesting to know how different types of household get on.
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| Jonnyboy |
Obviously a large, wasteful family as much more scope for a percentage improvement. But that's the idea of the challenge so I would suggest the current simple approach. | ||||
| Lozzie |
Excellent! | ||||
| Will |
Count me in. Might actually persuade me to get round to fitting the radiator in the kitchen. | ||||
| Fee |
Ours doesn't work, got one just like it last year
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| Penny |
Do they really exist? I though it was a joke
Edit - Sorry
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| Bugs |
Good grief, stop quoting pictures
TD bought me a little LED windup torch this winter, as I have to walk home up a badly lit path, (it's quite safe and busy except for the risk of falling over so don't bother coming to murder me, you won't get away with it. And I will bite). It's excellent, a quick wind up really restores it quickly to full brightness, and I use it to put the chickens away at night as well so it gets quite a bit of use. I think though I have read the mobile phone requires a much bigger charge and those ones only serve to give you an emergency charge of a few minutes? |
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| Lozzie |
Well Bugs you see I will need something to keep the children fully occupied over the Easter holidays so I will be bribing them with sweets to do all the winding.
They are both very very adept at winding their father and me up so I guess they can try the same skills on my phone charger. We gave them one of those wind up torches you mentioned each for Christmas - they're great! |
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| Penny |
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| Penny |
We have 33 takers so far for the challenge, it would be really wonderful to have 50 . Can't you just see the headlines -"Over 50 people took part in a ........"
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| Lozzie |
You mean "over 50 HOUSEHOLDS" - sounds even more impressive! | ||||
| wellington womble |
I'm in, although with OH being a bit of a power monster (and not very impressed with what he calls my 'green fads and phases', unless they turn to be edible) can't see it being very illuminating. | ||||
| Bugs |
See, you're getting in to the spirit of things already
(Sorry...) |
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| Penny |
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| Cathryn |
Have you got me down Penny? I mean if not put me down. | ||||
| wellington womble |
you haven't seen our lights - we could illuminate a small town! I'm, thinking of removing half the bulbs for the second week Not really fair, as they're GU10's which seem to blow all the time anyway, and I don't think more than half of them are working at the moment anyway, so I'll have to replace all the dud ones tommorow, and then take them out again for the next week. I suppose it's energy saving of a sort
I might remove them all - that'll teach him for not turning them off, Penny Poizer style - does she still post, she'd be a wealth of info for this? |
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| Penny |
Have got you all logged Ruby - no escape now
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| Penny |
Did she post? I got her book for Christmas. |
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| Mr BlueSky |
I was thinking more along the lines of sticking all the convector heaters on for a week. Would that be considered cheating?
Great idea BTW Penny. I'll go get a meter reading. S |
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| ken69 |
Good on yer, Penny, just what I needed, an incentive to finally switch orf ....er....and...er...... | ||||
| tahir |
'ow many 'er's have you got in yer life Ken? No wonder you want to switch 'em off. Us fella's that only have one spend all our time trying to turn 'em on... |
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| bernie-woman |
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| bernie-woman |
Count me in Penny - I wil just go and do the reading and post it in tother thread | ||||
| jax |
me too, please | ||||
| ken69 |
I'm about to defrost this fridge/freezer and am wondering..... 'can it go orf for good'.....nothing in or out of the fridge part is life threatening and the freezer is full of fruit foraged during last summer, and have stored apples anyway.
And....this comp is on and off all day 24/7 and opting for 'not weekend' will save about a tenner a year in electricity and £36 p.a. isp charges. Also...read Ben Law's book in the week, that killed a evenings TV use, so options there. Is there a prize Penny ????? 
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| Penny |
Maybe 
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| wellington womble |
She did post a few times, and basically said that we were being really hard on the people in the programme, and everyone had to start somewhere (true, its just I always hope these programmes will have something for people a bit further along the road, and they never seem to, only clueless beginners - not that there's anything wrong with being clueless, I hasten to add!) I suppose we were a bit mean (same as with the self suffciency one) and would be much more helpful if someone came along here, and asked for beginners tips. I think it was just a bit disapointing for a lot of people who had hoped to pick up practical tips. I didn't know she had a book out - was it good (and is it worth PMing her to help with either advice or publicity?) She was registered as Penny Poyzer (only she spelt it write, I expect - ched the front of the book! )
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| Lozzie |
Her name was (is! ) Penney Poyzer and, if you are looking for more practical advice you could do a lot worse than check out the website that she has, covering the changes she and her partner made to their home in Nottingham -
http://www.msarch.co.uk/ecohome/ Even though the site hasn't been updated for gazillions of years, it is still useful and interesting Enjoy!
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| Penny |
Readings going well - but could do with more. The more we get, the more interesting the excecise will be. | ||||
| alison |
Right I have my meter reading, so where am I supposed to post it, here or a new thread | ||||
| Bugs |
There's a new thread here for readings:
http://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?t=11496 Please do have a go, the more results and experiences the more interesting it will be so please do have a try
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| Jonnyboy |
Interesting fact, took a reading before bed on friday night, and one saturday morning. Over 8 hours the meter had increased by 1kwh. Only things running in the house were a fridge, chest freezer, septic tank pump, heating pump, two lights and possibly a tv or two on standby. | ||||
| alison |
I found it later Bugs, thanks
Perhaps I should go and read ours again, now JB, but I think I am going to be in with a shock any way. As an extention to this I am pricing up our electric again, via the MSE site, and am going to change our supplier too |
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| pricey |
Sorry I was late, did take it yesterday in between  
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| Jonnyboy |
More info, I've dug out our opening reading and since moving in we've used an average of 84kwh per week. No idea if that's good, bad or indifferent. | ||||
| Jonnyboy |
Useful info here
Average annual consumption per UK household in 2003 was 20,111kwh |
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| mochyn |
I only caught on to this today, so shall I go from Monday to Monday, as it were? We use very little: only two of us en famile, and low users at that, but Alun comes to start our re-wiring next Monday: that should cause havoc with readings!
Excellent idea, though. I was listening to Satish Kumar on Desert Island Disca last week ( ) and found myself agreeing with everything and thinking 'What we're doing here (both at home and on Downsizer) are setting great examples to each other and others to try to make a difference. I get fed up with people saying " well, if just one person does it (switch off lights, turn off the stand bys) it won't make any difference. Now if everyone did it..." Can't they see that "everyone" is made up of lots of "one person"s?
Rant over - did it make any sense at all? |
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| tahir |
Who's he Mochyn? |
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| mochyn |
He edits Resurgence and has done some great walks for reasons: you know, like from Ghandi's grave to the 4 major nuclear capitals in the 60s. A fantastic-sounding chap: I should find out more about him! | ||||
| Lozzie |
I've just been reading about him he sounds fascinating. I wonder if Desert Island is on Listen Again..? | ||||
| mochyn |
Should be, it was last Friday's. | ||||
| jamsam |
ive decided not to join in at the moment, partly due to the fact i cant be arsed, and also because of the highly amusing power supply we have.
you see the former village post office ( now my mums kitchien) has its own tamper proof supply and meter. the former village bank ( now her living room) has the same. the rest of her house has a meter and i also have one for the flat. the attic ( above me) an dthe garage aslo have seperate supplies and meters, although they have never been found. the pub next door is also running out of our electricity supply and is there fore draining us, and we have to split the cost, 75% 25% to us, i wouldnt be surprised if the garden shed had its own metere somewhere too!!!! any helpfull electricans welcome, we have scared off most of the local ones!
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| Beckyess |
I'll win this I'm going down to zero electrical consumption (other than that I can squeeze out of my car battery) when I'm made homeless on Saturday 
Becky |
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| Nanny |
if it's not too late i shall go and read the meter but i warn you that with sir away, it will be a low week as i have no telly on and only the light in the living room till i go to bed and i go early...
just off to read meters for which i shall have to switch another light on.......... |
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| Penny |
Go for it Nanny
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| Lozzie |
One of the things I will be doing next week to try and cut my electricity consumption is SEVERLY LIMITING my computer time ... as such, I won't be around here very much  .
Would it be ok to start a "Hints and Tips" thread for this challenge a day or two early, so people can plan ahead if needs be? |
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| tahir |
Yeah, that's a bummer, a typical PC left on 24/7 can be responsible for more CO2 emissions thatn the average car. There are new low power options that can get away with as little as 50w (vs 350W+) power supplies but they're not readily available unless you want to DIY, and they're more expensive too. |
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| Penny |
There's one here
How much electric does a computer actually use, or is that a "how long is a peice of string" question? |
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| tahir |
Dunno, but I've seen CO2 emissions figures as high as 300kg p.a. |
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| Lozzie |
Forgive me, I missed that!
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| jema |
Well for what it's worth we got an electric bill this morning with an estimated meter reading that was very much over the actual reading
This is a virtual first for us. |
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| sean |
We got one of those. We worked out that they owed us about 200 quids' worth of leccy, however they cunningly negated our joy by announcing a massive price rise. | ||||
| Penny |
Here are the consumptuion figures from the first week:
Alison - 528 Moongoddess - 281 Penny - 244 Pricey - 224 RosemaryJane - 223 Jema/Snowball - 219 Simon - 166 Wellington Womble - 158 Bernie66 - 145 Fee - 123 Ruby - 116 Bernie - 97 Pilsbury - 76 Jax - 74 Jonnyboy - 73 Judith - 64 Bugs/TD - 63 Will - 63 Marigold - 53 Monkey1973 - 47 Ken69 - 29 Wishus - 26 Nanny - 25 Mochyn - 20 |
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| pricey |
224 how much is that?
Are the higher one's familys with kids, I hope so, that's shocking. |
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| Penny |
AFAIK they are all families with kids, Alison is obviously a business and a home.
Also it depends on how you heat your water, and what you cook on I think, as these activities definatley cause our high useage. We don't have any other fuel (except oil over the winter for heating, but not too much of that now as it's got so expensive), so I'd expect us to be high. Having kids and the amount of washing that brings also has a big impact. But on the positive side, we have a real opportunity to reduce it
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| judith |
Have you any idea of the relative costs of heating your water with the immersion and with oil? I was always told that the immersion heater was one of the most inefficient and expensive ways to provide hot water, so I have always avoided using it wherever possible. That may well be out of date information, particularly with the recent hike in oil prices, but it would be interesting to compare the two methods. |
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| Penny |
I don't I'm afraid Judith - I'll have a google and see what I can find.... |
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| Penny |
Can't find anything that's recent, and takes into account the current high price of oil
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| Bugs |
As Penny says it depends to a certain extent on circumstances; eg Judith is one unit higher than us in similarish circs; but we work full time out of the house while she is working at home with all the computing, heating, lighting that entails, so really she does much better than we may appear to, and on the other hand I think say Monkey and Nanny are also out-working couples, no children, yet they are doing far better than us too, so we have plenty to learn from them! | ||||
| Nanny |
i know that ours will be much higher next reading because sir came home on friday night and is well installed back in his study
so twice the usage i'm afraid to be fair, if i cut down on the number of units i used last week, the board would owe us money and i don't think they would want to do that .... |
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| Bernie66 |
Its not how much you use, more whether you use as little as possible under your own circumstances and consider the effect of your usage. (IMHO) | ||||
| Bugs |
That's just it though, I want to see if other people in similar circumstances are doing things I can learn from (and/or if I can help anyone else, that's lovely too, although Highly Improbable if not actually Impossible). | ||||
| Bernie66 |
Don't put yourself down, some body else will be along soon
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| Bugs |
Thanks, "pal"
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| Bernie66 |
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| mochyn |
We're just two adults: I'm at home most of the time but don't use much. Don't know if our next reading will be sffected either way by having the electricians in the house all week doing the re-wiring, though... | ||||
| moongoddess |
I think my entire experiment has gone pear-shaped . Dd's computer has something wrong with it and won't hibernate, so he is leaving it ON instead of turning it off
The work in the kitchen has taken longer than anticipated, so I have workmen in all week, needing refreshment and lots of lighting, including those big hallogen thingies. Last night we had to leave a heater and a halogen light on to try and dry the floor so that we could walk on it this morning. Plus, the temp has dropped into the house to about 12 degrees, so heaters have been put on......... Ho hum - all good fun.
I shall probably conduct my own experiement once all the work is done but I doubt I shall see any change at all this week now. It's still been a great insight though and I have learnt a lot, so thanks for setting it all up, Penny. mg x |
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| Penny |
Really glad you've found it useful mg
I suppose there will always be things that crop up outside of our control, to impact on how much is used. But personally, we really feel now that we can have a lot more influence on the use that we do control. 13 units yesterday, and that included a bath using the immersion heater. That's nearly a third of what we were using last week. |