[retrotecchie]

So, today is the first anniversary of me taking on the new property. I was just doing my usual meter readings and spreadsheets and spotted that my start date and today are one year apart.

My energy costs for the year worked out at significantly lower than the 'mythical average' energy bill for a household for a year.

My total electricity consumption was 4132kWh, or an average of 11.32kWh per day.
Total electricity bill for the year worked out at £1289.40 or £3.53 a day. Of that, £200 has been paid by HMG so the actual cash amount paid was £1089.40.

Dragon food cost me around £700 for the year, but I still have around 100 litres of oil left in the tank to carry forward into next year, so let's knock £80 off for that and call it £620.

Total energy expenditure for an 1842 solid stone cottage on the Atlantic coast, with no foundations, solid floors and walls and an EPC rating only just scraping from an F to a E by one point...

£1709.40 or about £4.70 a day.

That's with three freezers, electric cooking, two of us in all day most days and only getting medieval on energy consumption since the October price rises.

I look forward to next year to compare.

[Anasa_EONNext]

@retrotecchie Anasa here 👋 just to say that I love this post and it will be fantastic to see what another year on looks like! I've started to make a lot of changes around my home that previously I may have took for granted such as heating the whole house when I'm only in one room or putting the fire on just for the warm glow and to be cosy, also checking how much it costs to run appliances individually I'm going to look into grabbing one of those plug in Home Power Savers - will be interesting to see what this year brings energy wise - please keep us up to date 😊

[retrotecchie]

@Anasa_EONNext

Well, just over one month in to my new 'energy' year and my efforts to be more efficient are definitely showing results.

My average daily consumption for last year was 11.32 kWh of electricity per day. So far my rolling average this year is about 8.7kWh, or a reduction of just over 23%. My target reduction was 10-15 % so I'm ahead of the game so far. But with prices due to go up 20% in April and losing the EBSS, the more I can get ahead on savings now, the more wiggle room I will generate for later in the year.

My usage does tend to increase a little in the summer months as I tend to spend a lot more time out in the sheds and garden so the power tools start getting used a bit more, but that gets offset by less lighting usage and boiling the kettle for hot drinks rather less. So I'll have to see how my usage patterns change, but I'm happy with progress so far 👍😎

[retrotecchie]

And another little 'bonus' I happened upon today, and this will interest you @Anasa_EONNext, following our behind the scenes conversations on sub-metering.

Picture my little stone hovel. Tacked on to one end of it is an old barn, which I have converted into my office for my business. The feed from the main consumer unit in the house feeds a sub CU in the barn with three circuits. Lighting, barn power, and a feed to external sheds and work areas.

I fitted this sub CU with a DIN rail energy meter that allows me to record all the energy I use for business completely separately from the domestic side of things. Every watt-hour I consume for business use (lighting, computers, heating, tools and odds and ends) is recorded precisely which means that the business pays for exactly the energy it uses, without having to faff about with attributing a proportion of my electricity for business use.



Now, as all my electricity is supplied by E.On Next and billed accordingly, it doesn't make any difference to my total consumption according to my electricity meter. But, I can now 'split' my energy usage between the house and the business. So having installed the meter in October and actually read it today to allow my business to pay it's share...my actual domestic consumption used is actually significantly lower than even I thought. Almost 200kW hour less, over four months, or 50kWh a month, give or take. About 1.7kW hours per day.

Taking that off my rolling averages, that brings my 'domestic' energy use down to somewhere around the 7kWh/day mark. Now that's happy-making!

[Anasa_EONNext]

Wow that's amazing! @retrotecchie Thank you so much for sharing! It's great news that your domestic usage has gone right down! Love how you're so organised with your usage, it's so important to get it right especially with having a sub meter and making sure everything is apportioned correctly, as you can easily get into a pickle with them! 😊

[retrotecchie]

@Anasa_EONNext

Update. Today is the second anniversary of the move to Retrotecchie Manor.

The results are now in for the second year of energy metering.

21-22 I used 4132kWh of electricity, or an average of around 11.32kWh per day.
22-23 I used 3486kWh of electricity, or an average of around 9.55kWh per day.

A saving of 19% compared to the previous year.

My oil use has also dropped by almost 30% thanks to the mild winter this year and only running the central heating for one hour a day.

I've not done the sums on the pennies yet, but I'm looking at several hundred pounds less this year than last year for my energy. Woo hoo!

[WizzyWigg]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@Anasa_EONNext

Update. Today is the second anniversary of the move to Retrotecchie Manor.

The results are now in for the second year of energy metering.

20-21 I used 4132kWh of electricity, or an average of around 11.32kWh per day.
21-22 I used 3486kWh of electricity, or an average of around 9.55kWh per day.

A saving of 19% compared to the previous year.

My oil use has also dropped by almost 30% thanks to the mild winter this year and only running the central heating for one hour a day.

I've not done the sums on the pennies yet, but I'm looking at several hundred pounds less this year than last year for my energy. Woo hoo!

Happy Anniversary 🎂🍾. Job well done 👍.
Drinks on you 😋?

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

Very well done.

[retrotecchie]

@WizzyWigg

Wood-fired kettle is on. Decaffs all round ☕🤣🤣😎

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@retrotecchie

Very well done.

Sorry to be pedantic but shouldn't it be 21-22 and 22-23?

Well spotted, that Comrade. 👍