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Reducing your electricity consumption |
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The electricity bill gives the amount of electricity you have used as well as the cost. The consumption is given in units of kilowatt hours (kWh).
On your bill, you will find the following information
Comparison with an average family bill If you have kept your previous bills then add these up for a full year and divide the total consumption by the number of days to give the average usage per day in kWh. If you only have the last quarter then divide this consumption by the number of the days it covers. For an average 4 person family, the annual consumption is about 3000 kWh or 8 - 9 kWh per day. If you use electricity to also provide hot water then these figures will double to 15-17 kWh. For an average unit cost of 12 p/kWh this will give a daily cost of about £1.00 (or £1.90 if hot water is produced) and an annual cost of £360 (or £700) respectively. How to reduce your electricity bill In order to reduce your usage and bill it is important to know which appliances use the most electricity so you can focus on achieving the highest possible savings. If you have little time, look at the next section which illustrates where energy is used in each room and provides some hints on how to save energy. If you have more time undertake a survey of your consumption using the excel spreadsheet which can be downloaded from this website. This will identify not only the largest users but also where the greatest savings are possible. Current cost meters These are meters which measure and show the current electricity consumption at any one time interval so you can see the effect of switching on or off any appliance or lamp. You can therefore identify directly which appliances are big consumers and consider how you might be able to reduce their consumption. These devices are able to integrate this instantaneous consumption and convert this to costs per day, month or year. They also illustrate graphically how yesterday's consumption is split between night, day and evening. Such devices can be purchased and retail for about £45. You should be able to save between 5% and 10% of your electricity bill by using the information that such devices provide and the hints on this website. Some utilities offer these meters free of charge as part of the carbon emissions reduction programme which is funded by all electricity consumers. Current cost meter
Smart metering The UK utilities are undertaking trials of 'smart' meters in communities across the UK. Smart meters provide consumers with similar information to current cost meters and enable utilities to charge time of day tariffs in order to obtain better match between demand and supply. Together with the information on this website, this will help you to reduce your energy use and so save money as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon reductions Each unit of electricity, if generated by burning fossil fuels, results in an average of 440 grams of carbon dioxide being produced: carbon dioxide being the most important of the gases responsible for global warming. Since it is believed that most people can save at least 10% of their electricity use (on average £50/year) over a period of time through good energy practice and buying more efficient appliances when existing appliances need to be replaced, the annual savings per household could be 0.13 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year or 25 million tonnes across the UK. That is 2% of the UK total carbon dioxide output. Using less energy and more efficiently Potential for using renewable energy sources
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