House 2 - 2011 Electricity Survey Notes

2011 Hidden Consumers	2012 Survey Notes	2012 Survey Results
2011 Hidden Consumer	2011 Survey Notes	2011 Survey Results
2009 Hidden Consumers	2009 Survey Notes	2009 Survey Results

The initial 2009 electricity of the new house was done in December. In January and February 2011 the whole exercise was repeated. Although we have made good progress it is clear much more can be done.

1. There are still quite a few gaps to investigate and a few simple low cost improvements to implement. Some of the items on this list are carried over from the 2009 survey because we haven't yet done anything about them.

2. After the big dip when we first moved in caused by changing a large percentage of the lights consumption has only fallen a small amount this year, partly caused by the house being occupied during the day more often. and the cold weather in December which meant the heating was running for longer.

3. The biggest area needing addressing is the lighting in the two bathrooms, especially the main bedroom en suite.

4. There is outside garden lighting (not in use) which needs a full investigation for safety as well as power consumption - outstanding from last time.

5. The hidden consumers check has also been updated BUT there is still an only partially explained 40W standing consumption - this needs addressing in the next few months as it is costing real money.

6. Water heating is via the oil central heating so we will need to look at whether we want to change electricity tariff from single rate to something else and use electric water heating overnight in the summer. This would increase electricity consumption but any increase would be offset by savings in oil use.

7. The position of some light switches means some lights are liable to be left switched on when not required, this is a longer term project.

8. One bathroom has electric under floor heating, with no experience of this it needs a careful look at, we are not using it at present.

9. One bathroom has an electric power shower so we will need to look at alternatives here, this is a longer term project.