Gas, Electricity and Water use in Year 1

We now have over 12 months of gas, electricity and water readings, taken on the same day every month so we can compare seasonal variations.

During the first winter (in Feb 2010), the gas boiler broke down for 2 weeks. This reduced the gas bill a little, but increased the electricity bill significantly as we brought in one electric heater so we could at least keep one room warm.

In a house like ours with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E and no eco-features at all, you might expect our annual gas, electric and water use to look something like this:

EPC/SAP estimated gas use - 32700 kWh
Average UK electricity use - 3500 kWh
Average UK water use - 140-150 litres per person per day

However, our actual use in 2010 was this:
Year 1 gas use - 21315 kWh
Year 1 electricity use - 1927 kWh
Year 1 water use - 94.5 cubic metres = 94,500 litres, or 64 litres per person per day

What this means is that we've reduced our bills significantly through being careful not to waste energy or water. In other words, we've done the "free" stuff. If we want to reduce energy and water use further we'll need to spend some money.

That said, I'm quite surprised how big the difference is between our actual use and the "UK average".

Our gas use is about 35% less than average for this kind of house as suggested by the Energy Performance Certificate (SAP calculation).
Our electricity and water use are approximately half of the UK average.

That's a lot of money and CO2 we're saving every year before we even start to make home improvements.