Will knowing your neighbour’s energy use help you cut back?

Even with similar houses the main factor in energy consumption is occupancy.
If the CH thermostat or timer is set to only heat the house when occupied, a family with school children and thus at home in school holidays and from late afternoon onwards will use significantly more energy over someone who is out at work 5 days a week and not back till early evening.

Well so long as the information on usage is general I see no real harm in it. Who knows it might start a neighbourly debate or exchange of ideas on how to save cash and combat the greedy energy wholesalers and retailers who rip us all off so much. And thus bringing the subject of saving energy and cash more into peoples thoughts to a degree where they actually do something rather than just moan about it.
Interesting comment from Jenny about how energy monitors and smart meters initially get taken notice of but after a short while the novalty wears off. I’ve always thought this to be the case. Yet “Which” supports the principle of smart meters? These to my mind are a monumental waste of £11 billion of what will ulimately be our money. They’ll not save anyone a penny. The only savings available will come from our own actions.
I think Which should rather encourage and promote “automated” energy saving devices. This could be as simple as a plug in timer to turn off completely your TV, freeview box or sky box, modem, computer, printer etc. etc. when you go to bed or when you’re out all day. Similarly encourage the use of heating thermostats and timers to heat only when and where in the home it’s necessary. Once setup these devices do not require monitoring and certainly not £11 billions worth of smart meters, and there is no expensive novalty to wear off. Then of course there is insulation and apart from solid wall insulation it’s cheap, and you cannot have too much.
Another crusade “Which” might consider is to fight rising unit energy costs resulting from suppliers not actually selling so much it we all use less. Shareholders still want their cut so profits must be maintained. So sell less and the price has to go up. Unless of course we re-nationalise and control prices through the ballot box.

A very sensible letter by ‘Chris’ which has many a good point……. Years ago there was a debate with the old age pensioners community who stated firmly that it cost the same to leave the heating boiler on a low setting rather than switch it off completely and only switch the thing on when it is absolutely needed. They took no notice of the fact that (and I would not quarrel with them) I was fitting heating systems at that time around the 1 million Btu mark ! They may well have been right because it takes a lot to warm a house up from stone cold each and every time it is off. We now have advice from the do gooders who suggest putting a hat on & a woolly jumper to save on heating ! Oh & don’t put more water in the kettle than is absolutely necessary when mashing !
It would be very nice to have polystyrene a foot thick over every sq inch of structure but it is down to practicality …… I couldn’t get my car down the all too narrow driveway if I lost another 4 inches never mind foot. I’m resigned to paying what needs to be paid but hope one day the generating of electricity and distribution and charging is nationalized as it was. The same with water and gas which are essentials but have been exploited immensely and the worst off are those who are poor.