Annual reckoning

Just got my annual bill from the townhall for gas and electricity.  Smaller refund this year than last but on the whole it's not too bad.  I pay 35 euro per month and then the readings are taken once a year.  I can get at my gas meter to have a look easily but the electricity meters are locked in a cupboard and calling someone out to open it up would generally involve a charge so I've never done it.  I think starting tomorrow I will take monthly gas readings at least and see if that shows me anything interesting in relation to pattern of usage.  The heating and hot water are gas powered and I'm fairly certain I could definitely stand to do more to cut down on my hot water usage.

Last year my total for gas was 126.12 and this year it's 133.09.
kWh for gas were 1,403 in 2010 compared to 1,255 in 2009.

Last year my total for electricity was 195.26 and this year it's 209.57.
kWh for electricity were 847 in 2010 compared to 778 in 2009.

So overall not a huge increase.  For the first three months of 2010 I had someone else living with me who was very fond of using the heating (it was a cold winter admittedly) and had the computer on watching films or surfing the internet for a large part of every day.  Come to think of it, he was also very fond of taking long baths, topping up with hot water regularly.

The other big differences will be the lights that I had fitted in November 2009 (until then I was only using two standlamps) and the cooker, which I got in mid-2010 (before that I used a small electric oven and two-ring hotplate - I definitely cook more with the proper cooker).

So my nice things to have happened today are a refund of 12.23 from the town and finally, finally finishing the rest of that big box of Knusperone cornflakes from Aldi.  Never again.