Cost of living

I just looked at our electricity bill and it's about EUR 1400 for year. 

But there are four of us (five with dog) and we have many electrical devices - phones, computers, tools, washing/drying machines, dishwasher. 

And two kids who don't know how to turn things off.

Really need to do something about solar panels and battery storage.  We can use all the power it generates and stores.

1400 per year sounds almost like Luxembourg (not quite but still).  Admittedly we are just 2 (me and my wife (a number or cats and a GSD)), I am not very technical, I just know we use washing/drying machine probably once per 2 or 3 days, dishwasher 1 or 2 times per day. We go to bed before 8 pm, but use computers quite a bit. I am an absolute amateur with technics so I do not use tools at all.


We do have solar panels but I have no clue how these operate (ie I do not know if they just heat the water in the boiler or if hey also help with electricity). Bottom line in Hungary, perhaps also due to Solar power I am VERY satisfied with the annual bill (Gas/Electricity combined).


In Luxembourg we rented an old (and big) house, annual bill over EUR 8.000 combined, (Nice house but expensive). In Hungary as per prior post much much less (perhaps due to living on ground floor only and/or solar panels).

cdw057 wrote:

1400 per year sounds almost like Luxembourg (not quite but still).  Admittedly we are just 2 (me and my wife (a number or cats and a GSD)), I am not very technical, I just know we use washing/drying machine probably once per 2 or 3 days, dishwasher 1 or 2 times per day. We go to bed before 8 pm, but use computers quite a bit. I am an absolute amateur with technics so I do not use tools at all.

We do have solar panels but I have no clue how these operate (ie I do not know if they just heat the water in the boiler or if hey also help with electricity). Bottom line in Hungary, perhaps also due to Solar power I am VERY satisfied with the annual bill (Gas/Electricity combined).

In Luxembourg we rented an old (and big) house, annual bill over EUR 8.000 combined, (Nice house but expensive). In Hungary as per prior post much much less (perhaps due to living on ground floor only and/or solar panels).

Oh, completely different usage.   Our dishwasher is on minimum 3-4 times a day and if we have visitors, anything between 5-6 times a day.    I think the biggest drain must be IT equipment.  Everyone has a phone and a computer and they are all on all day without only perhaps shutdown overnight.  We also have electricity for cooking.  We wanted gas but you cannot have gas cooking if you have a wood burning stove in the same room and a cooker hood - regulations here forbid it.  Too much carbon monoxide might be drawn into the room from the wood burner.  You need an interlock to only allow the cooker hood to work with a window open.  Oh, and an external air vent.

Perhaps have a look at your electricity boxes or boiler? You should be able to see if it's supplying power or hot water.   Hot water would be two coils in the water tank - one for the gas heating system to heat the water and the other coil for solar.  If it's electricity, there will be a display showing how much is being used.   On the roof, for water heating, you'd see insulation on the pipes.  They put in anti-freeze to stop it freezing up.

Only 2 of us and our dishwasher is only on every couple of days.

SimCityAT wrote:

Only 2 of us and our dishwasher is only on every couple of days.

Wow!

Washing machine is going at least 2 x day here.   Tumble dryer once a day at least during winter. 

Hardly ever in the summer.   Everything goes on the balcony to dry.  Dries in hours up there in the sun trap.

One thing I've done is replaced all the bulbs with LEDs except one outside light which is still halogen.  Discussed that before.  But I've just noticed they buzz now.  Not very happy about that. I thought it was tinnitus.

Wow, we only pay on average less then 4 or 5 thousand forints a month for electric.
Our flat faces a double wide st. and the building across from us isn't much higher then the level of our flat. 3 big windows to the outside. Usually it is nice and sunny inside all day long.
We use the washer about once a week and air dry even though our machine has a dryer built in.
Have LED lights in the kitchen and we always shut off the lights when we leave the room.
Don't often have lights on at night when we watch the tele or get on Netflix.
The lights distract me, use a flashlight to see the keys on my laptop when on U tube .
Weird or more like a local Hungarian?
Think many turn off lights at night.
Never really thought about saving that much but grew up in a household of 8 people and we HAD to learn to save on everything possible growing up.
Huge punishments for leaving a room and keeping the light on.
Out flat isn't large, only 50 sq, meters, 2 rooms.
In a pinch we probably could reduce our bill in half but no need to.
We always keep the lights on if we have company however, just don't have any lately.
We changed out the heating unit in our boiler a couple months back, when the minerals build up insde it does take more power to heat the water.
I suppose  everyone does things differently though.
When we had a large house in Ca. I did run the dishwasher once a day.Now I hand wash after every meal. Just the 2 of us but at times it seems I use every dish in the house.
I remember once in Ca. I had a HU couple over for a BBQ.
The women insisted she would hand wash the dishes for me.
I tried to get her to just let the dishwasher do the work but no, she wanted to hand wash the dishes.
MY God, I about had a heart attack watching how much water she was wasting by letting the faucet run full blast as she was soaping up. I had an easy to shut of faucet too.
I bit my tongue and turned away, couldn't take watching her.
I could just hear the echo of my parents screaming in my ear about wasting so much water.
This same women had us over for lunch here in Budapest where they now live too.
She made a really nice broccoli /bacon/cheese pie from scratch.
Freaked me out however when I saw her toss out in the trash more then half the broccoli.She discared the entire steam. All she had to do is scrap off the tough outer skin and use it for a cream soup or just steam it for a side dish.
I don't understand her way of doing things, I know her husband loves to save money so I think she was trying to mess with me but acing all,"rich" and tossing and wasting knowing that isn't my style of doing things. Who knows, maybe she really has no clue?
Was raised to be an ecologist before it was a "thing".

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Wow, we only pay on average less then 4 or 5 thousand forints a month for electric.
Our flat faces a double wide st. and the building across from us isn't much higher then the level of our flat. 3 big windows to the outside. Usually it is nice and sunny inside all day long.
We use the washer about once a week and air dry even though our machine has a dryer built in.
Have LED lights in the kitchen and we always shut off the lights when we leave the room.
Don't often have lights on at night when we watch the tele or get on Netflix.
......
I could just hear the echo of my parents screaming in my ear about wasting so much water.
This same women had us over for lunch here in Budapest where they now live too.
She made a really nice broccoli /bacon/cheese pie from scratch.
Freaked me out however when I saw her toss out in the trash more then half the broccoli.She discared the entire steam. All she had to do is scrap off the tough outer skin and use it for a cream soup or just steam it for a side dish.
I don't understand her way of doing things, I know her husband loves to save money so I think she was trying to mess with me but acing all,"rich" and tossing and wasting knowing that isn't my style of doing things. Who knows, maybe she really has no clue?
Was raised to be an ecologist before it was a "thing".

I think a lot of these things about wastefulness depends on where you come from.  I come from a big family so I'm quite fussy about not wasting food in particular. I also go around switching all the lights off.  But for non-food use, IMHO, we're hopelessly energy wasteful here at Fluffy HQ.

Hungarians seems to have no concept of saving food for future use.  It's almost alien to them.  They make huge amounts of food and throw a lot of it away. I think it's that concept of making too much as a part of hospitality.  A visitor should go out stuffed to the gills. But all the stuff remaining could go for another 2 days.   But usually they leave it out and then dump it.  What's wrong with the fridge or even the freezer?

I just checked my electricity bill again and yes, it's looking at about 40K HUF a month (approx EUR 1400/12).  That seems rather a lot.  I am going to have to look at what we're doing wrong.  Or if I've misunderstood.

I misunderstood - we use per month 27K HUF electricity and 12K HUF for gas.  So the HUF 39K is both bills.

I'll bluff my way out of our clearly profligate use by saying the electricity includes use of the heat pump and things like the oven/cooker.  The gas is hot water and central heating.

I think I should call some solar panel people.

I don't know about food wasting either.
My HU MIL had aniamls so they got any left overs, She lived through the war in Budapest and the revolution. She wouldn't toss out even moldy food, we had to force her to do so.
My step-father was  just a small child during the depression in the 1930's in the US. Son of 2 immigrants, one from Ireland and his mom from Chechoslovakia. He was so hungry all the time that he would raid trash cans for food.
We absolutely were not allowed to waste food growing up.
If it was on your plate then you had better eat it or you would be served the same meal next day or two. No left overs, no tossing out.
Maybe that's why I used to have food issues as a teenager, mom tried to stuff us all the time, I refused to eat so just didn't come to dinner.
Shutting off lights, using every drop in a tube etc. is normal for me.
I've been known to buy expensive luxury items for myself but I hold onto them for decades.
Buy something of good quality and have no need to repalce it every season.
I confess, one of my faveorite shops in the US was the huge super large Goodwill store, a chairy shop. It had everything from kitchen items, tv sets to trinkets. Could spend hours digging through the "trash" often finding brand new items, going on senior Tuesdays was a bonus of another 50% off everything!
We would think we were going cheap but spend hundreds per month in that shop, got a VIP card even.
Wish they had such a shop here in Hungary, these second hand stores here do not even come close to being a bargain.
Found a Prada handbag in the Goodwill and a few other designer itmes hardly used.

I am happy to see the posts in this thread, as for leftovers, we have one big dog (seems to like almost all (no tomatoes and garlic though (challenge in itselves) also three cats (but very picky).
I myself like leftovers as well (depending).

Having said that I spend huge sums on alcohol and smoking.

I do not know how long underfloor heating will last (20/30 years), but it is perfect for us. (Our animals like it as well). I believe it really helps in keeping the gas bill down (together with good isolation (we took the house as it was, but windows triple glazed probably helps))
Whereas dogs and cats eat a lot of the left-overs, of course we also buy animal food, however often they are in promotion and than we buy massively.
Also we use our butcher to buy pork front or hind legs, my wife cooks it and especially the bouillon derived the animals become ecstatic.
More in general perhaps (fresh) meat is not to healthy for animals (although I believe it is natural), cheap meat is less costly than animal food. (I know their choice I am still confused).

cdw057 wrote:

I am happy to see the posts in this thread, as for leftovers, we have one big dog (seems to like almost all (no tomatoes and garlic though (challenge in itselves) also three cats (but very picky).
I myself like leftovers as well (depending).

Having said that I spend huge sums on alcohol and smoking.

I do not know how long underfloor heating will last (20/30 years), but it is perfect for us. (Our animals like it as well). I believe it really helps in keeping the gas bill down (together with good isolation (we took the house as it was, but windows triple glazed probably helps))
Whereas dogs and cats eat a lot of the left-overs, of course we also buy animal food, however often they are in promotion and than we buy massively.
Also we use our butcher to buy pork front or hind legs, my wife cooks it and especially the bouillon derived the animals become ecstatic.
More in general perhaps (fresh) meat is not to healthy for animals (although I believe it is natural), cheap meat is less costly than animal food. (I know their choice I am still confused).

Dogs and cats are scavengers and will just about eat anything, including things they shouldn't.  Mixed diet is OK really but of course somethings should be avoided - chocolate or artificial sweeteners (xylitol particularly) are very bad for dogs.  Our doggie gets quite a few leftovers - she had spicey Chinese beef the other day and schnitzel yesterday.

Our underfloor heating is water based and uses plastic tubes.  I think at least 20 years.   One thing I could not get across to the installer was that I wanted a thermostat system for areas with underfloor heating.  They couldn't get it which is fairly typical.  I've subsequently done more research and it's easy to install.   I might do that myself when I get around to it.

Wiring in buildings is 15 years normally. Boiler, 10-15 years, technology will overtake it.  I was thinking about CHP systems here - that's Combined Heat and Power.  Basically a generator is in the chimney exhaust and produces about 1 kW of electricity when it's working.  All that heat is wasted up the chimney although some heat is necessary to get a chimney operating correctly. 

1kW is more than enough to run a TV or radio, run the central heating pump and power some LED lights and charge a phone.  Not enough for heating on its own.