Small flat, huge bills!

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  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
    edited 4 March 2018 at 4:59AM
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    Looking at the figures again, a lot of the increase must be due to my GNergy tariff changing from 9.4p/kWh in the first year to 12.73p/kWh in the second!

    That higher figure doesn't seem out of step with other providers, so I guess electricity prices rose across the board in mid-2017.
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
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    Once you've worked out your actual yearly gas and electric kWh usage do a check on mse cheap energy club for better tafiff
  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
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    Thanks, Gardner1. I do know my last year's usage (mentioned in my first post). it's just I'm perplexed as to why it's so high!

    I'm thinking to move to Bulb in June, though I did read their prices have just gone up. I wouldn't go with some of the smaller/dodgier/"under investigation" type companies that seem to make up most of the other cheaper deals!
  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
    edited 4 March 2018 at 1:20PM
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    I found this in another thread. I'm going to go through my appliances using the TPLink smart plug.

    https://www.cse.org.uk/downloads/advice-leaflets/energy-advice/advice_leaflet_what_uses_watt.pdf

    So far it's told me that the large fridgefreezer has a current power of 0.53w and uses a daily average of 0.49 kWh, though that's just based on the past 24 hours. I don't think I need to measure it for much longer though? and can just move the plug over to the next appliance.

    Looking at the electricity meter again this morning I was not pleased to see I've apparently used £3 worth over the past 16 hours which includes overnight. I'm starting to look accusingly at my different appliances.... Could it be the Google Home... Could it be the laptop... Could it be the kettle, etc.
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
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    vincent2017 wrote: »
    Thanks, Gardner1. I do know my last year's usage (mentioned in my first post). it's just I'm perplexed as to why it's so high!

    I'm thinking to move to Bulb in June, though I did read their prices have just gone up. I wouldn't go with some of the smaller/dodgier/"under investigation" type companies that seem to make up most of the other cheaper deals!

    Bulb is a small company ..........as long as company has half decent review scores it's fine to use them,the MSE cheap energy club is a good one to start with
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 4,989 Forumite
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    vincent2017 wrote: »
    I've apparently used £3 worth over the past 16 hours which includes overnight. I'm starting to look accusingly at my different appliances.... Could it be the Google Home... Could it be the laptop... Could it be the kettle, etc.
    No heaters? (e.g. that 3kW rad?) You may have to look at an electricity monitor (probably cheap on ebay).
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
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    No heaters! I gave away the oil-powered radiator.

    The Nest thermostat is in the lounge which is a 4m by 5m room with quite high ceilings. It does have two radiators against opposite side walls, near the windows but not on that outer wall. I wonder if I tried moving the thermostat into a smaller room, e.g. my bedroom, if the heating bills would go down. Because trying to heat a 20sqm room to 20c or 21c obviously requires more work than if it has that target for a much smaller room. Though that would affect the gas rather than the electricity consumption...

    I have just started using this smart-plug to monitor electricity, one appliance at a time. Is this the sort of thing you're talking about? I did see older types for £10-£20 which weren't Internet linked.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01IBUF48S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 4,989 Forumite
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    Re. Nest location - lounge is fine. That's the room you live in; with rads full on and doors shut set temp to the min temp you can handle when you're in there; other rooms should have TRVs which you can turn down accordingly.

    For elec monitoring I was thinking of something like this
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=owl%20wireless%20electricity%20monitor&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
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    Right, I'll leave the thermostat where it is then!

    I'm measuring the electricity usage of the plug on the 20 year old boiler now, in case it turns out it's guzzling a lot.
  • vincent2017
    vincent2017 Posts: 42 Forumite
    edited 18 March 2018 at 7:43PM
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    I've plugged the plug on the Sime Friendly E combi boiler into the TPLink smart plug, & it's showing a usage of 3.72 to 3.87 watts at the moment with the heating off and no taps running.

    It's using as much as 145 watts when the heating's on and the boiler kicks in, then falling back down to 88 watts when presumably it's maintaining a temperature.

    Edit: It's used 3.17 kilowatts in the past 7 days.

    Is that abnormal?
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