Any suggestion please...

pinkiss6486

Hi All,

Me and my husband moved into a 1 small bedroom flat (only electricity) a year ago. The previous tenants were with Eon & have Economy 7 so we just carried on as we dont know anything at that time about the market. We used to pay £55/month. Fortunately, I found this website and started to switch to Scottish Power in May. But it doesnt help much as we still keep using 13 kwh/day. Ive been reading many threads and it seems to me that most people with 2 bedhouse, kids,TV...sometimes dont even use that much.We are out all day and only got home at about 5,only use computer (with a 14'' flat screen monitor) for about 4 hours,sometimes laptop as well,cook for about half an hour, turn on the hot water for only max. about 45 mins to bath and then go to bed at 10. We use energy saving light bulbs and turn the light off when not in the room as well. I use washing machine and now and then bake during off peak but we have no TV, no dishwasher, no tumble dryer, and we didnt use the storage heater since we moved in (we use hot water bottle lol) . I just couldnt figure out why we use so much electricity like that even in the summer. I did a test early this morning, turned on the washing maching which runs 0.85kwh for 3 hours and the night unit only moves 1 unit (1 kwh and a little bit) while I expected it to moves 0.85 x 3 = 2.55 kwh (2.55 units). then at 6.30 I turned the hot water for 20 minutes (thats what we often do in the morning before 7) but when I checked the meter at 6.55am, the night unit didnot move much .Instead,the day unit moved 0.6khw! how could heating water for just 15 mins use up 0.6kwh not mention that was before 7am? then this afternoon I turned on the hot water for 35 minutes and the bathroom light for 20 mins, the meter moved up 2 unit!(2kwh).Even when no appliance is used (only the fridge frezzer), the meter still moves up 0.25kwh every 3 hours.Could anyone please tell me whether this is normal or there is something wrong with the meter or our boiler.If yes is it possible to ask Scottish power to give us a new meter?
Any advice is much appreciated!

KimYeovil

15 mins at 0.6 kWh corresponds to 2.4kW element - reasonable for a hot water heater.

A fridge freezer uses 250 to 450 kWh per year. 0.25kWh per 3 hours is 2kWh per day. Difficult to judge a fridge freexer over a 3 hour period but that's not too outrageous given it's not likely to be using that much every 3 hours.

Note that you don't seem to be using much off peak so you probably should not be on Economy 7 (particularly if you are not regularly using the storage heaters).

KimYeovil

Also, different suppliers (and even the same supplier in different regions) have a very varied attitude to Economy 7 - you may be somewhere where it is deprecated and they are bumping up the cost of the tariff - but they don't bother telling you it's deprecated!

Also just noticed you saying you turn on the water for 45 minutes before bed - presumably peak tariff?

pinkiss6486

Hi Kim,

Thanks. Yes we only use washing machine and a bit of hot water heater during off peak. But somehow when I compare with/without economy 7, it still does seem to save me a bit (about £4/month lol). we live in East anglia and night unit it about 6.029p. We often have bath at 6 or7 pm. What suprise me is so many ppl here with 2 o 3 bedhouse and kids spend just as much as us :-(

Cardew

You don't say how you are testing/measuring your consumption.

For instance you state you "turned on the washing maching which runs 0.85kwh for 3 hours" and expected it to use 2.55kWh.

A washing machine will not use anything like 2.55kWh for a cycle. 0.4 to 1.0kWh is more like the consumption.

However 13kWh a day for an all electric flat using electricity for cooking, heating water for a bath etc is remarkably low.

pinkiss6486

I just do the reading from the meter before and after turning the washing machine on and off. Sorry if i dont know much about washing maching energy consumption, it says in the instructions that this particular cycle use 0.85 kwh so I just supposed that 3 hours will be tripled.:-)
thanks for your help!

Premier_2

pinkiss6486 wrote: »

...it says in the instructions that this particular cycle use 0.85 kwh so I just supposed that 3 hours will be tripled.:-)...!

Ah, that's the error. If the instructions said 0.85kW then your assumption would be more correct, but it says 0.85kWh per cycle, so no need to calculate anything.

pinkiss6486

ah got it !thanks a lot for all your helps!