Is there something wrong with my electricity meter?

Supreme_2

I think it's high because that works out at £30 a month just to heat my water for 1.5hrs a day, and use the oven for 1hr a day...

espresso

Supreme wrote: »

I think it's high because that works out at £30 a month just to heat my water for 1.5hrs a day, and use the oven for 1hr a day...

So how much do you expect these appliances to consume?

How many elements do you have? If you have one 3kW element that will consume 4.5kWh per day. Tanks like your often have two elements.

Your oven could easily use another 2kWh per day.

Any appliance that produces heat, uses a lot of electricity and it is therefore expensive to run. The sums are easy enough for you to work out!

Supreme_2

They are. I just find it hard to believe that it costs me £15 a month to have a moderately warm shower every day!

I have looked up my water heater again, and it's a 210ltr 2x 3kw one. Which seems somewhat over kill and i think its way too big for this flat meaning its really inefficient and costing a small fortune to run.

I think i am as far as i can go with energy saving without losing hot water all together and eating cold food.

11kwh a day just seems too high for 1 person in a small flat with no heating.

espresso

Supreme wrote: »

They are. I just find it hard to believe that it costs me £15 a month to have a moderately warm shower every day!

I doubt if you are actually using that OSO cylinder correctly. They are not like a standard immersion heater, where the water that you heat comes out of the taps or your shower. They work by heating up a large volume of water as a thermal store in a well insulated tank and then water drawn from the taps gets heated up as it passes though the tank indirectly from the cold water main. Try using it on continuous as when the tank is hot, it should only actually use a couple of kWh per day to keep it hot due to heat loss. You would then get a proper hot shower!

Cardew

11kWh a day is approx 4,000kWh a year.

The UK average is 3,300kWh for those who heat hot water with gas.

A well insulated HW tank can 'lose' 3kWh a day - a poorly insulated one much more - that excludes the hot water used.

A desktop PC plus laptop on 12 hours a day + TV can use a lot more than the 2kWh you allow - what about a router?

Supreme_2

espresso wrote: »

I doubt if you are actually using that OSO cylinder correctly. They are not like a standard immersion heater, where the water that you heat comes out of the taps or your shower. They work by heating up a large volume of water as a thermal store in a well insulated tank and then water drawn from the taps gets heated up as it passes though the tank indirectly from the cold water main. Try using it on continuous as when the tank is hot, it should only actually use a couple of kWh per day to keep it hot due to heat loss. You would then get a proper hot shower!

This may well be very true!
All i have for the tank is a timer. What settings do you think i should try? Should i just set the timer so its on 24hrs a day?

espresso

Supreme wrote: »

This may well be very true!
All i have for the tank is a timer. What settings do you think i should try? Should i just set the timer so its on 24hrs a day?

I have no personal experience of using this type of heat store tank but looking at the specification for a similar Stanton Premier Plus 210 litre tank, the standing heat loss is quoted as 2.30kWh per day.

I would think that it would be worth trying, as when the water is at the temperature preset by the thermostat, it should then stay hot with little energy needed to keep it hot, apart from when you actually use the taps/shower etc.

ixwood

Sounds like you could with a energy monitor. They're quite cheap now. Look for owl energy monitor on ebay. They show you how much power is being used at the time. Can be quite enlightening/shocking at times.

gemsurf2

I'd like one but can't afford the £25.99 on eBay at the moment.

Or you could rent one - once you've adjusted your usage you shouldn't need it anymore. This site do rentals, but still more than I'd like to pay - at least if you buy one you could recoup most of your money back by selling it on.

http://www.electricity-monitor.com/wireless-energy-monitors-energy-monitor-rental-c-37_27.html

There are also cheaper ones for individual plug sockets.

HaushinkaGreenDay

Hi there Supreme,

Some very good advice been given so far, but one thing that I think hasn't been picked up on is that your property is rented.

As such, your landlord/agent is responsible for providing instructions on how to use all installations, including your hot water tank, so my first reaction would be to contact them and inform them of the issues you've been having with hot water provision.

Secondly, I agree that 18 units per day for a one-bedroom flat is a little much, even though you're all electric. Whilst at Uni I lived in a bijou one-bed flat (all electric) and I was using a max of 10 units a day, and I had electric oil heaters on all day, with one on all night in the bedroom.

Currently, I live with my partner in a large 2-bed flat, gas CH and HW, I'm in all day and have similar toys as you but only use 3-4 units in summer per day and 5-7 units in winter, when the dehumidifier's on 24/7 and we're using the electric oven more. We have the washing machine and dishwasher on every other day.

Space and water heating generally account for the majority of utility usage, so I agree with espresso - you might be using the water heater incorrectly.

I hope you manage to solve the mystery of the lukewarm water, as with it being a new flat one would expect everything to work properly and efficiently!

Good luck,

Haushinka

:xmastree: