1 bed flat, average of 28 units a day? Is this normal?

lsatdown

I'm with scottish power, in a 1 bed new flat. October to Jan (a quarter) was £300. Which apparently works out at 28 units a day, is this normal??

Magentasue

Yes, if you have electric heating. No. if you don't.

What sort of heaters?

Teterow

I have just submitted my meter readings and gas consumption is 18 units per day on average. We have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and for 3 in the evening. Can this be right??? I am with Scottish Power, and yes the boiler is pretty old....but still.

Magentasue

Teterow wrote: »

I have just submitted my meter readings and gas consumption is 18 units per day on average. We have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and for 3 in the evening. Can this be right??? I am with Scottish Power, and yes the boiler is pretty old....but still.

It seems very high. Are they metric or imperial units? You did mean gas?

lsatdown

Thanks for your reply, we have these:
http://www.dimplex-heaters.com/dimplex-evs075-skirting-panel-convector-heater.htm

Although we only use 2 of them for around 3 hrs in the evening. Water heater is on off peak. We use the dishwasher every night, and washing machine 2 times a week.
All plugs are switched off at the mains when not in use.
We have quite a few halogen bulbs, six of these in the front room which give off a lot of heat!
http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/Halogen+Light+Bulbs/G9+Mains+Voltage+Capsules/G9+Halogen+Bulb+2%2C000+Hours/348199329

Magentasue

lsatdown wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, we have these:
http://www.dimplex-heaters.com/dimplex-evs075-skirting-panel-convector-heater.htm

Although we only use 2 of them for around 3 hrs in the evening. Water heater is on off peak. We use the dishwasher every night, and washing machine 2 times a week.
All plugs are switched off at the mains when not in use.
We have quite a few halogen bulbs, six of these in the front room which give off a lot of heat!
http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/Halogen+Light+Bulbs/G9+Mains+Voltage+Capsules/G9+Halogen+Bulb+2%2C000+Hours/348199329

If you are using those heaters, you should almost certainly not be on Economy 7, suggested by your reference to off-peak.

The relevant thing about the bulbs. If they are 40w, for example, that's 6 x 40w = 2.4kwh for every hour. If they're only 10w, that's only .6 units per hour.

lsatdown

Yeah your right. We have around 8 40w bulbs. This works out like this i think?!
8 x40w = 3.2kwh x 3 hrs a day = 9.6kw (28 kw a day average).
So if i got energy saving bulbs all round, this would be:

8 x 7w = 0.56kwh x 3 hrs a day = 1.68kw!!

lsatdown

why shouldn't i be on enconomy 7?

Magentasue

lsatdown wrote: »

why shouldn't i be on enconomy 7?

There are exceptions, but generally E7 offers seven hours of cheap electricity overnight, ideal for storage heaters. For this, the trade off is that you pay more for the other 17hours.

If you use washing machine, dishwasher, tumble drier etc overnight, you might break even, but generally you'll pay more with E7. There are exceptions.

However, with your electric heaters, you're going to use more during the day. With your halogen bulb addiction, it's worse. Get rid of E7. I never gave halogen bulbs a second thought until a year ago, when I did the maths. Now they're a thing of the past for me.

lsatdown

well the only thing i use in the night (on cheap tariff) is the water heater, which is automatic. So would i still save money considering the water heater would then be on a high rate.

Magentasue

lsatdown wrote: »

well the only thing i use in the night (on cheap tariff) is the water heater, which is automatic. So would i still save money considering the water heater would then be on a high rate.

You can see for yourself by looking at how many kwh you use at night and how many day units. At 28kwh a day, you need to be using between 6 and 17 at night depending on the tariff. Unlikely with just heating water.