Crazy Electricity Units

johnhodges

Hello, am i posting here to query whether my recent electricity bills can possible be correct. Since 14/01/09 til 14/02/09 i have used 709 units used. Living in a 3 bedroom standard sized house with gas central heating. 3 TV's 1 used mainly, 2 in bedroom 1 computer, washing machine, dish washer, electric cooker. No electric shower, no tumbledryer. I am with British Gas at the moment and they are sure my readings are correct. Does leaving TV's on standby etc make such a huge impact on units used.

I am posting mainly to try and find out if this is normal and maybe what other peoples units are who are in the same situation as me. Other people i know have much lower units and are in the same housing with the applications in the house are having much smaller bills and units used.

What can i do? Can i have the meter checked. Im not sure where to go next.

Treadway1

This does sound quite high to be honest, Im with nPower and ive worked my average monthly usage out to be about 265KWh, and my situation is almost identical to yours apart from not having a dishwasher.

Are BG going on estimated (marked as 'E' on your bill) readings or have you updated them with the actual (A) reading. Also, make sure the meter serial number on your bill matches the actualserial number on the meter (Just to make sure theyre not billing you for someone elses leccy.

Last thing Id say, is get yourself along to www.USwitch.com and make sure to work out you annual KWh usuage as opposed to how much you pay monthly, as this will give you a better idea of how much you might save.

penrhyn

Check that your immersion heater, if you have one, is not on 24/7. Leaving appliances on standby will make very little difference to your consumption (I know its heresy).
I'm not a very good yardstick, but I would think around 80 -100Kwh/ week would be average.
Try switching everything off and check that your meter stops spinning or flashing.
If you have a known load like and electric convector (no thermostat) you could run it for an hour and check the meter reading.

Magentasue

23kwh a day. High but quite possible if you [STRIKE]keep carbon fiends[/STRIKE] have teenagers. Last winter I clocked us using 26kwh a day - same as you but with tumble drier.

I have made cutbacks and we average 13kwh a day summer and 16kwh a day winter.

Some of the things I did:-

All dishwasher uses on lowest temp programme
Almost all washing machine loads on 30deg
Second fridge gone
Energy saving lightbulbs in every room
We cook by gas now
TVs, Sky etc all off at the wall unless they're on
When our PC packed up, replaced with laptop.

Vestra

Magentasue wrote: »

23kwh a day. High but quite possible if you [strike]keep carbon fiends[/strike] have teenagers. Last winter I clocked us using 26kwh a day - same as you but with tumble drier.

I have made cutbacks and we average 13kwh a day summer and 16kwh a day winter.

Some of the things I did:-

All dishwasher uses on lowest temp programme
Almost all washing machine loads on 30deg
Second fridge gone
Energy saving lightbulbs in every room
We cook by gas now
TVs, Sky etc all off at the wall unless they're on
When our PC packed up, replaced with laptop.

Even better can you not hand wash? We manage fine but there is only 2 of us, I just find it a lot easier to hand wash rather than use the dishwasher.

Magentasue

Rian1988 wrote: »

Even better can you not hand wash? We manage fine but there is only 2 of us, I just find it a lot easier to hand wash rather than use the dishwasher.

Would rather not! There are six of us and I don't have a draining board.:rolleyes:

kazwookie

Turn everything off at the mains and see if your meter is still going round.

If it is someone has Hijack your electric and you are paying for it.

Turn the mains back on and get onto the elect company to come and sort it out.

jamiesw

I am currently averaging 50 units per day(Lovely spreadsheet to keep track of my readings), 3 bedroom semi, 5 of us, dishwasher, gas heating, 4 tv's (1 used mainly), tumble dryer, washing machine,fridge(only 1 yr old), large chest freezer(5 yrs old), fish tank and 2 desktop pc, 4 laptops.
All lights with are energy bulb except the kitchen which is 10 halogen bulbs (about to be replaced with LED lighting).
The imersion heater is on most of the time.

Basing my current usage I am estimating 18250Kwh per annum.

Vestra

Magentasue wrote: »

Would rather not! There are six of us and I don't have a draining board.:rolleyes:

I see, I didn't realise it was a large family.

bockster

we use less than 10kwh a day in the week even with one at home all day,
lets say about 13 at w/e's when the washing is done (some tumble drying).
don't under estimate how much tv,s and pc's use when on for long periods.

Fire_Fox

johnhodges wrote: »

Hello, am i posting here to query whether my recent electricity bills can possible be correct. Since 14/01/09 til 14/02/09 i have used 709 units used. Living in a 3 bedroom standard sized house with gas central heating. 3 TV's 1 used mainly, 2 in bedroom 1 computer, washing machine, dish washer, electric cooker. No electric shower, no tumbledryer. I am with British Gas at the moment and they are sure my readings are correct. Does leaving TV's on standby etc make such a huge impact on units used.

I am posting mainly to try and find out if this is normal and maybe what other peoples units are who are in the same situation as me. Other people i know have much lower units and are in the same housing with the applications in the house are having much smaller bills and units used.

What can i do? Can i have the meter checked. Im not sure where to go next.

Aldi have plug-in energy monitors in stock at the mo for about £8 so could try to work out where it's all going that way. Worst culprits are immersion heaters accidentally left on, electric heating, tumble dryers, laundry done on hot, dishwashing on hot. If it's none of those look at too much stuff on standby, lighting (lots of halogen lamps?) and cooking. We use about 10 KWH per day in summer - two people in a two bed flat who are pretty careful with electricity.