10,000 kwh per year

mum26

For a 3 bed, 3 story, mid terrace 6 yr old house with gas heating?

And no hot tub or style lighting

We have been here since the house was first built and our meter is almost at 60,000. I would expect our usage to be a bit higher than average as we have a big family so washing machine on more than a smaller household etc but would you say that amount is very high?

None of our appliances are more than 6 years old and where possible we got A rated, we have a chest freezer which is kept well stocked, a tumble drier which I don't use unless it is an emergency, a tall fridge (not american style), washing machine and dishwasher. The oven is electric. we have two big tvs, a few portables, dvd players etc, none of them on until the kids get home from school as i'm either out or enjoying the peace and quiet. All the lightbulbs are energy saving ( and the house does get dingy and dark).

We are unable to switch company as despite paying quite a high direct debit amount and an extra lump payment in january we are almost £500 in debt with the company, but when I looked for examples the site told me to check my usage figures as they were very high!

The company have not been very helpful, they keep saying it is about average usage and if we want to have the meter tested we will have to pay if it is found to be ok. They seem to think we are trying to get out of paying the bills, despite having never missed a payment :rolleyes:

Our gas bills are fine and our water bills, while a little higher than average are in line with what I would expect.

A neighbour one side let us look at their meter and it is 1/3rd of the reading of ours, that house either has it's landlord and family there or is rented out, typically to a number of adults house sharing.

The other side has a family so we are going to ask if we can compare with theirs too as I imagine their usage is more in line with ours.

Would really appreciate any advice, thankyou.

mrcow

Get an electiricity monitor. Use it to see who much all your tvs etc are sucking even when on standby. You'd be surprised. Do you seriously need all of those tellys? I'd ditch them all but one. Do you leave stuff on standby? - it really mounts up.

Get the monitor and then do the maths. It was an eye opener for me.

mrcow

Forgot to add - you can get the monitor for free if you do it right. Do a search on here - there are a few companies offering them.

mum26

I've applied for one from British Gas, it hasn't arrived yet though.

We have a tv in the living room (which is on the first floor) one in the kitchen on the ground floor and portables between the bedrooms for watching dvds, there are 8 of us in a small house so it saves on arguments,however i'll be keeping a beady eye on the electricity monitor when it turns up and usage will be hugely reduced once I have some numbers to raise an eyebrow at I am a one woman switching off at the plug army, my dp is very much of the "must leave the sky box on standby or the world will implode" school of thought though.

mattcanary

Was the meter reading 0 when the meter was fitted?
There should be a card placed behind the meter giving this information. Does this match with what was on your first bill/statement for the house?

Cardew

With 8 in the house, you pretty obviously will have well above average consumption.

If your 2 big TVs are Plasma, they can use a lot of power, 0.5kWh(500w) is not unusual.

Obviously cooking for 8 will mean the electric oven will be used a lot.

mum26

No they are not plasma - lcd. I do tend to do hob top cooking where I can because the electricity bills are so horrendous. I will get dp to go round and make a note of usage of things, have a house full of books and toys so not like the kids can't find something else to entertain themselves

Mattcanary, i'm not sure, I will go and look for a card, It was installed by npower and obviously the builders used some power. I was a week away from giving birth to twins when we moved in so most of this I had no hand in. We switched to British gas when we moved in as we were with them at the old house, then switched to EDF Sainsburys in '06.

paceinternet

Take regular meter readings: hourly, daily, etc
Try and recognise what is switched on at different time intervals so you can see the kwh adding up and what you could target to cut down on.

Actually, 10000 kwh per year is an average of about 200 kwh per week, 30 kwh per day.
That may be realistic for your household.

dogshome

The meter figures over 6 years are a much too wider base from which to judge your annual consumption - whilst the meter may have read zero when it was installed some time in the build process, it would not have read zero when you moved in because of the builders doing the final fix process would have been using lights, power tools and may be even industrial heaters to dry the house out.
It really is a matter of going thro' the last 5 bills, (15 months worth), to get a true annual consumption figure which is broken down into seasonal use - if you have not kept the bills, ask your supplier, who will supply copies. Because of the debt you can't change suppliers,
but with accurate annual consumption figures you can at least look at the switch sites to see how your present tariif compares, and, is there a better tariff offered by your present supplier?
With 8 of you in the house, you could indeed be burning 27 units a day, (It's funny how kids think that switches only have an 'ON' function - maybe it's time to split the bills 8 ways!), but it's not unknown for even new houses to have wiring faults and if you can'tget the use down by 'educating' the family, I would suggest getting a local electricain in to test the wiring
Best of Luck

macman

I'd first do the basic checks to ensure your meter is connected correctly and that EDF are not cross billing you. Switch the power off at the main switch on the CU and then ensure that the meter is not moving (and that it does move when you switch it back on). Then check that the MPAN no. on the meter is the same as the MPAN number on your bill (it's the 21 digit no.)
This is unlikely, but nevertheless quite a few incidences of this reported on this board, though usually with flats.
With £500 debt you can't switch suppliers, but you can switch tariff-are you on the best EDF option for your pattern of usage?

mum26

macman wrote: »

I'd first do the basic checks to ensure your meter is connected correctly and that EDF are not cross billing you. Switch the power off at the main switch on the CU and then ensure that the meter is not moving (and that it does move when you switch it back on). Then check that the MPAN no. on the meter is the same as the MPAN number on your bill (it's the 21 digit no.)
This is unlikely, but nevertheless quite a few incidences of this reported on this board, though usually with flats.
With £500 debt you can't switch suppliers, but you can switch tariff-are you on the best EDF option for your pattern of usage?

Hi, where can I find the MPAN number on my bill please? I can only find my meter number and account number? Is it the long number with a bar code under it at the bottom of the page do you think?