What is average

Networkguy

molerat wrote: »

Take meter readings daily and see if there are any high / low days and try to assosciate that with what you are doing. Switch everything in the house off and see if the meter still clocks up, try it at different times of the day. Have you got an immersion heater in the water tank and are you sure it is not switched on by a hidden timer, an hour of gas seems very quick to heat a tank of water enough to keep it hot all day. My 4000 usage includes heating the water for a few summer months.

I am sure it's not the immersion heater because if I have a shower and then my wife has one of her 30 minute showers :mad: the water does not reheat itself and I have to put the hot water back on. If the immersion heater was on then we would not need to do this.

So now I know it is indeed high, I just need to work out where in the house it is going. There are a few obvious things such as the TV, tumble dryer, 5 x 10 gang sockets in my office and so on (yes I really just said that. feel free to slap me) so I just need to work through them one by one and address as I find.

Looking around, the difference between 4000 units and 8000 units per annum looks to cost around £400 per annum (obviously this will vary supplier to supplier) so there is some cash to save here but not huge amounts so lets see how things go.

Thanks

albyota

networkguy, I run my house totally on electric, heating, hot water (by air to water heat pump), cooking, tellys, computers, hairdryers, fridge, freezer,everything.....family of four, and in one year I have used

Annual Cost to date 2009
from Jan 1st to 31st Dec
Total units used to date this year 9575
Avg pence per kWh 0.091
Cost so far this year £871.33

do you run computer servers 24/7?, what about external halogen lights?

Networkguy

albyota wrote: »

networkguy, I run my house totally on electric, heating, hot water (by air to water heat pump), cooking, tellys, computers, hairdryers, fridge, freezer,everything.....family of four, and in one year I have used

Annual Cost to date 2009
from Jan 1st to 31st Dec
Total units used to date this year 9575
Avg pence per kWh 0.091
Cost so far this year £871.33

do you run computer servers 24/7?, what about external halogen lights?

Some PCs in my office are certainly running 24x7 however a lot of the plugs are power bricks for peripherals, chargers and so on. It is these I intend to target first. There is some stuff I simply don't want to switch off as it is performing a certain task that needs to run 24x7 (e.g. CCTV and security) but I am thinking there must be some stuff I can kill. For example my work laptop gets turned off at night but all the connected thing such as printers, monitors, docking stations etc are just left on standby. Again here is something I can address.

The only halogen lights outside are on PIR sensors (indeed I just fitted new ones this afternoon) and they are set to go off again after 30 seconds.

So I have ordered an energy monitor and am about to order a plug in monitor so I am guessing next weekend will be spent going around the house testing stuff.

My target based on 4000 kWh to 5000 kWh being the average is to try and drop 2000 kWh per annum off my usage which in turn will give around a £200 per year saving. On this basis of course I need to make sure I don't end up spending £250 on energy saving devices such as standby savers etc :-)

Thanks

albyota

good luck with it ...but don't get paranoid, if, what you are using the electric for needs to be used... so be it....sometimes switching stuff on and off may, in time, cause early breakdown and therefore cost more money to repair than the savings made etc...

kippen_noedel

Networkguy wrote: »

As in previous posts, for the last 3.5 years I have been trying to get somebody to own up to being my electricity supplier. Well at last E.ON have stepped up to the mark and moving forward have agreed to actually start billing me.

So it would have been nice if I didn't still have to pay but I can't really complain after they have just written off the best part of £3000 :T

So now I have to pay for this stuff I am doing the usual price checking and so on but when I look at what my consumption looks like, compared to what I am seeing on here, it seems high.

But it is looking like my annual electricity consumption is around 8000 KWH which is sounding high.

My own usage is 7500kwh el & 48000kwh gas, both of which are much higher than average but proportionate for the size of property. about 2500 directly associated with computers and around another 1000 for external security lighting.

so I congratulate you on your low gas usage

now for my real question, you say E-ON have written off £3000, are you aware they should not be back billing for more than one year ?? Is the £3000 a fair amount given those circumstances ?

Networkguy

kippen_noedel wrote: »

now for my real question, you say E-ON have written off £3000, are you aware they should not be back billing for more than one year ?? Is the £3000 a fair amount given those circumstances ?

Yes

E.ON first of all tried to back bill me to May 2006 until I pointed out that they could not back bill more than 12 months as you say. This brought the bill down to just over £800.

We then had further negotiations to ensure I was not out of pocket in other ways due to their lack of billing and for the effort I had invested trying to sort out the lack of billing. This got us closer to £230 which felt fair.

My usage calculation however is not based on the bill sent. It is based on my own real meter readings so I am happy that the 8000kWh figure is accurate.

Was the £3k bill accurate?

To be fair, I did not look at it that hard as I knew it was irrelevant.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Networkguy wrote: »

Yes

My usage calculation however is not based on the bill sent. It is based on my own real meter readings so I am happy that the 8000kWh figure is accurate.

To be fair, I did not look at it that hard as I knew it was irrelevant.

Hi Networkguy,

Were the start readings on the bill the same as the readings you took when you moved in?

Quite rightly you have not had to pay the whole bill, but this should show the reads E.ON have used over the 3.5 years.

It sounds like you already have made many energy saving changes to your home, this is excellent :T.

You can also check out the interactive house on the E.ON website, there is also some info on 100 ways to save energy in the home.

Hope this helps.

Helena

rhiwfield

I'd say 8000kwh is pretty high and above average.

An energy monitor + regular meter reads will soon show the component parts of your usage. Its then up to you whether you want to reduce or accept that usage. Having gone thru that process we've found that where efficiencies dont materially impact on lifestyle thats fine. But we draw the line when it does impact, so we still use a tumble dryer but line dry clothes where possible.

We've just bought a new flat screen but kept size to 32" so that in use its 70W and 1/3rd watt on standby. Larger flat screens can be very power hungry, especially if linked to surround sound and all the peripherals.

The best way perhaps to look at this is to check daily usage. 22 kwh a day gives 8000 kwh pa so you'll be wanting to get down to say 12-13kwh a day. It will be slightly seasonal so if you could cut down to say 16 kwh now you'd be on your way.

Good luck!

Networkguy

Well a quick check with my plug in power meter has proven what I suspected.

My home office and all the kit in it is sucking up 5000kWh per year on it's own!!!

Which means the rest of my home is only using 3200kWh.

So if it wasn't for the fact I am a tech freak with far too much kit, my energy usage would be very impressive indeed.

And as others have said, it's surprising just how much some stuff uses on standby.

My 50" plasma screen uses NOTHING when on standby (or at least not enough to measure) yet my Sky box seems to draw 50W when doing nothing (although you can hear the HDD spinning around in there)

I have found that my new 22" monitor for example uses twice the power as the old 22" monitor I bought on clearance costing half the price.

And finally, my 7W energy saving light bulbs in my desk lamps really do only use 7W

So I don't think I can do much with the 3200kWh the rest of the family uses but I think I need to do something if only for the sake of the polar bears :A

Thanks everybody.

Kwins

Does anyone know the average running time of these units per day?

We have had a huge bill from Eon, so we have been taking daily readings. Our average useage is around 120 units per day, we are a family of 4 and live in a 4 bedroom cottage, no luxuries like pools, hot tubs etc.
After a long discussion with a very helpful lady at Eon, we worked out that our household appliances and everyday items uses 38 units a day, not including the heat pump.

Any ideas??