My KWh for Elec and Gas - What do you think?

cumbriansaver

Hmm, some interesting figures there.

Cardew/Expresso -I agree that the figures appear low for Gas but I've rechecked and added up all the Kwh from my bills covering the last 12 months and it's still the same.

I think the high elec usage must be down to the dryer (as pointed out by Dovemeister) and the 10kw Shower which does get used alot.

Not alot I can do about the dryer as stopping the household females from having a fast turnover of clothes is about as pointless as King Canutes' historical attempts (have to buy a more effciant dryer next time...)

I think I'll swap the shower out and install a thermostatic mixer that can run from the combi.

We do use the combi for heating but admittedly did crack the whip last winter and insist on lower use of it as we have 2 multifuel stoves that we all put the effort in to keep ticking over.

Obviously we are doing very well with our gas use but something somewhere is chewing up the Elec kwh. I'll work out the watts etc for the dryer and shower.

Ken68 - thanks for voting. The reason the poll looks a little odd parameter wise is that I only had my figures to go on - in retrospect I would have extended the range down for Elec and up for Gas but I had no idea what others were using, mainly the reason for this thread/poll.

Thanks to all for the info - it's very hard to make informed choices with limited info and I hope this thread assists others in reinging in those runaway bills.

Keep voting!

espresso

Gas - Over 10000

cumbriansaver wrote:

If anyone knows of a site that lists all current pence per kwh for all power companies rather than the comparison sites - this would be useful...

This online calculator effectively lists the various different prices around the regions.

This online gas meter reading conversion to kWh may help you check your figures.

:cool:

Ken68

Gas - Over 10000

Can well understand your dryer use, Cumbria.
Have spent many a wet holiday in your area.

bunking_off

Gas - Over 10000

Our electricity is 8500KWH, but then again we do have two of us working from home...

cumbriansaver

OK - rechecked the figures, I printed off the bills instead of writing them down from the online account. I did make a mistake as Powergen changed the format of the bill partway through my bills...my fault for not looking properly. Unfortunately doesn't change much. Figures below.


Elec kwh Gas kwh

Sept - Nov 2005 3294 2809
Dec - Feb 2006 1792 1947
Mar - May 2006 2861 2714
Jun - Aug 2006 1607 1616

Totals 9554 9086

So, still appear to be using 2-3 times as much elec as most others and ½ as much gas…

All feedback, votes and comments appreciated.

Cardew

Just a thought - are those actual readings or estimated?

I'll work out the watts etc for the dryer and shower.

The difficulty with trying to calculate consumption of many devices is that they are on a thermostat. Without a cumulative power measuring meter it is impossible to know how much power it has consumed.

e.g my washing machine rated at 3kw takes 1.5 hours for a full cycle. However average wash cycles consume 0.6 to 0.9 kWh instead of the 4.5kWh a simplistic calculation would indicate.

cumbriansaver

OK, I see how that would happen. Would that be true of heaters and fans etc, i.e. those devices that you would assume use a constant level of power?

cumbriansaver

Sorry Cardew missed the first Q.

Some (the earlier ones) are 'E' estimated and most are 'A' for Actual.

Cardew

cumbriansaver wrote:

OK, I see how that would happen. Would that be true of heaters and fans etc, i.e. those devices that you would assume use a constant level of power?

Depends on the type of heater. I have a fan heater that has a thermostat so the heater(but not the fan) cuts in and out when the set temperature is reached.

Let us take your fridge or fridge/freezer. When the compressor is running it consumes quite a lot of power, say 300 watts. If it was running 24/7 it would use 2,628kWh. However the $64,000 question is how long is it running for. Many things affect that, where it is situated, insulation properties( A, B C) whats in it, how often opened etc. A modern freezer might use 300kWh per year, but another, especially with a faulty seal, might use several times that.

bunking_off

Gas - Over 10000

I guess the one question I'd ask, given your energy consumption figures, is whether you have an immersion heater that may have been erroneously left on. I'm a bit suspicious that your electricity figures are high (though not ridiculously so...as I say mine are not far off that!), but your gas figures are very low. It even crossed my mind that you'd read the meter readings as being KWh directly rather than therms (factor of 11 between the two?), but if you had, your gas consumption really would be outrageously high so it can't be that. If you had an immersion heater turned on, then your hot water would be heated by electricity & your gas boiler would hardly be triggering : might explain the numbers.

Looking through your original post again, however, I think the elements of "19 and 21 year olds" and "10kw shower" probably explain it. If they each take a 20 minute shower a day, that's nearly 2500KWh/yr electricity gone before you start on anything else... (NB this assumes that the shower pulls full power rather than cycling, but I think by nature of the beast showers do actually behave like that).