How much electricity is normal?

Eridani

Hi all, I was wondering if you knew how much electricity usage is considered normal?

We have just got one of those energy meter things from British Gas and it seems we are using just short of £5 a day. We are a family of 6 (2 adults 3 kids) living in a 3 story 4 bed terraced house.

£5 a day worries me, since it equates to £150 a month electricity - we do all the usual things, such as power saving bulbs, only boiling "just" enough water - but getting the kids to turn off lights and computers is an ongoing battle.

How much do you use and do you have any tips to reduce usage?

penrhyn

First off don't believe what the monitor is telling you, its only a guide and a fairly inaccurate one at that. Mine for example reads about 20% high.
Second, always quote Kwh in these discussions, we have no idea what you are paying for yours. Did you input the appropriate rate into your monitor.
Third, compare your daily Kwh reading on the monitor with your electricity meter.
.........................and keep telling the kids to turn stuff off!!

PS The average UK electricity consumption with gas CH is around 5000Kwh/annum

maddipops

In my experience (of working in the industry) I would say 10-25 kwh is average per day, based on a 3 bed semi 4 people.

eg I use 25kwh in the winter per day, lights on longer, in the house more. in the summer or rest of year I may use about 17-20

I have a load of electrical stuff though, surround sound system x 2, big LCD tv's x 3, big fridge freezer, xboxes, ps3's etc. so I would probably be on the higher end of average.

your typical fridge freezer will use 3kwh on its own a day, then factor in how many times you use the washing machine, TD etc....

the eon energy saving monitor i find to be accurate and has really helped me to monitor my usage.

if you were using £5 a day of elec you would probably be using about 55 kwh!! so I doubt you are unless you are running electric heaters to supplement the gas CH.

james2012_2

There is only 2 of us in all day (retired) in a 3 bed semi (want to buy it?) and we use between 10 and 13 kWh a day. That does not include heating or hot water.

I suppose we could use less but we can afford it so not really bothered.

Eridani

Ah right I need to work on that

husband set it up in accordance with the tarrif we were on with british gas - so it must be accurate. I'll work out what the KWH is overnight. We have a lot of electrical stuff, 4 pcs, 2 large lcds, washer, drier, dishwasher. tropical fish....

Eridani

Hi, we have checked this, according to our british gas web account its 16p per KWH

penrhyn

Are you sure that 16p is not just for your tier 1 units, your tier 2 units should be much cheaper say 8p or so.

You need to get an old bill and divide amount paid by the units used to get the average cost.

savemoney

Since 2/2/2010 this is our daily usage 4 adults with several computers and tv going at night


(feb 2010)14.6 14.1 12.6 12.6 11.6 12.5 14.4 13.9 15.4 15.3 16.3 16.1 14.7 (feb 2011)

maddipops

you are supposed to set your secondary unit price into the eon monitor, as this is where most of the usage will be. It will likely be the same with your BG monitor.

You have set it up wrong! So your £5 a day will pretty much be cut in half.

HappyMJ

penrhyn wrote: »

PS The average UK electricity consumption with gas CH is around 5000Kwh/annum

How much? I use electric heating in winter and my annual usage is much less than this. I thought a family with GCH would use around 3300kwh/annum or about 9kwh per day.

jackieb

I've just had a look online at my account and it says the average for our area is 1508kWh for 3 months for a 4 bedroomed house. In comparison it says we've used 3500kWh! I've always paid by direct debit, and it's dropped from £102 a month to £94. We're a household of 5.