Why am I using so much KWH of electricity ?

BirnamBear

Anyone advise.I have had 3 different companies out giving me quotes for solar panels.They all estimated that I was using between 6.5k to 7.5k annually of KWH of electricity for the size of my house.
I'm using 11,500 kwh annually which is about 32kwh a day.

Both work and kids at school during the day.

Any thoughts please ?

new2012

How do you heat your water and home?

lifes-too-short

Hi Bear, do you know exactly what you are using per day? I would take daily meter readings but most of all turn off all your appliances and see if the meter is still running!! Big power consumption items are Tumble dryer, electric cooker, electric oven, electric shower, electric heating.

If you have some of the above think for a minute on how you are using them, do you let the shower run for 25mins before getting in, leave the oven on for an hour too heat up, is your heating on all night, I apologise if i sound condescending.

Cardew

Firstly, what sort of solar panels? Thermal for hot water or PV for electricity generation?

Secondly why are solar panel firms attempting to estimate your annual electricity consumption?

11,000kWh electricity pa is very high if you use gas/oil/solid fuel for heating and hot water.

However it is low if you have electric heating.

Be very very wary of solar salesmen these days. There are some real cowboys about.

If it is solar thermal panels, they are a waste of money!

BirnamBear

new2012 wrote: »

How do you heat your water and home?

Have gas central heating and I have energy saving bulbs installed all over the house.

Have wondered about a fridge freezer in the garage which is only used for storing wine.The freezer part is not used at all.

In our en suite we have electric under floor heating on a timer which I only have on in the winter for a few months.

It is a six bedroom house but it still seems a lot of energy that I'm using.

spiro

Is the 11,500 kwh off your annual statement and is it based on actual readings not estimates? The national average is 3,399kwh.

As others have said, read the meter every day to see if varies by day.

Running a freezer empty is not a good idea, fill it with cheap bread.

Cardew

BirnamBear wrote: »

Have gas central heating and I have energy saving bulbs installed all over the house.

Have wondered about a fridge freezer in the garage which is only used for storing wine.The freezer part is not used at all.

In our en suite we have electric under floor heating on a timer which I only have on in the winter for a few months.

It is a six bedroom house but it still seems a lot of energy that I'm using.

If you don't heat with electricity, then size of house is not a major factor.

I suspect the electric underfloor heating in bathroom is the major culprit

macman

BirnamBear wrote: »

Have gas central heating and I have energy saving bulbs installed all over the house.

Have wondered about a fridge freezer in the garage which is only used for storing wine.The freezer part is not used at all.

In our en suite we have electric under floor heating on a timer which I only have on in the winter for a few months.

It is a six bedroom house but it still seems a lot of energy that I'm using.

Your consumption is very high- about 2.5 times what might be expected. But for how many hours a day? Is it running 24/7 in the winter? What is the rating of this system?
Do you have a back up immersion heater that has been left on 24/7?

BirnamBear

macman wrote: »

Your consumption is very high- about 2.5 times what might be expected. But for how many hours a day? Is it running 24/7 in the winter? What is the rating of this system?
Do you have a back up immersion heater that has been left on 24/7?

No.It is only running for two hours in the morning and 4 hours at night over the autumn/winter.Not sure what the rating is though.
I also have a fridge freezer in the garage which I solely use for beer/wine storage and the freezer part is empty.Have switched that off completely today and will see if I am still using 30kwh a day.

BirnamBear

spiro wrote: »

Is the 11,500 kwh off your annual statement and is it based on actual readings not estimates? The national average is 3,399kwh.

As others have said, read the meter every day to see if varies by day.

Running a freezer empty is not a good idea, fill it with cheap bread.

Yes.Off the annual statement .EON must love me .I read the meter on average every month
12/2/11 10039
2/4/11 12115
29/4/11 12789
3/7/11 14399
29/7/11 14427
24/9/11 15308
28/10/1115967
17/1/12 19784
24/2/12 21265
25/2/12 21288
28/2/12 21391
29/2/12 21423
1/3/12 21453
2/3/12 21485

Will see if my daily average of 30kwh a day drops now that the wine/beer fridge /freezer(with nothing in the freezer ) is switched off temporarily.

macman

Log your meter reading. Switch off the u/f heating and take another reading 24 hours later. Switch it on again and repeat.
Not totally accurate (as it will depend on other consumption), but it should give you some idea of how many kWh the heating is accounting for.
You can also analyse those 14 figures above seasonally to see if the consumption falls in the months when the u/f heating is off.
What about your immersion heater?
If it's not these two, then something is drastically wrong and you need to investigate urgently. You are spending around £1,500pa just on electricity alone! That's more than the average bill for dual fuel.
Why not just buy a cheap fridge for the drinks?