Ridiculous electricity usage

spinningsheep

Hi folks, I am really at my wits end to work this out, our electricity usage seems to be higher than ever, no changes to circumstances or any new appliances. My latest readings show that between 14th march and today (15th april) we have used 823kwh costing approx £92.50, and this equates to 25.7kwh per day or £2.89. With gas central heating as well this to me seems madness. I have a lodger who uses an electric fan heater in her room (shes always nesh) but this is a max of about 3 hrs per day, some days not at all and she leaves soon, so that will be knocked on the head soon. No immersion heaters, we use the oven for about an hour a day, thats electric, and the tumble dryer for about 3 hrs a week. There are other electrical appliances like TV, PC etc but thats just the "normal" day to day stuff that other people who have way lower bills than us seem to pay. I do have a theory though.. we have 2 small chest freezers and they seem to be "on" an awful lot ie the compressor running. Could this impact it much? I have no idea how much power the average freezer consumes?

chanz4

freezers and fan heaters spring out to me

spinningsheep

so the freezers do use alot? I know the heater uses power but until she leaves at the end of may i cannot do anything about that

McKneff

Buy a clothes horse and cut down on the tumble dryer. They eat electricity.

Do you really need 2 freezers, are they both full.

spinningsheep

Hi mckneff, yes the freezers are both full, one mine,one my housemate's, as we do try to take full advantage of all the whoopsie offers we see at the local co-op. The dryer to be fair is not me, the lodger is worst culprit, so as much as she's lovely, I will be relieved when she has moved out as I can see our usage of gas and electric dropping by a huge amount. But the freezers, how much power can they be eating?

victor2

The fan heater sounds the most likely culprit. Freezers don't particularly use a lot, but if one has developed a fault perhaps it could be - although it presumably hasn't turned itself into an ice brick.

Best way to check individual appliances (so long as they have a plug on them) is with something like this.
Alternatively, take a meter reading at the same time each day for a few days or weeks and see when you get high usage. If you have an electric shower and your lodger has taken to spending excessive time in that, it can rack up the usage!

anguk

A new efficient freezer wouldn't cost more than £1 a week to run, older inefficient appliances use more but the only way to know how much electricity your freezers are using is to use a plug-in monitor.

The two things that jump out at me are the tumbler and the fan heater, I'd guess they are using far more electricity than the freezers. If there's nothing you can do about the fan heater try not using your tumbler for a while and see if that makes a difference.

spinningsheep

thanks victor2, forgot to say our showers are electric too, and although one of the freezers is in need of defrosting, it's certainly not solid with ice....yet lol. Will be job for when I have run it down a wee bit.

lithopsian

Tumble driers, 20p-50p per load. Adds up if you use them regularly, otherwise not a big deal.

Fan heaters, 10p-30p per hour, can really add up fast.

Ovens are also massive users, that's why they have special supplies with heavy-duty sockets and switches. Could easily use 50p or more in an hour, but most likely less if it heats up and then just maintains a temperature. If you're forever opening it up and fiddling with stuff inside then you'll use a lot of electricity but at least your kitchen will be warm
Freezers I wouldn't panic about unless there is something seriously wrong with them. If they're half empty, load everything into one and shut the other off. If they're full then try not to open them too often.

Better than us all guessing, go out and see what is driving the meter. Measure it when you feel just regular stuff is running and see if it is way short of your daily use. Measure before and after doing things like a tumble dry or roasting a turkey to see what that is using. And try to get a better idea of how much that fan heater is being used. You'd probably be better off running the central heating more, with TRVs turned lower in the rest of the house.