your daily elec usage?

picardygirl

Thanks Keith for you advice, we have used 18kw in the last 24 hour period! But we have all been home and washing machine been on 3 times! Purposely not used tumble !

We do have a monster American fridge and our oven is electric ...... Am just off to the shops to buy an "owl" hopefully will be £20 well spent.

We are going to read meter again next Saturday lunchtime to see what our average weekly spend is !! Thanks again for all advise, much appreciated

itzmee

We are a family of 4 and use between 17-20 units per day, depending on time of year but our gas usage is very low as we only have the combi boiler for water/heating.

victor2

picardygirl, don't worry about the earlier comment regarding imperial/metric meters, it only applies to gas.
The Owl monitor might help pin down what is using electricity. We too have an old American fridge/freezer monster and it doesn't account for the amount of electricity you seem to be using, unless it's faulty of course.
If you don't get an Owl, just read your electric meter daily at about the same time, and look for significant changes. Worth doing that anyway actually.
We are 3 in a house with electric shower and oven, and use an average of just over 11kWh per day. Slightly higher in winter, but doesn't vary that much. Modern TVs use next to nothing in standby and if you have energy efficient lighting, that doesn't use an awful lot.
Worth seeing what your usage is with the house inactive - do it over a period of a few hours if you can, to allow the fridge to cycle on and off a few times.

picardygirl

Do tv's on standby not use the same electricity as if it were on??? Thats was our electricity supplier has told us ..... hence we've made sure everything goes off from the plug ....

I know it sounds a bit extreme saying taken the bulb out of DD's lamp, but seriously she doesnt ever turn it off ...... ever! Its an ongoing battle!

Im sure our house must look like blackpool illuminations from outside, the kids go upstairs turn every light on, and their tv's and then come back downstairs .... so needs sorting!

Tried to get an owl today, or similar monitor and couldnt find one in local high street, so will monitor daily ourselves by reading the meter and see how we get on !

victor2

picardygirl wrote: »

Do tv's on standby not use the same electricity as if it were on??? Thats was our electricity supplier has told us ..... hence we've made sure everything goes off from the plug ....

I know it sounds a bit extreme saying taken the bulb out of DD's lamp, but seriously she doesnt ever turn it off ...... ever! Its an ongoing battle!

Im sure our house must look like blackpool illuminations from outside, the kids go upstairs turn every light on, and their tv's and then come back downstairs .... so needs sorting!

Tried to get an owl today, or similar monitor and couldnt find one in local high street, so will monitor daily ourselves by reading the meter and see how we get on !

TVs don't use anything like the same amount of electricity when on or in standby. Modern ones usually use less than 1 watt in standby.

Replace your kids' light bulbs with low energy ones if you haven't already. That way, it's only a few watts each when they leave them on.

TVs are a bit tougher. My OH is forever leaving the TV on in a room entertaining itself. Drives me nuts, but I haven't found an answer to that!

Some libraries lend out energy monitors, might be worth enquiring if yours does. You'd only need one for a week or two really.

picardygirl

OH bought an energy tracker yesterday (in clearance at b & q for £2.50 ), have tried it on appliances today ..... tv uses amazing amounts of power when on, but hardly when on stand by ...... never leave main tv on standby its just the ones in the bedrooms ......!

Tested american fridge/freezer too, not that bad ...... we just have to all learn to be more conscious generally i think !

Cant really tell this til we see average weekly consumption is so watch this space, will read meter next saturday and report weekly consumption with changes in place

victor2

With the usage you reported, check your meter daily and see if there's a day where the usage leaps up or it's consistently in the 30kWh per day range.

If the energy tracker your OH got is one which plugs into a single socket (which I would guess it is), but can report total usage over a period of time, then it's worth running your fridge through it for something like 24 hours. Ours has an anti-frost device in it, which consists of a heating element in the back of the freezer. It only runs about once every 10 hours, but does use more power than the compressor - still not a huge amount though.

We seem to have hiacked this thread slightly, apologies to the OP!

good_advice

picardy girl, every one is interested in helping you. Keep talking.
Glad you did not put the dryer on today. It was a good day to line dry.
Have you got the heating on? Ours will be off for a bit longer.

picardygirl

victor2 wrote: »

With the usage you reported, check your meter daily and see if there's a day where the usage leaps up or it's consistently in the 30kWh per day range.

If the energy tracker your OH got is one which plugs into a single socket (which I would guess it is), but can report total usage over a period of time, then it's worth running your fridge through it for something like 24 hours. Ours has an anti-frost device in it, which consists of a heating element in the back of the freezer. It only runs about once every 10 hours, but does use more power than the compressor - still not a huge amount though.

We seem to have hiacked this thread slightly, apologies to the OP!

Yes it is a single socket one, we were amazed at how much just the tv uses when on!! So tonight, whilst we were all eating dinner in the kitchen (with the tv on ), we turned off the tv in the living room, never ever do that so thats a big change already.

I know re hijacking, have already apologised earlier in thread to OP, wasnt on purpose but am very grateful for all the help everybody is suggesting

Good advice, we had rain forecast today and because i was out for a few hours, the washing went on the airer inside today, instead of tumble dryer so thats not been on .... and going to use that strictly for towels and emergency drying this winter (must admit have been quite slap dash with how much i use it during the winter). We have got our central heating (combi boiler) on occasionally at the moment, mainly in the morning just to keep the chill off when we are all up early getting ready for work etc.

Dont seem to have problems with gas bill, we love a blanket on the sofa during the evening . Energy company told me yesterday average yearly gas consumption is 4000 kw and we used 4800 kw last year so not doing too bad there, so if i can be as strict with electricity as am with gas should be fine (i hope )

keith1950

Energy company told me yesterday average yearly gas consumption is 4000 kw and we used 4800 kw last year so not doing too bad there, so if i can be as strict with electricity as am with gas should be fine (i hope )

Hi, average gas figures have been slowly reducing as more and more people slowly switch from old fashioned boilers to newer combi/condensing boilers, however the average annual gas useage figure is still in the region of 15,000kwh /year, so if you are using only 4,800kwh per year you are doing very well. Could it be that they actually said 14,000 ??