your daily elec usage?

good_advice

picardy girl - how are you reducing electric today.

Here is some of my examples, it might help?
Turned light off microwave as someone left it on this morning.
switched DD's standby tv off at plug.
Plenty of washing going on line as usual.
NO HEATING ON
meal planning around the slow cooker.

Have a nice day.

martinsurrey

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Are your showers electric power showers? (they are if the boiler does not fire when you use them).

If they are they will be a huge part of your electricity usage, a 10-13KW is not uncommon.

if 2 teenagers have 20min showers each and 2 adults have 15mins each that’s 14KWh of electricity, or 33% of your daily usage.

Limiting everyone to a 10 min shower would save a fortune...

victor2

picardygirl wrote: »

I have no idea, what the cost should be, but the payments on our account have been £44 for gas and £111 for electricity but the electricity was in debit not the gas, thats what i was told anyhow! Just had direct debit increased to account for increase in electricity and was told gas was on track ...... but instead of having direct debit increased, made a lump sum payment to clear the deficit and have kept direct debits the same!

You know what your annual usage in kWh has been. Put that into a comparison site, along with your current tariff details. The site will then tell you what your current cost should be (as well as alternatives). If you are paying 1/12 of that annual cost then you should cover your usage cost over a year.

Boxman

Stompa wrote: »

FWIW on my current tariff it would be £702 (gas) & £1212 (electricity).

Aw shoot - when I entered the electricity consumption into my spread sheet I forgot that I am on Economy 7 so £1,500 is too high. Recalculating with the correct tariff gives £1,255 or £105 pm. So the total you should be looking to pay comes down to about £162 pm.

Sorry.

good_advice

We have a power shower and no one stands under for 20 minutes. 10 at the most!
I like my radox bath in the evening, but do not have a big full bath of water. You have to consider others want the bathroom here.

picardygirl

good_advice wrote: »

picardy girl - how are you reducing electric today.

Here is some of my examples, it might help?
Turned light off microwave as someone left it on this morning.
switched DD's standby tv off at plug.
Plenty of washing going on line as usual.
NO HEATING ON
meal planning around the slow cooker.

Have a nice day.

Well day two of no tumber dryer, havent been able to put on washing line as rain was forecast so it all went on the airer instead

But DS left his TV and light on again all night, even though we turned the light off as we went to bed !! But he never put TV on timer, i know it then goes on standby but better than being on all night. So had a good moan this morning!

Our TV in our bedroom is an old one, with a huge back on it and weighs a ton (more like an antique than a TV,:rotfl: its 18 years old but still works brilliantly and is in a tv purpose built wardrobe so doesnt look awful) so probably not as good to keep on standby as the new flat screen ones, so OH has put a timer on the switch to turn it off at midnight every night, then come back on at 6.30 for an hour or so, we like our TV, shocking we have 6 tvs in our house

Massive change I'VE made, and can only blame myself, is i leave living room tv on, kitchen tv on, whilst getting ready upstairs with the tv on .... so two tvs are talking to themselves, so they are going off all the time now! Total waste of electricity!

No electric shower its all from combi boiler, thankfully!!

Pasta for dinner so all cooked on gas hob so no lecky being used there

Only 15kw used in the last 24 hours so getting better by the day BUT today, i spent an hour ironing and have a steam generator iron so that probably used a lot there, then i mopped my kitchen floor and its a steam mop ..... not doing very well today. When i write it down and think about it not surprised my electricity bill is sky high !!

picardygirl

Boxman wrote: »

Aw shoot - when I entered the electricity consumption into my spread sheet I forgot that I am on Economy 7 so £1,500 is too high. Recalculating with the correct tariff gives £1,255 or £105 pm. So the total you should be looking to pay comes down to about £162 pm.

Sorry.

Im going to have a look on my account with energy company to see how much our tariff is but we have been paying £155 for the last year (£44 gas and £111 electricity) but they wanted to put my payments up to £208 due to electricity consumption, so we paid £208 on 1 October and made a lump sum payment of £50, as advised by them to them reduce my direct debit back down to £155, so hopefully thje account is no longer in arrears and with effort of being careful with tvs and lights on and not wasting electricity, because that is what we have we doing, we should be on track again and fingers crossed even have a reduction. We are on a fixed rate so that cannot be changed til April 2013.

picardygirl

victor2 wrote: »

You know what your annual usage in kWh has been. Put that into a comparison site, along with your current tariff details. The site will then tell you what your current cost should be (as well as alternatives). If you are paying 1/12 of that annual cost then you should cover your usage cost over a year.

Have done that, and it says we should be paying £164 per month, but we are (have been) paying £155, which is why they put us to £208, to catch up, but as already said previously have sorted to reduce direct debit.

Interestingly, we could only save £21 per year by moving to another company, first utility, which i've never heard off! But it would cost me £30 to get out of fixed deal that i'm in !

victor2

picardygirl wrote: »

Have done that, and it says we should be paying £164 per month, but we are (have been) paying £155, which is why they put us to £208, to catch up, but as already said previously have sorted to reduce direct debit.

Interestingly, we could only save £21 per year by moving to another company, first utility, which i've never heard off! But it would cost me £30 to get out of fixed deal that i'm in !

So it sounds like you're not on too bad a deal then. Wouldn't rush to move if you're fixed until next April - at least that means you're fixed through the coming winter.
Concentrating more on reducing usage sounds like the best approach to save money, and you're already making inroads into that. Don't become an anorak with your power monitor, but it's good to see what uses the most electricity and therefore costs a lot to run!

Might even be worth investing in a new TV to replace the 18 year old monster, which presumably also has a Freeview receiver attached, also using power. A modern TV will have Freeview built in and is almost certain to use less electricity, both when on and in standby. Would probably take a long time to pay for itself, if it ever does, but will reduce your ongoing costs - and save space!

picardygirl

Victor2, are you reading my mind ?:D Im defo being a complete anorak this week, but i'll soon get fed up with reading the electricity meter every morning and making notes of how much electricity we are using daily ;)

We have been on a go fix deal since 2010, am always trying to getting deals with everything, not just energy companies, and seems to be working well for us to be on a fixed deal!

We've often contemplated replacing the tv in our bedroom, but always have said why waste money when it works perfectly and because its not an eyesore (in the cupboard) never bothered us, yes, we have a freeview box in there too, so yes that is using power too ... and was on standby ALL THE TIME except when it was actually on! Never thought that it could use more electricity, but your right its about time the old thing went to the tip Might wait til just after xmas to replace it, might get more of a bargain!