Help me reduce my electricity consumption

shortdog

My electric consumption is rather high, and I'm hoping to get help to reduce it somewhat, if possible. I've gone through everything I can, but maybe some fresh eyes will help!
We are on a prepayment meter, due to having a massive debt to NPower (as I was underpaying substantially, they were sending estimated bills, and, when everything caught up, we were £2000 in debt.) The debt is being paid off at £3 a week:rotfl: might take a while to pay back like that, but I'm not overly worried about it (interest free loan really!)

We pay 15p a unit, flat rate day and night.

Our house is a 3-bed, 350-year-old house, 6-foot thick walls with outer skins of brick, and cavitys filled with rubble (as they did in those days, apparantly). Loft is insulated, and the house passed new-build specifications for insulation two years ago after a change of use from business to residential. There are 4 of us in the house (2 adults, 2 kids).

We have no gas, so all electric. Heating is electric central heating (6kwh boiler:eek:), thermostatically controlled, thermostat set at 16 during the day, and 10 at night, currently being switched on for a couple of hours in the morning, then off for the rest of the day. Hot water is a well insulated tank, set at 60, on all the time (after an experiment earlier in the year, cheaper to keep it on all the time than switch on and off when hot water is needed) - the shower comes from the tank.

We have a dishwasher (rated A), washing machine (A rated) and tumble dryer (not sure). Due to my sons health, I can't have wet washing hung all over the house - we have indoor lines in the utility, but they only hold just over a load of towels, which tends to be what I use it for, so the tumble dryer gets used for most washing at this time of year - about 10 loads a week in total.

All lights are energy saving bulbs, apart from the bathroom and front room (which are both halogen spotlights), front room lights never used, as we have lamps that we use instead.

Other than that, we run a tropical fish tank, and a tank for the terrapins. The kids are pretty good at switching lights, TVs etc off most of the time.

Not sure what else to say, but if anyone can point anything out (or suggest anything I haven't already thought of I would be very grateful) - our prepayment meter is currently taking about £50 a week, and I'm dreading the really cold weather coming in:(.

Thanks in advance for any help.:)

macman

How did you manage to negotiate a 12 year payback on a debt of £2000?
What is your actual annual kWh usage-your weekly spend doesn't tell us anything about actual usage.
It is certainly not cheaper to keep your hot water tank on 24/7 (once hot, it will stay like that for hours if properly laggeed), and it should not be necessary to run the CH overnight, (though if set at 10C then it's not going to be kicking in very often anyway.
I'd start by getting off a very expensive PPM tariff onto a credit meter, but given your substantial debt, that may not be possible.
Unfortunately you've chosen one of the most expensive heating options possible.

[Deleted User]

only fill kettle as much as needed i.e not full for one mug of tea,can you reduce your washing from 10 to 8 a week?

Herongull

15p a kwh is very expensive - can you do anything about the tarrif? If you got a loan from the bank to clear the debt, would they let you move onto a cheaper tarrif? It is not really interest free if the debt keeps you on a high tarrif.

Can you use any other heating besides electricity? Gas? Calor gas even?

Rather than heat the whole house with electric CH, what about having a couple of heaters in the rooms you are using?

good_advice

Don't we just love these posts - I have a child and health problems?
They crop up often on here. Now shoot me for saying it!

Cutting electric bills involves being on the cheapest tariff for your area.
Having the heating on less.
Putting washing on line when not raining.
Batch cooking or using a slow cooker.

In fact cutting down on anything that heats up.

Oh we must not forget unplugging what we are not using.

oldskoo1

Electricity is my favourite because i can control it.

For example, there are 4 of us, usual appliances and gadgets etc. We use £18-£20 worth a month. Bit less in the summer.

On the other hand, my parents use about £90 a month. They live alone now but the keep everything on standby, leave lights on constantly, fire up air conditioning units to warm up the conservatory when they have a living room and sitting room to use. They are terrible with their usage.

With a bit of adjustment they could use less than us.

I can't control our gas heating you have to be warm. That costs us at the moment about £100 - £130 a month.

You can't control your heating either (with it being electric - just set the timer and stat sensibly) and you are on a very high unit charge. 10 loads of washing a week is pretty insane, we do about 2, maybe even 1 sometimes but cutting that would only save you about £4. I dont think there is much you can do apart from being sensible with your appliances, dont leave things on and dont leave things on standby.

I think come march we are going to get a flood of posts with people freaking out over their winter usage. I monitor my usage and costs and i've seen it go up quite a bit already and we aren't even that cold yet. I think it's going to put a lot of pressure on a lot of people.

chunkychocky

Your tumble dryer is probably using an awful lot of electricity. We use ours constantly (yes, I know, I know!) and bought a new one a year ago and our electricity bill has dropped by a third! Our old one was G rated - a good brand, but all tumble dryers of a certain age were rated like that - and our new one is A rated. We calculated that by selling our old one and then saving on electricity the new tumble dryer pays for itself within 2 years, and it came with a 5-year warranty.

spiro

Open fire place?

NORTON_850

Here is a list of typical electrical appliance consumption
Cooker = one days meals for 4 people = 2.5 units
Dishwasher = one full load = 2.0 units
Automatic W/M one full load = 2.5 units
Tumble dryer one full load = 2.5 units
Electric kettle boil for total 1 hour = 2.0 units
Your Boiler run for 1 hour = 6.0 units
Fridge one day usage = 1.0 unit
Freezer one day usage = 1.2 units
To roughly calculate what an item of electrical equipment is using look at what the wattage rating there is - this is normally indicated on the outside, say for instance a Hair dryer is rated at 1000 watts then you would need to run it for 1 hour to consume 1 unit = 1 kWh = 1000 watts

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

If you are using electric heating anyway I would seriously think about getting an oil heater and using that in your main room on an evening rather than heating the whole house.

The things that use the most electric are things that generate heat so your oven, showers, kettles, tumble dryers etc. Try to use these less and think about ways you can get more out of your energy use. Try and get the washing outside whenever you can, or part dried in the utility, and then use the tumble dryer for "finishing off".

If you have had the heating on anyway and the water is hot have a bath instead of a shower. If you have boiled the kettle for a brew keep the water in a flask for later.

I am so aware every time I switch something on about how much electric I am using whereas at one time I never gave it a thought.

Oh and open fires are nice but you have to buy logs or coal which sadly are no longer cheap options.

And for the poster who made the unhelpful comment - I also have a sick child and mine hasnt been well enough to go to school for 2 years. This means I have to be extra careful with our heating bills because we have no choice but to be at home most of the time.

NORTON_850

Try this if you washing machine has a spin only cycle, after the washing has completed it's cycle put the machine to spin up to 3 times the clothes should now be fairly dry. This is a good option because the W/Machine uses very little electricity.
Compared to the Tumble dryer that is immediately using 2500 watts.
You could also dispense with the Dishwasher!
Theres only one dishwasher that is cost effective & that is YOURSELF