Electricity averaging 5 units a day

littlemoney

I am using approx 5 units of electricty a day. Single person household. Gas for heating and hot water. My use comprises of

freezer
fridge freezer
use the TV for approx 6 hours a day
boil the kettle once a day
microwave used for a total of 10 minute a day
lighting and radio
laptop computer 6 hours

Is this too much. How does this compare with anyone else

macman

1,825kWh pa is just over half the UK average of 3,400kWh (although you can expect that 5 kWh that to rise in winter, so a daily figure is not as useful as an annual one).
So, not, it's very low.
Don't stress about radios and laptops. What eats energy is heating, hot water, and white goods such as tumble driers.

Nada666

Your two fridges will use a kWh each per day. Your gas boiler may be using almost a kWh per day as well. So that's a 3 kWh per day base before 'using' anything.

If you are not using low energy lightbulbs then that's an unnecessary half or three quarters of a unit per day.

With two fridges usage is more likely to be higher over summer (well, unless you heat your kitchen in winter.)

DragonQ

Looks reasonable to me. Big electricity users are fridges (just cos they're on all the time), tumble dryers (if used often), desktop computers (particularly older ones), plasma TVs, power showers, etc.

lstar337

We (Me, other half, & our little one) have got our peak usage down pretty low. We can use 6 units on a good day, and that is with someone home most of the day. On a bad day (Washing, tumble drying, showering in peak time, hair drying, and such) we can use about 12 units.

With the current warm weather, our off-peak usage has been about 3 units which is mostly the hot water as the heaters are either low or off.

5 units for a single occupant is not bad, but you could probably improve on it. Look at what you are using and see where the units are going. Anything that is on 24/7, or produces light/heat is a good start.

You have 6 hours for TV and 6 hours for computer, unless you are taking up 12 hours with those then I guess there is some overlap there. Try just using one or the other, you can't really concentrate on both at the same time. Turning lights off (make sure they are at least CFL's, if not LED's) when not in rooms will help, and I have connected all my standby appliances (I have quite a lot) to RF sockets so I can remotely turn them off overnight. It made more of a difference than I thought.

When the cost of electric became an issue, we managed to pretty much half our daily consumption, just by being mindful of what we were using. When you stop and think about it costing money, you make allowances for that fact.

good_advice

Hiya, I think you are doing very well.
We use 10/12 units of electric per day. Family of 4 adults.

DragonQ

Another tip is to charge your tablets, laptops and phones at work.

lstar337

DragonQ wrote: »

Another tip is to charge your tablets, laptops and phones at work.

I do this.

littlemoney

lstar337 wrote: »

Turning lights off (make sure they are at least CFL's, if not LED's) when not in rooms will help, and I have connected all my standby appliances (I have quite a lot) to RF sockets so I can remotely turn them off overnight. It made more of a difference than I thought.

For lights I have low energy or flourscent tubes. Only have the light on in the room I am in and try to walk from one to another without the hall or landing light on. My TV is turned off at night. The only overnight items are my hard disc recorder and the radio tuner in my hifi radio which does not have an off switch.

What is an RF socket?

Is there anyway I can work out if my fridge and freezer are being very inefficient. They are both quite old but the cost of a replacement would probabably outweigh the savings unless they are very inefficient

closed

live with one freezer, weekly consumption should be about a third of what you're using based on what you've said.

electric shower?

lstar337

littlemoney wrote: »

What is an RF socket?

I fits in-line with your devices and allows them to be switched off at the wall with minimal fuss.

littlemoney wrote: »

Is there anyway I can work out if my fridge and freezer are being very inefficient. They are both quite old but the cost of a replacement would probably outweigh the savings unless they are very inefficient

I am in the middle of replacing our fridge freezer, we had a hotpoint iced diamond which we inherited. I measured it with an in-line energy monitor and found it was using 2+ Units per 24h.

I have just bought an A+ rated model Indesit from Argos for £172 with free delivery and recycle of old fridge. The new fridge freezer is much bigger than our current one, and it only uses 226kWh/year which is just over 1/2 Unit per 24h.

It was worth it for us because we needed more capacity anyway, but the efficiency is a nice little bonus!