Electricity 22 units av/day for large family - normal?

swift1_2

We are a family of 5 adults, 2 babies and 1 child. I've lately been monitoring our elec usage and it averages around 20-22 units per day. For the last year we used around 8000kwh. Would this be considered normal for a large family? The threads I've been reading and looking at energy websites tend to suggest a high user would be around 4,600kwh for a large family. We live in a 4 bed detached house. Our heating is gas and cooking is gas. This averages around 20,000kwh - which puts our gas usage in the medium user category!?

I guess the big energy consumers are the elec shower, kettle, toaster, washing machine, hoover. Each adult getting up for breakfast at different times, thus kettle/toaster being used different times, plus everyone showering. Washing machine on 1-2times/day. Hoover on every day. kids watching tv - its a 50" plasma - i think these consume more elec. Not really sure what we can cut back on that will make a significant difference.

macman

Well over double the national average. Forget kettles and toasters, it's white goods (and plasma TV's) that suck up energy. If you add a tumble drier to the mix, that could well account for a good chunk of it.

DragonQ

Yeah it's obviously best to focus on the big items first...not much you can do about the plasma TV, except to make sure it's off when not in use. They are just power hungry (typically 4 times the power consumption of an equivalent sized LCD). Do you have an electricity monitor thingy? If so, check how much your devices use on standby - if it's more than 1-2 W then definitely start turning them off instead of using standby.

Can't really cut down on washing machine use, except for making sure you do full loads. What temperature are you using? I find 30 °C for darks and 40 °C for whites is sufficient unless I have a stubborn stain or something. Cutting down on tumble dryer use will help a lot, if you have one. Use clothes horses and washing lines unless you run out of space or need the clothes dry quickly.

Make sure your fridge and freezer aren't set to overkill settings, and that they are not too full or too empty. Also worth checking the vents are clear.

My mum's household has 3 adults, with no-one at home during the day, and they spend about £60pm. My household is exactly the same, yet we spend £35pm. There are many factors that can affect this stuff!

good_advice

It sounds lovely. Extended family living together?

What is normal can vary with lots of people. Like here with 4 adults people we like there own space/rooms. Several tv's on at the same time.

It would be diffrent if everyone was in all day? Here usually 2 people are in at least most of the time. We use about half what you are using.

Check to see if you can be on a cheaper tariff.
One of my faverote hobbies is to quietly switch off or unplug. It save's me £'s.

I can recoment buying an OWL monitor. I can now tell with mine if it looks on the high side for what electric is being used , I go looking and unplugging.

swift1_2

Thanks for the quick replies.
We don't have a tumble dryer or dishwasher.
I did have one of those elec monitor things, I would end up scaring everyone - every time it spiked I'd end up running into the house shouting who just turned on something - it would end being something like the oven being turned on. Sometimes the monitor would go ballistic and it would be like the oven is on along with the washing machine, hoover and someone taking a shower! not good for the ol'ticker!

Nada666

Well, with five adults that's more than double the average! So getting away with only 8000 kWh is pretty good. Seems entirely normal.

Showers, even kettles and toasters will be significant. I disagree with 4,600 kWh being a high usage - that is a low usage for a large family.

As long as the adults are contributing to the household I wouldn't worry too much.

Wickedkitten

The 50in plasma really isn't going to use as much as you think it is, for example a 50in Panny GT50 uses 154w on average. If anything is going to being using the most power it will be the electric shower, especially if any of the adults are having long showers.

DragonQ

Wickedkitten wrote: »

The 50in plasma really isn't going to use as much as you think it is, for example a 50in Panny GT50 uses 154w on average.

Depends hugely on how it's set up. Is it on some default eco setting, is it on highest brightness, or is it calibrated? My TX-P50ST50B apparently can be anywhere between 150 and 250 W depending on this.

Even at 150 W, at 5 hours a day (on average), that's 23 kWh per month. Not huge but a fair bit more than an LCD would require.

Wickedkitten wrote: »

If anything is going to being using the most power it will be the electric shower, especially if any of the adults are having long showers.

Yep, power showers are typically ~10 kW, meaning a 10 minute shower will use 1.67 kWh. With four people taking a shower a day, that's 200 kWh per month, or ~£25 per month at typical prices!

WestonDave

Get a shower timer (the water companies often give them away free - often just a waterproof egg timer) - if you each cut a minute off your daily shower, that'll be over 300kWh's per year saved.

DragonQ

I don't really get shower timers. I spend enough time in the shower to clean and then get out. I'm not gonna get out of the shower if I haven't finished washing, lol.

Wickedkitten

DragonQ wrote: »

Depends hugely on how it's set up. Is it on some default eco setting, is it on highest brightness, or is it calibrated? My TX-P50ST50B apparently can be anywhere between 150 and 250 W depending on this.

Even at 150 W, at 5 hours a day (on average), that's 23 kWh per month. Not huge but a fair bit more than an LCD would require.


Yep, power showers are typically ~10 kW, meaning a 10 minute shower will use 1.67 kWh. With four people taking a shower a day, that's 200 kWh per month, or ~£25 per month at typical prices!

Yeah it uses less calibrated but I'm using the out of the box figures since those will be highest not counting if you are watching something in 3D which will be higher obviously. Even on our E7 daytime tariff 23kW is only £3.22 a month