Ridiculously High Energy Consumption

Lolagirl79

I am having problems with my gas and electricity consumption.

I have calculated that we use around 18,500kwh Gas and 11,500kwh Electricity. There are two adults and one child in a three bed detached house.

My direct debits keep increasing as I have been in arrears for two years but the increases never seem to put a dent in the arrears. I now have to pay £169/m for electric and £73/m for gas.

I only have gas for heating and hot water. No gas cooker etc so I am surprpsed that it is as high as it is.

The electricity is ridiculously high and I think it is down to underfloor heating in our kitchen/diner. We have no other source of heating in the room. My husband doesnt seem to beleive me.

I have attached a monitor this afternoon to see what the usage is like but it keeps fluctuating between £18/m right up to £200/m so its difficult to tell if it is accurate or not.

Can the underfloor heating really cost so much to run?

We do use a tumble drier quite a lot and I know they are costly to run but we both work full time and its difficult to find time to get things out on the line.

Does anyone have any ideas about running costs for underfloor heating or what I should be looking for on the electricity monitor?

Thanks.

Wywth

Lolagirl79 wrote: »

I am having problems with my gas and electricity consumption.

I have calculated that we use around 18,500kwh Gas and 11,500kwh Electricity. There are two adults and one child in a three bed detached house.

My direct debits keep increasing as I have been in arrears for two years but the increases never seem to put a dent in the arrears. I now have to pay £169/m for electric and £73/m for gas.

I only have gas for heating and hot water. No gas cooker etc so I am surprpsed that it is as high as it is.

The electricity is ridiculously high and I think it is down to underfloor heating in our kitchen/diner. We have no other source of heating in the room. My husband doesnt seem to beleive me.

I have attached a monitor this afternoon to see what the usage is like but it keeps fluctuating between £18/m right up to £200/m so its difficult to tell if it is accurate or not.

Can the underfloor heating really cost so much to run?

We do use a tumble drier quite a lot and I know they are costly to run but we both work full time and its difficult to find time to get things out on the line.

Does anyone have any ideas about running costs for underfloor heating or what I should be looking for on the electricity monitor?

Thanks.

A monitor is not as accurate as your meter and, as the name suggests, monitors your electricity usage.

So I don't know how it can tell you what your monthly usage is if you only connected it this afternoon?
Unless it's extrapolating the very small amount of data it does have to cover the whole month?

Monitor it for a whole month, then come back if you still have queries

If you are not formally in arrears (have not received a demand/bill to repay this amount immediately, and then agreed a repayment plan)then you should be free to change supplier
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

Even if you are forced to keep the supplier, use the comparison sites to find the best tariff from your existing supplier for you

Cardew

Your gas consumption(18,500kWh) is only just above the UK average of 16,500kWh.

11,500kWh for electricity is huge - the UK average is 3,300kWh.

The problem with underfloor heating is that it needs to be on for long periods to be effective. So you are heating the house while you are both out at work.

If it is your own house(i.e. not rented) I would get a plumber to install a radiator in the room, gas is about one third of the price of electricity.

Wolf3

Another question we could ask is the underfloor heating on a switch to use when you want or does it charge up overnight on an E7 / Off peak meter.

Also a rough idea of the square size of the Kitchen / Diner would give a better idea of how much this could cost when being used. If that is your correct electric usage i would suggest it is down to some form of electric heating. Do you use your gas boiler to heat the water, or an immersion heater.

Although the tumble dryer is one of the more power hungry appliances in your home, its generally thought to cost less than £100 per year for the average person.

Nada666

£200 per month is only 27 pence per hour - your kettle'll give you a higher reading than that! Not particularly helpful.

Underfloor heating seems to have a typical wattage of 140 W per square meter - so your reading seems reasonable for a kitchen.

macman

Turn off the underfloor heating for a month (in the heating season) and see what difference it makes.
As you've noted, your leccy consumption is crazily high, about 350% above the average. Gas is just 10% above the average. You need to get ot the bottom of where all that power is being used.
You heat your hot water by gas. Back up immersion heater inadvertantly left on 24/7?
Switch your monitor to kWh not £££'s. The former is what concerns you.

MillicentBystander

Cardew wrote: »

Your gas consumption(18,500kWh) is only just above the UK average of 16,500kWh.

11,500kWh for electricity is huge - the UK average is 3,300kWh.

The problem with underfloor heating is that it needs to be on for long periods to be effective. So you are heating the house while you are both out at work.

If it is your own house(i.e. not rented) I would get a plumber to install a radiator in the room, gas is about one third of the price of electricity.

IIRC OFGEM are intending to lower that figure to 13500kWh but as last Winter was so brutal the 16500kWh figure is probably still indicative. But I agree about the electricity consumption, that IS ridiculously high and MUST be down to the underfloor heating.

WestonDave

Our 3 bed detached ran around 17,500 kWh of gas over the last 12 months which is high for us but I think was simply down to the long winter. Yours being even higher suggests a need to rethink your useage given that you are also partially heating off electricity.

High electricity consumption is almost always down to excessive use of heating devices. In your case a fair bit is going to be going on underfloor heating and I think you'd be well advised to consider putting radiators in for long term savings. The other question is how you are "bathe-ing" - if you are showering or having baths off your gas boiler then your high electric use is purely down to your UF heating and maybe tumble drier use. However instant heat electric showers will chew through about 25p per ten minute shower. Two adults having a 20 minute shower each every morning is £15 per month on the bill as a start off, but even that is pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things. Similarly a tumble drier on an hour run probably won't get through more than about 50p per run which at 4 loads per week is less than £10 per month.

The culprit therefore has to either be something else (hidden immersion heater on the tank which is accidently on) or that UF heating. If it was on 24/7 during the 6 months of winter it would run up around £200 per month (assuming 4m x 4m kitchen and same for diner and 140W per m2). So on a smaller area and coming in and out on a thermostat it would be somewhere lower than that - maybe £100 per month. That I think is your problem.

In terms of suggestions -

Get some rads put in.
Swap your Dryer for a condensor one - they are marginally less efficient as driers but you keep the heat in the house rather than blowing it out the wall so using it in winter helps heat the house especially in the kitchen area where you need to cut your use of the UF heating.
Turn all the thermostats down (if you haven't got them - get them fitted) so that the house is maintained at around 18-19C rather than 21C. You'll quickly get used to it and it will save money.

Cardew

WestonDave wrote: »

However instant heat electric showers will chew through about 25p per ten minute shower. Two adults having a 20 minute shower each every morning is £15 per month on the bill as a start off, but even that is pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

Agree with the thrust of your post, but have some observations on the above.

Firstly the 25p per 10mins is at the upper end of any estimate. That equates to a powerful 10kW shower and prices electricity @ 15p/kWh.

Accepting your 25p per 10 min shower figure, if my arithmetic is correct two 20 min showers per day comes to £30 a month - not £15. i.e. 50pence per 20min shower, x 2 persons x 30 days

However the main point is who on earth spends 20 minutes in a shower every day:eek:

Incidentally my electric shower uses about 6 litres a min and I am on metered water.

The same two people would use 240 litres a day; so around 7 cubic metres a month costing another £18 a month in my area and close to £40 in the South West

macman

Cardew wrote: »

Agree with the thrust of your post, but have some observations on the above.

Firstly the 25p per 10mins is at the upper end of any estimate. That equates to a powerful 10kW shower and prices electricity @ 15p/kWh.

Accepting your 25p per 10 min shower figure, if my arithmetic is correct two 20 min showers per day comes to £30 a month - not £15. i.e. 50pence per 20min shower, x 2 persons x 30 days

However the main point is who on earth spends 20 minutes in a shower every day:eek:

Incidentally my electric shower uses about 6 litres a min and I am on metered water.

The same two people would use 240 litres a day; so around 7 cubic metres a month costing another £18 a month in my area and close to £40 in the South West

No ladies in your house then Cardew? Or teenagers?