Huge electricity usage, which energy monitor is best?

Carer

Have been checking our usage on the Eon site with their new comparison tool and noted that we are using around 5 times more electricity than the average house our size.:eek:

Obviously something is not right and I need to try and pin down what is using all the power, so I'm looking for advice on energy monitors or a website where I can put in my appliances and see what my energy use should be.

I can't seem to figure out how they work - most seem to just plug in and estimate the usage of whatever you plug into it. However , I need to monitor shower etc so these won't really work.

Electric costs are approx £120 month!! They don't seem to go down in summer. Any suggestions how we can get this down would be greatly appreciated.

Each day we use:

8.5kw shower for approx 15 mins total
Dishwasher - 1 load
Washing machine - 4 loads a week
Electric cooker - 1 meal a day (approx 1 hr)
Microwave - 10 mins (max)
Fridge - under counter
Fridge freezer (large side by side one)
Lights approx 8 (not all on at once) - all energy saving 11w bulbs except kitchen which is flourescent 4ft tube.
Reading lamp - 27w pls lamp which is on approx 6 hrs.
PC 1 - on for all the time we are awake - 850watt power supply as it's gaming pc with twin 24" screens.
PC 2 - 5ish hours - 500w, single 22" screen.
2 laptops, on for a couple of hours sometimes.
Phone chargers (as and when needed).
2 Alarm clocks.
Kettle - we drink 10+ cups of tea a day (work from home) but only boil what we need.

No radio or tv on - we don't use them. We don't use an iron.
Water is heated by back boiler (gas) for 1 hr a day.
Everything off at mains if not being used.

MillicentBystander

I would personally go for both types of electric monitor - the individual plug in and the whole house one. There will be the usual self appointed experts who follow claiming that the 'whole house' types are rubbish blah blah blah (even though they have never used one) but working in conjunction with the individual type monitor they really can help pinpoint what is using the juice and should allow you to find ways of moderating use to bring down costs. One of the main criticisms of the whole house types is their alleged inaccuracy in monitoring low power usage but fact is if you are using £120 worth of leccy a month it's not the low power usage items that are at fault here, is it?

PS I think your PCs and monitors could be one of the main cuplrits here! And the large fridge freezer.

DragonQ

How much do your PCs use when idle or during normal operation (including all monitors and peripherals)? You'll need a plug-in power meter to see this. A PC drawing 300 W for 16 hours a day will use 144 kWh a month, costing ~£17.50pm assuming a unit price of 12p/kWh. That's a lot and if you have two on the go that's even more.

Surely you can get away with not using the dishwasher every day? Also, what exactly do you use hot water for if your showers are electric and you use a dishwasher? An hour may be overkill - I used to have hot water on for 30 minutes a day and it was easily enough for a regular shower and washing up.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hiya Carer,

Have you registered interest for smart meters? You can do it on the website, but it does depend where you live etc.

It's also a good idea to be looking at the amount of kWh used rather than just a monthly spend and compare this way.

Is the account billed up to accurate reads? Are you on the best tariff for you?

Have you ever had a word with our consumption department, they are very good with ways to save and pinning down what is using all the energy.

I'm sure others will be along with recommendations for you, but hope this helps a little

Helena

ariba10

For plug in items we use a BELKIN energy monitor fro Amazon (about £14)

Delighted with it.

MillicentBystander

Whole house monitors start at £30. Not fair to recommend one particular brand although we used an Owl model and it was fine.

macman

Rather bizzare that you give an exhaustive list of small electrical devices, but fail to say how the property is heated? This is by far the biggest energy usage of all, followed by hot water. probably 80% plus between them of your total consumption.
Helena is spot on-post your annual kWh usage, because monthly spend tells us nothing. UK average electricity use is 3,300kWh pa, so are you really using 5 times that-around 16,500kWh pa? If so, that would cost you around £1,980pa, or £165pm. £120pm however would indicate a consumption of around 12,000kWh pa-still 360% more than the average.
So your figures just don't add up.
There's nothing on that list to possibly account for your high consumption, be it 16,500kWh or 12,000kWh.Verify the actual annual kWh consumption first and then suspect a faulty meter. or get a sparky in, the investment may prove well worth it. When exactly did this apparently high usage start happening?
Your DD won't go down in summer, it's averaged out so that you pay the same each month regardless of consumption. If you have gas CH and DHW, then your summer leccy usage will only be a little lower anyway (less lights on basically).

Carer

Thanks for replies, not sure how to multi quote so to answer questions so far:

3 of us live here full time, plus university student for odd weekends and holidays.

Yes we have registered for Smart meter. Meter reading are supplied online so none are estimated. We are on the online dual fuel tariff.

Dishwasher is normally full at the end of the day.

Shower is used by teenagers. I hate showers and like to bath before bed (helps me sleep) and then wash in the mornings - hence the hot water - but that is gas so doesn't really contribute to the high elec bill. 1 hr is the minimum amount the timer will allow (20+ years old).

Main pc is on all day as I work from home so it's needed all day for work and then evening for tv streaming/gaming. The other pc belongs to teenager so is only on when he's home.

Heated by gas, but electricity consumption is pretty stable all year round (obviously gas usage goes up and down).

MillicentBystander

macman wrote: »

You give an exhaustive list of electrical devices, but fail to say how the property is heated? This is by far the biggest energy usage of all, followed by hot water.
Helena is spot on-post your annual kWh usage, because monthly spend tells us nothing. UK average electricity use is 3,300kWh pa, so are you really using around 16,500kWh pa? If so, that would cost you around £1,980pa, or £165pm.
So your figures just don't add up.

From the OP:

Have been checking our usage on the Eon site with their new comparison tool and noted that we are using around 5 times more electricity than the average house our size.

Could it be that Eon give an average for the actual size of property and not just a national average for all properties? No idea as I don't use them but is this a possibility?

PS Isn't the juice you use on your work PC tax deductible by the way? Just a thought...

Shower is used by teenagers.

ALARM BELLS RINGING :eek: That whole house monitor will give them no hiding place! It made us discover our beloved son was turning our 10.8kwh electric shower on then going into his bedroom to get his clothes out, clean his teeth and do his ablutions BEFORE getting in the shower. Teenagers are notorious wasters of fuel on account of them never having received a bill. We also discovered his GF used to spend anything up to FORTY FIVE MINUTES in our shower 'shaving her legs!' (and it's not like she looked like a shot putter either). All this discovered from the £30 monitor. BARGAIN!

Carer

Thank you all for your patience with me.
Teenager has been warned about shower usage - after 5 mins we bang on the door and make threats

Think I've misunderstood the usage info on the Eon site. I am using approx 5 times more than their efficient home and 2-3 times as much as their similar home.

Just added up all the monthly kwh and it comes to 7287kwh for the last 12 months, which averages out at about 600kwh a month.

Looking at the monthly costs on their new tool, I am using between £75 and £95 a month in electricity (higher figure in summer) but I'm paying £136 month for dual fuel direct debit, so I wrongly assumed that as gas was under £20 month the rest must be electricity costs.

macman

So you are actually using 220 % more than the average, not 500%. That will cost you around £78 pa or £934 pa. If your electricity DD alone is set at £120, then you either have substantial debt on the account being recovered, or you are overpaying and building too much credit.
Thsi is why I mentioned that you need to look at actual consumption, not at DD levels.
Curiously, your gas usage is extremely low, it's normally higher than the electricity in a house with gas CH and DHW.
Do you have a back up immersion heater that has been left on 24/7?
Edit: OK, so £78pm on electricity, and £58pm on gas: that's around 17,400 kWh of gas pa-very near the UK average.