Is my electricity bill insanely high?

oldskoo1

My electricity comes to £18 p/m - rising to £22 p/m in winter.

Oven, kettle, vacuum, dishwasher, washing machine, LED tvs, laptops, phones ipads, 4 people living here.

Hard to know how people spend so much on electricity when we lead a fairly typical lifestyle with most of the gadgets and i work primarily from home all day.

macman

But you are not space heating or hot water heating with electricity...the other devices are peripheral in comparison.

Nada666

8.4 kWh per day. 3 kWh covers fridge, lights, laptop, tv, background. So 5 kWh for cooking and hot water. 5 kWh only gives you two ten minute showers. Microwave, hob on top - so not an unusual usage.

TBorg

penrhyn wrote: »

OP, What do you mean by boiler, is it an immersion heater, for your hot water, and if so is it on a timer or on 24/7.

Yes, it is an immersion heater for hot water and it is on 24/7, it doesnt have any timer functionality. It is of the make - Telford Copper Cylinders and the manual that came along with it says that the most inexpensive way to use it is to keep it on 24/7. But I'm not sure that's true. After all whats the point in heating water for all day long when no one is going to need even a drop of it from 8AM until 7PM.

TBorg

macman wrote: »

... are you on an E7 or single rate tariff? ...

Thank you for your comments. I'll have to call my provider EON to check for plan details but its called E.ON energy plan and costs 12.64p/kWh + standing charge of 26.09p/day. Would you judge this as an expensive plan?

By your comments about heating during peak hours, I think this might be the problem for me. As the immersion heater in my apartment is switched on 24/7, including peak times. Should I switch off the water heater the moment I leave for work every day?

Wolf3

The Eon energy plan is their Standard variable single rate tariff, there are a number of cheaper energy plans available on the market, even Eon's Fixed rates are currently cheaper.

There are various arguments about heating your hot water, including a number of discussions on these forum. Generally speaking i believe leaving the immersion heater on 24/7 is not a cheap method of heating your water and will be responsible for a fair chunk of your electricity bills so far.

macman

You are not on E7, you are simply on (expensive) Standard rate.
No need to have an immersion heater on all day, switch it on an hour or so before you need it. Assuming it's properly lagged, a hot tank will stay hot all day. Get it lagged if it's not.
The immersion really needs a timer fitting.

penrhyn

Fit a timer to the immersion and run it say twice a day for say a couple of hours. Ensure that the tank is properly lagged. Don't overheat the water there should be a thermostat, set it between say 55 and no more than 60 C.

matelodave

Fit one of these http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p21022?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_campaign=googleshopping&mkwid=H9p3qsNE&pcrid=26798478623&gclid=COWzitXI9boCFa-WtAodNHgA8w and set it so that the immersion comes on an hour or so before you need hot water and then off half an hour before you go to work, then perhaps for another hour in the evening if you run out of hot water.

Put a couple of lagging jackets over the tank - even if it's already insulated, more will help and it's not expensive. Have shorter showers 4-5 mins max, don't fill the kettles more than you need.

Turn stuff off at the wall rather than leaving it on standby - especially computers, x-box's and playstations.

Low energy bulbs can help, but turning lights off when not required helps even more. Reading your meter regularly and being energy aware can save as well because you'll know how much you are using and can see what makes a difference.

Have a look at iMeasure ( http://www.imeasure.org.uk/ ) - its a free website where you can put in your regular meter readings and it will help you record and analyse your consumption

MillicentBystander

TBorg wrote: »

Thank you for your comments. I'll have to call my provider EON to check for plan details but its called E.ON energy plan and costs 12.64p/kWh + standing charge of 26.09p/day. Would you judge this as an expensive plan?

By your comments about heating during peak hours, I think this might be the problem for me. As the immersion heater in my apartment is switched on 24/7, including peak times. Should I switch off the water heater the moment I leave for work every day?

You have your answer there! Get a timer and watch your bills plummet. And here's a tip from a saddo like me - when you are in the shower, shampoo your hair, wet your whole body then TURN THE SHOWER OFF. Wash your body at your leisure (it's costing you nowt!) then switch the shower back on to rinse hair/body. I can be in and out of the shower (10.5KwH so a ridiculous £1.60/hr to run at average leccy prices) in 3 mins of actual 'shower being used' time. 8p cost. Bish bash bosh.:D