Combi Boiler Electricity Usage

Lil306

I just thought I'd post an update on this thread. I've been monitoring my daily electric usage in my household for a couple of weeks now, and I'm averaging around 8.5-9 units per day in electric (9000w) I've also been measuring my gas (approx 3 units per day)

The equipment that has continuous power supply 24x7 in the house
- Freezer
- Fridge
- Boiler (Baxi Combi 105HE)
- Network Switch (Cisco Calayst 2950)
- Home PC (draws around 160-170w electric)
- Home broadband equipt

I did a test on 29/10/14 and switched off everything in the house at the mains for 24 hrs then monitored the usage. The only things I left switched on were
- Boiler
- Fridge
- Freezer
- Telephones (for voicemails etc)

You can see my equipment draws around 6 units per day

At 365 * 8.5 units per day avg (3103KW/H) electric @ 16.9p
£524 per year = (£43.69) per month for electric

My electric company are saying I'm using an average of 12.54 units per day even though I've been sending them regular readings?

Any ideas where the extra power draw can be coming from?

My equipment on standby uses around 30w elec at most.

I'm still looking at switching, but trying to reduce usage as much as possible. I have halogen spotlights which I'm changing out for LED, but these are on maybe 2-3 hrs per day, only ever 3-4 lights on in each room per day

Consumerist

The supplier has only your readings to go on (unless you have one of those smart meters). If you have been reporting them regularly over the past year and you have kept a record of the readings then you should be able to work out the average annual usage (and this may be the figure they are quoting to you).

The gas usage you quote is meaningless unless you know whether your "units" are metric (5-digit readings) or imperial (4-digit readings). Your gas "usage" is charged by the kWh and the conversion factor will depend on this.

Lil306

Consumerist wrote: »

The supplier has only your readings to go on (unless you have one of those smart meters). If you have been reporting them regularly over the past year and you have kept a record of the readings then you should be able to work out the average annual usage (and this may be the figure they are quoting to you).

The gas usage you quote is meaningless unless you know whether your "units" are metric (5-digit readings) or imperial (4-digit readings). Your gas "usage" is charged by the kWh and the conversion factor will depend on this.

My electric and gas meters are metric (5 digits) ie 91234 or 01234, I did read somewhere about charges being 2.8x higher with the wrong meter, but I think price was it's because of inflation. I'm going to look at Uswitch this weekend to see how much I can save.

Consumerist

Lil306 wrote: »

My electric and gas meters are metric (5 digits) ie 91234 or 01234, I did read somewhere about charges being 2.8x higher with the wrong meter, but I think price was it's because of inflation. I'm going to look at Uswitch this weekend to see how much I can save.

Ok. For metric gas meters each "unit" of gas equates to about 11 kWh. If you have a record of your readings over the past year, at home or online, you can calculate your annual gas usage in kWh which you can then to use on a comparison site. Your electricity readings are already in kWh so no conversion is necessary.

Lil306

Consumerist wrote: »

Ok. For metric gas meters each "unit" of gas equates to about 11 kWh. If you have a record of your readings over the past year, at home or online, you can calculate your annual gas usage in kWh which you can then to use on a comparison site. Your electricity readings are already in kWh so no conversion is necessary.

Thanks. I went with USwitch (forgot to use Quidco first ) and got the same electricity with SSE for 10.9p kw/h

DD 57.03 p/m

I'll keep monitoring my usage. I think the next thing I need to change is my oven though. That thing is an absolute hog

Consumerist

Lil306 wrote: »

. . . I'll keep monitoring my usage. I think the next thing I need to change is my oven though. That thing is an absolute hog

Your electricity consumption is a bit on the high side compared a typical medium user (Ofgem's figure is currently 3,200 kWh per year compared to your 5,400 kWh per year) but it does depend on your particular property and lifestyle.

If you have a hot-water cylinder heated from your boiler, make sure the cylinder doesn't have an emergency back-up element in the cylinder which is switching on when not really needed. Such things as tumble dryers can be quite power hungry as well as electric cookers.

Lil306

Consumerist wrote: »

Your electricity consumption is a bit on the high side compared a typical medium user (Ofgem's figure is currently 3,200 kWh per year compared to your 5,400 kWh per year) but it does depend on your particular property and lifestyle.

If you have a hot-water cylinder heated from your boiler, make sure the cylinder doesn't have an emergency back-up element in the cylinder which is switching on when not really needed. Such things as tumble dryers can be quite power hungry as well as electric cookers.

Thanks,

I changed my usage a bit as I was doing two cycles on tumble for both colours and blacks but that's because I didn't know about the options on my washing machine for fast spin etc or how to use them :o

Currently my weekly routine is basically working Mon - Sat then Sunday is my washing up day. So Sundays usage generally spikes. My oven is only really on when I have gf or friends round for cooking meals other than that it's microwave for me :A

I've checked my usage and at the moment I'm using (on average) around 9-10 per day (3650 per year), including oven that would round up to maybe (4000)

I can reduce this by almost 1000 by switching off my computer, but I need to buy an atom PC first or a dedicated CCTV system as it runs my home security (CCTV/atom power draw = 20w), current home PC = 180w

There's still more savings to be made, but the next big changes will be
> replace halogens with LED lamps. I don't use often but all helps
> replace cooker .. I know mines a hotpoint but no clue on model
> replace PC with low powered equipment

Change gas supplier too

For reference I don't have a cylinder storage tank, just a combi boiler

I'm trying to reduce my usage to maybe 4 units per day. I've considered solar panels to also make money back , but that would be more long term for use with a Feed in Tariff assuming I actually had 5-6k spare money :P

My gas service is also due in 3-4 days, as I thought the boiler may be faulty so I'm getting it checked out

Smiley_Dan

Cardew wrote: »

That seems high.

Yes, for the record I reckon I way over estimated that. Probably about 200W in reality.

espresso

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

Yes, for the record I reckon I way over estimated that. Probably about 200W in reality.

Nah, try halving the wattage again and you would be much closer and that would be with the pump and max flow!

This is one of the most commonly use pumps:



and the more recent pumps use much less.

matelodave

My C/H pump takes about 40 watts and its got to shove water through at least 700 metres of 12mm underfloor heating pipework