Whats your Electric kWh usage per month ?

ChaosUk

My parents Electricity bill seems very high, from the period of 23/04/07 to 10/05/07 (18 Days) they said we used 666 Kwh and charged us £327

My mum thought something was wrong and got someone out to change the meter.

For the month 20/02/07 to 22/04/07 we have apparently used 3339 kWh and have been charged £425

Does this usage seem high ? We live in a 2 bedroom house, we have no electric storage heaters and only use electric heaters 1 in the living room and 1 in the beedroom when needed, I have my pc on a lot and have tvs consoles etc in standby a lot, the washing macine and dryers are on a lot but even so this still seems very high electricity usage, What could be causing us to use so much electricity ?

My mum spoke to energy watch and they sent out a pack with tips etc but apart from that they weren't very helpfull.

FBThree

Ouch does seem high to me.

First thought - what type of electric heaters? They can just EAT up the electricity. And limit the use of the dryer to essentials ....ditto energy usage... use a clothes line when you can. Also stop putting things on standby, switch them off (pc included) when not in use. Ditto mobile phone chargers, ipod chargers etc. Do you have double-glazing? Insulation? Draught excluders?

You may have a faulty appliance causing the over-read. I rent out a cottage, 2 bed, all electric (incl storage heaters). One guy Oct-Dec had a bill of £600 which he challenged. The energy company agreed it was a lot and said that either the meter was faulty or a faulty appliance was causing the drain. Meter readings were obtained from the current tenants.

It turns out that the single guy used 4 TIMES as much energy both on day and cheaper night time rate than 2 guys, and some of their visitors. Thus we think the meter is ok, but one of the single guy's appliances might have been wrong.

It sounds like you need to do an energy audit. If you can turn off the appliances and then add them in back one by one - over a few days - then do so. You could take meter readings first thing in the morning, track what appliances, lights etc are put on, for how long, and read the meters. If you have a faulty appliance you should find it quite quick.

We did an audit at my Dads, and were able to prove that although the 30yr old fridge was still working, it would be cheaper to spend on a new AAA model than pay the coming bills.

For a bit of comparison -but we also have gas.

We have a 2 bedroom (Very old) house, 2 adults, 4 cats, 1 pc on 4 hrs a day, dvd on standby overnight, fridge, freezer, washing machine, no dryer,all other appliances off when not needed, energy efficient bulbs.
Washer on twice a week, max 3 times. No reason to have it on otherwise.

1 years gas 10164 KWH
1 years electric 3474 KWH.

I think you'll find the heaters will be a big issue. If your parents are staying I'd suggest installing storage heaters before next winter if you can, hopefully on a summer-sale deal. I lived with storage heaters for 13 years no problems, only topped up with another heater 3 times!

Good luck finding it out. Let us know how you get on with that audit.

FBThree

........ I just went back and had another look at our figures

you did 23rd april to 10th May. If I remember April was hot so heating should have been low.

My electric bill for 22Jan-25March was £61.18 in usage (plus VAT)
My gas bill for 22 Jan - 24 April was £105 in usage (plus VAT).
Total energy bill for ~ 3 months cold weather time - £166.

As I said above, do an energy audit.

ChaosUk

Thanks for the info, Im going to do an audit, tomorrow im going to get one of those plugs that tell you how much Kwh an appliance uses and use it on every appliance in the house for a day and total up all the usage in a spreadsheet.

Rikki

I take weekly readings of both my gas and electric meters.
It helps me keep a check on my usage and helps me to work out what is using what.
Try keeping a record of which appliences you have been using and cross check with the meter readings.

pro_bono

I have to agree with Rikki, this is the only way to keep abreast of not only what you are using re gas and leccy, but also to contest from a firm base how out the estimates are when receiving estimated bills from suppliers.

Rikki

I turn my gas off when I go away. Except when its cold then I leave my heating on low and constant.

I was also quite suprised how much electricity was used by my fridge, freezer, video, dvd recorder and electric alarm clocks while I was away. :eek:

mkbean

google for "electrisave", its eye opening having your house electrical usage displayed on your mantlepiece...

Cardew

mkbean wrote: »

google for "electrisave", its eye opening having your house electrical usage displayed on your mantlepiece...

But don't buy one!

They are useless at monitoring consumption of appliances. All they do is tell you how much power your property is drawing.

You can get power measuring meters for a tenth of the price of an electrisave that are 10 times more useful.

Cardew

ChaosUk wrote: »

My parents Electricity bill seems very high, from the period of 23/04/07 to 10/05/07 (18 Days) they said we used 666 Kwh and charged us £327

My mum thought something was wrong and got someone out to change the meter.

For the month 20/02/07 to 22/04/07 we have apparently used 3339 kWh and have been charged £425

Does this usage seem high ? We live in a 2 bedroom house, we have no electric storage heaters and only use electric heaters 1 in the living room and 1 in the beedroom when needed, I have my pc on a lot and have tvs consoles etc in standby a lot, the washing macine and dryers are on a lot but even so this still seems very high electricity usage, What could be causing us to use so much electricity ?

My mum spoke to energy watch and they sent out a pack with tips etc but apart from that they weren't very helpfull.

Something is wrong here. Electricity costs between 7p and 10p a kWh on average, so 666kWh should cost about £60.

I can well imagine you using 3339 kWh in 9 weeks if you use electric heaters but £425 seems very high.

Alfrescodave

I dont believe its physically possible to use £327 worth of electricity in 18 days, even in winter!!! Are the street lights connected to your supply.?

Seriously, have you turned off all your appliances and checked the meter? Is it still showing power being consumed? Then one by one switch back on the ones that would normally be on and see if any are really heavy users. I'd also record the amounts used daily and note what appliances were used that day.

But the first thing I would do is contact the electric company and tell them, not ask them, to send an engineer out