Am i using too much gas/electric?

carlsagen

Hello all.

I seem to spend a fortune on fuel. I live in a small 2 bed stone (grade2) cottage with my wife and little boy. The house has dbl glazing central heating and has had its roof insulated.

I have a modern boiler, 6 radiators and a wood burner in my front room. my thermostat is on a timer to come on at 4pm, go off at 11pm and back on at 6am till 8:30. on a weekend i sometimes put it on earlier if we are not going out. We don't have a bath, just one shower which is used morning and night.

We pay £168 per month on direct debit to e-on and get a quarterly estimated statement that we then call up with the correct readings for a true bill. My most recent says i have used the following KWH.

2nd Feb - 15th May
Electric 1285 kwh
Gas - 7423 kWh

Is this about right? I have done the usual switching but seems to make little difference.

Thanks

macman

We really need your annual k|Wh consumption, not your winter quarter only-post that from your annual statement. 7,423 kWh of gas is about half the annual average, but it's quite possible to use 80% of that during the coldest 3 months.
It's your leccy usage that seems high, that pro-rata's up to about 5,000kWh pas, which is almost 50% more than average. Immersion heater switch left on 24/7?
What tariff are you on, and do you both heat and hot water the property using gas?
What do you mean by 'the usual switching'?

carlsagen

macman wrote: »

We really need your annual k|Wh consumption, not your winter quarter only-post that from your annual statement. 7,423 kWh of gas is about half the annual average, but it's quite possible to use 80% of that during the coldest 3 months.
It's your leccy usage that seems high, that pro-rata's up to about 5,000kWh pas, which is almost 50% more than average. Immersion heater switch left on 24/7?
What tariff are you on, and do you both heat and hot water the property using gas?
What do you mean by 'the usual switching'?

Ill see if i can a full statement when i get in tonight. yes the boiler does the hot water / central heating. no storage tank. switching around using uswitch etc.

We don't have an emersion. The only thing i can think of that may use a lot of power is the pendant spotlights in our kitchen. 6x 75 watt halogens that are on maybe for an hour and evening during the winter. hardly at all in summer as there is lots of natural light. Heating is off completely in june / july onwards as the house gets quite warm. Other than that i think maybe the under tile heating in the bathroom which is electric. that comes on at 7 and goes off at 9 each day, the bathroom is small though 2.5m x.15m.

everything else is general stuff. Modern LED tv / virgin box. on for a couple of hours an evening, most of my lights are LED now apart from the ones mentioned above. small fridge and freezer left on and probably the iPhone charger left in the wall. i can't see that we are a large energy user by any stretch.

Thanks for the help

Norman_Castle

Extended showers may be adding to the cost. http://www.sust-it.net/electric-showers.php

http://www.thermogroupuk.com/electric-underfloor-heating-running-costs

Kitchen light about 6p per hour. http://www.ukpower.co.uk/tools/running_costs_electricity

shopaholicz

I'm no expert, just a customer, but that seems high to me. We have what started out as a 3 bed 1960s semi with extensions and a loft conversions, so now a 6 bed, 3 bath. Our bills are £120 a month with Sainsburys Energy. We used to be with ovo paying around £180 a month.

Are you still tied in or could you shop around?

our useage for April -
gas 2277
electric 1444

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning carlsagen,

Fully agree with macman here, we need a true 12 month reflection of usage in kWh, we can then have a look how things are.

It may be an idea to do some spaced meter reads, this means reading the meters every day for a week at about the same time, just to see if any patterns arise.

You can contact us and we can go through your usage and everything you use, to see if we can pin point the electric usage, look at tariff's and ways to save etc.

I'm more than happy to help you

Helena

matelodave

Try reducing the time that the heating is on, especially the underfloor electric heating.
Most houses stay warm enough for an hour or so after the heating has turned off, so if you go to bed at 11pm get the heating to shut down at 10pm or even a bit earlier. You could also try turning it on a bit later. A bit of experimentation will allow you to optimise your heating.

As said above, electric showers can use a lot of power and so can a gas boiler flogging away for 10-15 mins at a time, so reducing your shower time to 5 mins or so will save water and energy. If you have baths try having shallower ones. Don't let hot water run down the sink - rinse stuff in cold water.

Only use the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher with full loads - they cost just as much to run as when they are half empty.

Change your 6x75w lamps for 6x5watt LEDs and you'll save nearly half a kwh (6-7p) for every hour that they are on.


Turn stuff off at the wall when you aren't using it.

Try reading your meters a bit more frequently to see what effect some of these changes are having on your consumption - It's easier to control your consumption when you know when and how much you are using it

carlsagen

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Extended showers may be adding to the cost. http://www.sust-it.net/electric-showers.php

http://www.thermogroupuk.com/electric-underfloor-heating-running-costs

Kitchen light about 6p per hour. http://www.ukpower.co.uk/tools/running_costs_electricity

I have a mixer shower, hot water from the gas boiler with a mira water saving head.

carlsagen

matelodave wrote: »

Try reducing the time that the heating is on, especially the underfloor electric heating.
Most houses stay warm enough for an hour or so after the heating has turned off, so if you go to bed at 11pm get the heating to shut down at 10pm or even a bit earlier. You could also try turning it on a bit later. A bit of experimentation will allow you to optimise your heating.

As said above, electric showers can use a lot of power and so can a gas boiler flogging away for 10-15 mins at a time, so reducing your shower time to 5 mins or so will save water and energy. If you have baths try having shallower ones. Don't let hot water run down the sink - rinse stuff in cold water.

Only use the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher with full loads - they cost just as much to run as when they are half empty.


Change your 6x75w lamps for 6x5watt LEDs and you'll save nearly half a kwh (6-7p) for every hour that they are on.


Turn stuff off at the wall when you aren't using it.

Try reading your meters a bit more frequently to see what effect some of these changes are having on your consumption - It's easier to control your consumption when you know when and how much you are using it

Thanks for the advice. i thought about buying a visual power consumption smart meter to help. also we don't have a dryer or a bath hence why my initial thought of something wrong or untoward.

I will change the heating settings later and experiment as suggested.

carlsagen

Thanks Helen. My last 12 month statement for electric was 4532 KWH / £611.86. The bill says thats 11% less than the previous year which was 5082 KWH

macman

And your annual gas usage? That's the one we need, as it accounts for the vast bulk of your usage, which is space heating and hot water.
Your electricity usage is about 25% more than the average, so nor unduly high.