Energy usage too high?

Mesut84

Hello

I've decided that 2016 is the year that I get my finances in order and I've been looking at my monthly outgoings to see where I can make savings in order to pay off my loans early.

Energy is something that stuck out considering my monthly spend is £110, which has increased recently to £130. I was checking my online account to get figures for the cheap energy club where I noticed that British Gas say that I use 4 times the amount of electricity compared to comparable homes.

I am averaging 845kwh a month. I live in a one bedroom flat, with double glazing and storage heaters. I work 9-5. I have my fair share of tech which is plugged in and on standby all day. I have no gas, so all my cooking is with electricity.

Is this figure reasonable for a flat my size? Or am I actually using 4 times as much?!

Thanks for any advice!

Nada666

It is not four times the usage for an electricity-only flat. 10,000 kWh per year is high for a single person but only by tens of percent not hundreds.

You need to look at how much you use night rate vs day over the year. And, as you have started doing, you need to shop around for a good E7 tariff price - they do vary a lot.

Robin9

First of all

What are your ACTUAL readings, not estimated, not predicted, not £ and what is your supplier and tariff.

And where did you get that 4 times figure from ?

macman

845kWh on which E7 register? Totals tell us nothing.You need to post your total kWh usage on each register. 845kWh per month is 10,140kwh pa, which is low. However what matters on E7 is the percentage split between day and night rate, since the former is more than 300% more expensive
You are using about 3.5 times the average home which has gas CH and DHW, so you can ignore BG. Remember that they have no idea how you heat and hot water the property, and that some people with E7 still have gas as their primary fuel.
Forget the 'tech on standby', what matters is heating and hot water.
Are you on the cheapest E7 tariff?

Mesut84

Hi

Thanks for all your replies. Apologies for the scarce information, as you can see I'm not very clued up. I'll take a look at the numbers in my next statement. I'm not one to submit meter readings every month which won't help the situation either!

I was looking for advice whether my yearly consumption was excessive and it looks like that for a single fuel property it is within a normal range. British Gas have a 'comparison tool' in the account section, but as macman it will very broad brush. I get the point about the balance between night and day rates, so I'll look into that at my next bill. And also move to a more competitive tariff - EON seems to be the best according to the cheap energy club.

Thanks again,

Mesut84

macman wrote: »

Are you on the cheapest E7 tariff?

I've just taken a look at my tariff type and it says 'standard' rather the E7? Is this right? I give both a night and day reading (when I supply them!). I can't find anywhere the percentage of which I use most, do I need to work that out manually using the readings?

Apologies for the idiotic questions...

ian

CashStrapped

Hello and welcome.

Please go through the following.

1. What exact tariff are you on with British Gas? Is there just single tariff? Or is there a day and night tariff? Does it say day and night on the bill anywhere? Or is there just a single rate?

2. When you do supply a meter reading, are you giving them two sets of numbers?

3. What is your current heating set-up? Do you have:

a)electric panel heaters? These give out heat on demand whenever you turn them on.

Or,

b) Storage heaters, which charge at night and give out heat during the day. They usually have an input and output dial.

c) if your not sure, describe it as best you can, giving any model names/ serial numbers.

4) Please go through your past bills as far back as you can. Type the meter readings and dates of any confirmed or actual meter readings. Ignore any which are estimated.

macman

You are on Standard tariff (which is the most expensive). All Standard tariffs come in E7 and single rate versions, depending on your metering. If you are being billed on E7 it will itemise separately the two rates and the usage on each, so will be obvious.
Your annual kWh usage is shown on your annual statement, or get it from the supplier by phone, or calculate manually from two bills approx 365 days apart, once for each rate. Knowing these figures is fundamental to using a comp site and getting the best deal.