Is this high usage?

northernsoul

Usage can vary a lot depending on where you live. I am trying to save money so I am sitting here in lounge at 15C with the kitchen at 14C. It is currently 9C outside. In the evening I put the lounge fire on at low (5p / hour) and close the door. The lounge then reaches 19C.
The last 12 months to date I have used electricity 1561kWh and gas 6237kWh, but this winter I am trying harder to reduce my bills (last winter I had the gas central heating on at this time but I do not remember the temperature). My rule now is if the outside temperature goes below 5C I will put the central heating on but I don’t know if I can continue to achieve this as it feels quite cold.
By comparison in 2012 when I had lodgers (again I don’t know if it was a warm or cold year) I used 5134kWh electricity and 20248kWh of gas !
So, obviously, where you live and what you are prepared to do, makes a lot of difference.
When people quote figures I wish they would say which area they live in. The difference between south and north is vast, and makes a lot of difference to the cost.
Oh, to add, I live in a 3 bedroom terrace house. About 110 square yards.

Robin9

To northernsouls north or south I would add - lifestyle, age and number of occupants, type of house, forms of heating ......

lisa110rry

OP are you on a standard tariff rather than a fix by any chance?

Until this year, our usage of gas was 25000KwH and electricity something like 3500. We live in a traditionally built detached house with four open fires, which are not used. Our payment last year was £108 monthly.

Now we have an ultra efficient Vaillant boiler installed in June 2016 so we have no idea what our usage this year will be but I cannot wait to find out!

tiredredhead

I am on Sainsburys standard rate. I tried comparing to switch but the top few had poor reviews so I was nervous about switching to them. I will do some more research.

I changed the heating controls as per BG energy advice and the house has been warmer since, despite the room stat being set one degree lower.

My monthly payment has been changed to £156 for now, so if I do not reduce my usage I will be in debit still at the end of next year again. Its crazy as I started in credit this year.

Martyn1981

tiredredhead wrote: »

I've just accessed my bills for the last 2 years and this is my usage.
Gas
2015 18896 KWh
2016 23452 KWh

Elec
2015 6991
2016 8327

My son started Uni in sept 2015 so usage of hot water went down at that time. No other changes in this time period.

4 people, 1 in Uni most of the time. I worked from home in 2015 but not in 2016 (except for a bit in the summer).

5 bed house, gas heating, regular service on the boiler. We have an electric shower but we do not ever use it. Prefer the straight from the boiler type. Loft insulation, double glazing. Cavity wall insulation. Blackout blinds where possible, curtains closed at dusk. Lights off when not in a room.

Anyone with similar level of usage here to reassure me that this is normal?
Cheers

Hiya, I'm S.Wales too. That's a shocking amount of consumption, I have to say. We have all the bells and whistles like you too (CWI, DG etc) but consume 7-8,000kWh of gas per year, though it has been as high as 11,000kWh in a bad year. We only have a 1930's 3 bed semi, but have converted the loft too, so I'm surprised that you can use that much gas. Our boiler is 15yr old.

Leccy consumption here is about 3,000kWh pa, but there are two of us, and we don't have a power shower, but again, 7-8,000kWh seems odd, have you any thoughts why it's so high?

Also, why has your consumption gone up? Shouldn't it have gone down as son now in Uni, and you are not working from home?

From what you've said, you seem to have done everything right, and doing all the right practices, so I'm a bit confused. Do you use the blackout blinds in the heating months, as solar gain can provide a huge amount of domestic heating, especially south facing windows?

tiredredhead

I have no idea why it is so high. We have black out blinds and also thermal curtains on the main rooms.

I am wondering if the boiler is worth replacing. Its 20 years old but is a Worcester Bosch that is serviced every year by BG and works (touch wood) well.

Roll on the summer, shame we cant bank the heat for the winter.

r2015

I replaced my warm air heating with a combi and radiators, I was using between 17,000 and 23,000 kWh of gas a year, depending on outside temperatures.


Now I am using 14,000 kWh of gas a year a saving of say 6,000 kWh of gas cost saving say £162 a year.


The new heating cost £6000 approx. and will take 37 years to pay for it in gas savings.


If your boiler works keep it.


You will never recover the cost of a new boiler in gas savings.

phillw

r2015 wrote: »

The new heating cost £6000 approx. and will take 37 years to pay for it in gas savings.

Is that 37 years at current energy prices or have you factored in increases?

It's difficult to predict the future, energy prices might double in the next year and so might new boilers. In which case it would be a bad idea to keep using a boiler if it's only 50% efficient and is likely to die soon.

Saying that, my boiler is inefficient and kettles like mad. I don't have the money to replace it, but probably would if I did.

For figuring out electricity use, it's pretty simple to get an energy monitor that!clips!underneath your meter and then turn everything off.!Start turning things on and seeing if they use energy in standby &!then start turning on everything and watching it.!Also!keep an eye on it when it's showing a high!figure and go round turning things off that you don't need and see what happens.

If you make it a game to reduce your energy use, then you can make real savings. You do become really boring and obsessive though,!so you might want to include part of your energy bill in your entertainment budget.

tiredredhead

tiredredhead wrote: »

Wow my supplier sent me a bill today trying to up my monthly bill to £221 a month from £140 a month. No changes in the last year in the house and customer services say that the unit prices are the same so I cannot understand the increase.

Apparently my usage might be high. Not sure why its gone up so much.

I've just accessed my bills for the last 2 years and this is my usage.
Gas
2015 18896 KWh
2016 23452 KWh

Elec
2015 6991
2016 8327

My son started Uni in sept 2015 so usage of hot water went down at that time. No other changes in this time period.

4 people, 1 in Uni most of the time. I worked from home in 2015 but not in 2016 (except for a bit in the summer).

5 bed house, gas heating, regular service on the boiler. We have an electric shower but we do not ever use it. Prefer the straight from the boiler type. Loft insulation, double glazing. Cavity wall insulation. Blackout blinds where possible, curtains closed at dusk. Lights off when not in a room.

Anyone with similar level of usage here to reassure me that this is normal?
Cheers

So I received a yearly statement with usage a few months ago.

This last year I have used
Gas 24370

Elec 7753

So less elec and more gas

I had a quote on a new boiler and it was £3226.50 for a Worcester Greenstar34cdi classic combi. But it may be much (-£768)less if a thicker pipe isn't needed to supply the boiler.

Still no idea why my usage is so much higher than the average, as we have completed as much energy saving as possible. All lights are low energy or LED.

Has anyone seen a big saving on gas consumption after having a new boiler? On my annual service the engineer rated my current boiler as a G or -70%

I have just switched tariff and should save £355 a year with new supplier. I am hoping to change my plastic conservatory roof to a solid roof shortly with some other renovations and am considering fitting a wood burner.

WobblyDog

phillw wrote: »

For figuring out electricity use, it's pretty simple to get an energy monitor that!clips!underneath your meter and then turn everything off.!Start turning things on and seeing if they use energy in standby &!then start turning on everything and watching it.!Also!keep an eye on it when it's showing a high!figure and go round turning things off that you don't need and see what happens.

If you make it a game to reduce your energy use, then you can make real savings. You do become really boring and obsessive though,!so you might want to include part of your energy bill in your entertainment budget.

I agree. With an electicity bill that large there are bound to be several "low-hanging fruit" efficiency improvements that can be easily identified with the combination of a whole-house electricity power monitor and a plug-in single device power monitor. These are likely to cost less than £50 combined. The phrase "measure, don't guess" applies here.