Does this seem right?

Kai

Hi,

I've previously posted about high electricity charges and even now, I'm trying as best as I can to be more energy efficient (only turning lights on when neccessary, thermostat down, boiling kettle with only what I need, constantly checking no one's left immersion switch on, etc., etc.) but the bills seem to be as high as ever! I'm with Powergen and recently I've noticed that they have a consumption tracker available online, so I've decided to post up my stats to see if they seem about right?

Some background information: The house is kind of large, 5 bedrooms, detached and there is always a single person inside. Hot water is programmed to begin heating water around 6:30am (so shower can be ready) until 9am. I think hot water comes on again around 10:30pm-1am (some people have to work late and so can have a shower late). Central heating is set at just below 20C and comes on 6:30am-9:30am and from 5-10pm.

We do a lot of cooking I suppose, nearly every night (gas) and wash probably at least 1 load a day - however, this is usually done at night, usually past midnight as the last gets in. We don't particularly watch a lot of TV during the week, maybe a couple of hours while having dinner, none at all during the day. Weekends it might be on for longer due to football and people being around. We do have a computer on a lot though, along with associated gubbins like the broadband router, etc.

Most of all though, I just want to see if this usage is normal because I really don't have anything to compare it to. For all I know, they could be robbing me blind or I might be underpaying. Thank you all for taking your time to read this.

CharlieandAlice

Hi, i'm also with powergen, we are a family of 6 in a 3 bed house and i have just received a letter from them increasing my monthly payments from £87 to £106 a month. I didn't know about the consumption tracker so thanks for that. I will attempt to put mine in this post as a comparison. What do you pay monthly for your consumption?

Kai

That's the thing, we don't pay monthly. Electricity is done by pre-payment card (although I still get a bill?) and gas is quarterly I think. We got hit with a massive gas bill not too long ago because they insisted they had underestimated the gas usage for ages.

CharlieandAlice

Having no success adding my consumption tracker as i'm hopeless but can say mine is considerably lower than yours and I am also home all day and my husband is home on Mondays as well as all of us at weekends, evenings. My gas is low because my boiler is rubbish and takes so long to light (half an hour in mild weather, longer if cold) that we don't bother unless someone wants a bath or its really cold as the shower is electric and we have a gas fire in living room for cold evenings.

CharlieandAlice

I think you usually pay more if on a pre payment card? so with your consumption it must cost you a fortune. Would it be possible to switch to monthly direct debit billing as this usually involves a discount?

Kai

Would you be able to post an average reading of your electricity and/or gas consumption by just reading off the values off the chart?

For example, my electricity is about 50Kwh and electricity seems to be around 40kwh (at least for the last few months).

Thanks

CharlieandAlice

my electric jan - mar was around 31kwh then dropping to 22 kwh in june and staying around this level since which happens to correspond with when the 32" tv broke and we switched to a 14" portable as we haven't been able to afford to replace it yet, don't think i should replace now after seeing that.
my gas in jan and feb were around 64kwh and then dropping right down mar - sept to an average of 7kwh a day.

CharlieandAlice

your electric usage seems very high especially as you cook with gas. I cook with electric and cook daily, i also have computer on all day and have tropical fish with pump, heater going 24/7 plus lighting on about 6 hrs a day. Plus my kids will all put on and leave on lights in every room, daughter is so into this habit she puts lights on in daylight. I also do at least 1 load of washing a day and as i am allergic to ironing i tumble dry everything even in summer.

Could you try using a wattage meter on some of your appliances to see how much they are using?

Kai

I'm thinking about investing in a power meter.. unfortunately, Aldi seems to have run out of the £7 ones they were doing before.

It does seem high and I'm mystified as to why or how we can be using so much. We don't have a tumble dryer not even a freezer! (Although we do have a large fridge (not American-large size, but still full height) and a smaller fridge (typical 1 person one). The only other thing it could be is a computer that runs 24/7, but it's a laptop computer that's tucked away.

Power meter soon I think! Thank you once again for your information.

Terrylw1

Hi Kai,

In terms of electricity (Don't know as much about gas usage)

You usage seems high to me. How did you get the data to put into the comparison tool? Did you base it on estimates or have you been taking readings off your meters?

Pre-payment meters are more expensive. You would be best swicthing to DD anyway as your pence per kWh will drop plus many Suppliers offer dual fuel discounts for having both fuels with them.

Do, you have a 1 rate meter (1 dial for readings?) because since you do a lot of out of hours stuff (washing after certain times at night, heating water late & early and not usage much for TV etc) you would most likely benfit from a 2 rate meter with off peak for night.

You could go for E7 which will give you a fixed 7 hour burst through the night. The times can vary by region slightly but some areas are e.g. 12-7am so at least some of your central heating would be at off peak rate which is much cheaper.

You can also get E10 meters which i think give you 7 hours through the night and a 3 hour burst in the day. I can't remember what the burst times are on these.

It just seems to me that given some of your heating, you may be able to move your thermostat times forward & back slightly and benefit from a cheaper rate. However, be aware that peak charges wold be higher so you would need to possibly change when you use your central heating slightly or when you do the washing.

It's worth looking into that.

I'm still curious how you have got Kwh figures for each month as most consumers don't take them much. If you are using some form of estimate, your comparson may be wrong.

Also, check out this thread from Expresso as it has a wattage meter on it from Lidl...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=568790

Kai

Thanks for the input.

I got the chart directly from the Powergen website (after logging into my account) - I didn't just make it up on my own.

Also, as far as I know, I am currently on Economy 7 - so I'm aware of the dual rate as I've been researching about my usage. I will look at getting switched to DD, it's just that with such high usage it can get to be quite a shock to be hit with a huge bill (like th gas - about £900 was demanded in one go!) - at least with a meter we can sort of keep on top of it.

Also, I was thinking would it be better/more efficient to have the hot water on at the same time as the central heating? (This is rather than having seperate times for both).

I did try to get a power meter from Aldi today but they seem to be out.