Average Electricity consumption ?

MadMonkey

We changed from a pre-payment meter to a standard meter last October.

We were using about £7-15 a week in pre paid cards.

In the past year we have paid £800 electricity.

Our bills seem to be very high - we average 19kw a day.

We live in a 3 bed semi with 2 adults and 3 small children.

Electrical items are: Washer (used about 10-15 times a week), Dishwasher (5 times a week), Dryer (10-15 times a week).

Since identifying how high it was we have switched to low energy light bulbs everywhere and also really made an effort ot turn all lights off.

We did not use the dryer at all for a week and our usage went down to 18kw a day - meaning that the dryer was only using 7 KW a week and was on 10-15 times

We have contacted our supplier and we are keeping a reading / appliance use diary.

But i was wondering if anyone could offer any advice ?

Day1 - Washer on once - 10Kw
Day 2 - Washer / Dishwasher - 17KW (oven was on for 3 hrs at 130 for xmas cake if that makes a huge difference ?)
Day 3 - washer / dishwasher / dryer all on once - 15KW

Now surely the day we used the dryer should have had the highest usage ?

PasturesNew

MadMonkey wrote: »

We average 19kw a day.

I live alone, go out to work all day. Averaging 20kW/week.

MadMonkey wrote: »

We live in a 3 bed semi with 2 adults and 3 small children.

I am in a studio flatlet, total area is 15' square.

MadMonkey wrote: »

Washer (used about 10-15 times a week)

Blimey. I do 1 half wash once a fortnight.

MadMonkey wrote: »

Dishwasher (5 times a week)

I've not got one

MadMonkey wrote: »

Dryer (10-15 times a week)

Never had one - but that sounds the likely culprit. They're like having a fan heater on!

MadMonkey wrote: »

We did not use the dryer at all for a week and our usage went down to 18kw a day - meaning that the dryer was only using 7 KW a week and was on 10-15 times

That surprises me. I'd run the test again.

MadMonkey wrote: »

Day1 - Washer on once - 10Kw

My washer takes 0.6kW

Bound to be somebody along soon that has the appliances you do.

What about: TV, PC/monitor, fridge, freezer, vacuum, shower?, kids games, video, stereo ... other stuff?, immersion heater?

Terrylw1

Hi,

You do seem to use the washer/dryer a lot.

Might be worth having a look at this link for advice on energy efficiency. The diary your Supplier has asked you to keep doesn't help much from there end but it will greatly help you to understand where you are using the most.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

If you type in energy efficiency on Google you will get others too.

You can also get a wattage meter from Aldi or Lidl. Lidl ones are around £10 and can be found on their website I think. Might be worth considering.

Where do you get your average of 15kw per day? If it's form your bills, how do your know it is correct? Suppliers bills can often be incorrect if they are estimates.

Your Supplier should have advised you how to check this. You need to take your readings on a daily basis at the same time for 7 days. This will show you just how much you use throughout the week. Obviously, this varies by season but it will help you right now. Try that first.

The fact that you come out at 18kw from 19kw when you stopped using the dryer may not taly anyway if you are getting the 19kw from estimates. You first need to prove your "true" daily kwh and your Supplier should have asked you to take the readings for 7 days to show this.

To get around the issue of washing/drying, you could go for an E7 meter and do these chores when you are on the off peak rate so it's cheaper. You just have to remember that everyday on peak time is more than a standard 1 rate meters.

I think you need to give more info about devices such as PasturesNew states because computers can use a lot. If you've got 3 kids, how much do they contribute?

espresso

How is your hot water heated?

SwanJon

MadMonkey wrote: »

We changed from a pre-payment meter to a standard meter last October.

We were using about £7-15 a week in pre paid cards.

In the past year we have paid £800 electricity.

It is possible that the pre-payment meter wasn't programmed with the correct prices following the price rises over the last few years. If this was the case, you would be using the same, but paying more.

Keep going with the reading/use diary. The longer you keep it for, the more useful it becomes.
As a general rule, anything that generates heat uses a lot of electricity, so make sure you include these in the diary. If you want, post the diary on here, and as you've seen you'll get plenty of help.

MadMonkey

Thanks guys.

The 19kw per day figure is an average over 12 months using the meter reading - it was on 0000 when it was installed.

The kids contribute very little to the electric as they are too small to use anything !!

I will post the diary tomorrow after we have had another couple of days written down.

HappyMJ

Have you turned the water immersion off and let the water heat using boiler. Do you have gas?

What about Fridge's, Freezers, Ovens, Microwaves, P.C's, monitors, t.v's, playstation, battery chargers, sky box, clocks? Kids use more than you think.

Turn everything off and see if the meter is still turning around.

LadFromWales85

If it helps, I live in a one bed flat with my partner. My usage for the past few days...
Day Night Total
4.9 3.4 8.3
9.4 5.2 14.6
10.8 7.1 17.9
8.6 4.9 13.5
9.9 6.8 16.7

I started taking readings the day we properly moved in, which would explain the lower usage, as I hadn't fired up my PC yet! We have no gas, use an electric immersion heater programmed to come on during E7 offpeak hours, have storage heaters which are switched off at the meter box, and currently have no cooker or washer/drier.
We have a fridge and two computers on 24/7, no TV, Xbox used in evenings after work, lights, Hi-Fi powered up 24/7.
I dread to think how much it'll go up once I get a cooker, washer, TV etc!

19KWh sounds pretty low for a 3bed house with 3 children, in comparison to my usage! But I can imagine the amount of electricity we consume is right considering theres two computers on the go all day and night.

Februarycat

Does anyone know if an XBox 360 and PC would use up much electricity as ds is always on these and my bills do seem to have gone up a lot recently.

LadFromWales85

An Xbox360 uses just under 200watts of power. A computer 'can' use even less than this, but it depends on the hardware. At a guess I'd imagine my router, modem, dect, pcbase use around 250watts, and the monitor probably uses 100watts or so. Add to that the other PC running 24/7 (200watts(smaller pc)), and it'd appear as though my computers use around 10.8kWh a day!
Just in case, 450watts * 24 =10800

thescouselander

LadFromWales85 wrote: »

An Xbox360 uses just under 200watts of power. A computer 'can' use even less than this, but it depends on the hardware. At a guess I'd imagine my router, modem, dect, pcbase use around 250watts, and the monitor probably uses 100watts or so. Add to that the other PC running 24/7 (200watts(smaller pc)), and it'd appear as though my computers use around 10.8kWh a day!
Just in case, 450watts * 24 =10800

These figures are totally unrealistic! A Modem/router/dect phone will only use in the region of 5 to 10 watts each. Also, a modern flat panel monitor will only use around 50 watts (unless you have a very large montor).