Monthly Electric bill....

Talldave

TheGMan wrote: »

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I've just been on ebay and got one of those Onzo energy monitors to replace the old Owl energy monitor. The new one is not state of the art but does have a useful 'target' figure which the Owl doesn't have (so you can try and beat the previous days target) I think I need to switch everything off and then switch things on one at a time and see how much energy is being used by each device.

Is that one of the clip-on type? They can be a bit inaccurate once you're look at low wattage consumption. If your meter has a flashing LED you really want a monitor that times the LED pulses, because you're then getting readings of what you're actually billed for.

Jakubk

TheGMan wrote: »

Hi All,

Am just trying to gauge what the average electric bill is these days to see if we're somehow using too much. Our electric seems to be around the £60 a month mark (use about 380 kWh a month) got one of those 'owl' energy meters. Our house is a small three bed townhouse - two adults, no kids. All light bulbs changed to LED several years ago. Central heating, Gas hob/electric oven. We're out at work between 8am and 6pm. Use TV in evening and try not to burn away the electric by lighting tea lights for ambient lighting.

Per the 'Smarter Business website' it states that 2,000 kWh per year is low usage, 3,100 kWh is the norm and 4,600 kWh is high usage. Based on our 380 kWh a month (4560 kWh a year) we're in the high usage bracket but I don't understand as we're out most of the time and wouldn't say we waste electricity.

So, what do you pay for your electric per month?

TIA

Until recently I was paying less than £20 per month, that is all about to change because my energy company went bust.

The simple fact is that you cannot change what you do not track, so I got myself one of those meters off ebay (I saw someone here mention them) and I tested all the electric devices, I took lots of readings through the day and tested for 14 days. I checked one of my neighbours too because they were even lower than me, but that changed.

For the neighbour the issue was a fish tank.

For myself, the biggest use is the Fridge, even though it is one of those eco ones. What is interesting is that when I had the heating on in the winter the fridge used 1 kwh more per day.

My heating and hot water is gas in my current property, my electricity usuage has varied from 3kwh a day to 5kwh per day.

An old PC with certain high performance CPU's can be a culprit.

I have seen reports that Smart Meters can give readings up to 7x higher on low energy bulbs and other devices. This should be an easy thing to check by swapping out with older bulbs, you can usually find someone who will gift you some if you look on Freecycle.org

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/06/smart-energy-meters-giving-readings-seven-times-high-study-finds/

I found it worth investing in one of those six extension plugs that turn off all the devices if you turn off one device. I use that for my TV to turn off other devices.

I also found that an old sony flat screen used quite a lot on standby.

Plasma TV's are renowned for being expensive to run.

You do not mention gas so I wonder if you have electric heating

Underfloor heating uses a lot and if you have storage heaters with economy 7 you can have issues.

Some battery chargers are not efficient and I seem to remember someone told me that Alexa device was not exactly easy on the energy usage, although they can be used to control plugs and turn things off.

My advice would be to get one of those energy monitors that you can plug between an appliance/device/4way block and the wall socket.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264357791388

Robin9

TheGMan - do you have electric showers ?

The two of you taking a 15 min shower twice a day can use 4kwh every day - that's 1400 kwh a year - about £200

[Deleted User]

We've used 2250kwh Electricity over the last 12 months.

Large Semi, Gas hob, Electric oven, 15 year old combi boiler, 10 year old fridge-freezer, 42" plasma TV, 2 PC's, All LED lighting (even the ambient lighting), 2 Washing M/C cycles/week, lots of cups of tea .

Electric underfloor heating? Outside floodlight? Appliances in garage?

RelievedSheff

Robin9 wrote: »

TheGMan - do you have electric showers ?

The two of you taking a 15 min shower twice a day can use 4kwh every day - that's 1400 kwh a year - about £200

That's a valid point about the shower. We are quick in the shower though and only have 5 minutes each in there.

Bigphil1474

OP, I'm in a 3 bed mid terrace, with gas heating/hot water & hobs, everything else electric. We have used around about 2,500KwH each year for last 5 or more years. My fridge/freezer is about 15 years old, and we have a separate chest freezer as well. Our washing machine is newish. We have mixed bag of bulbs, but no LED's yet.
Your usage sounds high, as your household sounds similar to mine - 2 adults, no kids, out most days. On top of that, the OH works at home 3 days a week using office equipment, and an electric oil heater in the winter months.

TheGMan

Some very interesting replies here.

We do have an electric shower though probably gets used less than 5 mins a day. No underfloor heating. Combi boiler about 14 years old (Worcester) Hob is Gas/oven electric.

Our fridge freezer is an A rated hotpoint fridge freezer. Don't know if that's good these days?

Unfortunately we don't have a red flashing LED on the electric meter so have to use the energy monitor with the clip over the cable transmitter.

At first I thought the hike last month was one of those mini fridges (the small ones that hold six cans) as we put one in the bedroom to keep some cans cool whilst it's been quite warm at night but tested that and it doesn't use that much power when on so the £40 hike last month was a mystery.

@Deleted User - Yours sounds a similar setup to ours - we've got a 50" Plasma (probably use it around 5 hours a night) and our house is a small town/terraced house; however, our electric bill is double yours for some odd reason.

I may also look at purchasing one of those energy monitors that goes between the appliance and the wall socket. That would be extremely useful in working out how much energy each individual appliance is using.

Cheers all

TheGMan

Wonder if it could be our Wifi router(s)? We're with Virgin but their supplied routers wifi is crap so we have a separate router (TP-Link Archer C9) which does the Wifi from the Virgin router. These are on 24/7. Maybe I need to check the energy usage.

It's quite cumbersome powering these off and on though.

JGB1955

Have you got an electric immersion heater that has been switched on my mistake?

[Deleted User]

Just to be clear, are you actually using 380kwh/month (ie determined from actual meter readings), OR, is that what you are estimating you're using from the bill you are being issued with?