Very high usage

gardian8

Hi all. We moved into our new house last month on the 15th. It's a large 4 bed detached with a big conservatory.

The boiler is an old style tank system with header tanks in the loft and a tank in the airing cupboard. This is being swapped for a combo this coming Wednesday.

The large radiator in the kitchen doesn't work and as yet there is no permanent heat source in the conservatory. We have been using some oil filled radiators in the conservatory (2) and kitchen (1) for this past month and we have had to use the electric fire on a morning as sometimes the heating has not done in the morning due to the pilot light blowing out in high winds. The shower in the ensuite is also an electric set up. We have just had our first bill using my meter readings to bulb and we have somehow used 1084 kWh in the month! This comes to 155 for electric alone. We lived in a 4bed detached before this house although 10 years newer and our combined energy bill was 100 quid with bulb.

There are 4 of us in the house. Me and her both work from home and the kids are out at school all day. Sale as our past house with the cheaper bills.

Anyone suggest anything we can look to investigate what is using so much energy? We don't have a smart meter. I checked the meter on Saturday afternoon and since then we have used 90kwh. I have made sure all of the oil radiators are off and I am not going to use the fore tomorrow to see if that makes any difference.

Robin9

Could you post your meter readings please - on the 15th and today.

Is the reading from the 15th used on your bill ?

Bad news items -- oil filled rads, electric fire, electric shower

matelodave

Have you got an immersion heater.

You need to start reading the meter daily so you can get some idea of what is using it but I'd guess that electric radiators, heaters and possibly an immersion will all be using it. Most electric showers are 8-10kw, so if just two of you spend 10 minutes each a day in there, you'll consume around 2.5-3kwh a day, even more if you linger longer and lots more if the kids use it as well

Heating a conservatory is a bit like trying to heat the planet unless it is very well insulated and double glazed - most of the heat goes out through the roof, especially if it's just glass or polycarbonate - you need to retreat into the house during the winter.

You need to get your gas fired central heating sorted out because every kwh of leccy that you use for heating could be costing you four or five times the cost if you used gas

Have you checked your insulation, in the walls and loft space, have you got double glazing. An older house is likely to use a lot more energy to keep it warm than a more modern or recently built (last 10-20 or so) place.

gardian8

Robin9 wrote: »

Could you post your meter readings please - on the 15th and today.

Is the reading from the 15th used on your bill ?

Bad news items -- oil filled rads, electric fire, electric shower

We moved in on the 15th and submitted the reading as it was on the 15th, this didnt appear to register on the website so I submitted another reading on the 18th...

From my bill it shows

16 October 2019 13146 Customer Read
18 October 2019 13242 Customer Read
16 November 2019 14231 Customer Read
Energy 1085 kWh @ 13.06 p/kWh £ 141.70
Standing charge 31 days @ 19.47 p/day £ 6.04

since i posted this we have used 4kwh.

gardian8

matelodave wrote: »

Have you got an immersion heater.

You need to start reading the meter daily so you can get some idea of what is using it but I'd guess that electric radiators, heaters and possibly an immersion will all be using it. Most electric showers are 8-10kw, so if just two of you spend 10 minutes each a day in there, you'll consume around 2.5-3kwh a day, even more if you linger longer and lots more if the kids use it as well

Heating a conservatory is a bit like trying to heat the planet unless it is very well insulated and double glazed - most of the heat goes out through the roof, especially if it's just glass or polycarbonate - you need to retreat into the house during the winter.

You need to get your gas fired central heating sorted out because every kwh of leccy that you use for heating could be costing you four or five times the cost if you used gas

Have you checked your insulation, in the walls and loft space, have you got double glazing. An older house is likely to use a lot more energy to keep it warm than a more modern or recently built (last 10-20 or so) place.

I do not think we have an immersion heater. The boiler that is downstairs in the utility heats the water in the tank in the airing cupboard and the water is replaced by the header tanks in the loft - thats how it was explained to me by the sellers friend.

The house is 20 years old now. insulated in the loft and has double glazing. i can only assume its insulated in the walls as well.

Our old house was newer and had a combi which powered the showers and the heating was really efficient, this older system seems to take an age to get the radiators hot.

Good point about a daily check of the meter. ill do it at about the same time every day so i can see what I am using. once he new boiler goes in I am hoping to do away with the oil filled rads and use the fire a lot less.

coffeehound

gardian8 wrote: »

this older system seems to take an age to get the radiators hot.

Is the programmer starting the hot water and central heating at the same times? If so, it may send the heat to the hot water tank first, and then only to the radiators once the HW tank is done.

gardian8

coffeehound wrote: »

Is the programmer starting the hot water and central heating at the same times? If so, it may send the heat to the hot water tank first, and then only to the radiators once the HW tank is done.

The timer is set so both the water and the heating come on at the same time. I was assuming that once the water reached the desired temp, no more gas would be used to heat it further until the temp of the water in the tank dropped. but what you are saying that makes sense, I will have a look at the manual

Swipe

Do yourselves a favour and close the conservatory off until the spring and use the sun to heat it instead.

coffeehound

gardian8 wrote: »

The timer is set so both the water and the heating come on at the same time. I was assuming that once the water reached the desired temp, no more gas would be used to heat it further until the temp of the water in the tank dropped

Yes that's right. It means though that there can be a long delay before the radiators start heating in the morning. You could schedule the hot water heating to be done in the late evening, or overnight if it won't wake people up, so that the heating comes on more quickly in the morning.

gardian8

Just read the electric meter again there, its 14337, it was 14330 at 7:30am today. so thats 7kwh all day for 2 of us to be in as we both work from home. washer and dryer has been on twice and i had a shower this morning, I would say the massive over use was down to the fire and oil filled rads. Thanks for the advice..

also, the heating engineer has been to do a final check of what is needed for the parts so the new combi install is going ahead for tomorrow. no more need for oil filled radiators or the fire after tomorrow, in his words, it will be "bouncing" hot once the work has been done.

Talldave

If the radiators are full of sludge that would account for the heating taking a long time to get going.

Personally I would never fit a combi boiler. Why spend money downgrading to a setup where you'll be twiddling your thumbs waiting hours for hot water to appear?