Moved from flat to house and my energy bills have tripled?! How can I be using so much more?

Cardew

gozaimasu wrote: »

Interesting. My bills went down after I switched off the hot water tank. I didn't do anything else differently to reduce the energy consumption. What do you think it is, if you're disagreeing with what I say it is?

It is not surprising that your bills reduced when you switch off the Hot Water tank and only put it on for 15 minutes:

Turned the hot water off, and now I only turn it on when I need to use hot water. Within 15 mins I have plenty of hot water for a shower.

Also you haven't stated how well your tank is insulated. Some people on MSE have reported seeing an un-insulated or poorly insulated Hot Water tank in the attic. (not suggesting that applies to your property)

My only point is, as stated in my post #15 above, that a hot water tank provided it is well insulated is not the cause of huge bills.

If I were to adopt your practice of only turning the hot water on for 15 mins a day for a shower, I estimate that I would save around 3p a day(once the tank was initially full of hot water). Bear in mind that full of 65C hot water it's loss is only 1.3kWh/24hours - and I don't keep mine at 65C.

gozaimasu

I have no idea how well insulated it is. Maybe I'll just go chuck some bubble wrap around it :rotfl:

Talldave

I'd probably struggle to heat a 310L tank in 15 minutes, but it is incredibly well insulated (Vaillant uniStor). However, hot water heating is a minuscule fraction of total gas consumption.