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Moved house, same appliances and electricity usage has gone way up
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JudgeDekker
Posts: 85 Forumite

in Energy
Hello. We have recently moved house. The new house is roughly the same size as the old one, and both have oil heating, electric cooker and no mains gas. Same number of people living there occupying the same number of rooms. We haven't bought any new electrical appliances, just plugged in the same old ones from the old house. Our electricitiy usage was 5000 KWH / year in the old house, and in this new one we are on course for 7500 KWH / year. I don't understand why it's so much more in the new house, considering it's the same playstion, TV, toaster etc as we had in the old house, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. There's a burglar alarm in the new house, it's not actually the same cooker so maybe that's less efficient, and I don't think the lights in the new house have energy efficient bulbs yet. But surely those things don't add up to 2500 extra KWH / year, do they. Any ideas, please? Electricity can't just leak like water, can it? Any advice gratefully received.
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How have you arrived at the estimate of 7500Kw? Plus yes change your lighting to more energy efficient means, especially any 50w downlights etcThe world is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good. Napoleon1
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If you've only recently moved house how have you determined your annual consumption. Most people use more energy in the winter than in the summer, so if you are just extrapolating what you use then you might be over estimating. However if you've kept monthly records from your previous place and are then comparing them against corresponding monthly records you could see what is going on and perhaps do something about it. Have you checked whether you've got an immersion heater that may have been switched on. have you now got an electric shower which gets used frequently - do an energy audit.Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers2
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LED lighting can use as little as 10-20% of the energy consumed by legacy lighting, so if you're got a few halogens knocking around they can really ramp up consumption. As an example, in the kitchen of the place I'm currently renting, halogen lighting totalled 860W whereas with LED its now 192W and even that's not a straight comparison because I've got more lumens in total with a couple of the fittings now having brighter bulbs.Also look for any electric underfloor heating, loft lighting left on, halogen security lights staying on all night, etc2
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Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.
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JudgeDekker said:Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.
Or look for some deals at B&Q
The world is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good. Napoleon0 -
JudgeDekker said:Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.
A typical 3 bedroomed house usually only has about 1 dozen lights at most.
As for the earlier user who claimed to have had 800-1000W of light in their kitchen only, I'm not sure what size kitchen they have but that would be like running this:
The heat produced alone, particularly in a kitchen, would make it uncomfortable, let alone the brightness.
Our kitchen, which admitedly is not that big, is more than adequately lit by a single 60w fluorescent tube.
I'd have thought a maximum of 2 of those (120W) would be more than adequate light for the largest of any domestic kitchen.
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JudgeDekker said:Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.0
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Talldave said:LED lighting can use as little as 10-20% of the energy consumed by legacy lighting, so if you're got a few halogens knocking around they can really ramp up consumption. As an example, in the kitchen of the place I'm currently renting, halogen lighting totalled 860W whereas with LED its now 192W and even that's not a straight comparison because I've got more lumens in total with a couple of the fittings now having brighter bulbs.Also look for any electric underfloor heating, loft lighting left on, halogen security lights staying on all night, etc
And I see elsewhere you claim to use 40,000 kWh of gas per year in this rental property? (the average is 12,000 kWh p.a.). Sounds like you are definitely renting somewhere the size of Buck House.
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DawnCrush said:JudgeDekker said:Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.
A typical 3 bedroomed house usually only has about 1 dozen lights at most.
As for the earlier user who claimed to have had 800-1000W of light in their kitchen only, I'm not sure what size kitchen they have but that would be like running this:
The heat produced alone, particularly in a kitchen, would make it uncomfortable, let alone the brightness.
Our kitchen, which admitedly is not that big, is more than adequately lit by a single 60w fluorescent tube.
I'd have thought a maximum of 2 of those (120W) would be more than adequate light for the largest of any domestic kitchen.Doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. Recessed spots don't throw light sideways so you need good coverage. My last place was a single bedroom flat, it was built with 9 down-lights in the living room, 6 in the kitchen, 4 in the hall, bathroom and en suite for a total of 27, with just a pair of CFL's in the bedroom. And yes, it could get noticeably warm with everything on, but the heating was electric anyway (the cheapest panel heaters that the lying agent described as 'storage' but that's another story) so it didn't make much difference. LED GU10's were still pretty terrible at the time so I was stuck with them.About 1.5kW including a few standalone lamps which were absolutely needed. In comparison, my current place has all LED, many of which are filament and the total (including the PIR lights outside) is 160WAs for the original post. matelodave is probably right about extrapolating the time of year, but also, does the shower definitely run off the oil? It's not electric? That's one place the energy definitely can leak away like water.3.6 kW PV in the Midlands - 9x Sharp 400W black panels - 6x facing SE and 3x facing SW, Solaredge Optimisers and Inverter. 400W Derril Water (one day). Octopus Flux0 -
DawnCrush said:JudgeDekker said:Thanks for the advice. I checked the downlighters: 5w LEDs in the old house, 50w halogens in the new one. And there's dozens of those. I reckon there's a few hundred quid right there.
A typical 3 bedroomed house usually only has about 1 dozen lights at most.
As for the earlier user who claimed to have had 800-1000W of light in their kitchen only, I'm not sure what size kitchen they have but that would be like running this:
The heat produced alone, particularly in a kitchen, would make it uncomfortable, let alone the brightness.
Our kitchen, which admitedly is not that big, is more than adequately lit by a single 60w fluorescent tube.
I'd have thought a maximum of 2 of those (120W) would be more than adequate light for the largest of any domestic kitchen.
All the houses here are the same.0
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