How much electricity is “normal” in a detached house with oil fired central heating?

Hasbeen

cannugec5 said:

I appreciate that this is a very wide guesstimate I am asking for, but I’d really like to know if we are way over average. 

We have a five bed detached house in Scotland. Oil fired central heating. Gas ( bottled) hob with electric oven. There are only the 2 of us retirees living here. We do have electric showers that I am aware are not cheap to run. 

I make (and sell ) jam from home so my dishwasher is used frequently on a 65 degree hot wash to sterilise jars. However the actual jam production uses the gas hob. 

We are in an area that does not yet have smart meters as no mobile signal. Therefore I cannot calculate the ‘damage’ my excessive use of the dishwasher is doing. 

My current electricity use is 7000kwh per year. 

Can anybody tell me how far above average this might be?

Op why use electric showers. Our oil boiler heats the hot water cylinder as well as CH. Lovely hot baths.

Have you walked around your property and looked at lights. Any halogens in kitchens etc?

Look to change all to LEDs. Go through room by room, main lights, wall lights, table lamps, exterior lights?

Washing machine full. Tumble dryer full used as required?

And check if cheaper provider available? When did you last switch?

cannugec5

Hasbeen said:

Op why use electric showers. Our oil boiler heats the hot water cylinder as well as CH. Lovely hot baths.

Have you walked around your property and looked at lights. Any halogens in kitchens etc?

Look to change all to LEDs. Go through room by room, main lights, wall lights, table lamps, exterior lights?

Washing machine full. Tumble dryer full used as required?

And check if cheaper provider available? When did you last switch?

Our boiler heats water, and I very occasionally have a bath. But I prefer a shower .
Yes, today my husband and I looked specifically for ‘wastage’ . We could do more at turning off lights we are not using, but we have replaced everything with LEDs already. We do have two big fluorescent tubes in the garage, but I didn’t think they use much. We only use one outside light and that is on a motion sensor, so not on very much at all. 

I only use the washing machine full, and use the tumble dryer in exceptional circumstances. 

Last switch was - today! I am a regular switcher and had just come to the end of contract. 

cannugec5

matelodave said:

I suggest that even if you guess that yours uses 1kwh for a cycle and you use it twice a day for 365days a year, it's only going to work out at 730kwh at 15p/kwh = £110 per year which TBH isn't really a kings ransom (and you'd have to be making a hell of a lot of jam to use it twice a day for a year).

It's not hard to do the sums and work out what stuff uses and how much it costs.

Thanks. I hadn’t appreciated just how simple the calculation is. 

I do actually make a lot of jam. I sell about 2,000 jars each year 😁, supplying local shops and cafes. But I think from your calculations that I’m attributing too much to the dishwasher. Even if it accounted for 1000kWh, that still leaves an excessive use. 

I must do the extra meter readings, but it’s unfortunate that we have to climb a ladder in the garage in order to see it. I was just looking at the meters you can buy to monitor usage but they aren’t cheap. I remember having one many years ago - a freebie from our then supplier.  I need to decide if getting one would actually impact our use, or if climbing the ladder frequently would do just as well. 

greyteam1959

Why are you messing about washing & sterilising the jars ??
If you are buying new jars & lids & hot filling it is not necessary.
We used to make around 5000 + jars of jam etc per year & never sterilised any jars at all.
It just not necessary.

matelodave

 I need to decide if getting one would actually impact our use, or if climbing the ladder frequently would do just as well. 

You'd keep fit and TBH you dont need to do it for ever, just for a few days to get a reference and then once a week or once a month depending on how well you are doing.

cannugec5

greyteam1959 said:

Why are you messing about washing & sterilising the jars ??
If you are buying new jars & lids & hot filling it is not necessary.
We used to make around 5000 + jars of jam etc per year & never sterilised any jars at all.
It just not necessary.

I’m afraid our environmental health department will disagree with you. When they came round to do my kitchen inspection they went though all these details. 

I do buy new jars and lids, but that is not sufficient. 

Tallerdave

cannugec5 said:

I must do the extra meter readings, but it’s unfortunate that we have to climb a ladder in the garage in order to see it. I was just looking at the meters you can buy to monitor usage but they aren’t cheap. I remember having one many years ago - a freebie from our then supplier.  I need to decide if getting one would actually impact our use, or if climbing the ladder frequently would do just as well. 

I used to use a Geo Minim+ monitor and liked it - available in two types either with a clip around the cable or with an eye to count meter LED pulses. Allows you to do live monitoring to work out what's contributing to base load. Might be some on ebay.

Gerry1

Tallerdave said:

cannugec5 said:

I must do the extra meter readings, but it’s unfortunate that we have to climb a ladder in the garage in order to see it. I was just looking at the meters you can buy to monitor usage but they aren’t cheap. I remember having one many years ago - a freebie from our then supplier.  I need to decide if getting one would actually impact our use, or if climbing the ladder frequently would do just as well. 

I used to use a Geo Minim+ monitor and liked it - available in two types either with a clip around the cable or with an eye to count meter LED pulses.

If the meter is rogue, the type of energy monitor that counts the meter pulses will never spot the problem, it will always happily believe all the fibs that the meter is telling !

tim9966

For the size and location of the house I'd say although above average it's about right. It's still about double the national average.
My parents live in a 5 bed house as well, and are in their 70's with no gas, only oil. They seem to use about 18 units a day which is about 6,500 kwh and they are in Southern England. 

tim_p

Fluorescent fittings can be surprisingly power hungry, often 60w plus (so two double fittings, 240w plus) so if left on overnight or 24/7 will soon chew through some of the overhead. Similarly older outside lights were often high power halogen and the same applies, especially if triggered by cats etc.