HELP - 2 People/2.5 Bed Semi - Crazy Monthly Bill

Gerry1

BobT36 said:

We only have a couple of LED bulbs, the rest are CFL.

It's time to recycle those CFLs.  Quite apart from the horrible light colour and the irritating warm up time, they are far less efficient than modern LEDs, not to mention that you risk having toxic mercury in your property if you break one.

A 60W equivalent new LED consumes as little as 6W whereas an older LED is probably 9W, and an old CFL could be as high as about 14W.  As LEDs are now very cheap it makes no sense for anyone to keep using CFLs.

AcerBen

Yep I would just put together a history of all your actual readings for the last few years, and work out what the average daily usage is for each period.

Then if it's clear there's a problem, contact your supplier.

engineer0101

Thankyou all for your kind replies, it means a lot. I have been running around the house all day using our smart meter display and worked out the following costs and I'm still no clearer as these don't add up to what we're paying!

Baseline (fridge/freezer, Wifi, Fish tank): 126W/£0.02 p/h
Shower (electric!): 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h
Kitchen downlights: 78W/£0.02 p/h
Dishwasher: 90W/£0.02 p/h
Washing machine: can't get a solid number
Outside lighting: 90W/£0.02 p/h
Oven: 2.33kWh/£0.40 p/h

Assuming we have 45 showers a month each lasting 15 minutes, oven cook 3 times per week for 30 mins, dishwasher daily and washing machine every other day I work out the monthly cost to be in the region of £50 p/m plus standing charges. This is rough maths and there may be the odd 1 hour Playstation session and 3 hour weekend movie but other than that, that's it!

We have gas hob, petrol mower, new efficient Dyson, gas central heating - there is nothing I can think of fetching it higher.

Am I missing anything?

engineer0101

engineer0101 said:

Thankyou all for your kind replies, it means a lot. I have been running around the house all day using our smart meter display and worked out the following costs and I'm still no clearer as these don't add up to what we're paying!

Baseline (fridge/freezer, Wifi, Fish tank): 126W/£0.02 p/h
Shower (electric!): 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h
Kitchen downlights: 78W/£0.02 p/h
Dishwasher: 90W/£0.02 p/h
Washing machine: can't get a solid number
Outside lighting: 90W/£0.02 p/h
Oven: 2.33kWh/£0.40 p/h

Assuming we have 45 showers a month each lasting 15 minutes, oven cook 3 times per week for 30 mins, dishwasher daily and washing machine every other day I work out the monthly cost to be in the region of £50 p/m plus standing charges. This is rough maths and there may be the odd 1 hour Playstation session and 3 hour weekend movie but other than that, that's it!

We have gas hob, petrol mower, new efficient Dyson, gas central heating - there is nothing I can think of fetching it higher.

Am I missing anything?

sorry I cannot edit yet

Dishwasher is actually 2.26kWh/£0.35 p/h bringing monthly bill to an estimated £63 plus standing charges. 

comeandgo

What heats your tap water?

Ultrasonic

engineer0101 said:

Shower (electric!): 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h

Showers look like the major factor here but can I just check what you're saying here. It is that you looked at the total energy use for a single shower and got a figure of 8.17 kWh? If so is your £1.41 figure is presumably a cost per shower, rather than per hour?

You say you each have 45 showers per month. lasting 15 minutes a time. If you want to save money I'm sure there is scope for you to reduce both shower duration and frequency. The most economical way to shower is to get yourself wet, then turn the shower off to apply soap/shampoo, and then turn the water back on to wash it off. Not as 'luxurious' obviously but you could save yourself a lot of money.

engineer0101

comeandgo said:

What heats your tap water?

the combo boiler

engineer0101

Ultrasonic said:

engineer0101 said:

Shower (electric!): 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h

Showers look like the major factor here but can I just check what you're saying here. It is that you looked at the total energy use for a single shower and got a figure of 8.17 kWh? If so is your £1.41 figure is presumably a cost per shower, rather than per hour?

You say you each have 45 showers per month. lasting 15 minutes a time. If you want to save money I'm sure there is scope for you to reduce both shower duration and frequency. The most economical way to shower is to get yourself wet, then turn the shower off to apply soap/shampoo, and then turn the water back on to wash it off. Not as 'luxurious' obviously but you could save yourself a lot of money.

thanks for your reply

From baseline I turned the shower on and the smart meter display increased by 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h so I divided that by 4 to make the cost of a 15 minute shower.

Ultrasonic

engineer0101 said:

Ultrasonic said:

engineer0101 said:

Shower (electric!): 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h

Showers look like the major factor here but can I just check what you're saying here. It is that you looked at the total energy use for a single shower and got a figure of 8.17 kWh? If so is your £1.41 figure is presumably a cost per shower, rather than per hour?

You say you each have 45 showers per month. lasting 15 minutes a time. If you want to save money I'm sure there is scope for you to reduce both shower duration and frequency. The most economical way to shower is to get yourself wet, then turn the shower off to apply soap/shampoo, and then turn the water back on to wash it off. Not as 'luxurious' obviously but you could save yourself a lot of money.

thanks for your reply

From baseline I turned the shower on and the smart meter display increased by 8.17kWh/£1.41 p/h so I divided that by 4 to make the cost of a 15 minute shower.

Are you an engineer? I think there may be confusion of mixing up energy and power (energy per unit time)...

Were you looking at the instantaneous power figure when the shower was running? This would have been a figure in kW not kWh (which would be a measure of energy). If so then the total energy used by a 15 minute shower would be 8.17 kW * 0.25 hours = 2.045 kWh per shower. Your cost per hour would be about right though - it suggests a tariff where electricity costs you 17.25 p per kWh. 

The figure most of note is probably that on this basis you're paying about 35p per shower (excluding water).

Ultrasonic

Oh, and if your shower duration and frequency numbers are about right, we're talking about half of your monthly electricity use being from showers.

I assume you have no alternative shower you can use that uses water heated by the gas combi boiler?