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

Ultrasonic

What is the power used just by your fish tank, and is this continuos or something that switches on and off as needed? This could be responsible for another fair chunk of your electricity total.

engineer0101

Ultrasonic said:

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).

Fair point, I misread the readout thanks for pointing it out. The price per hour however is correct as you've said - £1.41 p/h or 35p for 15 minutes/one shower. That's however only £15.75 a month (roughly) so not as much of a contributory factor as I'd have hoped. 

engineer0101

Ultrasonic said:

What is the power used just by your fish tank, and is this continuos or something that switches on and off as needed? This could be responsible for another fair chunk of your electricity total.

the fish tank pump is included in the baseline figure (fridge, wifi etc) of around £0.02 per hour and is just continuous it never goes on/off up/down.

Ultrasonic

engineer0101 said:

Ultrasonic said:

What is the power used just by your fish tank, and is this continuos or something that switches on and off as needed? This could be responsible for another fair chunk of your electricity total.

the fish tank pump is included in the baseline figure (fridge, wifi etc) of around £0.02 per hour and is just continuous it never goes on/off up/down.

Yes, I saw you'd listed it which is why I asked. 128 W continuously would be about 92 kWh per month, and so about a quarter of your 391 kWh that you were looking to explain.

Or to put it in financial terms, 2 p per hour adds up to £14.40 per month (assuming 30 days).

Note that your shower figure above is £15.75 each as well.

From what's been posted I'm leaning towards your 391 kWh per month being accurate...

Gerry1

Your baseline figure looks a bit on the low side.  You would need to let things run for at least a couple of hours to check the energy in kWh used over the relevant period, whereas I suspect you may have taken an instantaneous power measurement in kW.

The power figure could be very misleading if the fridge/freezer's compressor was not running at that moment.

bsms1147

Does your monthly bill bear any relation to your actual usage though? They’re not necessarily the same thing.

matelodave

Do you really need to spend 15 minutes in the shower - not only is it using lots of energy it's also squandering lots of water. A power shower or drench shower could get through 150 litres or more in ten minutes, you could be using the equvalent of two baths full.

I can mange to shower and wash my hair in around 2 minutes and use about 12 litres of water, my wife take a little longer.

The best way to get a baseline is to turn everything off that you dont need, ideally at the wall so stuff isn't left on standby.. Read the meter before you go to bed and then in the morning before you turn anything on again - that'll give you eight to ten hours for stuff to stabilise and things like fridegs and freezers to average out their consumption.

Try reading the meters morning and night for a week, noting down whats been used during the day to give you an idea of your consumption - if you dont monitor it you cant control it

Bigphil1474

OP, a third of your electricity payment is going towards showering. There's 3 of us in our house and we shower less than the 2 of you. That's where a lot of the cost is. Plus a dishwasher every day sounds a tad extravagant. Might be cheaper to wash up in the sink now and again with hot water from your combi?
As others have said, you need to check the meter readings are actual on your bill, not estimates. We were paying about £75 a month for gas and electric for a 3 bed mid terrace with 3 adults. Unfortunately we're now paying £100 a month based on the same usage.

[Deleted User]

I have recently moved house and my electricity consumption has gone down markedly.  A few things stand out for where we now live.  The shower now uses water from the combi rather than the electric.  I`m using more natural ventilation as a means of reducing condensation rather than an over reliance on a dessicant dehumindifier.  Both the new washing machine and heat pump tumble dryer use less energy per cycle than the ones they replaced.  Yesterday due to a burst pipe I had to do 3 washes and 3 tumble dryer to get all the towels dry and was amazed that my consumption was only 10kWh for the day.  The electricity norm now appears to be approx 30-40% lower than in my previous home.  Heating is still via a combination gas boiler and so far the consumption might be slightly lower than at previous house.

wild666

engineer0101 said:

I'm so confused and struggling where to turn. 2 people living in a 2.5 bed 1930's semi detached house. We are in the house (awake) maybe 6 hours a day tops weekdays and hardly in weekends. I love being cold so the heating is rarely on either. LED bulbs throughout. 

Our monthly bill is £97.27 Elec/391kWh average and £38.46 gas/627kWh average equalling £135.73! This is with British Gas and according to them we're on the cheapest tariff and USwitch can't beat it either.

I'm paranoid our smart meter is dicky as it seems to have shot up from sub £100 when we had it fitted back in mid-2020 but I would imagine anyone at British Gas would just shrug and go "yeahh sure". Does this seem high to anyone else? People I've spoken to scoff and ask "really?!" when I mention how high it is.

What can I do?

Thankyou so much in advance.

Maybe turning everything off that doesn't need to be on at the socket could reduce your usage, there are only three items that stay on 24/7 in my flat, fridge, freezer & router everything else is off that includes cooker, microwave, TV, DVD player, games console, if it isn't in use then it's off