Gas and electric help please

QrizB

Bounty1 said:

I thinking my fridge freezer may be a big problem , it’s an LG Premium ez digital 

That's a 15-year-old model. It's rated to use 522kWh/yr but it's one of those "frost free" models which has an electric heater inside it to defrost the coils. If it's faulty (and ice in the water chiller suggests it might be) it could be using far more electricity than that.

It might not be the only problem - you're using enough energy that there could be more than one cause - but it's a good place to start.

sam.4000

You mentioned an electric shower.  They are known to be about 18-21kw to use per hour.  

QrizB

sam.4000 said:

You mentioned an electric shower.  They are known to be about 18-21kw to use per hour.  

No they really aren't. The most powerful of the showers listed at screwfix.com today is barely half that, 10.8kW. In one of thise showers a 12-minute shower would use around 2kWh.

And the majority of the showers listed are under 10kW.

Bounty1

QrizB said:

Bounty1 said:

I thinking my fridge freezer may be a big problem , it’s an LG Premium ez digital 

That's a 15-year-old model. It's rated to use 522kWh/yr but it's one of those "frost free" models which has an electric heater inside it to defrost the coils. If it's faulty (and ice in the water chiller suggests it might be) it could be using far more electricity than that.

It might not be the only problem - you're using enough energy that there could be more than one cause - but it's a good place to start.

I’ve turned everything off today and turned my heating back on by itself, the electric pump seems to make the led on the meter flash often (sorry I’m not very good with the technical side of things) my plasma tv and American fridge freezer seems to be using a lot too.

our electric bill was sky high from Feb 2021 to aug 2021 where we used 7161 kWh compared to 5047 the previous year but we were working in a shed that March and used an electric heater 😬 (only just remembered this). 

My meter reading was 67045 August 11th on the last bill and it is now 71846 , how does that compare to my last amount of  usage ?

thanks again 

Robin9

I still suspect that freezer.

Read your meter, switch that freezer off for 3 hours, read the meter again , switch the freezer back on and then read again in another 3 hours. Compare those figures.

Gerry1

Come on, do the sums, it's not difficult !

You need hard facts, not vague statements such as 'flash often' and 'using a lot'.

Switch off and unplug absolutely everything apart from one suspect item, count the flashes and work put its exact consumption.  The red LED is your friend, just find out how any times it flashes per minute then go on to the next suspect item.  Take daily meter readings as well for the time being.

Bounty1

Gerry1 said:

Come on, do the sums, it's not difficult !

You need hard facts, not vague statements such as 'flash often' and 'using a lot'.

Switch off and unplug absolutely everything apart from one suspect item, count the flashes and work put its exact consumption.  The red LED is your friend, just find out how any times it flashes per minute then go on to the next suspect item.  Take daily meter readings as well for the time being.

No need to be rude! I’m only asking for a little bit of advice.

So I’ve actually reduced my electric usage Looking at my bill from last year, in this period aug-feb last year we used 6692kwh and aug-feb this year is 4846kwh. 

I’m taking daily readings and will try what someone else suggested by tuning fridge freezer off for 3 hours. I also plan on replacing the plasma tvs and changing the electric shower. 

Bounty1

Also any advice on staying on a standard tariff or what I should change to? Currently with British Gas on a standard tariff 

Gerry1

Bounty1 said:

Gerry1 said:

Come on, do the sums, it's not difficult !

You need hard facts, not vague statements such as 'flash often' and 'using a lot'.

Switch off and unplug absolutely everything apart from one suspect item, count the flashes and work put its exact consumption.  The red LED is your friend, just find out how any times it flashes per minute then go on to the next suspect item.  Take daily meter readings as well for the time being.

No need to be rude! I’m only asking for a little bit of advice.

So I’ve actually reduced my electric usage Looking at my bill from last year, in this period aug-feb last year we used 6692kwh and aug-feb this year is 4846kwh. 

I’m taking daily readings and will try what someone else suggested by tuning fridge freezer off for 3 hours. I also plan on replacing the plasma tvs and changing the electric shower. 

@Bounty1 Not being rude at all, you had been given lots of little bits of advice but it wasn't clear (at least to me) that you'd followed all of them completely, hence the encouragement to be super-quantitative. 

QrizB

Bounty1 said:

Gerry1 said:

Come on, do the sums, it's not difficult !

You need hard facts, not vague statements such as 'flash often' and 'using a lot'.

Switch off and unplug absolutely everything apart from one suspect item, count the flashes and work put its exact consumption.  The red LED is your friend, just find out how any times it flashes per minute then go on to the next suspect item.  Take daily meter readings as well for the time being.

No need to be rude! I’m only asking for a little bit of advice.

Sometimes we get a bit carried away. sorry if it seems rude.

Bounty1 said:

So I’ve actually reduced my electric usage Looking at my bill from last year, in this period aug-feb last year we used 6692kwh and aug-feb this year is 4846kwh. 

I’m taking daily readings and will try what someone else suggested by tuning fridge freezer off for 3 hours. I also plan on replacing the plasma tvs and changing the electric shower. 

That's good. If you have a mixer shower (that uses water from your hot tank or combi boiler) then use that instead. I'm still puzzled by what it was that used 9kWh during the day when the house was empty!

Bounty1 said:

Also any advice on staying on a standard tariff or what I should change to? Currently with British Gas on a standard tariff 

Right at the moment there's nothing on offer that's better than the standard variable. The April Ofgem cap will be announced next week and after that there might be more clarity on the longer term.