Annual KwH Usage in all electric flat?

schnegge_london

Hello!

I'm trying to get my head around what to expect after the hike in energy prices were announced. 

We moved into an all electric flat in October. End of January we got the first bill covering October to January (99 days according to the bill)
In this time we used ~1900 kwH of electricity  

According to the bill, our estimated annual use is ~9000kwH which would mean an annual bill of around £2700 on the newly announced tariffs.

As I'm new on living in an all electric flat and haven't finished a full year here, is an annual usage of 9000kwH in an all electric flat "normal"?
I couldn't find any estimates from googling...

-We're 2 people in a 2 bedroom flat
- We have electric heaters (no storage heaters, so we're not on an E7 Tariff)
- we have an electric immersion boiler for warm water in the bathroom and kitchen sink, which we heat up every other day for 2-3 hrs
- electric shower (used by both of us 1x per day, but try to limit to 5 mins each)
- dishwasher (3x per week)
- washing machine 2 -3x per week
- tumble dryer (2x per week for towels and bedsheets, but plan not to use it once it gets warmer and you can hang laundry outside)
- I work from home (currently full time, but will go to the office 2 days per week from around March - when I'm home during the day I only heat the room I'm working in)

Anyone any idea if this is realistic based on their experiences?

EssexHebridean

How do they extrapolate 9000kWh over a year from the 1900 you used for slightly over three months at the coldest time of the year I wonder?! Even assuming you used the same again from February - April, I can’t think of any reason why from May > September you’d use MORE power than you had during the 6 months that include winter?

We’re “nearly” all electric - just our cooker on gas, and we use around 5800kWh per annum. 

schnegge_london

I thought the same, as we hopefully passed the coldest time. 
But I really have the feeling the energy companies are doing anything to frighten you, trick you into overpriced fixes and in general squeeze every penny out of you. 

Since its around 10 degrees during the day, I already try to put the heating off for a few hrs during the day to save a few bucks. We try to be as careful as we can with especially the heating.

If I can achieve something like 6000 kwh I would be "happy". Its still a frightening amount of money, but less than I expected. 

QrizB

Just to check ...

schnegge_london said:

We moved into an all electric flat in October. End of January we got the first bill covering October to January (99 days according to the bill)
In this time we used ~1900 kwH of electricity 

Is that 1900kWh based on actual readings, or are they estimated? 19kWh/day is quite low for the winter months in an all-electric 2-bed flat.

I would suggest keeping a record of your own - weekly or monthly readings, as you prefer - just to give yourself reassurance that you really are using that little electricity.

If you manage to average that all year round you'll use around 7000kWh, which is better than 6000!

schnegge_london

Yes we have a smart meter and also at the end of the month I always check the readings on my own and keep them in a smartsheet. 

We try to be as careful as we can with our energy usage. As soon as it hits over 10 degrees we put the heating off - so we were lucky there were quite a few mild days during December. Then you can see the usage dropping massively...

I never been like this before, but with an electric flat and those energy prices, you can declare bankruptcy otherwise... 

QrizB

schnegge_london said:

Yes we have a smart meter and also at the end of the month I always check the readings on my own and keep them in a smartsheet.

Sounds like you've got everything under control, then  

Do your own figures agree and show that you're currently using around 19-20kWh/day, on average?

knightstyle

I would suggest looking at ways of cutting consumption. If you use an electric shower why are you heating a big tank of water?  Perhaps switch the immersion off and use a kettle?  Or a small under sink water heater?
Also look at where you can stop the heat is escaping from the flat, you only pay for lost heat, a perfectly insulated flat will use no electricity for heating!  Lights, cooking and occupation will keep the temperature comfortable. So door/window seals are important and roof and floor as well as outside walls.
I really don't think you should use 9000kwh a year if you can do some of the above.

schnegge_london

knightstyle said:

I would suggest looking at ways of cutting consumption. If you use an electric shower why are you heating a big tank of water?  Perhaps switch the immersion off and use a kettle?  Or a small under sink water heater?
Also look at where you can stop the heat is escaping from the flat, you only pay for lost heat, a perfectly insulated flat will use no electricity for heating!  Lights, cooking and occupation will keep the temperature comfortable. So door/window seals are important and roof and floor as well as outside walls.
I really don't think you should use 9000kwh a year if you can do some of the above.

Unfortunately our flat isn't really well insulated at least in the two bedrooms as they both have 2 outer walls. 
In all fairness I didn't check the EPC rating before, perhaps we would have gone for another flat if we would have known about the exploding electricity costs... 
As we're renting, are we allowed to install something like an under sink heater on our own? And what costs are we talking about? 
I was also wondering about how to limit the use of the boiler, but to still have warm water in the sinks. At least in the bathroom. 

QrizB

schnegge_london said:

As we're renting, are we allowed to install something like an under sink heater on our own? And what costs are we talking about?

Probably not. And around £100-£300 for the heater, plus fitting. If your hot water tank is properly insulated it's unlikely to be worth it.

Gerry1

Sorry to be all gloom and doom, but the reality is that you have the worst of all possible systems, full price electricity without storage heaters.  It's expensive now, it'll be crippingly expensive after the massive increase on 1 April, with probably another big rise in October.

The only solution is to move as soon as you can, preferably to somewhere with gas or at least modern storage heaters with both 24h and E7 circuits that have a built in fan to blow out heat only when it's needed.  Also make sure the property is well insulated.

Apologies again for the negative news, but the sooner you realise it's been a big mistake the sooner you'll be able to find somewhere else.

Cardew

The average electrical consumption in a property with gas CH is around 3,000kWh. Heating/hot water uses far more energy

Thus asking for the average electrical consumption of  '2 bedroomed flat' is fairly meaningless unless the size of the flat and the standard of insulation is given. A small 2 bed flat can be 600ft2 and a large 2 bed flat 3 times larger. There are many other factors - height of ceilings, size of windows etc.

It can be in a modern well insulated building with flats above and below and on either side, or the top floor of a badly insulated block with no flats on either side.

'One size fits all' doesn't apply.

Given your flat is not well insulated, and you have been working from home all winter, I would have thought 9,000kWh pa would be reasonable.