gas and electric use way above average

otb666

I would check what your server can use as between 500 to 1,200 watts per hour,on 24/7. Thats the equivalent of 12 100w light bulbs  I would check EPC https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate to compare heating and water costs and potential savings that can be made

MWT

k_man said:

Ally_E. said:

ajbird said:

The risks of legionella in an enclosed tank that is being frequently drained and refilled are somewhat overstated.

If it is a concern then raising the temperature once a week should be more than sufficient, certainly no need to run the boiler at 60-65C all the time.

There are two settings here and I am not sure which we are referring to
THere is the dial on the tank (set to 45) and I have a min-max  dial on the boiler itself. (Worcester Bosch Greenstar 30Ri ) 
Which are we talking about ?

Tank thermostat doesn't let it go above a certain temp for safety, can leave that at 60C. The boiler one is the one that controls the temperature of the water going to the tank. Is it in degrees or just numbers? I also have Worcester Bosch and for tank temp to be at 55C, I need to put it between 4 and E on the dial, on 4.75 if you will, closer to E than 4.

If you set the tank to higher than the boiler, doesn't that mean the boiler will be on for the duration of the timer, rather than stopping when the hot water has reached 45C, so running and pumping unnecessarily?

Yes, the tank thermostat will be calling for heat continuously, but it isn't quite as bad as it sounds as long as you have a relatively short pipe run between boiler and tank then the loop temperature will stabilise and the boiler is only going to be adding enough energy for heat lost in the loop.

... but you'll be running the pump non-stop as well.

Not really a good idea.

k_man

The extra electric for the pump running constantly may also negate the cost savings of turning the boiler down, especially if the timed HW periods are longer than necessary to top up hot water.

nadsat

Our usage in a 5 bed Victorian house is about 9000kWh electricity and 25,000kWh gas and we have gas central heating/water. 

As other say I'd look at where the gas is going. What rating is the boiler? I've put in a new 18kWh condensing boiler which is far more efficient than the higher output 20 year old one it's replaced and is still sufficient to drive 17 rads. 

Electricity is the big problem as we have teenagers with gaming PCs in the house and my wife loves her appliances. We seem to have several TVs going at once. The dishwasher, washing machine and drier are in daily use and we have an electric oven, a fridge/freezer and another freezer. I can't see any way I can get it below 9k but at least that's a target for you maybe. We have just replaced the fridge/freezer and freezer with more efficient ones so one possibility is upgrading stuff that is due (and the computer screen on the new fridge is interesting). 

ajbird

nadsat said:

Our usage in a 5 bed Victorian house is about 9000kWh electricity and 25,000kWh gas and we have gas central heating/water. 

These comments have been great. I have ordered the various measuring gadgets so we can track rogue appliances that may be drawing more power than expected.
However, the gas is still freaking me out. 
Water is only being heated 4 hours a day
There are 18 rads and the boiler is a fairly new Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri Compact ErP 30Ri . However, now that I look into this there is a lot of suggestion that these condensing boilers rarely ever actually do any condensing. 

nadsat

ajbird said:

These comments have been great. I have ordered the various measuring gadgets so we can track rogue appliances that may be drawing more power than expected.

However, the gas is still freaking me out. 
Water is only being heated 4 hours a day
There are 18 rads and the boiler is a fairly new Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri Compact ErP 30Ri . However, now that I look into this there is a lot of suggestion that these condensing boilers rarely ever actually do any condensing. 

Your boiler is 30kWh so is running 12kWh more than ours. I think the idea with condensing boilers is to turn the flow temp down so you don't get flumes from the exhaust but I've not done that yet on ours. 

In any case, what's the split in cost between your electricity and gas - before the recent hike our split was £2000 electricity £1125 gas, which is why I say electricity is the bigger problem but hard to get an off-switch on when there's a house full of people and electrical stuff. I run a large fish tank too but it's inside and not nearly as bad in filtration costs. We also use a couple of electric heaters in chilly rooms when the central heating isn't on and there's also been a lot of home working.  

Chrysalis

33 units a day, even the most inefficient PC's I can think off wouldnt guzzle that power.

You have done right to investigate.  

A starting point is probably watt meters, so you have in your own mind what the usage should be, all meters I own also if you leave them connected long enough will calculate KwH for you as well.

If after that you find the 33 a day unrealistic, I would try and arrange the meter to be tested.  When I tried to do this with Octopus they initially tried to scare me off by quoting their charge which is £80 (refunded if meter found to be faulty), then when I agreed to pay they started flat out stonewalling me.  I caved and got a smart meter fitted which is giving me significantly lower readings.  A outstanding bill is currently been reviewed by Octopus, so its unknown whether they will make a correction or not at this point.

If you get a absolute refusal to get the meter checked, make sure you have that documented in case the ombudsman needs to get involved, and get a meter swap, at least that will fix the problem if it is the meter and will to some degree act as evidence.  My new meter is on average 30-40% lower readings than the meter it replaced for reference. (I also had a gas meter checked after one year at this address, that was found to be faulty, bill was refunded, fee refunded).

Also according to the government information page, a meter test is actually free, the quotes are from the energy suppliers of what they want to charge to "arrange" the test.  It is in effect a means of deterrence.

Please keep us up to date.

cymruchris

If your pond pump is for decorative purposes - fit a smart plug and schedule it to come on only for the period of the day when you most want to see it in action. I have a small pond pump running a fountain and waterfall. Originally it was on 24/7 - then as everything was creeping up in cost, it now only runs from 11am to sunset. 

Mstty

OK I'm going to say it.

I am no eco warrior by any means but the power usage and waste of energy quoted for electricity in particular on some of these posts is ridiculous.

Big savings to be made to help the planet and your wallets.

Start small and see the changes on your daily reads you may just like seeing the pounds drop off your bill👍

k_man

ajbird said:

nadsat said:

Our usage in a 5 bed Victorian house is about 9000kWh electricity and 25,000kWh gas and we have gas central heating/water. 

These comments have been great. I have ordered the various measuring gadgets so we can track rogue appliances that may be drawing more power than expected.
However, the gas is still freaking me out. 
Water is only being heated 4 hours a day
There are 18 rads and the boiler is a fairly new Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri Compact ErP 30Ri . However, now that I look into this there is a lot of suggestion that these condensing boilers rarely ever actually do any condensing. 

While you should look at flow temperatures to make the boiler run more efficiently, this is not going to make more than about 10% difference to your gas usage.
So it will help, but only a bit.


Regarding the PCs - are any of these running intensive for long periods, video processing, crypto mining (you not know about that latter, but a family member may be supplementing income)?

A gaming rig with high end GPU can use a few hundred watts.

Have you done a few daily meter reads, to check if this usage is continuing?