Best ways of cutting energy usage?? Last year 63,000 Kwh Gas and 9,300 electric

Jonesy_40

Thank you all for your insightful advice, I'm going to have to print them all off and go through them in detail! 
Update from British Gas installing smart meter on Saturday was they tried their biggest booster but were unable to get a signal in the house (due to the thick brick walls) so couldn't set it up. So I will carry on with my own regular readings.

I'm going to look to see if I can get a fixed deal today on Green Energy, which seems the lowest. It's quoting just under £900 a month using my 2021 usage, but I'm sure using your advice I can get this down.

Robin9

But did you take meter readings on Saturday while the installer was there ?

Jonesy_40

fezster said:

Two 38KW boilers is insane. Keep in mind the average heat loss in a house is around 10KW and boilers are usually oversized for HW requirements only.

I'd recommend doing a whole house heat loss calc or paying someone to do it for you. Something like heatinghub or a local heating engineer who understands how to do the calcs properly and can offer you expert advice on sizing radiators, boilers, control systems, insulation etc etc.

Thanks for this @fezster, i'll see if I can find an engineer to give some expert advice as clearly the system isn't efficient.

Jonesy_40

Robin9 said:

OP's bill even at last years rates would have been scaring me and I would have been asking questions a long time ago.  Today should have been a big day with his brand new Smart but he's been very quiet.. Quite why the meter had to be Smart so that he can read it I don't understand.

Thanks for your help @Robin9. I was hoping the smart meter taking 30 minute readings would help me identify when/why I was using so much energy, especially when at work. But as you say, I can continue to take my own readings when at home.

Jonesy_40

gazapc said:

merchcon55 said:

As mentioned above, tumble dryers can be a biggie ! As you have 2 young children, I can easily imagine you doing a wash a day and using the dryer say once a day (perhaps not in the summer months).

Say you used the dryer 250 days of the year x 5KWH per use = 1250 KWH just for one appliance.
Washing machines running high temperature washes - I'll estimate 2KWH per wash x 365 days = 730 KWH

To round numbers, say this is 2000 KWH/year - you may not have much of a choice to lower this - our 3 kids are now all grown up, but trust me, washing machine and dryer could easily be on twice a day ! 

Let us know how you get on

The OP said they had as a new heat pump dryer. My dryer per reasonable load uses about 0.8 kwh.  So way less than your 5 kwh.



Honestly, the OP needs to stop faffing around with minor appliances. A freezer as mentioned above is not going to be using that much electricity or gas.

Concentrate first on the big loads, which is anything to do with heating. And yes, check for faulty meters but don't expect them to be wrong.

I'll do that, thanks @gazapc
I don't think the meters are faulty, just need to make the system work more efficiently

Jonesy_40

Mstty said:

I wonder if they have found the hidden heated swimming pool and second aga in the basement?🤣🤣

@Mstty 😂
I see you have been talking about Green Energy a lot. I'm going to call them today and see what they think of taking on both my OVO and British Gas accounts on the fixed they are currently offering. Seems way better than the fixed offered by both my current companies.

Robin9

@Jonesy_40      And what estimate of consumption are you going to give GE ?

It would really help  if you could give us what ACTUAL meter readings you have for both the two gas supplies and the electric. Go back as far as you can - ignore the estimated readings.

Jonesy_40

Hi Robin, Yes I did take meter readings. On the electricity I have used 30 Kwh exactly since the engineer came on Saturday at midday. This has included running dishwasher a few times and washing machine twice (all on eco settings now!), three fans on in bedrooms overnight. This is obviously a big improvement and going to keep monitoring at least daily. 
Here are the figures for electricity since we moved in in 2020:

Robin9

Thanks  - plenty to digest but if you think 15kWh/day   is good you are in a different world to me -  should be under 10 kWh in a gas heated house

What were you up to in March ?

Keep reading those meters -  try switching off that fridge / freezer for a few hours


and the Gas ???????????/

Jonesy_40

Gas for the end of 2020 and 2021. The overall actually has come out slightly under my 63,000KwH that I originally thought. The Aga was in the British Gas meter, so this should reduce a lot this year.