Electricity consumption sanity check

keithgawler

Hi

I'd be grateful for thoughts/advice on my electricity consumption. I'm aware that a few questions like this have been posed before but I think each situation is a bit different so I hope to get some useful feedback on my particular situation.
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We have a 1976 3 bed bungalow - just the 2 of us - active retirees. Gas CH and hot water, everything else is electric. Currently with Octopus (ex-Avro). Gas SMETS1 meter (installed by BG c 5 years ago) has recently become smart again, Elec stubbornly remains dumb - I need to challenge Octopus again on this to see what the problem is. I take month-end meter reads and have a spreadsheet of data for the past 6 years of monthly Kwh and hence per day. Annual Kwh typically 27k gas, 7k elec with some variation across the years. My concern is if the elec is on the high side as the £'s is significant. I've always had a niggle before about this but obviously now the cost is a concern.

Daily summer Kwh is typically 10-12. Is this reasonable?

During the recent heat wave we were on holiday for 2+ weeks so I powered off almost everything. The only real electrical devices left on were freezer (garage - so ok was probably running a bit hot), american fridge freezer and wine cooler in kitchen. The other active electrics (which I assume are minimal draw) were Talktalk router, BG Hive hub and thermostat, EE signal booster. Meter reads I took before and after return equated to 5.3 kwh per day. Annualised manufacturer ratings of the 3 fridges/freezers totals 2.4Kwh per day - so where does the other 3Kwh go? I've checked now we are back home when taking my month end readings and Kwh is back to the usual for this time of year of c10/day. Things now back on are 2 fridges in the garage (overflow for wines, beers, softs, dairy produce etc), washing machine, Sky box and big screen TV (put on standby overnight but never switched fully off), plus 2 ovens and hob (though these are lightly used). Is it reasonable to expect these to draw 5Kwh per day between them?

I've got an electrician coming round first thing Thursday to replace the kitchen lights so will seek his views then on consumption but any comments please are welcome on whether I'm worrying unnecessarily.

Many thanks

Keith

Evan3020

You are using twice normal amount of gas and more than twice the normal amount of electricity.

Evan3020

You have 2 fridges, a large fridge freezer a another freezer in the garage and a wine cooler? Is that right? 

markin

All led bulbs? old plasma tv?

Only you can decide if wine fridges/freezers are worth the money.

Installing Solar if you have the money would be a way to simply reduce your usage.

Mstty

Our background use is just under 2kwh.

That comprises

Samsung 70/30 fridge freezer

Beko freezer 
Router

Nest WiFi  system

House alarm

If you want to get to know your devices and appliances intimately put an energy monitor on them.

Recently the baseline has gone up due to the hotter weather with fridges and freezers working harder.

It is not unusual for a large American style fridge freezer to draw a lot of power I would start there.

TAPO P110 Energy Monitor

https://amzn.eu/1fqqe1R

QrizB

I agree with the other replies.

You are using far more energy, both gas and electricity, than I would expect for two active pensioners in a bungalow.

27000kWh/yr of gas will, from October, cost around £4000 per year.

7000kWh/yr of electricity will be another £3000 a year.

I hope you will be able to halve both those numbers.

Robin9

Annualised manufacturer ratings of the 3 fridges/freezers totals 2.4Kwh per day - so where does the other 3Kwh go? 

Can you double check these figures please -   I suspect the American fridge/freezer would use that alone - and check the fridge dial settings.

Also can you confirm that the Immersion is off and you are using the gas boiler for your domestic hot water

Coffeekup

2 people using 7,000/27,000 kwh's of electricity/gas that's quite a bit.... By comparison my daughter and I used to use 1,800/9000.
I would say both are on the high side, but electric more so as you have gas ch and water.

keithgawler said:

During the recent heat wave we were on holiday for 2+ weeks so I powered off almost everything. The only real electrical devices left on were freezer (garage - so ok was probably running a bit hot), american fridge freezer and wine cooler in kitchen. The other active electrics (which I assume are minimal draw) were Talktalk router, BG Hive hub and thermostat, EE signal booster. Meter reads I took before and after return equated to 5.3 kwh per day. Annualised manufacturer ratings of the 3 fridges/freezers totals 2.4Kwh per day - so where does the other 3Kwh go? I've checked now we are back home when taking my month end readings and Kwh is back to the usual for this time of year of c10/day. Things now back on are 2 fridges in the garage (overflow for wines, beers, softs, dairy produce etc), washing machine, Sky box and big screen TV (put on standby overnight but never switched fully off), plus 2 ovens and hob (though these are lightly used). Is it reasonable to expect these to draw 5Kwh per day between them?
No microwave? Pond filters, pond lights? No security lights? No hot tub? No old water tank you're still heating for no reason? No tumble dryer? No pc? Sky box in second or third room? No hifi equipment? Hot tub?
That being said you have quite a bit for 2 people, 2 ovens one I'd imagine is just on and not getting used drawing energy for little to no reason.

2 fridge's for overflow for wines, beers and dairy? Garages are generally cooler anyway so I would get rid of these and have the drinks sitting on the side and have the minor inconvenience of replenishing the wine cooler or fridge as and when needed. As you have an American FF (which use alot of energy) do you really need to store more food outside for 2 people (I realize you may entertain but I'm sure you can get by). It must be so hard to keep track of there must be some food waste.

I'd say 5kwh's a day is about right for what you had left on whist away on holiday, it was hot and the chiller's/freezer would have had to work harder to keep cool. You don't say about sky box was left on or not but they use 25w an hour just being on in standby, more when recording or playing back.

You are aware of your previous usage which is good, and now you are starting to dig into what's costing you money. Time has come to trim some of the fat... How much you'll trim is your call, but come October that 7,000 units of electric will cost you £3100 a year not including vat and standing charges.
I'd start looking into that gas usage too, this time next year you'll be £4,000 worse off paying for that too. 

eastcorkram

I can see that the OP figures are high, but are they really more than double what they should be? Just checked our actual usage for the last 4 months. Electricity works out at 5.5 units per day . We have combi boiler so that does hot water. Three bed semi.  We only have one small fridge freezer. No computers, consoles etc. We both work full time, whereas the OP's presumably are home a lot more. 

Coffeekup

eastcorkram said:

I can see that the OP figures are high, but are they really more than double what they should be? Just checked our actual usage for the last 4 months. Electricity works out at 5.5 units per day . We have combi boiler so that does hot water. Three bed semi.  We only have one small fridge freezer. No computers, consoles etc. We both work full time, whereas the OP's presumably are home a lot more. 

I agree they maybe home more, and yes it's not sky high but it's definitely on the higher side for 2 people. Cutting back 2-3 units a day doesn't sound much but come October it's a £1-1.50 a day.

Robin9

eastcorkram said:

I can see that the OP figures are high, but are they really more than double what they should be? Just checked our actual usage for the last 4 months. Electricity works out at 5.5 units per day . We have combi boiler so that does hot water. Three bed semi.  We only have one small fridge freezer. No computers, consoles etc. We both work full time, whereas the OP's presumably are home a lot more. 

This may well be a lifestyles consequence .

We are a pair of OAP's and always someone at home. Gas Heating/shower  , 4 bed detached,  1 fridge, 1 freezer.

Elec 3250 kWh; gas 14,250 kWh   - so on the high side of "average"

Summer Elec 7 kWh / day

Edit - we do cook by elec so need to make more use of the microwave and the gas must go down a degree or two (or more)