Domestic Electricity Use 8000-10,000kWh pa

MingVase

Moreapples - I moved 18 months from a stone built house at 300m on a moor in southern Scotland.  We had coal fired heating & a Calor gas cooker, but still had relatively high elect bills. We found that for us, the American f/f was the problem. We also ditched the electric blanket - although I know what you mean with that, the room was so cold sometimes the top of the duvet would be wet in the morning with condensation from our breath - and that was with the radiator on. We gt hot water bottles instead and a pure wool duvet.
I think for you the solution might be more a case of going round obsessively turning things off for 3-4 days then checking the units used, and for heating the bodies rather than the rooms. Hope things get easier for you.

Sea_Shell

MoreApples said:

I've done daily readings in the last 2 weeks - since the additional meter was installed to monitor the one we have. Our daily use on the last week averages 11kWh with a range from 8-18. I could not identify what caused the 18 day to have such high usage. I'd say most reading were 10-13 kWh/day. 

Sorry just spotted this.

Surely the size/construction of your house and how it's heated are a red herring at this moment in time... assuming it's summer up where you are😉

Concentrate on finding the culprits for your summer daily usage...then you can tackle the rest as autumn draws in . 

MoreApples

Sea_Shell said:

Do you use hairdryers, straighteners a lot?  Or do a lot of ironing?


Think heat.    More heat, more kWhs.


All I can think of is to keep a diary of all what you do and for how long, and compare it to the days use, and report back.

On days (24 hrs) where we've not done "chores" or used the oven, we have daily usage of between 3-4 kWhs at the moment.

Do you know what you've used these past couple of days?

Hairdryer 1-2 times a week. straighteners a quick 1 minute for my fringe most days. Ironing - I am exceptionally skilled at minimising this with "shake and fold" and iron the odd thing maybe once a fortnight.

Yesterday (Thur) we used 9kWh - out 2 showers taken, out between 9am and 3pm, kids played play station that evening, dinner cooked on gas hob.
Previous day (Wed) 8 kWh - 1 shower taken, 1 bath run, dinner cooked in oven (40min on), kids did some play station.

Previous Thur 10kWh
Previous Wed 11kWh

Weekends are different and use 13-18 kWh. I'm going to continue to monitor it. Looking at the March readings, there is no real weekend pattern of higher use. Any weekend pattern caused by us just now should match a Monday and Friday's use while the kids are on school holidays and those days I'm off work or working from home.

I think the 18kWh day was the day someone used the tumble dryer a couple of times (not me!)

MoreApples

assuming it's summer up where you are😉

Concentrate on finding the culprits for your summer daily usage...then you can tackle the rest as autumn draws in . 

Yes - we are having a summer - it's fab! There have been a few times I've popped the infrared heater on in the kitchen but that has been it. The 3 convection heaters have not been needed in the house so it's not them. The GC heating went off in May and has stayed off.

Your comment begs the question - is 10-13kWh/day high use for the summer?

matelodave

MoreApples said:

assuming it's summer up where you are😉

Concentrate on finding the culprits for your summer daily usage...then you can tackle the rest as autumn draws in . 

Yes - we are having a summer - it's fab! There have been a few times I've popped the infrared heater on in the kitchen but that has been it. The 3 convection heaters have not been needed in the house so it's not them. The GC heating went off in May and has stayed off.

Your comment begs the question - is 10-13kWh/day high use for the summer?

Probably a bit more than most but if you extrapolate it over a year it works out to be between 3650 and 4745 however if you start to factor in extra heating and lighting it's easy to see how you can ramp it up in the winter.

Sea_Shell

MoreApples said:

assuming it's summer up where you are😉

Concentrate on finding the culprits for your summer daily usage...then you can tackle the rest as autumn draws in . 

Yes - we are having a summer - it's fab! There have been a few times I've popped the infrared heater on in the kitchen but that has been it. The 3 convection heaters have not been needed in the house so it's not them. The GC heating went off in May and has stayed off.

Your comment begs the question - is 10-13kWh/day high use for the summer?

It seems high to me. 😉

Are you able to calculate your overnight base load?   Take a meter reading last thing at night and again first thing in the morning before you even make a cup of tea, and see what you've used over that 7-9 hour period.

Alternatively as you leave the house and then when you return, so you get to know what all the background stuff is using....eg

Heating controls/timer
Alarm?

router

Sky box etc

Fridge/ freezer 
Any clocks/display

Etc 

MoreApples

Heating controls/timer
Alarm?

router

Sky box etc

Fridge/ freezer 
Any clocks/display

Etc 

No alarm - there are remnants of an old one but that does not appear to be switched on.
1 router
No Sky box - just standard telly.
There are 2 radio alarm clocks and the oven and microwave have clocks, if one considers a small display alarm clock run on AA batteries, they use very little.
I'm rechecking the fridge-freezers consumption again now.

Looking at the March figures from the low use meter, we use 2-7kWh at night with an average of 6kWh. I try recording the night use now that it is on one counter and see if that shows anything.

MWT

MoreApples said:

Looking at the March figures from the low use meter, we use 2-7kWh at night with an average of 6kWh. I try recording the night use now that it is on one counter and see if that shows anything.

Check the rating on your electric blankets, they could easily be accounting for a good part of that night time use on their own...

chris_n

I'm quite astounded that you can't understand why you use a lot of electricity.  Electric blankets all night, 1kWh EACH. Convector heaters, normally 2kW so on for half an hour 1kWh EACH. You are using an electic shower when you have a combi, this is madness showers are likely 1kWh EACH. 
I make that somewhere around 8 -10 kWh per day.

matelodave

Why have you got a two rate meter?