Oct price cap increase likely to push energy bill to over £10k... for a family of 4...

wrf12345

I managed to get my daily use down to 1.2KW but during the heat that has increased to 1.8-2kw due to the fridge/freezer (ancient fridge, newish freezer) so that quoted 1.2kW is probably an average, lower in winter and much higher now. Once the summer is over I will have to get rid of the fridge.

Worth checking what usage is on standby on electricals, my old skybox was burning through 25W an hour when on standby.

You can always persuade your family of the health benefits of cold showers and freak British Gas out by saying you have turned the gas off at the meter...

Astria

Wow, I work from home, PC on all day, 2 monitors, xbox, ps4, router, wifi, 55" TV, etc. Washing and cleaning is done at the weekend only, dishes done every day (once per day), electric shower every day, comes to an average of £1/day. Will increase in October as currently paying 15p/kWh electric and 3.9p/kWh gas.

chris_n

MariaAH said:

chris_n said:

Don't recall (may have missed it) any mention of an iMac for 8 hours a day, depending on model that could well be another kWh or more.

I referred to is previously as a desktop (see page 3)

With the figures you gave that is over a kWh per day so at least 250 kWh a year, if you are all working from home with similar machines that would be 1000kWh per year so a significant part of your consumption (ignoring the gaming pc). What I am getting at here is that maybe everyone needs to be more aware of the costs involved in WFH and not dump them in with domestic consumption. These costs need to be balanced against transport savings etc.

NeverendingDMP

MariaAH said:

sienew said:

chris_n said:

Don't recall (may have missed it) any mention of an iMac for 8 hours a day, depending on model that could well be another kWh or more.

This is my thoughts. Seems like a lot in this thread want to blame one specific item but to me it seems like a family of people all using a lot of energy. Sure, the gaming PC will be using a lot but so will an imac all day, 2 washes, an American fridge freezer running, charging cars ect. There are a lot of other things that use a lot of energy too that haven't been brought up in these posts that the OP probably uses. To me it feels like high usage across the board.

It doesn't seem to me like it's a situation where one item* can be turned off and the bills will crash. Usage going down would require everyone being more careful and making an effort to use less.

*unless there is crypto mining going on but that doesn't seem particularly likely but still worth double checking

I tend to agree, but the TP link monitor plug will confirm this once and for all if any one device is particularly excessive. There is definitely no crypto mining going on and has not been for months and months now. 

iMac power consumption is 217W (71W on idle) - I work from home 3/4 days a week.
Fridge/freezer is 438kWh per year which is 1.2kWh per day (not as bad as some I believe)
Husband works from home approx 3 days a week
Son works from home, irregular hours

I am coming round to the view that the fact that we all work from from home for at least half the week, all using energy as part of our jobs during the day, is a major factor here. I 'could' go into the office more often, but that would consume energy on my EV, so would it be counter productive.

The TP monitor will help establish where most energy being consumed, and we will have to make adjustments where possible. Some things are not negotiable, i.e. I need to be on my iMac for my job. And we will be re-thinking how little per month we charge our son for rent. Our daughter will be joining the RAF in the near future, once she has completed her physical, so that will be one less in the home using energy!

I genuinely thank everyone who has responded and joined this thread.

Let us know if the monitor turns out to be a good investment. I googled one this morning after reading your thread

pochase

You can't lose much. If you don't need it any longer as a monitor,  it is still a smart switch, which is just £2 cheaper if you only buy a smart switch.

MariaAH

wrf12345 said:

I managed to get my daily use down to 1.2KW but during the heat that has increased to 1.8-2kw due to the fridge/freezer (ancient fridge, newish freezer) so that quoted 1.2kW is probably an average, lower in winter and much higher now. Once the summer is over I will have to get rid of the fridge.

Worth checking what usage is on standby on electricals, my old skybox was burning through 25W an hour when on standby.

You can always persuade your family of the health benefits of cold showers and freak British Gas out by saying you have turned the gas off at the meter...

I have a sneaking suspicion that some of our 'on standby' could be adding up...now I have the TP link I will be investigating

MariaAH

Mstty said:

MariaAH said:

Mstty said:

sienew said:

chris_n said:

Don't recall (may have missed it) any mention of an iMac for 8 hours a day, depending on model that could well be another kWh or more.

This is my thoughts. Seems like a lot in this thread want to blame one specific item but to me it seems like a family of people all using a lot of energy. Sure, the gaming PC will be using a lot but so will an imac all day, 2 washes, an American fridge freezer running, charging cars ect. There are a lot of other things that use a lot of energy too that haven't been brought up in these posts that the OP probably uses. To me it feels like high usage across the board.

It doesn't seem to me like it's a situation where one item* can be turned off and the bills will crash. Usage going down would require everyone being more careful and making an effort to use less.

*unless there is crypto mining going on but that doesn't seem particularly likely but still worth double checking

All of those have been mentioned and listed earlier in the thread to be honest. The iMac only came out the woodwork yesterday👍

Try page 3 when the OP answers a long list of questions.

On page 3, I referred to my iMac as a desktop.

Ok good luck with your investigation you seem to have it in hand 

I hope you manage to save some energy but don't forget your gas bill and reduction there👍

We plan to turn thermostat to 18 degrees when we do start using heating again, and have significantly reduced shower time, so that should help gas usage. Also making sure taps in cold position before turning on to wash hands if we don't need hot water.

MariaAH

UPDATE:

TP link monitoring plugs in situ...one for the gaming PC and the other for the strip that has air con and monitors...

Gaming PC on but not doing too much = 300W
Gaming PC playing valorant = 332.8W
Monitors and Air con combined = 594.4W, or which 81W is monitors and 513.4 is aircon

Daily
PC (playing games) and monitors approx 8 hours a day = 413.8W x 8 = 3.3204kWh x 28p = 93p
Air con approx 2 hours a day = 594.4W x 2 = 1.1888kWh x 28p = 33p

Per annum
3.3204 x 365 days = 1,211.95kWh x 28p = £339
1.1888 x 182 days = 216.36kWh x 28p = £60

This is lower than I and others on this forum expected...

Will leave TP link plugs in place for 7 days to monitor...

ispookie666

Nice to get an update.  I suspect you will need to implement marginal gains to get your consumption down. 

brook_heather

I bet the gaming PC is currently on High Performance power plan - try changing it to Balanced and the idle power consumption should drop closer to 50W.  If currently on High Performance then the cpu is running at maximum frequency even when it has nothing to do.   Balanced mode should still give you nearly the same performance with much better power saving.