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

Mstty

Tapo P110 is a good starter for energy monitoring to find your vampire devices.

TP-Link Tapo Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring, Works with Amazon Alexa (Echo and Echo Dot) and Google Home, Wi-Fi Smart Socket, Remote Control, Device Sharing, No Hub Required(Tapo P110) https://amzn.eu/0VUommf

The gaming desktop PC and the fact it can help heat the upstairs in winter would be where I would start. That combined with an Aircon unit in the summer could account for 70kWh a week (could)

The American style fridge freezer could also draw 3kWh a day.

Start with the big energy users first then work down and if your son is working from home and earning he may have to pay for his electricity for the gaming pc and Aircon.

MariaAH

Mstty said:

Tapo P110 is a good starter for energy monitoring to find your vampire devices.

TP-Link Tapo Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring, Works with Amazon Alexa (Echo and Echo Dot) and Google Home, Wi-Fi Smart Socket, Remote Control, Device Sharing, No Hub Required

The gaming desktop PC and the fact it can help heat the upstairs in winter would be where I would start. That combined with an Aircon unit in the summer could account for 70kWh a week (could)

The American style fridge freezer could also draw 3kWh a day.

Start with the big energy users first then work down and if your son is working from home and earning he may have to pay for his electricity for the gaming pc and Aircon.

Thank you - our son does contribute to the bill, but suspect  that might be the vampire device (great term!) and he may have to contribute much more. Surprising re the fridge freezer. I will definitely look at the energy monitor

k_man

MariaAH said:

QrizB said:

MariaAH said:

GingerTim said:

Based on your actual readings, I make that 18,540 kwh of gas...
The gas use is also very high for spring and summer months.

Our cooker is electric, so gas only used for combi boiler. I just cannot see how we can be using that amount of energy??

Can you read your meters today so we can see how much gas and electricity you have used since May while the weather is hot and the heating it switched off? (I assume the heating *is* switched off?)

At the moment, when we use gas to heat water we're using less than 10kWh/day.

Yes heating is off
I did a meter reading yesterday:
Since 23 May have used 1605kWh of gas, so equates to almost 20kWh/day, double your usage. So that is just for hot water. Approx £1.46/day
Electricity 2827kWh since 23 May, approx £9.80/day

That's approx 34kWh, which with big Fridge freezer, possible hungry PC and 2 EVs isn't unexpectedly high.

Now to start working out where saving can be made.

Gas is high, but how many showers taken a day, and for how long?

QrizB

MariaAH said:

QrizB said:

MariaAH said:

GingerTim said:

Based on your actual readings, I make that 18,540 kwh of gas...
The gas use is also very high for spring and summer months.

Our cooker is electric, so gas only used for combi boiler. I just cannot see how we can be using that amount of energy??

Can you read your meters today so we can see how much gas and electricity you have used since May while the weather is hot and the heating it switched off? (I assume the heating *is* switched off?)

At the moment, when we use gas to heat water we're using less than 10kWh/day.

Yes heating is off
I did a meter reading yesterday:
Since 23 May have used 1605kWh of gas, so equates to almost 20kWh/day, double your usage. So that is just for hot water. Approx £1.46/day
Electricity 2827kWh since 23 May, approx £9.80/day

OK, 20kWh/day is more than we're using but could be explained by you taking more/longer showers than we do

You're using around 34kWh/day of electricity.

k_man said:

2 EV charges a week (@£14 per charge, is approx 50kWh per charge) is another 14kWh per day.

If 14kWh/day of that is EV charging, that's still 20kWh/day.

MariaAH said:

10) Yes - son uses an air con unit as his bedroom overheats due to gaming PC (but in summer gaming PC helps heat his room and the rest of upstairs)

I suspect most of the excess is down to this. If he's getting through enough power with his PC that he needs aircon, I'm going to guesstimate that at 5-10kWh/day for the PC plus the same amount for the aircon when it runs.

The PC PSU (plus any independently-powered accessories) will have a max rated power but is unlikely to pull the full power all the time. The aircon will also have a label that tells you how much power it uses. A plug-in monitor will give you accurate numbers for both items.

Robin9

@MariaAH    How old is your son - old enough to get a part time job  ?  If so lots of benefits - 1) while he's out your energy consumption (and cost) will plummet ; 2) you can cut his pocket money since he is working ;

macman

Heating at 21C? Turn that down to 20C and you should save 10% off your heating bill instantly. Or 19C and save another 10%. You are not leaving it on all night I hope? Hopefully this is living area only: bedroom should be fine at 18C which you can control with the TRV's.
Double glazing, loft insulation up to standard?
If that throws no light, I'd ask for a gas meter test. You'll have to pay for it, but if it's in error, you'll be refunded, and save a fortune going forward. I can see no way that your heating and DHW can use that much gas.
The leccy usage is high, but not unfeasible, with such things as gaming PC's and aircon running. Can't he just open the window instead? A portable aircon unit can pull as much as 3000 watts, that's like a kettle boiling continuously. Leave that on for 24 hours and it'll use 72kWh: that's £21.58 on your current tariff.

MariaAH

Robin9 said:

@MariaAH    How old is your son - old enough to get a part time job  ?  If so lots of benefits - 1) while he's out your energy consumption (and cost) will plummet ; 2) you can cut his pocket money since he is working ;

He is early 20's and works from home as a software engineer/developer (self employed) and gaming PC used for his work. Establishing the accurate consumption with one of the monitors would help and he will have to pay the excess!

MariaAH

macman said:

Heating at 21C? Turn that down to 20C and you should save 10% off your heating bill instantly. Or 19C and save another 10%. You are not leaving it on all night I hope? Hopefully this is living area only: bedroom should be fine at 18C which you can control with the TRV's.
Double glazing, loft insulation up to standard?
If that throws no light, I'd ask for a gas meter test. You'll have to pay for it, but if it's in error, you'll be refunded, and save a fortune going forward. I can see no way that your heating and DHW can use that much gas.
The leccy usage is high, but not unfeasible, with such things as gaming PC's and aircon running. Can't he just open the window instead? A portable aircon unit can pull as much as 3000 watts, that's like a kettle boiling continuously. Leave that on for 24 hours and it'll use 72kWh: that's £21.58 on your current tariff.

Heating (not used for months obviously since it was colder) was on about 21 but plan to turn down 19 when we get to autumn/winter. Yes we do have TRV on all radiators and have bedroom lower. Fully double glazed with insulated loft. 
from these replies, I suspect gaming PC and air con are using much much more than my tech savvy son tells me they are...and am ordering energy monitoring plugs to verify!

jimjames

I've got an air con unit and it's rated 2kW so if that's on for any length of time it will be a big part of the use.

chris_n

jimjames said:

I've got an air con unit and it's rated 2kW so if that's on for any length of time it will be a big part of the use.

A 2kW air con will only use about 600W. The 2kW is the heat pump output.