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

TheGardener

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I have duplicated but Gaming PC's are the devil's own work when it comes to electricity usage as we have discovered on our voyage of discovery as to how to save electricity. I mean, it can use as much as the rest of the house put together! I was devastated when we discovered we'd been paying so much for the damm thing. I thought it was working from home that triggered the larger bills but now we know. After a fairly significant family row ...we discovered that the settings on the graphics card could be dialed down and it has made a huge difference. We hadn't gone as far as an Air Con unit to counteract the hot room but had got a dehumidifier - that's now gone and he opens the windows but has been told in no uncertain terms that he will either a) pay for the WHOLE cost of the electricity he uses or b)he moves out or c) he gets rid of the machine - tough choices but I could have wept (well, I did) when we realised how much it had been costing us. TBF - he was pretty stunned when he realised how much it had cost too. 

Vincero

TheGardener said:

I haven't read the whole thread but Gaming PC's are the devil's own work when it comes to electricity usage as we have discovered on our voyage of discovery as to how to save electricity. I mean, it can use are much as the rest of the house put together! I was devastated when we discovered we'd been paying so much for the damm thing. I thought it was working from home that triggered the larger bills but now we know. After a fairly significant family row ...we discovered that the settings on the graphics card could be dialed down and it has made a huge difference. We hadn't gone as far as an Air Con unit to counteract the hot room but had got a dehumidifier - that's now gone and he opens the windows but has been told in no uncertain terms that he will either a) pay for the WHOLE cost of the electricity he uses or b)he moves out or c) he gets rid of the machine - tough choices but I could have wept (well, I did) when we realised how much it had been costing us. 

The latest and greatest graphics cards can maintain a constant load 500W or higher.
It's not just the graphics card though - the CPUs can consume over 150-200W under sustained peak load.

The irony is, if you step away from the bleeding edge performance parts, you can get say 80% of the performance for probably not much more than 50% of the power usage.

markin

Both my portable ac units use around 3-7 KWH/day depending on outside temp. A mini split not sucking in hot outside are would be far more efficient, The Panasonics im looking at say 800kwh annual for cooling 80-120sqm. Possibly a saving of 200-500kwh annual, For Cooling 9 months a year.

sienew

MariaAH said:

Robin9 said:

Re your son -  your should be able to determine a normal consumption when he's at work - you just need a day when he's not at home !

I presume he's paying a good whack for his board and lodging. When I started work but lived at home the going rate was 25%

We are very generous with regards board and lodging as he is trying to get his business off the ground, BUT he will have to stump up more to cover energy use if we can demonstrate he is the culprit!

I don't think it's quite that simple. Its clearly not one thing here, its the non EV tariff, it's the gaming PC and aircon, it's the American fridge freezer, it's the long hours of heating, it's the massive number of possibly long showers, large number of electronics, its the high heating temp and these are just the issues that are obvious. I don't think in this case it's a vampire device or that your son is solely the culprit, I think it's just a pattern of high use by the household.

Mstty

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

1980's houses were not known for their energy efficiency so if nothing has been done to update keeping the heat in it will be like burning pound notes and will explain a lot of the excess gas usage in winter.

Cavity wall insulation and loft insulation both became commonplace for Building Regs compliance in the 80s. (I don't want to say "mandatory" as I haven't checked the Regs, but I had a summer job as a labourer and remember houses being built with both.)

I have always had it in my mind it was the 1990's when cavity wall insulation became mandatory. 

Worth checking any property before then.

Sea_Shell

michaels said:

xzibit said:

I've just compared your bill to ours at the exact same time of year between 1st April - 23rd June.

You averaged 44.75kWh per day for gas, whilst we averaged 13.35kWh.

You averaged 31.77kWh per day for electric, whilst we averaged 4.96kWh.

We use gas for cooking as well as heating a cylinder of hot water each day (no combi). 4 bed detached house with 2 adults, 1 child. Granted it's newer than yours (2000) however we're not using any heating during this period. Hopefully it may help you see what could be possible. We were not particularly careful with energy - something that has now changed in the run up to the apocalypse.

But this is through choice, you have chosen to use 1/3 as much hot water as the OP, some people choose to shower more often for long enough to get properly clean.

Similarly electricity, they are choosing to run more electronic stuff than you are.  You don't get much hoovering, laundry, tv, cooking, computer etc for 5kwh per day.

Come on now michaels, that's just rubbish and you know it!!!   You don't need to be in the shower for 10-15 mins + to get "properly clean" (whatever that means).    Bit of self-justification going on there...either that or you're being sarcastic!!

Mstty

@MariaAH

The good thing is this is the perfect time of year to work out what things cost to run. You don't have heating kicking in and out and you can turn everything off except the router(WiFi nest system if you have one) and the fridge freezers.

Kick the family out it's nice outside and get your monitoring on lol

isasmurf

I'm puzzled as the OP had a smart meter with their previous supplier why they are asking BG for one? Where did the smart meter with the previous supplier go? Do they mean they have a smart meter but it's gone dumb on switching to BG? 

Zolablue

isasmurf said:

I'm puzzled as the OP had a smart meter with their previous supplier why they are asking BG for one? Where did the smart meter with the previous supplier go? Do they mean they have a smart meter but it's gone dumb on switching to BG? 

We have a Version 1 smart meter fitted to our electricity supply but it only worked with the supplier that installed it. As soon as we changed our supplier the smart meter was (and still is) useless

MWT

Mstty said:

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

1980's houses were not known for their energy efficiency so if nothing has been done to update keeping the heat in it will be like burning pound notes and will explain a lot of the excess gas usage in winter.

Cavity wall insulation and loft insulation both became commonplace for Building Regs compliance in the 80s. (I don't want to say "mandatory" as I haven't checked the Regs, but I had a summer job as a labourer and remember houses being built with both.)

I have always had it in my mind it was the 1990's when cavity wall insulation became mandatory. 

Worth checking any property before then.

Never hurts to check, but the 80's were a period of transition, asbestos was banned, and soon after, cavity wall & loft insulation became 'normal'...

Our house was built in 1987 to the current standards at the time and benefited from both of those features.

By current standards the loft insulation was inadequate so even if fitted at the time it should have been significantly enhanced before now.