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

macman

Cavity walls have been around since the 1920. Cavity wall insulation became mandatory in the 1990's. So this 1980's house should have at least the former.
I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.
I would start with the gas, as there is simply nothing to explain the high consumption on that, since it is only used for heating and hot water. Setting it as high as 21C is wasteful, but, unless it's left on all night in winter, or the insulation terrible, it should still not be using that much.
Given the scope of the potential saving here, I would ask the supplier to do a meter test. 
The possibility of both meters being erroneous is vanishingly small, so I still think the leccy usage is down to the factors above.
Bear in mind that the OP has not yet given us 12m usage figures. 7m is better than nothing, but not conclusive.

MattMattMattUK

macman said:

I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.

Gaming PC, 600-700 watts draw when heavily gaming would not be unreasonable. However that is going to be dwarfed by the air con which I could at the bottom end be drawing 2kW and could even for just one room be up to 5kW if they are trying to extract the waste heat from a 700 watt PC, as well as high ambient temperatures. 

chris_n

MattMattMattUK said:

macman said:

I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.

Gaming PC, 600-700 watts draw when heavily gaming would not be unreasonable. However that is going to be dwarfed by the air con which I could at the bottom end be drawing 2kW and could even for just one room be up to 5kW if they are trying to extract the waste heat from a 700 watt PC, as well as high ambient temperatures. 

Domestic aircon doesn't draw 2kW, it may be rated at that but it is a heat pump so for a 2kW unit expect to use somewhere around 600W. 

EssexHebridean

macman said:

Cavity walls have been around since the 1920. Cavity wall insulation became mandatory in the 1990's. So this 1980's house should have at least the former.
I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.
I would start with the gas, as there is simply nothing to explain the high consumption on that, since it is only used for heating and hot water. Setting it as high as 21C is wasteful, but, unless it's left on all night in winter, or the insulation terrible, it should still not be using that much.
Given the scope of the potential saving here, I would ask the supplier to do a meter test. 
The possibility of both meters being erroneous is vanishingly small, so I still think the leccy usage is down to the factors above.
Bear in mind that the OP has not yet given us 12m usage figures. 7m is better than nothing, but not conclusive.

Not if that is the required temperature for warmth of the inhabitants after all usual "put a jumper on" type advice has been followed, it's not. Comments like this just feel judgemental - people are having a tough enough time right now without that! 

Vincero

chris_n said:

MattMattMattUK said:

macman said:

I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.

Gaming PC, 600-700 watts draw when heavily gaming would not be unreasonable. However that is going to be dwarfed by the air con which I could at the bottom end be drawing 2kW and could even for just one room be up to 5kW if they are trying to extract the waste heat from a 700 watt PC, as well as high ambient temperatures. 

Domestic aircon doesn't draw 2kW, it may be rated at that but it is a heat pump so for a 2kW unit expect to use somewhere around 600W. 

600W may be a bit low, but yeah not 2kW for a single room/single unit for domestic use.
Also, most normal units have power consumption that doesn't increase based on the amount of work it has to do - you just need to run it longer which costs more.
Professional installed units can run at varying power levels but most domestic/ basic systems I've seen run the compressor at a set speed and vary the fan usage only.

Here's a live power use on an 8000BTU portable unit running at its maximum.

macman

EssexHebridean said:

macman said:

Cavity walls have been around since the 1920. Cavity wall insulation became mandatory in the 1990's. So this 1980's house should have at least the former.
I'll pass on the leccy side, as there are simply too many variables, but the gaming PC and aircon have to be the first subjects to investigate.
I would start with the gas, as there is simply nothing to explain the high consumption on that, since it is only used for heating and hot water. Setting it as high as 21C is wasteful, but, unless it's left on all night in winter, or the insulation terrible, it should still not be using that much.
Given the scope of the potential saving here, I would ask the supplier to do a meter test. 
The possibility of both meters being erroneous is vanishingly small, so I still think the leccy usage is down to the factors above.
Bear in mind that the OP has not yet given us 12m usage figures. 7m is better than nothing, but not conclusive.

Not if that is the required temperature for warmth of the inhabitants after all usual "put a jumper on" type advice has been followed, it's not. Comments like this just feel judgemental - people are having a tough enough time right now without that! 

Would you be happier if I said that 'setting it as high as 21C is expensive' then? Anecdotally, dropping the CH by 1C takes 10% off your heating consumption, so I make no apologies for mentioning it. 
If you're in the Hebrides, isn't a room temp of 21C almost sub-tropical?

MariaAH

TheGardener said:

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. 

I can really relate to your post...I have some of the energy monitoring plugs on order and plan to start with my sons room and his Gaming PC!

Alnat1

If you went with the Tapo, at least you'll be able to turn it off from your phone if it's costing too much 

MariaAH

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 were with People's Energy and had a Smart Meter (a pretty rubbish one)...we were moved to BG when our supplier collapsed, but according to them we are not suitable for one! It's madness, but what can you do! 

MariaAH

Zolablue said:

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

Yep - exactly our situation!