How much electric does your house use when you are away?

Sea_Shell

Just looked at my spreadsheet, and for 6 whole days/nights away in the spring, we averaged daily electricity usage of 1.47kwh

That's with 
F/F (large separates)
Alarm (hardwired)
Heating/Boiler controls (hardwired)
Sky box
Oven clock (it blew the element last time we switched off/on at the wall - coincidence?, but not risking it!!)

Sea_Shell

MA260 said:

Does anyone completely shut down their  Electiric/ Gas and Water and defrost the fridge Freezer when away. Perfectly possible.

We always turn the water off under the sink.

We usually defrost the freezer during at least one trip away each year.  (but not in the above figures) 

We don't shut down the house completely...but almost!

We have security lights if its going to be dark enough (after 9pm)

Magnitio

Malkytheheed said:

A lot of smugness from people who only use 3kw/h a day in normal usage. Sorry but I don't want to live like that. I want to actually enjoy my life a little. Also why is it by defacto "bad" to use more energy? Im in Scotland, 99% of the actual electricity sent to homes here comes from wind turbines so there is no need to be pious about using less. I don't want to live like a caveman. 

The more electricity used, the greater percentage of the UK's electricity that is generated from coal and gas. This increases the price of electricity. This is a money saving forum, so people are obviously looking at how to reduce usage. There is also a need to reduce co2 emmissions and in the past week, there has been very little UK generation of electricity from wind power (less than 1% at times).

woolythoughts

£160 a month 

Large fridge
Large freezer
Chest freezer

And a koi pond with three 190W pumps, two air pumps, two in line UV's at 75W and three other pumps around 190W that provide air when its hot

The koi pond will be going once we come off our fix next April 

QrizB

Malkytheheed said:

A lot of smugness from people who only use 3kw/h a day in normal usage. Sorry but I don't want to live like that. I want to actually enjoy my life a little. Also why is it by defacto "bad" to use more energy? Im in Scotland, 99% of the actual electricity sent to homes here comes from wind turbines so there is no need to be pious about using less. I don't want to live like a caveman. 

What a lot of people find is that they can reduce background load without any real eff CT on their lifestyle. Having eg. a games console on standby rather than switched off when it's not being used isn't going to stop you using it when you want to (although it might take 30 seconds longer to start up).

xzibit

Malkytheheed said:

A lot of smugness from people who only use 3kw/h a day in normal usage. Sorry but I don't want to live like that. I want to actually enjoy my life a little. Also why is it by defacto "bad" to use more energy? Im in Scotland, 99% of the actual electricity sent to homes here comes from wind turbines so there is no need to be pious about using less. I don't want to live like a caveman. 

I don’t think it’s smugness at all. I think people are genuinely trying to help others realise what is possible. 

If some people are happy paying lots for energy then that’s their decision, but some people can’t afford it and some guidance from others is always useful (it is for me anyway). 

However, it’s also good to reduce energy use as much as possible and help save the planet. Using it just because your fortunate to be able to afford it isn’t particularly environmentally responsible. 

daz378

I use around   7/8 kwh hours a day   on the smart meter  before going to bed about 4p an hour...normal  usage  8p an hour ish

jr5678

This is a puzzle for me too. We went on holiday and still used around 5kWh each day. How?! So for the week shown below we used 38.55kWh. SC of £0.3998 = £2.80 per week plus 38.55 x £0.2668 = £13.09. That’s roughly £52 a month without even being there!

I’ve bought an energy monitoring smart plug to try and figure this all out to see what we can turn off. 

ColdPensioner

1 kW per day, nothing left on except the fridge freezer. 

Cooker off (it's got a clock)
Bedside clock radio off
Two plugged in phones off
Router off - why leave it on?

For a longer break I'd put a lamp on a timer - but a very low energy bulb.

Mstty

ColdPensioner said:

1 kW per day, nothing left on except the fridge freezer. 

Cooker off (it's got a clock)
Bedside clock radio off
Two plugged in phones off
Router off - why leave it on?

For a longer break I'd put a lamp on a timer - but a very low energy bulb.

Some will have security cameras and other devices linked to WiFi so they can checkout their home whilst away or talk to their postman through a ring doorbell etc.

But if you don't have any such devices that's good you save more when away.