EDF have upped our monthly DD to £860, equivalent to £10,300 per year for our 3 bedroom semi

Miser1964

Everyone hopes to find the smokin' (hot) gun that is causing high usage but usually the accumulation of multiple items that use 250Wh to 750Wh per day that does the damage such as American FF, high end PCs, large aquariums etc.

victor2

mroshaw said:

Robin9 said:

Thank you for coming back to us.

To add to your tasks may I suggest you keep your own spreadsheet and read those Smart meters monthly yourself - perhaps even daily for a while 

As someone who has a spreadsheet for everything, this is definitely on my list!

I have spent most of the morning pondering plug socket energy monitors. As with everything, there seem to be too many choices out there, all with their mix of hugely positive and damningly negative reviews and feedback! I suspect it matters not which I go for, and that we just need something simple to track consumption over time. We'll take a socket at a time, monitor for a week, note the results and move on. Hopefully, that will eventually give us a good, rounded view of the "quick wins" and big consumers.

My money is currently on the front room (TV, PS5 and Soundbar that sit on stand-by), the tumble drier (which is now unplugged and on the naughty step) and my "work" PC, which is a beast of a desktop/monitor combo. Those downstairs halogen spots are also on my list of suspects!

If it's helpful, I'll keep this post updated with our findings?

Great feedback, keep it coming.

I too have a spreadsheet going back many years, covering my energy usage in great detail. It can turn you into a bit of an energy anorak!

You will get an In-House Display with your smart meters, which can be useful to show your instantaneous electricity usage. With gas usage it only updates every 30 minutes, so the "instantaneous" figure is pretty useless, but the cumulative usage over time can be useful. You can usually read your meters too from the IHD, so it's an easy way to check them, and update your spreadsheet!

The socket monitors are great too, but obviously won't help with things not running through a socket, like your lighting and stove.

As you suspect, your halogen spots will be accounting for a lot. It is well worth putting a monitor on your fridge/freezer for a number of days, to see what its typical use is. They cycle on and off periodically, so the usage at a particular moment in time is of limited use, but they are switched on 24/7, so what usage they have does add up. Many fridge/freezers have "frost free" features, which can involve a heating element coming on, say, once a day.

badmemory

Just to say that my gas oven unless I am doing a long cook doesn't come on again once up to temp, but no fan, I don't know how those work.  I assume electric ovens are the same.  It means that you can't say that just because you are using something that is on for a much shorter time but all that time, that it uses less than a conventional oven because they are NOT on all the time.

ariarnia

i dont' like our in home display for our electric. it looks good but i don't like the display for the longer term usage (gas is a dumb meter because of something we needed to change about the fittings. which is now done but need to rearange an appointment to get a smart one installed.) 

the bright app is great (use the numbers on the back of your ihd to register) and shows daily weekly monthly and yearly usage. i think there's also a website which someone linked to which i tried once then forgot about which lets you download the data for three month periods? so you could then inport it into a spreadsheet to do your own trend analysis

PennyForThem_2

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/how-to-save-on-your-heating-bill-this-winter-azmsq5x9hzuc-aZmsQ5X9hzUc?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=4192670-SUS_EM_161022_Test&mi_u=213158294&mi_ecmp=SUS_EM_161022_Test

Which? tips on saving on heating - may be worth a read

wild666

I would start by turning everything off at the wall socket that's not in use except the fridge, freezer and router. Do you really need two clocks telling the time in the kitchen, switch them off, cooker and microwave, when not in use. Then lower the temperatures on the boiler to 50 degrees for water and 55 degrees for heating and lower the thermostat to 18 degrees. It might feel cold at first but you could also lower the thermostat from its present temp by 1 degrees each week or fortnight until you get to a temperature that's comfortable for you and the rest of the family, don't just turn it up because on the first day it feels cold give it at least a week or more before any further alterations.

Also use TRV's if fitted or have them fitted if they aren't and lower the radiator temperatures in rooms that are not used to 1 and infrequently used rooms to no more than 3 and the living room to full.

wild666

Chrysalis said:

OP taking proper action to be commended, good decision on the smart meters for sure.

At first take daily readings then you know how much electric or gas is being used each day, I did this with the intension of dropping to weekly readings and still take daily electric readings 5 years later although the gas readings have dropped to weekly. 

kevin2u

Without prejudice.
I just want to raise awareness that I had to speak to EDF today regarding under-readings used to calculate my latest bill, which included the new 1st October 2022 increased charges. I had received an email from EDF on the 29th of Sept informing me that I did NOT need to send them my meter readings because I have smart (smet2) meters that would do the job for me. Well, I still sent the readings via the EDF web site on the Ist October 2022. I also had taken photos of the meters at the end of the evening on the 30th of Sept and first thing in the morning on the 1st of October. Yesterday I received my latest bill statement only to find that EDF had used lower meter readings to that I had given, which would have resulted in me paying the increased price for the energy I had used before the 1st of October. Their response to my concern was feeble and blamed the smart meters/internet then blamed the over input of consumers entering their readings. The EDF employee was understanding and did adjust the meter reading figures to those I had given and was generating another bill statement.
This doesn't change the fact that EDF did not meet the terms of their email statement and they didn't use the readings I had given, and they had 14 days to do that before they sent me the bill statement. This resulted in me having to pursue them to resolve, which they did. However, my concern is if this has happened to me (a low user) then how many others?
Secondly. I suggest consumers send in meter readings and do not accept the smart meters are going to give an accurate reading on a specified date and when you get your bill statement cross check your reading figures to ensure they match those on the statement.
 
I also had to challenge them about the large amount of credit I had, which they responded that it was going to be needed for the winter months, so basically, they have built up a large sum of my money for me to pay for energy that I hadn't yet used or might not use. I requested for EDF to reduce my payments to reduce some of the credit and in fairness the EDF employee was very understanding and helpful and reduced the payments.

IanIanIanIanIan

Simplest way to stay in control is to move to 'Monthly Variable Direct Debit Whole Amount' and only pay monthly for what you use and get a monthly invoice (instead of six monthly 'billing' of EDF) which just confuses things, and also lets you see exactly how you are going without surprises.

At home start a 'Household Budget Account' perhaps a separate bank account or simply a running spreadsheet, into which you pay a fixed amount monthly but enough to cover your expected bills for the year.  Your account, your money!

A household budget account is ideal for ALL or your fixed outgoings, car tax, insurance, club fees, etc. All the outgoings you may predict somewhat well.  The monthly payment into the account is then a fixed monthly amount which takes the sting out of paying a yearly high bill by spreading the cost over twelve months.

[Deleted User]

IanIanIanIanIan said:

Simplest way to stay in control is to move to 'Monthly Variable Direct Debit Whole Amount' and only pay monthly for what you use and get a monthly invoice (instead of six monthly 'billing' of EDF) which just confuses things, and also lets you see exactly how you are going without surprises.

At home start a 'Household Budget Account' perhaps a separate bank account or simply a running spreadsheet, into which you pay a fixed amount monthly but enough to cover your expected bills for the year.  Your account, your money!

A household budget account is ideal for ALL or your fixed outgoings, car tax, insurance, club fees, etc. All the outgoings you may predict somewhat well.  The monthly payment into the account is then a fixed monthly amount which takes the sting out of paying a yearly high bill by spreading the cost over twelve months.

The simplest way to stay in control is to start a new bank account and assume that you are better at predicting price and usage for every service than the companies who provide the service, and that you wouldn't accidentally spend money from this account on some other conflicting urgent need?

I don't think so.

This might be a way of doing it, and it might work for you, but it certainly isn't simple or for everyone.