How was your November?

thriftytracey

2  adults detached 3 bedroom house

Gas 11 units (numbers on meter)
Electric 392 kwh

The gas is low because we don't have the GCH on at all, relying on wood burning stove, electric heaters (occasional) and economise on hot water.  Shower runs off the combi gas boiler.

I am concerned about the electricity used, and only just started reading meters on a monthly basis.   Is this about right for the following:-

• 2 freezers (TAPO confirmed oldest inefficient freezer 45 KwH per month)  Large freezer A+ rating.
• 1 fridge
• 1200 watt halogen heater (maximum of two hours per day)
• 1200 watt oil radiator (one hour per day)
• 2 laptops - power saving mode after few minutes always on though
• TV and Humax Box - never leave on standby
• Router
• Trickle charge caravan leisure battery (TAPO confirmed 10.8 KwH per month)
• Gas Boiler Pump
• Worktop Halogen oven used 3-4 times per week - maximum 2 hours in total
• Air fryer - odd 15 minutes few times per week
• Iron - twice a month on for about 20 minutes each occasion
• Electric kettle - 6 times a day but measure water
• Toaster - 3/4 times per week for toast
• Microwave - occasional use
• Dishwasher - daily
• Washing Machine - 3 loads a week
• Lighting - all LED

Miscellaneous 

•  vacuum cleaner
• phone and radio charger (for short periods)
• printer - permanently on
• fan 8 hours (white noise helps me sleep!)
• occasional power tools

Don't use electric ovens, grill or tumble dryer.

Unfortunately, I did accidentally leave the oil filled radiator on overnight once, on full power which didn't help.   

I was wondering if it would be cheaper to use a gas ring to heat the kitchen than the halogen heater/oil electric radiator combined?  It is a large room.

Thanks for any advice. I will continue using TAPO.

kipperman

dunstonh said:

House did come with Economy 7 - there never was any storage heating, so no idea why this was.

You dont need storage heaters to have economy 7.   Many people are on E7 because it works out better for them (ourselves included)

However now use timers etc on washing machine, bread maker and dishwasher to make the most of this. Currently save about £3 per month over standard tariff.

And as you appear to have measured day and night use vs single rate, you can see why some people do it without storage heaters.

Electricity November 178 kWh (November 21 was 215 kWh)

That is higher than I would have thought. That is about 5.7kWh per day.   We are heavy users and get towards 8-10kWh a day.  Daily dishwasher, washing machine and tumble, work from home office with three computers and 8 monitors etc.

I suspect you may be able to find some savings in there.  Possibly certain devices of yours are using more than you realise.

I'm on oil so cannot compare with the gas but it only dropped one bar in November.   I normally fill up to full in January, March and October.   However, I am on track to get to late December. Meaning that we are about 1000 litres lower in use this year.   Luckily a mild Winter and Spring earlier in the year and a mild Autumn recently.  Although, I also set the radiators and water to 2 time periods instead of the default of 3 and turned the thermastat down to 20.5c from 21c.  I tried 20c but didn't get away with it.    

I was just surprised that a new build came with Economy 7, and I could kick myself now for not realising earlier how we could have benefited.

As regards electricity usage, I suspect our built in fridge freezer ( so no plug to easily monitor) is the culprit. Have they come on that much in 7 years with respect to energy efficiency?

Nonetheless as it works fine at the moment, capital cost of finding something that will fit in the same space and be more efficient I suspect would outweigh savings.

Thanks for the comments!

Mstty

kipperman said:

dunstonh said:

House did come with Economy 7 - there never was any storage heating, so no idea why this was.

You dont need storage heaters to have economy 7.   Many people are on E7 because it works out better for them (ourselves included)

However now use timers etc on washing machine, bread maker and dishwasher to make the most of this. Currently save about £3 per month over standard tariff.

And as you appear to have measured day and night use vs single rate, you can see why some people do it without storage heaters.

Electricity November 178 kWh (November 21 was 215 kWh)

That is higher than I would have thought. That is about 5.7kWh per day.   We are heavy users and get towards 8-10kWh a day.  Daily dishwasher, washing machine and tumble, work from home office with three computers and 8 monitors etc.

I suspect you may be able to find some savings in there.  Possibly certain devices of yours are using more than you realise.

I'm on oil so cannot compare with the gas but it only dropped one bar in November.   I normally fill up to full in January, March and October.   However, I am on track to get to late December. Meaning that we are about 1000 litres lower in use this year.   Luckily a mild Winter and Spring earlier in the year and a mild Autumn recently.  Although, I also set the radiators and water to 2 time periods instead of the default of 3 and turned the thermastat down to 20.5c from 21c.  I tried 20c but didn't get away with it.    

I was just surprised that a new build came with Economy 7, and I could kick myself now for not realising earlier how we could have benefited.

As regards electricity usage, I suspect our built in fridge freezer ( so no plug to easily monitor) is the culprit. Have they come on that much in 7 years with respect to energy efficiency?

Nonetheless as it works fine at the moment, capital cost of finding something that will fit in the same space and be more efficient I suspect would outweigh savings.

Thanks for the comments!

If it's an American type then the answer is yes, leaps and bounds.

Spoonie_Turtle

4 adults, 3-bed semi relatively cold (heating kicked in mid-Sept to maintain 18℃), all-electric.

Haven't been able to get into the cupboard to check the heat pump consumption/output yet but overall 741kWh used this month.  Previous years have been 955 and 988 so I'm pleased - I know a fair amount of that reduction is in the relatively mild weather though, daily averages have been increasing since the temperature dropped so we'll see what the next few months bring.

ariarnia

3 Bed Detached 1960 blocks with cavity. Wood stove for sup heating. 

2 adults 2 kids

Nov 2021 Electric 154.77kWh Gas 1095.48kWh
Nov 2022 Electric 108.16kWh Gas 606.64kWh 

spent some time going around replacing old door and window seals which has made a difference. 

rumpetroll

5 Bed Detached 1930s House

2 Adults, 4 Kids

Gas: 1552kWh compared to 2000kWh last November
Electric: 530kWh compared to 635kWh last November

Gas is helped by better habits with heating plus we had a new boiler installed to replace the 25 year old one.
Electricity is helped massively by the replacement of the tumble dryer.

I'm going to be increasing the loft insulation shortly from ~100mm to 300mm

Ally_E.

DeeQS said:

Our first winter in the new house, having been in an old, listed property (1820) that didn't hold heat at all.

New House (Room temps of 18-19c all day)
Electricity = 427kwh (We heat water overnight with immersion, so higher than it could be but overnight is Go rate)
Gas = 1015kwh

Old house (Heating at 17c for a few hours a day)
Electric = 400kwh
Gas = 3891kwh

I'm pleased we moved to a new A rated house.

A rated house and you still use that much gas? I used a bit more in my E rated house, kept at 18C or higher all day too, just letting it cool down at night after midnight and until 7am. Obviously this is location related, so perhaps you're in a colder area than I am. I'm still surprised A rated house doesn't give more savings on gas. 

QrizB

3-bed 50s semi, solar PV on roof.

• Nov 2021: 4 pers, 2 adults 2 teens, 200kWh E and 958kWh G, £66.
  
• Nov 2022: 3 pers (son gone to uni) 128kWh E and 697kWh G, £74.
  
• A reduction of 72kWh E (36%) and 261kWh G (27%), cost increase of £8 (12%)
  

Most of the reduction is probably due to the milder weather when compared to last year; this year has been better for solar too but not 72kWh better!

Spoonie_Turtle

Spoonie_Turtle said:

4 adults, 3-bed semi relatively cold (heating kicked in mid-Sept to maintain 18℃), all-electric.

Haven't been able to get into the cupboard to check the heat pump consumption/output yet but overall 741kWh used this month.  

Just checked the heat pump - I am staggered!!  203kWh consumption, 759kWh delivered = CoP of 3.73!!!  DHW CoP is 3 (45kWh → 135kWh) and heating is 3.96!!! (157kWh → 623kWh).  I haven't seen a CoP anywhere near that good from it before - I don't know if it's better than this time last year because I didn't know to check until this summer, but it's FAR better than the annual CoP so far, and previous months' since July.

(Keep this up and I won't be minding the summer vampire load quite so much )

Spies

All of my credit on Octopus has been gobbled up and I'm actually in a slight debt 

Electricity 287kWh (£80)
Gas 1015kWh (£70)
Export 46.3kWh (-£6.45)