How much gas and electricity are peoplenow using compared with last year? And the cost?

Spoonie_Turtle

Last year, Nov/Dec we (all-electric) used 1082kWh, cost £226.33.

This year, for 28 days Nov/Dec we've used 836kWh which at EPG would cost £303.54.  [Will be able to do a full month's comparison in 2 days.]

We are on Octopus Tracker though and the bill is looking to be £266.

SensibleSarah

Having seen this thread yesterday, I ran a test today. 

I've been using my CH very sparingly so far this winter (and most past winters, to be fair), mainly using a heated throw to keep myself warm during the day and a hot water bottle/dogs sleeping on the bed at night. Been absolutely fine. An hour or so of heating in the mornings to take the edge off and about 3 hours in the early evenings since the cold snap started and no heating at all used before 1st Dec. House never got above 15 degrees on that regime (no thermostat - heating is just on or off, but I do have a thermometer) and most of the day hovered around 12 degrees until the evening heating came on. 

So today, I decided to keep the heating on continuously for 11 hours to a) see how many cubic units it used and therefore what it would cost and b) see how warm the house would get with sustained heating on for that long. I don't have a smart meter so it's old school manual checks of the most annoyingly situated gas meter in the world.

I've just finished the 11 hours and the results are in. 

Starting temperature when I got up was 10.6 degrees. 11 hours of heating used around 68 kWh (6 units on my cubic gas meter - I didn't use oven or any hot water between readings) and the house got to 18 degrees just as I switched it off. Unsurprisingly, this feels fairly sweltering to me right now - but the cats are delighted! 

I'll have to see if the house is back to 10/11 ish degrees tomorrow morning, or whether it actually retains some of the heat overnight, but doing this every day would cost me nearly £8 with the standing charge taken into account. That's absolutely not on my agenda! Back to the heated throw and hot water bottle tomorrow In December 2021 I used around 500 kWh all month - was on a cheap fix at the time so that would have cost me around £15 maybe.

My 2021 gas use was 4500 kWh. I'm currently at around 2210 kWh for 2022 (including today's usage), with just over 2 weeks to go - so I'm definitely going to beat it by some margin unless I go absolutely mad with the heating. 

_Sam_

We got the keys to the house in February this year, but haven't moved in until it was nearly summer. While it was unoccupied I turned the CH on and let it run 24/7 to maintain at least 18C throughout with all doors open. (Was a silly thing to do but at the time cost wasn't a concern...)

Just downloaded the app "Bright" and it is interesting to see the differences in Kwh used. Once we moved in, we didn't turn CH on until November. Since then I would only run it 1 to 3 hours in the evening. Feels pretty miserable as it's so cold most of the time, but I'm hoping it's mainly due to -3 outside, so resisting the temptation to whack the heating on continuously... 
Electricity wise we have solar panels but no battery.

January data is from the previous owners usage, and December data is incomplete yet.

j.a.mcguire

dunstonh said:

Heating the whole house is a choice.   It is not the point of central heating. 

What's the point of central heating then, curious?

RobM99 said:

Summer ...   2021 ......40p a day
Winter    ...   2022  £4.27   a day

...and I'm frugal!

This is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, surely you should have done summer 2021, summer 2022, winter 2021, winter 2022?

macman

It's called central heating because there is a single, central, heat source...

j.a.mcguire

macman said:

It's called central heating because there is a single, central, heat source...

Oh, so like, a single central heat source...to heat the whole house, rather than say a fire in every room of your house?

Reddleman79

Meters read 10/12/22 and 11/12/21.
Annual electric consumption 1441kWh
Annual gas consumption 160 cu m = 1813kWh
Four bedroom Edwardian terrace house in Northern England, uninsulated, GCH, gas radiant fire in front room, electric cooker, mainly LED lighting, two fridges, no TVs. Single occupancy most of the time.

macman

j.a.mcguire said:

macman said:

It's called central heating because there is a single, central, heat source...

Oh, so like, a single central heat source...to heat the whole house, rather than say a fire in every room of your house?

But you don't have to heat the whole house, just the rooms you want to. That's why rads have TRV's, or larger properties have zone controls. You can heat as many or as few areas as you want to.

[Deleted User]

j.a.mcguire said:

macman said:

It's called central heating because there is a single, central, heat source...

Oh, so like, a single central heat source...to heat the whole house, rather than say a fire in every room of your house?

Like a supermarket rather than a butcher+greengrocer+fishmonger....

It doesn't mean you need to buy one of each item.

borderline

on pre-payment meter, small studio flat, one person, for electricity I used to top-up £40 and would last me a month and a half, now £40 doesn't last more than 3 weeks