Energy usage too high

carlin76

I’m hoping someone can offer some advice on how to find out why my energy usage is so high. I live in a large 4 bed detached property, with my husband and 2 kids, our annual usage for gas is 32684 kWh and electric is 10812 kWh! I only have the heating on at 20 deg for 5 hours a day, the rest of the time it’s set to 15 degrees which I have now changed to 10 degrees. I have been trying to get a smart meter from Eon next for months now but they’ve not been able to give me an appointment. Any advice on how to find out what could causing the amount we use to be so high would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

[Deleted User]

Your usage is very high. 

Gas: Check whether your meter records volume in cubic feet or cubic metres. Your billing calculation should be based on the correct meter type.

Electricity: Look at high energy devices such as immersion heaters; hot tubs; electric showers.

RelievedSheff

Your energy use is very high but conversely reducing the daytime temperature in the home may makes things worse as the boiler frantically tries to reheat a very cold house it will use more gas in the process.

You need to go around your house and find out what is plugged in and what is turned and then have a good long hard think about what doesn't need to be turned on.

You have some massive savings to be made there.

carlin76

Thank you, we have electric under floor heating in the loft conversion and the bathroom but no other high energy devices I’m aware of 

jacko220

carlin76 said:

I’m hoping someone can offer some advice on how to find out why my energy usage is so high. I live in a large 4 bed detached property, with my husband and 2 kids, our annual usage for gas is 32684 kWh and electric is 10812 kWh! I only have the heating on at 20 deg for 5 hours a day, the rest of the time it’s set to 15 degrees which I have now changed to 10 degrees. I have been trying to get a smart meter from Eon next for months now but they’ve not been able to give me an appointment. Any advice on how to find out what could causing the amount we use to be so high would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

First what do you use the gas for, please make a list, second how old is the boiler. which part of the country are you in that does make a difference as does the microexpsoure. How old is the property, I spent neraly 40 years lecturing on energy conservation and other building problems.

RelievedSheff

carlin76 said:

Thank you, we have electric under floor heating in the loft conversion and the bathroom but no other high energy devices I’m aware of 

You definitely do have something that is sapping energy at an alarming rate somewhere.

The average UK home uses around 2700kWh of electric for comparison. You are using 4 times that.

[Deleted User]

Then you need to "get aware of" them pretty quickly.

Do you have an in home display associated with your meters?  Have you checked the readings on the bill are the same as the readings on the meters?

piperm87

Go around your house and make a list of everything you have thats plugged in and turned on and have a think about what you need to keep on and what you can afford to turn off.

I did a big switch off in October and turned off everything we dont use and placed alot of things on smart plugs which drove our consumption down.... Were have been using around 18KWH per day since the cold snap started and thats with me charging my PHEV every night which has a 10KWH battery and having a 2KW oil filled radiator on for 4 hours a night in my daughters room whilst we have the freezing cold nights. Oh and also having 8 different sets of Christmas lights inside and outside the house since the start of the month

jimjames

Also how does the usage compare year on year? Were you billed for the same or similar amounts of energy last year but it was less noticeable due to the price being lower?

SuzeQStan

RelievedSheff said:

carlin76 said:

Thank you, we have electric under floor heating in the loft conversion and the bathroom but no other high energy devices I’m aware of 

You definitely do have something that is sapping energy at an alarming rate somewhere.

The average UK home uses around 2700kWh of electric for comparison. You are using 4 times that.

4 bed detached is always going to use more than an ‘average’ property on all energy fronts. 

OP we are in a large 3 bed detach with 2 adults working from home. Our electric usage was 4500kWh 2 years ago which we have made serious improvements on this year & last aiming to cut that by 30% and more than on track for that currently.

Smart meter + in house display will be a huge help to you - can you change suppliers to get one from someone else?

We used our IHD smart meter display and turned off everything electrical in our home as an experiment to try to understand what each item was adding to our background electrical use. We found some interesting things out that have made a big difference to what we are paying for energy now.

you are doing well looking into this now. And you are totally right to prioritise getting the smart meter + in house display unit so you can keep track more easily what you are using. 

Would highly recommend checking out other threads in the forum there are lots of people who have achieved some great energy savings. 

InvertedVee

Last year I lived in a large detached house year and used 26000kWh of gas, so @carlin76's 33000kWh isn't shocking. The real issue as others have said, is the enormous 10812kWh of electricity, which will be costing nearly £4000 under the energy price guarantee.

@carlin76 mentioned underfloor heating in the loft conversion and bathroom. I expect that's where a lot is going. I also wonder how well insulated the loft conversion is.

Do you run an electric car or heat a pool? And do you use electricity or gas to heat your hot water (including showers)?