Energy usage too high

_Sam_

chris1973 said:

Lowering the bathroom temperature to 15c or 16c is remarkably effective at making sure people don't linger in the shower.

We don't have heating in the bathroom (just what gets in there when the door opens) Funnily it works the opposite way with me - I just don't want to come out from under the lovely steamy hot shower! 

theoretica

What are the specifications of the UFH - do you have paperwork showing how many Watts it uses at maximum?  Is it also on 5 hours a day?  Turning the thermostat down from 20 to 19.5 might make a difference to the bills without making much of one to comfort.

What heats your water for baths/showers and how much do you use?

dunstonh

xeny said:

dunstonh said:

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.

10812 kWh is not enormous.  It is high but we use 16443 kWh over a year on electricity (central heating with oil).  I know we are a large user but managed to reduce our use this year by around 30% by finding out the "leakage" of standby items or wasteful items and using tapo P110 plugs and replacing heavy use items.

Simplistically16443/365/24 is 1.9KW average consumption night and day all year. That's really quite substantial. What are your non leaky and wasteful items? 

Tumble drier (being a farm converted to equine, you live in mud for most of the year.  So, its on nearly daily), AGA, horse walker and dawn/dusk lighting across the barns and stable block and some of the paddocks and arena.   For four months of the year, it drops to about 10kWh a day.  Its the 8 months where it goes up to 45kWh a day.    I am pretty good at knowing where the use is having gone through the process the OP needs to do to learn what devices are doing the damage and if you can change them.   I suspect I will have it closer to 13,000 kWh over the next year, which I will be happy with.  Especially as I am getting a 30 panel PV array installed in April.

Ally_E.

macman said:

10,812kWh is enormous for a property with oil CH and DHW. It's 2 to 3 times what I would expect, assuming no electric car or UFH.
As far as the OP's electricity is concerned, my money is on the UFH being the culprit. Immersion heater left on maybe?
As regards the gas, the first thing to review is the insulation. Loft insulated to the right depth, double glazing, cavity wall insulation? 32,684kWh of gas is massive, so I'm thinking maybe this is a listed property without double glazing or cavity walls? Really need more info from the OP.
Or could this be our old friend the imperial to metric meter change not accounted for?
OP, has the gas meter been changed during your ownership?

The property really doesn't need to be listed to use that much energy. To maintain 20C through the day in a 1930s detached house is exactly how much gas would be needed based on my street's consumption. 

markin

Electric floors are around 250w a meter, It would not surprise me if its costing 7000kwh a year.

Get a radiator put in, Do you have to use that loft room?

70sbudgie

As the OP said they had children, I would ask approximately what age they are (teens with their own electronics, or young children that leave a trail of lights and open doors behind them), how often they cook with the oven and run the dishwasher, ironing, boil the kettle? What flow temperature(s) is the boiler? There are loads of other ideas that have been posted above. 

I have also noticed that although I have been reducing my energy consumption, year on year, the bit of my bill that says my predicted estimated use is.. is about a year -18months behind my reductions. Ie my current estimated use is a lot more than last years and is slightly more than the year before. (I apreciate that last uear was mild, so this year is expected to be higher).

markin

Ally_E. said:

macman said:

10,812kWh is enormous for a property with oil CH and DHW. It's 2 to 3 times what I would expect, assuming no electric car or UFH.
As far as the OP's electricity is concerned, my money is on the UFH being the culprit. Immersion heater left on maybe?
As regards the gas, the first thing to review is the insulation. Loft insulated to the right depth, double glazing, cavity wall insulation? 32,684kWh of gas is massive, so I'm thinking maybe this is a listed property without double glazing or cavity walls? Really need more info from the OP.
Or could this be our old friend the imperial to metric meter change not accounted for?
OP, has the gas meter been changed during your ownership?

The property really doesn't need to be listed to use that much energy. To maintain 20C through the day in a 1930s detached house is exactly how much gas would be needed based on my street's consumption. 

A random 4 bed 1950's house 148sqm with cavity walls filled, DG, TRV's, Pitched, 100 mm loft insulation, Is a EPC D68  Dated 2013 and 14% led bulbs.
 

Type of heating	Estimated energy used
Space heating	17856 kWh per year
Water heating	2322 kWh per year

The primary energy use for this property per year is 178 kilowatt hours per square metre (kWh/m2)


What are the EPC's of your houses like?

https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode

Spoonie_Turtle

markin said:

Ally_E. said:

macman said:

10,812kWh is enormous for a property with oil CH and DHW. It's 2 to 3 times what I would expect, assuming no electric car or UFH.
As far as the OP's electricity is concerned, my money is on the UFH being the culprit. Immersion heater left on maybe?
As regards the gas, the first thing to review is the insulation. Loft insulated to the right depth, double glazing, cavity wall insulation? 32,684kWh of gas is massive, so I'm thinking maybe this is a listed property without double glazing or cavity walls? Really need more info from the OP.
Or could this be our old friend the imperial to metric meter change not accounted for?
OP, has the gas meter been changed during your ownership?

The property really doesn't need to be listed to use that much energy. To maintain 20C through the day in a 1930s detached house is exactly how much gas would be needed based on my street's consumption. 

A random 4 bed 1950's house 148sqm with cavity walls filled, DG, TRV's, Pitched, 100 mm loft insulation, Is a EPC D68  Dated 2013 and 14% led bulbs.
 

Type of heating	Estimated energy used
Space heating	17856 kWh per year
Water heating	2322 kWh per year

The primary energy use for this property per year is 178 kilowatt hours per square metre (kWh/m2)


What are the EPC's of your houses like?

https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode

Interesting.  I'll do a few detached properties from our village (central England, rural, mix of exposed and not exposed, none listed buildings):

1. New build, C78, 234m²
Space heating 16136 kWh per year

Water heating 2372 kWh per year
Primary energy use 100kWh/sqm

2. 1930s, F28, 148m²

Space heating 32265 kWh per year

Water heating 3791 kWh per year
Primary energy use 342kWh/sqm

3. Early 1900s, F27, 280m²
Space heating 45493 kWh per year

Water heating 3045 kWh per year
Primary use 356kWh/sqm

4. 60s/70s, D58, 180m²
Space heating 19123 kWh per year

Water heating 3233 kWh per year
Primary 186/sqm

5. 60s/70s, D57, 306m²(!)
Space heating 28202 kWh per year

Water heating 2899 kWh per year
Primary use 128kWh/sqm

7. 1990s, F35, 134m². (yes 1990s, no that is not a typo)
Space heating 23807 kWh per year

Water heating 2623 kWh per year
Primary use 627kWh/sqm

8. Early 1900s, E51, 128m2
Space heating 25645 kWh per year

Water heating 2300 kWh per year
Primary use 342kWh/sqm

The variation is fascinating.  A mix of heating systems - oil, storage heaters, wood pellets, biomass, ASHP, etc.  No gas in the village.

chris_n

Electric underfloor heating will be very expensive particularly if the floor thermostat is set a lot higher than the room temperature. A lot of people do this in bathrooms because it feels nice when you get out of the shower etc.

Mstty

I suspect the real questions and comments from me are

1) what is the driver for you looking at your energy usage now. Is it cost/budget or just curious?

2) I don't think anyone's usage is high or low it is what they can comfortably live with and their priorities on spending (in the main except those really struggling)

There are a lot of people replying on this post but

3) do you want to embark on a discovery of energy use and reduction otherwise people are wasting their time here.

A number of posts on this forum have drilled down into people's usage, suggested monitors and how to calculate what each individual electric device uses but you will have to put the leg work in and regularly update for this to work.

It will be less work for gas usage but expect lots of questions there as well.

Are you in? Or park til after Christmas lol