High electricity usage - could there be a mistake?

Gerry1

The electric shower must go !  Four times as expensive as gas, just look at the price per kWh.  Would you fill the car at a petrol station charging £6 per litre?

How did the Meter Sanity Test go?

Enigma80

Bendo said:

There is no way anyone with hair could have a 5 minute shower in a 7.5kw shower. It probable takes a good minute to get upto temperature and in this weather a flow rate that won't wash suds out of hair.

Electric showers are the spawn of Satan.

I was going to say this.  I'm usually quick, but then I have no hair...  My wife takes the longest as she's got long hair.  And yes, it does take a while for it to warm up when it's cold out.  We've intermittently used the electric oil radiator, it tends to come out most years, but I don't think we used it last year as it was a fairly mild winter if I recall correctly. 

We do have a normal shower in the upstairs bathroom that runs off the hot water from the combi boiler, but it doesn't work so well.  The water always runs too hot or too cold, it keeps going from scalding to freezing every 30 seconds to a minute.  I've put it down to a our rubbish boiler as it takes ages to heat up water (a pain as we're on a water metre too), so it must mess with the thermostat in the shower some how.  Either way, it doesn't still to a temperature so we've not used it for years.  Besides, for some reason the wheels/castors that the glass doors slide on the rail with have deteriorated for some reason.  I don't where to get replacements. 

Qyburn

Enigma80 said:

Yes, my wife and I have both been working at home since Covid. 

Do you switch off your work stuff when you're not working?  I connected mine so it runs off one power point, then put a P110 to monitor it and scheduled to switch off at 1800 if I forgot. A normal working day uses around 0.6kWh.

victor2

Bendo said:

There is no way anyone with hair could have a 5 minute shower in a 7.5kw shower. It probable takes a good minute to get upto temperature and in this weather a flow rate that won't wash suds out of hair.

Electric showers are the spawn of Satan.

We changed our 9KW electric shower for one running off the combi boiler last May.

As it gets colder, the gas boiler just continues to deliver the water at a good rate and temperature, where with the electric one you got a reduced flow rate as you turned the temperature up.

Timed the wife in the new shower in June and she took 5min 42sec (might as well be precise!). That used 2.29kWh of gas, where the electric one would have used 0.86kWh. But gas is a lot cheaper than electricity, so relative costs on our current tariff would be 15p for gas and 22p for electric. If you allow 30 seconds for the gas shower to warm up, as the combi is downstairs and the shower up, the electric shower would be shorter and cost about 20p, so still cheaper to use gas. We don't have a water meter, so the extra water used for the gas shower doesn't have an associated cost. Now the incoming water is colder, the gas boiler may use a bit more energy, and we tend to spend longer in it than we would the electric one, as the water flow is still strong and more enjoyable than the reduced flow from the electric shower.

So, the financial benefit may not be so great, but ditching the electric shower was the best thing we did!

born_again

Enigma80 said:

Bendo said:

There is no way anyone with hair could have a 5 minute shower in a 7.5kw shower. It probable takes a good minute to get upto temperature and in this weather a flow rate that won't wash suds out of hair.

Electric showers are the spawn of Satan.

I was going to say this.  I'm usually quick, but then I have no hair...  My wife takes the longest as she's got long hair.  And yes, it does take a while for it to warm up when it's cold out.  We've intermittently used the electric oil radiator, it tends to come out most years, but I don't think we used it last year as it was a fairly mild winter if I recall correctly. 

We do have a normal shower in the upstairs bathroom that runs off the hot water from the combi boiler, but it doesn't work so well.  The water always runs too hot or too cold, it keeps going from scalding to freezing every 30 seconds to a minute.  I've put it down to a our rubbish boiler as it takes ages to heat up water (a pain as we're on a water metre too), so it must mess with the thermostat in the shower some how.  Either way, it doesn't still to a temperature so we've not used it for years.  Besides, for some reason the wheels/castors that the glass doors slide on the rail with have deteriorated for some reason.  I don't where to get replacements. 

Get a decent shower. Such as Mira Mixer Shower. Which has Thermostatic temperature stability. We have one & no matter what other water is used around the house. Temp stays the same.

ArbitraryRandom

As your usage is so high, if we can establish it's not the meter, you might find there are things you can do that cost a bit of money now but that pay for themselves quite quickly - buying plug in monitors to identify where your energy is going, and replacing an old freezer with a more energy efficient one, for example. 

But first we need to be sure there's not a metering problem... so have you had any chance to try any of the tests suggested as yet (measuring use over a few hours/overnight, or a full sanity test)?

theoretica

What does your use look like month by month?  If it is higher in winter than summer that implies heating.  If it is constant year round (excluding holidays when you are away) that is less likely to be heating.

If you got a smart meter you could then look at your use by the half hour - which would be a useful tool for sorting out peaks from the shower or daytime device use from more constant draws.

ArbitraryRandom

theoretica said:

If you got a smart meter...

If you think there's a problem with your current meter AND you want to be able to seek a refund of any excess charged, don't go changing it to a smart meter just yet - as soon as the old meter is gone, so is any hope of 'proving' there was a problem with it. 

akwexavante

If i were you, i'd be looking at every single room in great detail, room by room. Don't forget the garden, the garage and shed!

Have a look for all things electrical, everything in detail no matter how efficient and insignificant it's wattage may be.

Switch off!

Gas heating systems have electric pumps and are themselves powered by electricity to some degree.

Only plug in and use everything you use when needed, then unplug them.

Are you using LED lights?

How many chargers?

Wireless access points?

TV's on standby, games machines left on standby? Set-top boxes, recorders

Hair Dryers?

Hair Tongs?

Fish tanks and other heated tanks for a variety of pets!?

What temp is the heating set at, how many hours a day?

Showers?

Tumble dryers, washers, fridges, freezers, drinks machines, water heatings, hot drinks dispensers

Electric heaters, humidifiers, dehumidifiers.

Is someone in the family secretly heating up a bedroom with an electric heater that you don't know about?  A friend of mine fell foul of this one, a son was playing online games all night every night and kept warm by using an electric heater after the main heating went off at night!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have a pond or outside lighting?

Lots of little unassuming things collectively can use a lot of power, 4 mobile phone chargers left plugged in and switched on 24/7 together can cost a lot of money over a year!

Gerry1

akwexavante said

4 mobile phone chargers left plugged in and switched on 24/7 together can cost a lot of money over a year!

Unlikely.  They'd be red hot if they were using significant amounts of electricity.  But still a good idea to switch them off when not in use, just on safety grounds.