High electricity usage - could there be a mistake?

akwexavante

Define "significant amount of money" 

£20yr to one person is a lot of money, to someone else it's insignificant. 

Collectively if a family, person or persons are leaving a lot of small items plugged in and switched on it can together over the year cost a lot of money. A single item costs very little over a year, 10 things that individualy cost very little can soon cost you a small fortune and so on

Spoonie_Turtle

akwexavante said:

Define "significant amount of money" 

£20yr to one person is a lot of money, to someone else it's insignificant. 

Collectively if a family, person or persons are leaving a lot of small items plugged in and switched on it can together over the year cost a lot of money. A single item costs very little over a year, 10 things that individualy cost very little can soon cost you a small fortune and so on

A plugged in charger not charging shouldn't even draw, say, 0.5W.  That over a whole year would cost £1.18.  4 or 5 of them, £5-6 over the whole year.

(In fact it seems most of them don't even draw 0.1W, which would cost 24p per year each.
Source for 0.1W https://www.howtogeek.com/231886/tested-should-you-unplug-chargers-when-youre-not-using-them/ which also contains links to corroborating tests
Source for cost bevause my maths isn't that great: https://www.sust-it.net/energy-calculator.php?tariff=76? )

Yes the small things do add up but with the usage the OP is talking about, even all the small things added up won't make a dent.

akwexavante

Just trying to make the OP aware that it's a good idea to go from room to room and look for all those things that could be Collectively costing money. 

Even old power supplies for stuff we chucked out years ago that are still plugged in and switched on that are hidden behind desks, beds and other furniture. 

The OP may find something significant.. 

Looking and reading the labels on stuff can quickly make people aware of just how much things cost to run. 

nadsat

We have a similar set up - American fridge freezer + another large freezer + one electric shower (but one gas hot water shower that is used more though) + many devices including two gaming computers (arghhh two teenage boys) + dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer all often used daily. 

But electricity is estimated at 6,500 KW/h/yr - this has come down from about 9,000 a few years ago. My guess is that the refrigeration is lower as both appliances are new, and the washing machine is also new. We also hardly use the electric oven as we are now the proud owners of two air fryers. 

But gas is 19,000 kWh/yr but we have a large house with 16 rads. 

ArbitraryRandom

akwexavante said:

Just trying to make the OP aware that it's a good idea to go from room to room and look for all those things that could be Collectively costing money. 

Even old power supplies for stuff we chucked out years ago that are still plugged in and switched on that are hidden behind desks, beds and other furniture. 

The OP may find something significant.. 

Looking and reading the labels on stuff can quickly make people aware of just how much things cost to run. 

The problem is that quite often the plug/label will only tell you the maximum operational use - not when it's on standby or for devices that are intermittent (like chargers).

That's one of the reasons I think the Tapo energy plugs (as recommend by a few people on the thread) are so good - they cost around £10 if you catch them at the right time on Amazon and you leave them on for anywhere between a day and a week to give you a true picture of consumption. 

Really eye opening to see how 'normal' computer/xbox use adds up over the week (and the difference leaving things asleep makes), or plug in air fresheners, old fridges... all sorts of things that are just getting on with their jobs in the background. 

prettyandfluffy

No to leaving stuff on standby, turn it off at the wall.  And a big no to the tumble dryer, too - give washing an extra spin, it can still be line dried in winter as long as it isn't actually raining or snowing; even if it's still damp when you bring it in, stick it on an airer and it will be dry in the morning.  Only wash when you have a full load or use a colour catcher sheet and combine loads. I've cleared my airing cupboard of towels and bedding (now in under bed storage) and put in a small airer with 2 telescopic shower rails in the top so I can hang washing in there to dry.

ArbitraryRandom

prettyandfluffy said:

No to leaving stuff on standby, turn it off at the wall.

I'm going to say that depends on the person and the device. The important thing is knowing what's on standby and how much power it's using so you don't leave anything on that you don't want to have on. So avoid having lots of things plugged into the same extension cord if there's a mix of things that can be off and things you want to have still connected. 

I don't have the OP's Virgin Media box (or Sky) but I understand that if they're not left powered then they can't record things - which for some people is one of the reasons for having them. 

My equivalent is that I tend to leave my xbox on the energy saving standby mode, which uses a lot less energy than 'sleep' mode - I forget what it's called; the xbox is for all intent and purposes 'off' but it can still auto download games and updates, so when I come to have an hour or two free I'm not spending the whole time with it downloading a large update on my slow (cheaper) internet connection. 

I also leave my router plugged in all the time, because the connection quality drops if it's frequently turned on and off; and the kettle plugged in and on mostly because otherwise I flick it on and walk away, wondering why it's taking so long to boil  

prettyandfluffy

ArbitraryRandom said:

prettyandfluffy said:

No to leaving stuff on standby, turn it off at the wall.

I'm going to say that depends on the person and the device. The important thing is knowing what's on standby and how much power it's using so you don't leave anything on that you don't want to have on. So avoid having lots of things plugged into the same extension cord if there's a mix of things that can be off and things you want to have still connected. 

I don't have the OP's Virgin Media box (or Sky) but I understand that if they're not left powered then they can't record things - which for some people is one of the reasons for having them. 

My equivalent is that I tend to leave my xbox on the energy saving standby mode, which uses a lot less energy than 'sleep' mode - I forget what it's called; the xbox is for all intent and purposes 'off' but it can still auto download games and updates, so when I come to have an hour or two free I'm not spending the whole time with it downloading a large update on my slow (cheaper) internet connection. 

I also leave my router plugged in all the time, because the connection quality drops if it's frequently turned on and off; and the kettle plugged in and on mostly because otherwise I flick it on and walk away, wondering why it's taking so long to boil  

I don't turn everything off at the wall (such as the kettle) but I don't leave things on standby.  I use smart plugs and a routine to turn things off and on such as the printer and bedroom tv, I have the main tv and all peripherals plugged into a power down board where some can be left on for downloading etc but others are switched off.  It's a battle to get my OH to switch off lights sometimes so this saves arguments and energy.

akwexavante

The OP should firstly get a smart meter ASAP and then gain a thorough understanding of what's in the house Inc outside, the garden, she'd etc consuming power and how much and what they are costing to run daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. 

Then Collectively as a family work towards reducing usage. 

Offer an incentive such as a holiday next year if comsumption can be reduced by 50% for a full year. Promise to upgrade phones or whatevers important to the members of the family. 

MultiFuelBurner

It does sound like a shower timer is required for the electric shower and a monitoring plug on the American style fridge freezer as both those could account for over 3000kwh a year.

Change the mixer gas shower to a decent temperature mixer system that doesn't suddenly become extra hot or cold.

Then involve the whole house in a cut down exercise and start a spreadsheet of what things cost to run and a daily total. Then you can shed those kw