I don't understand how we are consuming so much energy

QrizB

blue_hector said:

Netexporter said:

Have you been reading it correctly? Don't include the decimals, just the whole number of kWh.

Yeah, pretty sure I have. First time we moved with the check-in agent they showed us how. I ignore anything after the decimal.

How old is the meter? Is it mechanical, electronic or smart?

Can you tell us the make and model, and/or share a photo?

Scot_39 said:

The Ofgem TDCV for a medium property - which iirc they describe as for a 2-3 bed house for 2-3 people has just been lowered to 11500kWh gas and 2700kWh electric.

The "high" TDCV for a larger-than-average home is now 4100kWh//yr electricity, 17000kWh/yr gas (link).

OP is using 2.5x as much as the "high" TDCV.

elsien

What temperature do you like to keep your house at, heating wise? 

Netexporter

 our heating is all from underfloor heating so maybe this is the reason?

That's definitely the reason. Heating is always the biggest user of electricity, except in the case of heat-pumps.

What tariff are you on? Is it a smart meter?

blue_hector

Krakkkers said:

I also have a similar sized 4 bedroom house and my electricity consumption from the grid is around 950 kwh but i have solar panels and am a tightwad.
Seriously i think your leccy consumption is around 3 to 4 times normal.
Do you heat water by immersion or gas?
Are you using any form of electric heating that is perhaps hidden like towel rails or underfloor.
Is it gas central heating? or do you have a heat pump?

Thank you for sharing this. Sometimes I think I should not be allowed to own a home as I'm going to struggle to answer these :-(  I will look up the answers but at the moment the only thing I can answer is that we heat our home through underfloor heating. 

QrizB

blue_hector said:

Our gas bills are tiny and our heating is all from underfloor heating so maybe this is the reason?

Electric underfloor heating? That's one of the most expensive ways to heat a house.

Burning fivers is only slightly more expensive.

I can't understand why anyone would fit electric underfloor heating to a property that has a gas connection.

dunstonh

1) Is this consumption figure surprising? Would others care to share how much they consume? Particularly if they live in similarly sized homes with similar family makeup. Would be great for me to get a few data points to understand how out of whack we are?

Its very high if you cannot immediately identify devices that are known to be very heavy (i.e. EV/PHEV, Electric AGA, hot tub etc).

A large 4 bedroom house may use around 6kWh per day if they are efficient and have no heavy use devices.   10kWh maybe closer to the mark for efficient families.   Head towards 20kWh if quite heavy on lighting and gaming devices or tumble drier and dishwasher on high heat settings. 

You are using 38kWh per day.   That is extremely high for something with no known heavy use device.       At that level (and no heavy use devices), you would likely need to running dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier very often on very high temperatures and have inefficient models.  Maybe an electric immersion heater left on.  Electric showers used frequently (not power showers but those that use electric to heat the water).    Maybe your lighting is halogen spots (some draw 64w per bulb).  Outside lighting on with lots of bulbs?

think about devices that generate heat or cold.  They tend to be heavy. 
Gaming PCs with high end graphics cards.  
TVs with mobile connectivity enabled in the settings and left on standby.

2) Does it sound wrong? Is it possible that a meter could be 'running fast'? Are there some tests / diagnostics I could do to find out?

Statistically unlikely to be the meter.   More likely to be your use.

Do you have a smart meter?    If you do, then look at the IHD.  Switch it to show kWh use and what you are currently drawing.   Note that figure.
Then turn everything off that would normally be off as if you were going out and no-one was at home.    Then look at the current draw.     i.e. the amount of electricity you draw when nothing is being used and devices are in their rest state.        Most people would see a figure in the 40-150w range.         Any higher than that then you possibly have devices running you are not aware of or are drawing more than you think whilst they are in standby.

blue_hector

I had to check with a neighbour and he said that our underfloor heating is gas-based. So I guess that's not it. :-( 

Scot_39

Oops ignore above post about Ofgem TDCV - just read your 2nd post.

11000 kWh with gas for heating,hot water and cooking is actually quite high if covers all three.

But unlikely to be 10x too high - e.g.if had misread an old analogue meter decimal place - for a family of 4

How for instance is shower and cooking powered ?

A cold fed electric shower for 3 a day could easily be 3-5 kWh daily - so 1100-1500 kWh a year for instance.


Think you need to have a good look around home and see what is running off of electric.

If you have a Smart meter grabbing 1/2 hourly data via an app like loop or bright may give clues.

Another clue might be seasonal variation - so if get regular bills - or supplier shows e.g.on online account- how does it vary summer autumn winter spring.

People tend to focus on big items - but a kitchen diner with dozen plus high powered 20-40W halogens can consume kWhs daily etc if left on.

A colleague had 20 in his open plan kitchen dinner lounge - 12 20W and 8 40W - swapping to leds - maddxa big difference - but he had to redo some transformer modules as well which added to costs.

Games consoles or desktop computers, older TVs etc can consume 20-50W in standby, 100sW when running etc.

Meters can go faulty - it's rare - but there was one model in particular mentioned recently here with a higher failure rate on a batch of units.

People also often find things like backup immersion heaters if have a hot water tank normally het by gas boiler can kick in for hours daily over months in summer, when set gch+hw systems to only come on for a short time etc..

blue_hector

Apparently our boiler is gas too (Same knowledgeable neighbour who I am bugging on whatsapp)

Krakkkers

So why is your gas bill tiny when heating a large 4 bedroom house by gas?
Lets start with the basics, do you have radiators and what is your annual gas usage.