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

theoretica

PS - this looks like it might be the instruction manual link you need - or at least similar, can't see what your controller looks like under the cover.

https://www.ndh-ltd.co.uk/sites/default/files/2020-08/Honeywell Ground Source User Guide.pdf

QrizB

theoretica said:

But that will be gas - and not the high electricity use.  As suggested, make sure the immersion heaters are off.  Look for electric cables going directly to the water tank, not to the pipework.

While I agree that it's worth checking, an errant immersion heater isn't going to account for 11,000kWh/yr.
We're trying to find 30kWh a day!

Alnat1

Does that show the hot water is set to 70C? Surely that's way too high and could possibly scald someone using a tap.

Netexporter

Does that show the hot water is set to 70C?

That's the flow temperature, which has to be hotter than the DHW, but 70 is a bit high for efficiency. I'd turn the DHW down to 55 degrees with a flow temperature of 60 degrees.

Krakkkers

Wow my solar diverter heats my hot water to 75 degrees, used to be 85 degrees but that thermostat failed and they only go up to 75 now.

markin

August 2022 45798
October 2023 57791

800 kwh a month, 9,600 a year. remove that and say the meter is 4 years at that point and it was already 8,570 a year average.

Is the house also from 2017, so a EPC C or below?
https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode?lang=en&property_type=domestic


The could still be Electric floors in bathrooms, not connected to the gas heated floors.

Are the electric meters all together also? Read the other gas meters are they all around the same, just out of curiosity.

markin

blue_hector said:

Gerry1 said:

Check that the Megaflo's two immersion heaters are switched off.  You could have a 'belt and braces' situation with large amounts of electricity being used needlessly, especially if its thermostat is set higher and/or its timer is set for longer hours that the gas boiler.

Thank you, Gerry1. I don't really know how to check this, however, I will find a way to get my hands on the instruction manuals and find out. I wouldn't put it past us doing something stupid like this given we have so little understanding of the appliances in that cupboard.

In the meantime I've taken some close ups of some of the control panels in case it is obvious to someone what it is we are doing wrong.

 

For underfloor heating, the heating flow temp should not be more than 50c, Hopefully its Mixed down to 35c - 40c at the manifold.

Do you have any radiators?

Gerry1

What does the Honeywell controller actually control?  If it's the Megaflo then it'll be on 24 hours per day so the gas boiler will hardly get a look in, especially if the Megaflo thermostat is set higher than that of the gas boiler.

bluelad1927

As you.must be spending a fortune on energy I'd be tempted to pay a heating engineer to come round and explain everything. They should be able to identify the big usage.

When was your boiler last serviced. If it was a while ago get somebody to do the service and explanations in one hit

blue_hector

Thanks everyone. It seems like a lot of people really know their stuff and would know what to look out for if they had access to my home.

Sadly, although I think a lot of the items you are asking me may be 'obvious' to a lot of people here, I feel out of my depth trying to answer these  -- e.g. an earlier poster commented to check that the immersion heaters are 'off' -- seems to be simple but when I stare at the megaflo tub and control panel I just don't know. I do see a switch on the wall labelled 'water heater' and I wrote a post-it note when we checked in that said 'if boiler stopped working press here' -- however, this is definitely in the 'off' position (see pic below). I also took a picture of some wires coming out of the megaflo but not sure if that gives you any information content.

I will find a weekend to do this meter sanity test and an energy audit -- these are great ideas, so thank you.

Although, if that fails, I think I might try to hire someone to help. Can anyone recommend an electrician or a general all-rounder who might be up for some 'consulting' work? Or suggest the kind of person who would be amenable to this type of work and would know what they are doing? We live in southwest London (Barnes).

To answer a few more questions:

- we have an EV but we only got it  2 months and we don't charge it ever night so that's not going to be it.
- no radiators in the house, other than the towel radiators. BUT these are left off all year round.
- we have a large standalone fridge, separate large freezer. Both miele.
- given the young kids, we probably run the washing machine 4-5 times a week (40 degrees) and the tumble dryer 3-4 times a week as well. we run the dishwasher probably 5-6x a week.
- we keep all the garden lights off since we have a lot of solar-battery ones.
- the underfloor heating we only really use in the winter (sep-mar)
- our property has an EPC rating of A. It finished building in 2018 or thereabouts.
- the basement is underground, so there is a pump system.
- We live in a house, but it is part of a 6-house 'complex' where we have a shared garage. We are billed separately (through management company) for the electricity and upkeep of the garage so I don't think that contributes.
- I thought we were being quite good about turning lights on/off but maybe not.
- In terms of stuff / electronics we leave on: we have 3 tvs (that we don't unplug, i.e. left in standby), 1 desktop pc that is left in standby (it goes into hibernation mode itself, and it's not high performance), 6 google 'nests' (we have 6 of them) to boost the wifi since the walls are very thick where we are, 4 alexas, 2 wired ring cameras, smart plugs (~ 10 of them) that ensure certain lamps go on/off via schedule or command to alexa. I don't know if these things contribute much but I mention them just in case.
- Our meter is registered as a 'single rate meter'. But it actually does store 3 sets of numbers : a cumulative day reading, a cumulative night reading, and a cumulative TOTAL reading (sum of day + night). When I was engaging with eon I just gave them the total one because that's what the checkin agent told me to do and indeed when I log on to eon's site there is only 1 number box to key this in.
- However, since realising this distinction between day/night readings for electricity I started taking notes on these. Only have 3 months of data though:

date, day, night, total

20231017, 42849, 14941, 57791

20231113, 43290, 15095, 58385

20231204, 43778, 15207, 58986

Admittedly, we were away for some of October so the (Oct-Nov consumption is lower than usual). But what is interesting is that even on the night readings (with all lights off) we seem to be consuming ~ 100 kwh per month between the hours of 11-7am! Which would average ~ 1200 kwh per year, which seems a lot based on the figures people are quoting here. We don't run anything intensive at night (i.e. it's not like we do our washing at night).
- I will start being nosey and recording our neighbours numbers to see if they are consuming at a similar rate. 
- as for the solar panels. I was told that we would need to write to eon to at some regular intervals to tell them what reading they had and they would deduct this from our bills. I've never done so. The reading on the right now is 9282 kwh and I'm guessing this is the total energy produced from inception (mid 2019). This would obviously help a lot, but is a fraction of of the cumulative ~59,000 kwh we are registering on our electricity meter (mid 2019, the reading on checkin was just shy of ~6,000 kwh).