My house uses 20kWh of electricity a day -- why so much?

alexanderalexander

bluelad1927 said:

Is there immersion switch on your water tank that is switched on permanently?

Thank you for this thought. This is a picture of my hot water tank (behind the low-sophistication red lagging). I noticed that it is plugged into a socket which (unusually) doesn't have a switch -- see the marked point in the bottom right corner. Is this what will be drawing a huge amount of electricity?

JSHarris

Looks like you've found one source of your high energy use!  Immersion heaters shouldn't really be on plugs, as a 13A plug and outlet is only rated to safely handle 10A for long periods (i.e. an hour or more).  The 13A rating is the peak rating, for short duration appliances, like kettles.  Also, a 3kW immersion heater on a UK 230VAC supply will draw just over 13A, so technically it isn't compliant even for short periods of use.  Best to get the outlet replaced with a proper switched fuse unit and whilst you're at it fit a time switch, so the tank is only heated when you need hot water.

Robin9

and a very old hot water tank to which an insulation kit has been added.

dealyboy

alexanderalexander said:

bluelad1927 said:

Is there immersion switch on your water tank that is switched on permanently?

Thank you for this thought. This is a picture of my hot water tank (behind the low-sophistication red lagging). I noticed that it is plugged into a socket which (unusually) doesn't have a switch -- see the marked point in the bottom right corner. Is this what will be drawing a huge amount of electricity?

... My medium sized hot water cylinder is wired into a similar electric unit, but without a plug/socket but with a switch. When doing my research to reduce electricity usage I found it consumes 2 to 3 kWh per day with little use but permanently switched on.

If yours is a large cylinder and/or you regularly run hot water, clearly it will be more. Is it hot?

BTW ... I presume you don't have a smart meter with in home display.

Gerry1

JSHarris said:

whilst you're at it fit a time switch, so the tank is only heated when you need hot water.

There seems to be a mechanical plug-in timeswitch on the shelf above.  However they should be used with caution (especially on a multi rate tariff such as E7) because an unnoticed power cut can make them drift.

JSHarris

Gerry1 said:

JSHarris said:

whilst you're at it fit a time switch, so the tank is only heated when you need hot water.

There seems to be a mechanical plug-in timeswitch on the shelf above.  However they should be used with caution (especially on a multi rate tariff such as E7) because an unnoticed power cut can make them drift.

They are also only rated for 10A continuous current, as that's the maximum continuous rating for a BS1363 outlet or plug.  A 3kW immersion is going to draw just over 13A for maybe an hour or two at a time, so not really safe.

debitcardmayhem

It may help to see whether there are pipes from the tank to a switched valve too, it’s not clear from your photo. As others said the electrical connection is not ideal either.

Reed_Richards

Unplug it from the socket and see what happens.  

northernstar007

i'd stick somesort of timer to come on an hour before you need hot water in the morning turn itself off when last person leaves then back on again an hour before 1st person home and then off rest of the night after tea
that looks like it just sucks electric 
and i would get a sparky in to do it properly

Alnat1

If the OP is using 20kWh of electricity a day then I'm assuming the main heating is gas. If so, why is the tank being heated by electricity and not gas, which would be cheaper?