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

alexanderalexander

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

My previous understanding was that the hot water in the tank is heated by our gas boiler (and we certainly do have a hot water timer setting on our gas programmer which causes the boiler to fire up) and the tank's electric connection is solely to power the thermostat which in turn triggers the gas heating. However, if I understand it correctly I think some people on this thread are saying that it's possible that the electric connection also "tops up" the heat in the tank 24/7 -- which would explain high usage.

I've used the plug-in timer (which the previous owner left behind) to set the electric connection so that it's only on for an hour each morning and evening, at the same time as the hot water setting on our gas programmer. With a few days' data, it appears to have reduced consumption from 20kWh to 15kWh a day. This is still a bit high but obviously lower than it was. 

Gerry1

Just switch off / unplug the immersion heater(s), there's no need to have this absurd and expensive belt and braces situation.  The immersion heater(s) should be used only if the boiler has a fault.

If the water goes cold then check the boiler controls and valves.

QrizB

alexanderalexander said:

My previous understanding was that the hot water in the tank is heated by our gas boiler (and we certainly do have a hot water timer setting on our gas programmer which causes the boiler to fire up) and the tank's electric connection is solely to power the thermostat which in turn triggers the gas heating.

The hot water thermostat should receive whatever power it needs direct from the central heating controller. It's vey unlikely that the plug-and-socket in your photo is involved.

Lorian

Also it will pay to spend 5 minutes fitting the red jacket properly. A lot of the heat will be leaking out the top. Where yours is puckered up you should turn over the corners and tuck them in. And ideally tape all the joins. Aluminium tape is good for the joins because it doesn't come unstuck as it heats.

otb666

i have not read whole thread but i use the same for 3 adults in terraced house gas CH/hot water.

BellaBlondykeTheThird

otb666 said:

i have not read whole thread but i use the same for 3 adults in terraced house gas CH/hot water.

That is quite a lot, if you don't mind me asking what's your breakdown of usage for 20kWh electricity a day?

debitcardmayhem

otb666 said:

i have not read whole thread but i use the same for 3 adults in terraced house gas CH/hot water.

If you would like help in understanding where your electricity is being used you might be better starting your own thread. I suggest this because some suggestions may be directed to you or the Original Poster, and it may confuse some.

JSHarris

BellaBlondykeTheThird said:

otb666 said:

i have not read whole thread but i use the same for 3 adults in terraced house gas CH/hot water.

That is quite a lot, if you don't mind me asking what's your breakdown of usage for 20kWh electricity a day?

I'm not who you're asking, but as my winter average daily consumption isn't far off this figure, and as I have the numbers to hand, here's my itemised data for an average winter (i.e. beginning of November through to end of March) daily consumption.  There are several items that use significant power that many homes may not have, so I've broken those out separately as a sub-total, but the total includes everything.  The short times for the dishwasher and washing machine reflect that these are not on every day.  For the boiling water tap that's the measured time it is actually drawing power through the 15 hours it's turned on each day, it spends much of the time drawing nothing.

Average daily winter electricity consumption All items are per day average running time.  Some aren't on every day. Item Average hrs/day on Power Consumption Treatment plant blower pump 24.00 45W 1.08kWh/day Treatment plant emptying pump 0.12 1100W 0.13kWh/day UV disinfection unit 24.00 28W 0.67kWh/day Well pump for water supply 0.85 650W 0.55kWh/day Battery system inverter/charger background losses 24.00 17W 0.41kWh/day Heat recovery ventilation system 24.00 55W 1.32kWh/day Car charging 0.36 7400W 2.66kWh/day Sub-total for non-standard items =  6.83kWh/day Electric space heating (ASHP and UFH) 3.97 800W 3.18kWh/day Electric hot water heating 1.35 3000W 4.05kWh/day Cooking 0.88 1250W 1.10kWh/day Boiling water tap 0.89 1200W 1.07kWh/day Lights 9.00 38W 0.34kWh/day Washing machine 0.20 960W 0.19kWh/day Dishwasher 0.55 870W 0.48kWh/day Fridge/freezer 24.00 26W 0.62kWh/day TV 5.00 154W 0.77kWh/day Router, switch, Home Assistant server, UPS, CCTV etc 24.00 38W 0.91kWh/day Sundry chargers, laptops, etc 12.00 18W 0.22kWh/day Sub-total for standard items = 12.93kWh/day Total average daily energy consumption =  19.76kWh/day

Robin9

Take you non-typical and the Space Heating and Water Heating out and you are down to a very typical 5kWh a day

JSHarris

Robin9 said:

Take you non-typical and the Space Heating and Water Heating out and you are down to a very typical 5kWh a day

Yes, not much I can do to reduce anything much more, especially those that make up a more typical level of usage.  Hot water is always the killer for me in winter, it always costs more than any other single part of the winter bill, including heating.  Different in summer, as from about April to October almost all the hot water is free (from solar).