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

Phones4Chris

@JSHarris Don't you have a Fridge and/or Freezer?

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

I don't think that 5kWh per day is typical at all. Apart from omitting any Fridge/Freezer running costs, there's no allowance for running any CH pump at least, and if it's not Gas (eg. Oil) then the burner needs to be taken into account as well.

Scot_39

Ofgem produce 3 TDCV levels for duel fuel homes.

The low use home profile is 1800kWh SR electric pa = 4.93 kWh per day.

The medium use (the TDCV behind the infamous headline £2500 EPG "cap") just been lowered to 2700 kWh pa - 7.4 kWh per day (iirc nominally a 2-3 bed, 2-3 people home)

JSHarris

Phones4Chris said:

@JSHarris Don't you have a Fridge and/or Freezer?

Well spotted, not sure how I missed this when I was cutting and pasting from HA data!  

The fridge freezer adds 0.62kWh/day.  The circulating pump for the UFH heating is included in the ASHP energy use as it's on the same radial (and it's that radial the HA energy metering is on).

I'll try and go back and edit the post to include the errant fridge freezer numbers.

Qyburn

Phones4Chris said:

@JSHarris Don't you have a Fridge and/or Freezer?

.. there's no allowance for running any CH pump at least, and if it's not Gas (eg. Oil) then the burner needs to be taken into account as well.

Our oil heating draws around 210W when both CH and DHW are running. About 190W if just one. Something like 0.8kWh per day during the heating season.

I suppose a gas boiler probably uses less power but pump and valves would be the same. 

JSHarris

Pump power varies a great deal with the age and type of the pump.  I fitted a Grundfoss low energy pump when installing our UFH and that uses about 42W, only when the heating is on. 

dunstonh

Phones4Chris said:

@JSHarris Don't you have a Fridge and/or Freezer?

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

I don't think that 5kWh per day is typical at all. Apart from omitting any Fridge/Freezer running costs, there's no allowance for running any CH pump at least, and if it's not Gas (eg. Oil) then the burner needs to be taken into account as well.

If we remove our electric AGA and PHEV from the equation, then our electric use during summer is around  5kWh per day and we have an American Fridge Freezer. which uses about 0.7kWh a day.    The daily use rises towards 8-10kWh a day during winter because of lighting, CH pump and increased tumble drier use.   Plus, we are using the horse walker is used more and paddock and arena lighting are on more.      

At 20kWh per day, I think the OPs use is heavy but anyone could easily find themselves using that much through energy laziness.    Prior to last summer, our summer use was 20kWh per day and just by finding out why and making some changes, we were able to reduce it significantly.   

MultiFuelBurner

So yesterday we did the following for 19kwh electricity 

Heated the house via heat pump to 21oC all day (it was a barmy 10oC outside temp)
Heated the Hot water from 20oC to 50oC
1 Load of Washing
1 75 min vented tumble dryer
1 Dishwasher Load
Heated the Garage Gym to 19oC for 2 hours (air to air heat pump)
1 built in fridge freezer middle of the road energy rating
1 outside rated freezer in an out building poor energy rating
Baseload of the house
10 Alexa's on and pumping out Christmas tunes most of the day
Oven on for 30 mins, air fryer used for 10 mins, coffee machine of for 6 cups bean to cup and microwave used for 10 mins

So when the OP says they are using 20kwh a day and use gas for central heating and hot water then there is something using excessive electricity.

Perhaps they will come back after doing a thorough turn everything off, check the meter and systematically find the culprit(s)

JSHarris

As I had to do some work updating HA this morning I thought I'd pull the last 24 hours power consumption out and have a go at seeing what uses power, when it uses it and how much and plot it in Excel.  Total energy used by the house (no car charging) for the last 24 hours was 8.96kWh.  Heating isn't on at the moment, though, as it's so mild.  Heating would add around another 2kWh to 5kWh, depending on how cold it is. 

Our background load is higher than for many, as we have heat recovery ventilation, a UV disinfection unit and the treatment plant blower pump running 24/7, plus a well pump that kicks in several times a day (comes with being off the sewage and mains water grid).

JSHarris

Thought it might be useful to add another plot, but for a night when the heating has come on.  Having the heating on for about three and a half hours last night added about another 2.2kWh to the energy consumption.  For anyone concerned that heat pumps draw a lot of power then these data might be useful.  

My air source heat pump has an output rating of 7kW maximum, but as can be seen from the power it draws when on, it starts out drawing up to about 1.6kW for the first 10 minutes that it's on, then settles right down to drawing slightly less than 500W when running.  It is supplying water at 35°C to the underfloor heating and to a buffer tank that preheats the hot water

The hot water system used more energy last night than the heating, which is often the case.  Over a year heating hot water uses more electricity than anything else we have, including the electric central heating or charging the car.