How much do you pay for electricity?

poet123

Be interesting to see list of the costs for each appliance, our bill is £85 per month for elec and £65 for gas so we could do with a few pointers on reducing those!!

wifeforlife

I cant believe peoples electricity is so high. I use a keypad metre so am able to keep a watchful eye on things.

I do stupid things that you dont notice but dont hold back an awful lot. My washing machine and tumble drier would be on once a day, and off at the plug when I'm not using it.

Other than my home telephone and the kitchen ring, I've no other sockets just on for the craic of it, I turn everything off at the plug for some reason but it obviously works.

I leave my daughters nightlight on all night but use those energy saving bulbs, but my bill still works out so cheap compared to most here

Are you sure NIE arent over estimating your bills, and I mean excesssively

Cate

Milko

Just got our annual NIE statement through & it turns out we're in credit so they've dropped our DD down to £29 per month

IvanOpinion

poet123 wrote: »

Be interesting to see list of the costs for each appliance, our bill is £85 per month for elec and £65 for gas so we could do with a few pointers on reducing those!!

Assuming you are using gas central heating the £65 per month does not sound so bad ... even better if you also cook using gas.

On the same assumptions though £85 for elecricity seems high ... even if you cook with electric. First thing is to always consider what you use that contains a heating element .. e.g. tumble dryer, electic fires, cooker, imersion heater, electric blankets etc. since these things gobble electricity. Then look at some of the older appliances to see what sort of power they used e.g. plasma TVS used to be very power hungry as are many computers. Don;t leave things turned on or on standby, turn them off at the switch if you can (I know some videos loose their programming but many don't and a computer only takes 1-2 minutes to fire up from cold).

Also don't illuminate your house like Blackpool illuminations .. especially if you have the old 100W bulbs. Consider changing such bulbs for 40w or better still use the energy saving bulbs.

If your heating is on make sure only those radiators in rooms being used are turned on and get your system properly balanced for your needs. Make sure doors to unused rooms are closed and you do not have your windows open. If heating is a problem look at using heavier linings on your curtain as well etc. (and close your curtains tucking them down the back of the radiator if necessary).

Just a few tips, there is laods of good common sense advice on the web if you do a quick google.

Ivan

marksimpson

B&Q currently have an offer of an energy meter for £30 in store (if you want to Google it, the one I got is an OWL Energy Meter).

You clip the transmitter onto the cable at the meter and the wireless display then tells how much per hour your electricity is costing, updated either every 6s or every minute.

derrycat

Pam17 wrote: »

We have a monthly direct debit set up for our electricity which NIE adjust according to our usage. We are currently paying £64 per month :eek: but according to our latest bill we are averaging £49 per month and NIE will reduce the DD accordingly. I think the reduction is due to both daughters living away from home whilst at uni. IE no hair straighteners constantly on, less showers (electric powered) and less use of tumble dryer.

However I have no idea if £49 per month is still too high for a 4 bedroom detached house with 2 adults who work full time but sometimes work opposite shifts. So I'm asking for some idea of what others are paying so we can review our bills.

I PAY WITH A PAYPOINT CARD {PAY AS YOU GO}IM A FULL TIME MUM OF 2 SO IM MORE OR LESS IN THE HOUSE ALL THE TIME AND I PAY ROUGHLY 10.00 OR LESS A WK.SAVES THE BIG BILLS EVERY WK.JUST RING AND SAY YOUR FINDING IT HARD TO PAY AND ASK FOR A METRE.

faeriespider

Many of you refer to oil central heating when you talk about electricity usage. I have a 4/5 bedroomed converted barn and use £60 electricity on DD but my heating and hot water are oil. I pay £125 per month every month for oil and use around 3700 litres per year with 12 radiators and a combi boiler. It is on twice a day - fairly standard all day at weekends. I am told this is very high usage and that my boiler is inefficient.

Any thoughts?

kyral

I got 500 ltrs of oil in July and it lasted until 2/3 weeks ago. Im in a 3bedroom end of terrace house with 8 radiators, oil is used for my heating and hot water. Last year I had the loft insulated and I had an overhaul of the heating system in October. The system has been in 11 years I had thermostats put on each radiator, one for the hot water and one for maintaining temperature in the house. I get the boiler serviced annually. The heating and water are on from 7.30am til 8am then 5pm til 5.45pm and depending on the weather maybe the heating a couple of hours in between.

I can definately use the oil a lot more efficiently since I had the thermostats put in.

I should add that my living room and two front bedrooms get the sun all day (should it appear lol) and this actually saves on oil through the day.

My mates think Im a skinflint when it comes to oil but we dont freeze!!!!

IvanOpinion

faeriespider wrote: »

Many of you refer to oil central heating when you talk about electricity usage. I have a 4/5 bedroomed converted barn and use £60 electricity on DD but my heating and hot water are oil. I pay £125 per month every month for oil and use around 3700 litres per year with 12 radiators and a combi boiler. It is on twice a day - fairly standard all day at weekends. I am told this is very high usage and that my boiler is inefficient.

Any thoughts?

that sounds high to me. i was just counting the radiators in my own house and there are 12 as well (mostly doubles) ... we get by on 2x900l fills per year (although i think that is probably light because we turn off all radiators that we do not use). is your conversion open plan or 'rooned'? how many hours a day do you run the heating for? do you have thermostatitc controls on the radiators? Is the system properly balanced? where is the water tank in relation to the boiler? what do you do in warmer weather 9for instance our heating was turned off from last apr/may until about oct .. apart from heating water0? what boiler do you have 9not that i can help on that but somebody else may be able to give more info)? how old is it? how well insulated is the conversion?

ivan

typhoon

just reading a previous post about having thermostatic controls installed on the radiators. I have been thinking about this. Does anyone know how much this costs? I have 13 radiators and those in rooms that we dont use are turned off, but I would like to have the option of having them turned on at a very low setting to take the chill out.
Does anyone have any opinions on which one would be better - thermostats on the radiators or cavity wall insulation? I couldnt afford both