All electric flat usage sky high - advice needed

subjecttocontract

If your hot water tank is in the loft....
1. Is the tank insulated ?
2. Is it located within an insulated area of the loft or in the cold area of the loft ?
3. Presumably the tank has a thermostat fitted.....do you know what temp it's set to ?
4. You have solar panels so......do you know if the solar energy contributes/feeds in to the hot water energy usage ?

Gerry1

Lage said:

And definitely stay persistent with your landlord to get the meter. 

Do you mean 'timer'?

Scot_39

Is your shower fed by tank or self heating electric type.

Tank fed showers often run at higher flow rates so even a shortish shower can take as much to what in winter can be a low flow so longer time needed from a 9-10kWh electric.
Each shower maybe 1-1.5kWh - longer if long hair wash/condition maybe. 
Tank losses maybe 1.5kWh for a small - med tank in unhet space.

17kWh per day without heating is a lot.  My summer use runs between 6-10kWh unless out all day - upper when say do a couple of machine washes.

Or is it 17kWh inport after solar panel generation with heating?

Arguably you really need to clarify what mode the solar is operating in.  And you may even be able to get paid for summer export if landlord not.


My daily average in an all electric 2 bed modern mid terrace including heating to low temps cf many is around that 17kWh in a mild winter month like last Dec/Jan  - but was noticably up over 20 this Jan for instance.  In a really cold sub zero snap daily use can though peak double that.

About 2-3 kWh of my use maybe tank hw, half of that losses from tank, likely to be worse in winter in loftspace.
1.5 kWh 1x 10 min electric shower.
Each washing machine load maybe 0.5-1kWh.

Cooking - you dont mention - can be 1kWh plus for oven or couple of pans on hob for proper meals.   I only tend to have 1 - sometimes lazy supermarket prepacked -  hot meal per day - often microwaved -  sandwich or cold salad etc so that saves a bit.

I also use a cheap (£60 at time, but if wait to get in sales similar often near half that these days) small c4l supermarket brand air fryer. Cooks many things faster than near 20mins it takes my 2.2kW oven to get to higher temps (just initial heat - that's 0.7kWh - a little top up during cooking etc... 1kWh plus). I reckon has paid for itself.

Try to make a full list of everything electric you use.

Get an app if can of see if your supllier gives 1/2hrly data access on their user portal account pages if you have a smart meter.
Can help you identify big use times and items.
Or dare I say it surprising low constant use items that add up.

My power use goes as low as 25W overnight - mains smoke alarms, router etc - 100W if FF actice - a friend who leaves a couple of lights and aquariums / fish pond pump - never gets below 250W - maybe 5kWh for the pets..

Loads of little lights - e.g.  old style halogen spots can add up to - my sisters kitchen diner in a small 3 bed - wax over 500W  - now all led - and left on for hours nightly.

Running a tank heater cycling on its thermostat 24/7 will use more power than say only hesting 1 hr per day - a consistently hotter tank simply loses a little bit more to air around it - but it might not be the game changer on cutting use. Even for a tank in unhet loft space.

But like my tanks losses to the airing vupboard, your loft tank losses might help control dampness levels in the loftspace.

Veteransaver

If it's a pumped "power" shower from the hot water cylinder then yes one of those can empty a tank within about 6 minutes and use about 5-6kWh in reheat.

That could be explaining it, it's not the immersion per se, rather the very high water use

Scot_39

Even for 1 - my HW over 12m heating costs - nearly matches if not beats the space heating cost - over 4-5 winter months.

Many people often tend to overlook it.

But if I het my whole house to likes of 18C - like some of my friends with gas can afford to - it would be a different story.