Average Electricity Costs Poll

PQ.

we had (in spare room)

PC
21inch CRT monitor
large computer speakers
router
switch
printer
external hard drive
Second PC
15inch CRT monitor
second set of speakers
second printer

front room:
DVD
Video
32inch CRT TV
X box
third PC
19inch CRT monitor
external hard drive
music system
20inch CRT TV

All either left on or on standby for 99% of the time.

We've fitted remote control pugs on to the PC equipment in the spare and front rooms, fitted one to the DVD player and started switching the TV, video and Xbox off when not in use.

The worst offenders IMO (based on how hot the plugs would get) were the speakers, router and switch in the spare room.

Looking back at the bills we've dropped from £25.50 a month to £21.50 a month since we fitted the remote control units to the sockets 5 months ago (and that and switching the non-remote controlled things off is the only change we've made) - (so you're right it's a bit of an exaggeration - we saved £4 not £5 a month) and the price of our electricity per unit has gone up in that time.

Cardew

PQ. wrote: »

we had (in spare room)

PC
21inch CRT monitor
large computer speakers
router
switch
printer
external hard drive
Second PC
15inch CRT monitor
second set of speakers
second printer

front room:
DVD
Video
32inch CRT TV
X box
third PC
19inch CRT monitor
external hard drive
music system
20inch CRT TV

All either left on or on standby for 99% of the time.

We've fitted remote control pugs on to the PC equipment in the spare and front rooms, fitted one to the DVD player and started switching the TV, video and Xbox off when not in use.

The worst offenders IMO (based on how hot the plugs would get) were the speakers, router and switch in the spare room.

Looking back at the bills we've dropped from £25.50 a month to £21.50 a month since we fitted the remote control units to the sockets 5 months ago (and that and switching the non-remote controlled things off is the only change we've made) - (so you're right it's a bit of an exaggeration - we saved £4 not £5 a month) and the price of our electricity per unit has gone up in that time.

With respect that's hardly a scientific experiment to calculate what your savings are - "my bills dropped from £25.50 to £21.50."

Let us know the standby wattage of that lot above or work it out and it will be a lot less than you think. Without knowing the standby consumption you can't possibly make such statements.

If you think it does save you that - then lets leave it at that.

Standby consumption for the average household can be measured in pence per month, not anything like the figure you were indicating in the advice you were offering to people earlier on how to cut their consumption.

There is frankly so much nonsense talked about high standby consumption that all, un-informed people think they need to do to drastically reduce their consumption is switch the telly off standby - and they don't take the steps that really matter.

monopoly_money

newg wrote: »

until now i had not realised how stupid we have been. We live in a two bed house and we have been paying way too much from what i can tell, we have storage heating which during the winter was not used that often, i thought our bills where so high becouse we have a tumber dryer two computers and two laptops. We pay £280 a month. £3360 a year. im calling the electricity comp tom!!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
blimey! i thought our £70 per month was bad!! i used one of those plug in things that tell you how much your appliance is using! my freezer was one thing, i need a new energy efficient one! also i was told (how true it is i dont know) that the older your pc the more electricity it uses! the newer the pc the faster it is the less leccy it uses!
Phil

MrCrusher

According to the pamphlets you get from the Energy suppliers and even the current BG advertising on TV and billboards, they claim 3300kWh p.a is the average household for electric and 20500kWh for gas.

I've paid £27p.m for gas, £35p.m for electric for 3yrs on direct debit to SSE. My d.d. now just covers the costs of the yearly usage.

Year on year, I use about 4000kWh on electric.

06/03 to 03/04 gas usage 18,500kWh - £50 in credit-cashback 04/04
04/05 to 03/06 gas usage 18,600kWh - £100 in credit-cashback 05/06
04/06 to 03/07 gas usage 11,500kWh - £30-no cashback- not worth it

I had a new condensing combi installed 10/05- note the drop in usage- also note that because of the price increases, I'm barely in credit.

I hope the prices see a substantial drop soon so the boiler can "pay" for it's self. Glad I had the boiler installed though, I shudder to think of the monthly gas d.d. otherwise.

tosca5

Moved into a 4 bed property in oct, which has the dreaded storage heating.I only have 2 on all the time and occasionaly switch a third one on.
My electricity has cost me a whooping £1260, (pre-payment meter).:mad:

MonkeyLady

Wow I can't believe how much some of you are having to pay for gas and electricity. :eek: Our direct debits for gas and electric have recently gone down to £14 a month each. :j We did overpay slightly for a few months last year when they bumped the gas up to £23 and electric to £48.50 :eek: so we have some of this to use but even so if we claimed the money back we still wouldn't be paying a huge amount compared to the rest of you, although I'd have seen it as such. This forum certainly makes you appreciate things!

GunJack

Jeez, there seem to be some horror stories on consumption here. For the record, we are in a 3-bed semi that's 17 yrs old, have 2 kids (so more washing, tumble drying, etc.), gas water/central heating, and end up paying £360 per year gas and £620 for electric, and we're hardly the most economical family what with tv X4 , PS2 X 3, pc, PS3 and the usual other appliances, oh and we cook on electric too !!

BTW, in Cambridgeshire and with Southern for both

Hapless_2

54 yr old house, 4 bedrooms, EDF energy £43 a quarter. Night storage heaters (not used), Electric immersion (not used).
Water heated by and cooking done by wood fuelled rayburn.
Open fire in living room.
£200 a year on coal in the winter, otherwise wood free from a bloke who needs his woodland managed.Electric used for fridge (A+ rated), washing machine (AA+ rated), Chest freezer (A+ rated), tumble dryer used rarely. Other uses, TV, radios, Computer, PS2, charging phones, lights (energy saver bulbs).

Contains_Mild_Peril

emmylu wrote: »

Have moved into rented house end of October 2006 and received my first bill up to 18th Jan 2007 and it is for £530.00!!!! When I irst moved in and gave meter readings they said DD would bne £61.50 a month - thought that sounds great. Scottish Power have been out and meter ok apart from I thought I was on economy 7 but am actually on something called twin heat A! Apparently I have cheap rate 4.064p from 3am to 7am and then 1.30pm till 4.30pm. After that am charged at 10.740p. Have storage heaters (8 various sizes) not sure if they are working efficiently or if they are set right. I keep turning the knobs down and son keeps turning them up! Water heated by Horstmann quartz thingy. Have calculated my usage since 18th Jan to 21st Feb as 3,131 units, thats about 95 units a day! Would appear my cheap rate usage is 80% of the bill. Other items are, washing machine on once a day, small freezer, fridge, tv, computer, oven on once a day, microwave several times a day. dryer used only for emergency items (i.e. daughter prior to going out who decides she has to wear something that isn't washed!)

Scottish Power want to increase DD from £61.50 to £180 a month!!! ha. Work part time on minimum wage plus WTC. At this rate will be turning everything off, using candles and will burn furniture in fireplace for heat!!! Will then send kids down the mine to nick coal and forage in forest for wood!!! Help!

In my last rented property had a prepayment meter and was putting about £35-£40 a week in that in winter and only had 3 storage heaters working plus an open coal fire. Even in summer with no heating it was still £15 a week!
(Plus gonna have an excess bill from this as they now say electricity prepayment meter was not set right in Jan 2005 and even though they had been out and checked it, they didn't increase the settings to take into account rate increases!!!)

Do ya think its just me and I'm a wasteful electricity harlot!!!! :eek:

If anyone has any advice would be grateful before I unplug all devices which will unfortunately include my beloved computer!

Stop using the storage heaters. My council flat used to have old-fashioned storage heaters and they were so incredibly inefficient we hardly ever used them. They cost a fortune to run and gave little heat. Luckily they gave us gas central heating a few years back, so we can now afford to stay tolerably warm in winter.
I can't remember what settings we used on the old heaters, but our housing officer advised us on the best settings when we moved in. We tried tweaking the settings (on the few occasions when it was so bitterly cold we resorted to trying them again) but they were still rubbish.

spearish

Can't understand some of these bills.We live in a three bed semi with eight rooms.We have four storage heaters ,one is old, a very inefficent immersion (due to be changed)and we run 3 pc's,2 tv's,a dishwasher,tumbledryer,washing machine and electric cooker and yet the first couple of months we moved in this winter our economy 7 usage was £32 for those two months and £100 for normal electric which makes it around £66 month.We were warm and the storage heaters worked fine.considering we were paying £120 a month for both in our previous new build three bed semi with gas central heating we werent too shocked at that.