£181 for 3 months electric - 2 people - is this allot?

leni

Just checked our electricity bill online as we pay DD and it says we used £181 worth in 3 months - considering our DD is for £40.00 a month,we have going into debt with them!

The usage is... 1762kw over 101 days so 17.44kw a day - is this allot for 2 people?

We are with Britisg Gas!

emilyt

We were with British Gas and our bill this time last year was £315. We changed to EDF and my bill that i have just paid was £217. A big difference. We are a family of 2 adults and 2 grown up children.

Joyful

The answer is yes that is a lot for 2 people. The average consumption is 3300 Kwh per year, I would suggest checking what appliances your are using/leaving switched on.

daveyjp

Depends what appliances you have and how long you spend in the house per day. Our average useage has never exceeded 10 kwh per day - the average over the last 3 years is about 7 kwh per day, but we both work full time.

heeth

Depends on your ciscumstances - if someone is in the house all day, then your bills will be higher than someone working full time. £15/week is not excessive. If you are all electric then that would be quite normal. Have you got any fan heaters or left your water heater switch on? Any increase in the use of your tumble dryer etc. take a seven day meter read at the same time each day for a week to work out exactly how much energy you are using. If you are still struggling to work out your large bills call your local EEAC, 0800 512 012

jmcdyre

We have same problem with usage slightly lower than yours. There are 2 of us and we both work yet electricity (and gas) are very high. Our electricity was averaging out around 16kwh and I've now managed to get it to below 10 by making a few "tweaks" so hopefully they might work for you...

1. Defrosted freezer - hadn't done this since we moved into the house 18 months ago (the freezer was left by previous owner). This seems to have halved our night time consumption from 3 to 1.5kwh alone.

2. Only turning on the power source for shower when required, and turning off afterwards.

3. Not leaving things on standby, and not using the tumble drier if not absolutely necessary.

4. Where possible use the big appliances (washing machine or dishwasher) at night time if you're on economy seven, this won't reduce your usage but will reduce the cost - given that they use a lot of energy the savings could be big.

5. Use energy efficient lightbulbs.


We're still just making these changes ourselves but they do give results very quickly and will help you to see where you're going wrong. As previous poster noted - take meter readings over a week, and note any changes you've made to see the difference.

jmcdyre

We have same problem with usage slightly lower than yours. There are 2 of us and we both work yet electricity (and gas) are very high. Our electricity was averaging out around 16kwh and I've now managed to get it to below 10 by making a few "tweaks" so hopefully they might work for you...

1. Defrosted freezer - hadn't done this since we moved into the house 18 months ago (the freezer was left by previous owner). This seems to have halved our night time consumption from 3 to 1.5kwh alone.

2. Only turning on the power source for shower when required, and turning off afterwards.

3. Not leaving things on standby, and not using the tumble drier if not absolutely necessary.

4. Where possible use the big appliances (washing machine or dishwasher) at night time if you're on economy seven, this won't reduce your usage but will reduce the cost - given that they use a lot of energy the savings could be big.

5. Use energy efficient lightbulbs.


We're still just making these changes ourselves but they do give results very quickly and will help you to see where you're going wrong. As previous poster noted - take meter readings over a week, and note any changes you've made to see the difference.

poppy_the_saving_cat

To be honest i would say this is the average amount for 2 people now. My electric was £76 a month for the last 3 months and this really made me think about being more efficent with it too x I work part time, mainly evenings and my partner full time, days, so there is always some one in the house with the heating on, tv etc.

If im on the lappy, tv or radio now goes off, I went round the house turning off anything on standby, including the microwave which was just on gor the clock!! Ive bought a flask yesterday and am gona boil 1 full kettle today and fill it up, this is a big downfall for me as i am a big tea drinker and am always boiling the kettle and ive heard that this is a big energy user!!

I guess all these little things will add up so lets see what the next bill brings xxx

Rumman

Our electricity for 4 of us, is at 90 pounds quarterly, which is very good as, the tv, pc are on for about 10 hrs a day, washing machine used several times in a week, tv's are left on standby, have a big chest freezer etc..We used to get around 180 on npower but moved to scottishpower which has halved our bills.

mute_posting

poppy_the_saving_cat wrote: »

Ive bought a flask yesterday and am gona boil 1 full kettle today and fill it up, this is a big downfall for me as i am a big tea drinker and am always boiling the kettle and ive heard that this is a big energy user

It is an big energy user, yes - but if you only boil enough water for the cup you are making at the time you're not "wasting energy"

i.e. it takes exactly the same ammount of energy to boil 1 cup of water from 10degC to 100degC 10 times per day as it does to boil 10 cups of water 1 time.

Besides I'm sure you know as a tea drinker that teabags don't brew too well if the water isn't freshly boiled.;)

Also, some comments on jmcdyre's post

1. Defrosted freezer - hadn't done this since we moved into the house 18 months ago (the freezer was left by previous owner). This seems to have halved our night time consumption from 3 to 1.5kwh alone.

Yes - always a good idea, a frosted up freezer isn't very efficient at all

2. Only turning on the power source for shower when required, and turning off afterwards.

If you had done this in isolation, you would have noticed only a miniscule difference - the little neon light costs about 1p a year to illuminate

3. Not leaving things on standby, and not using the tumble drier if not absolutely necessary.

Standby is greatly debated, for example my 12 year old Sony tv only uses 1watt on standby and thus I'm prepared to "pay" for the convenience of not turning it off and on at the switch and having the convenience of the remote. The doom mongers usually state the figures for old or cheap TV's (etc) that, yes, do use a lot in standby (although their claim of "alomost as much" always amuses me)
If people have the manuals for their electronic devices, the standby consumption is often given in the technical specification at the back

As for the tumble dryer, yes they are big users, so any reduction in use is going to payback

4. Where possible use the big appliances (washing machine or dishwasher) at night time if you're on economy seven, this won't reduce your usage but will reduce the cost - given that they use a lot of energy the savings could be big.

again good advice for E7 customers - you can add the tumble dryer to this list if you ARE using it that day

5. Use energy efficient lightbulbs.

For most people, probably one of the most noticeable changes

MP