About electricity?

[Cutecat78]

This is dull I will try to be brief but want an idea of what is "normal".

Have a top up meter thing we can do online (I hate having energy bills after getting into debt some yrs ago - Utilita claim not to charge more for meter).

Have 4 bed 2 reception house 3 teenagers 2 DSC EOW - they have obvs been off school last 2 weeks - every 5 days I am putting 20 quid on the meter to top it up - it this normal?! Feels like a lot - what does everyone else pay?

TIA

[ABetaDad1]

How many kilowatt hours are you using in a week?

To be honest £20 is not much for a week if you have an electric cooker and have been doing a fair bit of cooking in the week.

[Cutecat78]

It's about £120 a month - do games consoles and TVs use a lot too?

[ABetaDad1]

You should also be aware that the type of 'top up' or 'pre-paid' tariff you are on is likely to be expensive compared to normal tariffs.

[hellsbellsmelons]

£120 per month seems pretty steep to me.
Can you query it?
Are they back as school this week?
If so see if it reduces quite a lot in the next 2 weeks.

[suitsyousir79]

We found that equipower from SSE is the cheapest option with pre payment. They have no daily standing charges which can easily add a few quid a week to your usage costs.

[Chattymummyhere]

For comparison I live in a 3bed, 2 dc, me and dh and we are not on prepay and out DD is £133 per month.

[Topseyt]

Games consoles and TVs don't use much, not each one on their own. Do you have several going at once though, and others in standby mode?

If TVs are not being watched then turn them off. Standby still uses about 80% of the power that a TV that is being watched uses.

I assume similar goes for games consoles.

Make sure lights are off in rooms that are not in use. If you use things like a coffee maker then turn it off. Turn all unnecessary things off.

[ABetaDad1]

Just had a look at our bill last quarter and we spent £4.50 per day.

We are on a standard tariff so not an exceptionally cheap deal and me and DW work from home. Probably spent more in last few weeks.

Our house is 5 bed 3 reception rooms so doesn't seem too far out of line with yours.

[Tiggeryoubastard]

Do you pay a for gas as well, or is that your full power bill. If so that's bloody cheap!

[00100001]

You have to looka t the things that are heating things up/cooling things down in the house.

Eg. washing machine, tumble drier, kettles, heaters.

These are the huge drains on electricity.

A lot of people do things like, boil the kettle once, then use Thermoses to star the boiled water. Hang clothes up to dry and use the tumble for the last bit so only on for 30 mins or so.

[DyslexicScientist]

Peoples here seam very steep. That is just for leckie right?

1 person, 4 bed house and I spend 33 a month on electricity. I have a++ dish washer and washing machine, induction cooker, tablet for films, led light bulbs, keep showers at home to 3 mins (longer st the gym!) Etc.

[DyslexicScientist]

I've saved a decent amount by building a shelter outside to dry clothes in the winter. It sometimes takes a few days, but it works pretty much year round. But then again only have 2-3 frosts a year and its double figures at the moment.

[Chattymummyhere]

Yeah that's just my electric, my gas is £48 per month.

My shower according to that energy monitor thing sends my electric into the red usage which means it uses more than my tumble dryer.

[BernardsarenotalwaysSaints]

That seems like an awful lot!

We have a prepay meter because it was here when we moved in. I have 4 DC (6yo down to 6 months old). I use the washing machine & tumble dryer 1-2 x per day. The TV is on most of day this time of year & the lights seem to be on a lot at the moment too. I also spend around 2-4 hours per day on the pc replying to DH business emails & doing his admin. Our cooker is gas & we have a combi boiler.

We're currently spending around £10 per week on electric & £10-£15 per week on gas. In summer this ususlly drops to £8 on electric & £5 on gas.

When our last annual usage summary came through it estimated we'd paid £10 more on each than if we paid quarterly by DD. For this reason I stick with prepay, if it were to change dramatically I would switch but honestly I like that I can see what I'm using.

[m0therofdragons]

Mine is £85 for gas and electric - 3 storey 3 bed house with 2 reception rooms and 3dc. I'm looking round the living room where I'm sitting with dc watching a film and all the lights are on

[m0therofdragons]

What heating do you have?

[Pipbin]

TVs don't use nearly as much on standby now as they used to.

[TheBunnyOfDoom]

Seems a lot to me. Our electricity bill is approximately £250/quarter. Two adults, but we work opposing shifts so there's someone home for 8+ hours a day using laptop/xbox/washing machine etc.

[Cabawill]

We have a 4 bed, 2 reception with 2 DC. I wash and tumble dry every day and between us run 2 baths and 2 showers daily. Our gas and electric is £18 per week but we're not on a pre-pay. I'm a SAHM and DH works from home most of the time so there's always something being used.

Our saviour is the insulation and being semi-detached as we rarely need the heating on which saves a fortune.

[Naoko]

I've just switched from a prepayment meter to a normal one paid by Direct Debit. They based the DD off our existing use and if that turns out to be accurate we'll be saving nearly 300 quid a year. Horrible meters really are more expensive.

Also your use sounds only slightly higher than mine, but I have storage heaters and no gas to the house at all. If you also have gas for heating etc yours does sound crazy expensive.

[itshappenedagain]

We are family of 3 ( me and 2 dc) I put £30 per week, we are out of the house all day Monday-Friday, due to work followed by children's activities. I have only been in online top up for about 3 months... Wondered why it had gone up. I called and found that the service charge for the meters works out at £5/ week. I would check with your provider, I was pissed off about this as it will mean in the summer I'll be paying more in standing charge than I an in energy! Check yours isn't the same !

[BarryMerry]

Anything that heats up chews through electric, so electric radiators/heaters, tumble dryer, electric cooker, hairdryers/straighteners, kettle, immersion heater etc etc.

Things like tvs & consoles and blenders will use a medium amount of electric.

Things like phone chargers and low energy light bulbs only use a low amount of power.

You could get an energy meter like an OWL that tells you how many watts your house is using at any moment. Some libraries lend them out. Have fun & go round the house switching things off & on to see how it affects the owl reading :)

Check your immersion heater isn't permanently on, just put it on for 45 mins before you want a bath or 15 mins for a bit of washing up.

Check electric heaters aren't left on when/where they're not being used.

Wash on a lower temp & hang dry your clothes if it's a dry day.

Make a small mark (or mental note) on the side of the kettle where each mug of water comes to. Only boil just enough to make the appropriate number of teas.

Try to double up things in the oven, cook tomorrow's lasagne with today's pie... it will just need a quick reheat in microwave.

Put lids on saucepans and turn the heat down. If you're cooking pasta, you can even switch the heat off once it's a rolling boil, just cook for a couple of mins more.

[specialsubject]

run an online comparison with your usage in kilowatt hours. That's the only way to find out if you could pay less.

the 'not getting into debt' is an outdated reason for a top up meter. You've got the internet, so you can submit monthly (weekly, daily...) readings and keep full track of your use. Direct debit and online billing also gives discounts.

[StarlingMurmuration]

We pay less than £80 per month for bothgas and electricity... There's only two of us plus a baby but until recently I was on maternity leave so at home all the time, and with the heating most days sinc October because I don't like to be cold.