How much electricity do you use?

[WittgensteinsBunny]

We moved into our house last year, it’s quite a lot bigger than our previous house and less energy efficient; our energy bills are outrageous! We’ve just bought an electricity monitor and we’ve already used 8kw today. I’m just wondering if anyone knows how many kw their house uses (esp in winter)? We have gas & electricity.

I’ve just switched to a cheaper provider, checked the emergency emmersion heater is off and turned off all appliances. The meter is showing a much lower usage this afternoon until things like the dishwasher, washing machine are turned on (I know they use a lot because of heating elements). Also, the appliances came with the house and I think are probably 10 + years so I’ve bought a new washing machine / tumble dryer (we suspect the tumble dryer has a fault as was using lots of energy when on standby / rubber seal on washing machine is going).

We have 2dc, I’m a SAHM, so here quite a bit, 5 beds. Average consumption for a house our size is 6.5kw?! We seem to be using in the region on 17kw / day!

I don’t think I really got across this in summer as our bills were so low, I think because of line drying and because we have solar panels which heat the water too, also no heating required in the hot weather.

Where did the 6. figure come from?

Medium-sized Victorian terrace, 3 beds plus attic, occupied all day.

Average here is 11-12kw per day, all year round pretty much. Lights are nearly all LED now, most appliances are A-rated, only use 30-min cycle on dishwasher, tumble dryer mostly for increasing after air-drying. Sky box & router always on, 3 computers, 3 phones - 2 charged very frequently!

In summer obv less lighting but have fans in most rooms which probably matches usage.

I’ll just check last few bills. I know when adult DS2 wasn’t living here our usage dropped somewhat & now he’s back it’s reverted.

Sorry, “6.” should say 6.5kw!

& increasing should say decreasing 🙄

December was almost exactly 12kw per day - 357 over 30 days.

Last year December was barely 200 - DS2 absent most of the month & we were away for 2 days - blimey! But generally it’s either side of 11kw

3 bed semi. We use about 10 per day in the summer, about 15 in the winter.

Ok, so perhaps with the new appliances and some replacement bulbs (we’re mostly LED except some halogens in bathrooms) and being a bit more mindful we’re not too bad.

British Gas say a 5 bed Victorian with 4 people & combi boiler should use 7.5kwh per day. This seems so little, esp in winter

I would say I would like to know where British Gas are getting their figures from. We go down to about 7.5kW when we're in holiday

Are BG talking about elec or gas? Combi boilers run on gas

They can’t mean both

Just checked our gas usage for Dec - 2471kw - 80 per day!

June usage though: 202kw, 7 per day.

I suggest you ask BG WTF they’re basing their figures on

Def swap your halogens. We used to have 3x50w in bathroom & 6x50w in kitchen - now have 4 & 9 respectively, 6w each. Makes me very happy

Also just checked annual rolling projection figure:

Elec 3642 or average 10kw per day
Gas 18232 or average 50kw per day

Our house is c 1400 sq ft inc attic, but is mid-terrace, not semi. It’s not the warmest house in the world though tbf, thermostat generally on 18.5, have to turn it up when chilly DD visits.

We’re with bulb btw - switched Sept 2017. They are generally one of the lowest, also have a really good app, & great comms in general. (Scottish Power previously whose comms were terrible.) who have you switched to?

That doesn’t seem right

We’re in a 3 bed terrace, also British Gas. December averaged 11.5kw daily for electric and 47.5kw daily for gas. According to BG’s comparison tool to other similar homes, were generally in line or below average with one or two days where we peak instead (obviously doing lots of washing or feeling really cold or something!).

I'm glad it's not just me that thought it looked like phoey!

I switched us over to Bulb yesterday. Their prices are so much lower than Ecotricity, especially their Economy 7 rate.

Thanks for all the feedback / figures.

5 people. 3333 kwH/yr. (~9.13 kwH/day)