How do we use twice as much electricity as the average house?!!?

[truthlemon]

I'm just messing on checking new gas/electricity suppliers and I've just worked out what our annual usage is...

665 cubic ft gas pa
7645 kWh electricity pa.

Now according to my Googling we are currently using TWICE the average electricity of a family of 4 in a 3-bedroom house. I am forever turning lights off after the kids and DH but what is eating the electricity?!

If you are a family of 4, how much is your electricity per year?

Our heating is gas (new boiler last year).
We have 3 bedrooms.
Work from home during day so regularly boil the kettle. We run the dishwasher once a day on average, maybe twice during homeschooling.
We have an electric oven which is probably on once a day. Have the usual Alexas in bedrooms. Lights and lamps all have LED bulbs. TV on in evenings only.

However, I do lots of washing. 1-2 loads a day, sometimes 3 - is it the washing machine?! Oh, and we have a robovac who is always plugged in, plus a heated dryer which is used during winter (but no tumble dryer).

Is there something obvious I am missing here?

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085S7Q1T4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_X8PSP714MR1JW5JK48E5?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This is what we bought that identified the dodgy fridge. Won't work if it's your shower but otherwise very useful!

Could it be a leaky fridge or freezer? If they leak cold you may as well burn money.

I would say probably the oven, shower and heater make up a lot of it. I notice our bill shoots up if I use the oven a lot - I try to only use it a couple of times a week and make sure I’m making the most of it and filling it up rather than putting it on for one baguette, for example.
I agree with others it sounds like you are using the DW and WM more than average.
You say ‘the usual Alexas’ but actually most people don’t have an Alexa, let alone multiple.
Why is the robovac always plugged in? Unplug/switch off at the plug stuff you’re not using including phone chargers etc.

665 cubic feet of gas in a year?

Are you sure that is correct?

look up thd manuals of your big appliances.

short cycles for the washer use a lot of electricity (more water to heat quickly). consider using the long eco cycles.

do you run a tumbler dryer? again those use a fair bit of electricity.

the power shower will use wuite s bit too, have a look at the manual if you can lower the oomph and temperature.

I don't know what yours is compared to ours but I know ours is quite high. It's driven by anything with a heating element basically so kettle yes, although that's relatively quick and short, but heating water for showers/washing/dishwasher/tumble dryer are all v expensive and heating obviously adds significant cost too - is it on all day? Is your insulation sufficient that it doesn't need to keep coming on because your'e losing heat? Is your thermostat set too high? Also, the heated drying rack can be cumulatively expensive if it is on all the time, which, with the amount you're washing, I'm guessing it is?

We have great insulation etc and the house generally gets warm and stays warm without the radiators coming on and off except for the lounge where basically it's constantly freezing so we have a small electric heater in there. I have been nagging DH about not leaving it on all day AND all night for months but i twas only when he got our last electricity statement that he finally accepted what I've been banging on about! Ditto, he has been known to remove the washing from the heated drying rack and NOT TURN IT OFF which never ceases to astonish me!

Large ovens are expensive to run too. I am bad about this as I have two but tend to use the big one rather than the small one and really should make more effort to use the smaller one more.

That does seem very high.

We use 3700kw electricity and 1776kw gas per year, in a 5 bed house. I do a load of washing a day and run the dishwasher daily. Me and DH wfh full time and we have a tumble drier that we run probably 2 times a week throughout Oct-April.

I’ve just looked at my last bill and our annual usage is 1078 kWh for electricity. That’s for two adults working from home in a 2 bedroom house. You are using more than 7x as much electricity as us but there aren’t 7x as many of you! Our shower and hob are on gas though (but still electric fan oven)

665 cubic feet of gas does sound low. Are these figures estimates extrapolated from a particular month’s usage? Or actual figures totted up from the last year?

I thought we used a lot - ours is about 4000 kWh but we have a smallish house and there's only two of us.

We have electric shower probably for 10 showers a week - 2 of us but neither of us shower every single day.

Dishwasher on nearly every day. Other normal appliances generally A rating as they're all old so AA etc wasn't available when we bought them.

Electric hob and oven on most days. We cook a lot from scratch.

Our fridge freezer is over 20 years old but I've checked it with a usage meter and it doesn't cost much to run even though the seal has gone - you can open and close it without having to wait unlike those with a good seal.

Normal wifi and other tech, but that's not likely to be a culprit, it's whatever uses heating.

Your washing and airer might be a culprit, along with the shower. Dishwashers don't use that much really.

Have you got inefficient lighting? Some types of (halogen?) bulbs are quite high usage and sometimes people have lots of spotlights, can be like having an extra heater or two on for hours at a time.

How much are you preheating the oven. My latest energy consumption annoyance is recipes that tell you to preheat the oven at step one and then have you doing half an hour of prep before you need it. Modern ovens don't need more than 5-10 minutes to preheat, so that could be something to look at.

I checked one of my recent bills and it gives an estimated annual usage on it:

Elec : 5860
Gas : 15279

I know my electric usage is higher than average but we have an electric oven, a big fridge and separate full size freezer and have 4 people using the electric shower. There are lots of electrical devices used too.

Have you worked out those figures or did they come from your supplier?

These are actual figures from March 2020 to March 2021.

We have loft insulation, double glazing, carpets in most rooms, curtains etc. It's an old house so we've draught proofed as much as we can but high ceilings. We got a new boiler just before lockdown last year so I'm quite happy with the gas usage.

Electric oven, gas hob. Electric shower (4/5 times daily). Heated clothes dryer only used during autumn and winter, otherwise washing goes on the line. It's the Lakeland one so is meant to be efficient.

Wrt the washing - it just mounts up - bedding (bed wetter, plus DD1 has just started her periods), towels, PE gear, uniform is washed more often now compared to pre-Covid (new uniform daily as per school instructions). I usually use the long Eco cycle unless I need something quickly.

D/w is now only on once a day since the kids have gone back to school. We use that on the Eco setting too.

I think I'll buy a plug and do some investigations...

Do you have lots of teens online 24/7

What's 665 cubic feet in kwH?
That's not what they usually put when giving annual consumption. Although it's not the gas you are querying.

I changed my kettle to one that you could boil without much water in and now boil exactly what I need. (just one cup at a time instead of a whole kettle each time). Our electricity bill has almost halved!

It also has a thermostat on the side so if I'm distracted when it boils then come back I can see it's still 90degrees so I still use it for tea, whereas before I'd have reboiled the kettle. Dread to think how much money I wasted boiling water I never used.

It's a Russel Hobbs I think.

I spent more on gas than electric. £120 a month. 5 bed detached 4-6 residents depending on whether either dcs boyfriends had moved in.

It's this one.

I accidentally had my immersion on constant, that was expensive.

I googled electric showers and read they are one of the most expensive things to run in the house. A quick shower can cost 40p, I bet the showers are the problem.

Our annual bill for both gas and electric is roughly £1000.

@NeedToGetOuttaHere

I googled electric showers and read they are one of the most expensive things to run in the house. A quick shower can cost 40p, I bet the showers are the problem.

I agree with this. Someone worked through the numbers above and a quarter of the amount used could be down to just the shower, even making quite conservative assumptions. An 8 minute shower isn't much if you're washing hair or shaving while you're in there.

Then you've got the washing, heated airer, cooking, dishwasher lighting, and tech, although the latter will be a drop in the ocean.

I actually found it cheaper to buy extra uniforms and bedding and do fewer washes but I do have a machine that can take large loads up to 9kg. It’s also less labour! The energy companies usually have some advice and also money saving expert has some advice about how to reduce energy consumption.

We’re an all electric house and use about 8000kwh a year. There’s three of us, two showers a day in a three bed mid terrace. I use the short wash in the washing machine as it’s pennies. The heating though is crazy expensive. I’ve turned the immersion heater off even though it was on a timer previously- just way too expensive. Use about £200-300 worth of electricity during the winter months.

I recommend a one cup kettle for cups of tea, boils enough for 1 cup and saves boiling the kettle normally 3kw at a time. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0714C1RQM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_WSXK6BJK9FYCNPWEETZ2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1