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?

I have a heated airer (Lakeland one) and really don't find it all that cheap to run.

Do you leave it on overnight? Remember, if it is on for 12 hours (that could be overnight) then that is 72p. A fair bit really. I just like to put my laundry on a normal non-heated clothes horse now.

If you want to cut down the energy used by the shower, don't run the water the whole time. What we do is turn it on and get hair wet, turn it off again to shampoo. Turn it on again to rinse out shampoo, then off again to put in conditioner and soap body. Then turn on again to rinse that off. It means you only need a few minutes of actually running the water.

@Tryingtogetitright

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.

Oh, interesting! DH is terrible for hot drinks since he started WFH. He also has a tendency to overfill I'll have a look for that kettle.

@PattyPan

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)

I suspect you & your DH aren't bed-wetters, messy eaters, period-leakers or both require full uniform each day though Patty

wrt kettle
I fill my insulated travel mugs in the morning.
saves me boiling the kettle a couple of times.

Over filling kettle is a big underrated expense. Do you wash up several times a day as well as dishwasher? Do you run hot tap for things like warming a flannel / wiping surfaces? These are all hidden costs. Do you use your micowave a lot? Do you have consoles / laptops on standby mode? It all adds up.

Smart meter will make no difference and could be unreliable. Op can read the normal meter.

Turn everything off and see if it is still going round.
Ideas : What is the wattage of the towel rail? What fuels your hob? ( Our bill crashed when we put an lpg hob in rather than electric) Kettle must only be filled to needed level. A rating on appliances is greenwash so ignore that.

The Robovac is always plugged in because it is his base if you see what I mean. He returns back to charge - to be honest, I assumed that it would stop charging when full but I may be mistaken.

Teen not on tech all the time, and if she is, it isn't plugged in. Only 1 TV. The tablet does have a base so that could be wasting some electrocity too

Will definitely look into single cup kettles and magical plugs. I want to check the fridge especially as it has a new condensation problem.

We are a family of 5 just checked electric and its 4378 KWh a year.
Washing machine on 1/2 times a day, electric shower, kids who sleep with the light on, tellys and devices always on, dishwasher once a day, electric oven.
So I agree with others sounds like you need to do some investigating

I do run the tap to wipe surfaces often. Use cut up clothes as cloths instead of wipes. I wash pans and baking trays by hand too. And the dog's dish.

No towel rail. Just a radiator in the bathroom.

@Dreamingofvenice

We are a family of 5 just checked electric and its 4378 KWh a year. Washing machine on 1/2 times a day, electric shower, kids who sleep with the light on, tellys and devices always on, dishwasher once a day, electric oven. So I agree with others sounds like you need to do some investigating

Apart from nightlights, you sound comparable to us so yes, I will be investigating!

The figures you gave for gas couldn’t be correct. We use that amount of gas in 3 days ( family of 3, lots of cooking on gas hob) .
Your figures for gas are too low but figures for electricity are a bit too high but not unrealistic. We had similar figures for electricity once when DD was baby and I had washing machine and tumble dryer on non stop but it was only for a few months. Once we went through difficult patch our figures became lower.
Atm we use about 4000 kWh pa. I’m SAHM, DH works a lot from home (even before pandemic). We put heating on a lot, use washing machine 2-3 times per day, boil electric kettle often, have electric shower and have 2 laptops on practically constantly. We don’t have dishwasher, Alexa, rob vac, dryer. All bulbs are energy saving. Our insulation is rubbish. So tbh I’m surprised by your figures. No way your Alexa could eat so much electricity and beat my love of heating.

family of 5 here, 3 bed semi.
electric, our usage is 5863 for the past year and we do use a lot of electric and i only use a tumble dryer as hate drying on line outside as gardens a big shady swampy mess.
we constantly have something on, if all home then at least 1 tv, 1 pc, and xbox a ps4, have 4 phones and 4 tabs. im a massive coffee drinker so the kettles on at least 10/15 times a day but we are still quite a bit lower than yous op

I think you should check if it's a fault, maybe get a smart meter? We used less than ½ that in 2020 in a 4 bed house, 2 messy children (so laundry at least once a day, sometimes twice, tumble dried in cold or bad weather). Dishwasher at least once a day, often twice as we were home so much due to covid. Working at home most of the year so increased use of laptops/chargers/lights. 2 showers and a bath most days and we're not great at remembering to unplug things.

@truthlemon no, you're right there, but even if your DC used 2x as much electricity as each of us, that would still not come out as high as your figures which would lead me to suspect it would be either due to something that's a big energy user like the shower, or something that isn't that affected by the number of people - like the oven or background energy use of appliances, so checking the fridge is a good shout. I don't think a washing machine would add up to that much extra - we still have about 3 loads of washing a week so even if you were doing 21 loads which would be 7x as many as us then it still wouldn't be 7x as much electricity overall iyswim.

No, definitely not 21 loads a week, perhaps averages at 14 depending on bed accidents. The shower is an old 10kw so not sure how efficient that will be. New shower going in some time this year but we'll probably get a towel rail so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Once I sit down tonight, I'll investigate a plug energy reader thingy and an efficient kettle. Oh, and DH just remembered we have plug in lights in the garden on a timer, so we've switched those off too.

I'll double check the gas usage too. Remember it's 665 cubic feet not kWh.

I'll double check the gas usage too. Remember it's 665 cubic feet not kWh.

That's what is making it far too good to be true. Even if it was kWh, it would be low.

Our bill went through the roof in a rental that had spotlights and one room with underfloor heating.

An electric shower costs 50p or so a time. £60 a month just for showers.

@truthlemon Gas is usually measured in cubic meters and you have to convert it to KWh, have you got a recent bill that you can check?

Your bill should show your kWh as well as cubic feet

If yours is measured in cubic feet you use approx 20,902 Kwh per year which is high, average usage in the UK is 12,000 KWh.

If it cubic meters then you are using 7386 Kwh.

@changi

I'll double check the gas usage too. Remember it's 665 cubic feet not kWh.

That's what is making it far too good to be true. Even if it was kWh, it would be low.

Okay, I think I've worked out the confusion. The meter is 100s of cubic feet. So it would be 66,500 cubic feet. Does that sound right?

If it makes you feel any better my joking gas and electricity for last month was £290. It's usually around £260.

I know why, it's what we run off it, but it's crazy when I consider the yearly cost.