Do you just use electricity? If so what's your year usage please?

[greenjojocat]

We've moved into a new house last year. Electricity only, we have an air source heat pump. It's a 4 bed but 2 of them are downstairs, one is used as an office. We don't have an electric shower, we use the washing machine 3/4 times per week, drier only when needed in the winter. 2 adults, 2 children, one of whom has complex needs requiring various electric medical devices but not plugged in all of the time. Heating was set to 19c over the colder months. We both work from home, just the usual laptop etc.

We have used over 12000kwh in one year. This seems far to much so I'm wondering if you have a similar setup how much your usage was for the past 12 months?

Sounds high. You sound like you have a similar set up to me, we have 5 beds one is an office but use the washing machine up to 15 loads a week (6 of us).

I stopped using the tumble dryer in April and trying not to use it at all.

our usuage for the last year is just under 10,000 but that includes a period when the hot tub was running hot and we didn’t notice (used over 2000 units!) it’s switched off now permanently.

Thanks for replying, I'm not quite sure what to do about it, who do you even go to to get these things checked?? The company that installed the ASHP charged nearly £200 to check the system and they said it was all running fine but I can't see how we are using so much energy anywhere else!

Actually I have oil heating so not sure how much the ASHP cost to run but I was under the impression they were more economical!

Have you got a smart meter? Ours has made a huge difference to our spending. If so try switching everything off when you go out for the day and see what the usage is then. Check your daily standing charge too.

My Dad (and step-mum) live in a two bedroom flat which is electric. They have storage heaters. Back in March they got a Smart Meter after being estimated an annual use of 8,100. They have not used anything like this (but then it has been the summer). They currently pay £133 a month but are nearly £1,000 in credit, but SSE will not allow them to amend the payment until they have had a Smart Meter for a year. They are content to leave things as they are, due to raising prices. The Smart Meter was useful at reassuring them about cost as well as showing them areas they could cut down.

We have a smart meter so I can see how much is being used on an hourly basis. Usually when I come downstairs in the morning it's already at around 8kwh, we're using 20-30kwh per day.

Large 4 bed 2 bathroom house (2500sq feet) and oil boiler. We use 12900 kWh per year. No smart meter.

We're similar. Four bed/five people in all electric house with about 12000kwh annual usage. Actually when you compare with the total for gas plus electric in kWh for similar households it is not really high at all but the relatively high cost of electricity will hit us particularly hard. It's shit.

In fact I'm really pissed off that having gone to the expense of investing in efficient, green, technology (air source heat pump) which has hugely decreased our overall energy consumption we are set to be hit much harder than we would if we were still using way more kWh with the old gas boiler.

Looking at the numbers here:
usave.co.uk/energy/average-gas-and-electricity-bill-for-a-4-bed-house/
Average gas usage 15000kwh and electricity 3500kwh. Total 18500kwh.

On that basis our ASHPs are doing what they should. Lowering energy usage. It's hard to see how to cut back tbh. We've dropped our hot water temp by a couple of degrees and will lower the thermostat for the winter. We are going to pay way more than people who use a lot more kWh though as the electricity is so much more per kWh than gas.

@Shortjanet That's helpful thank you. We've lived in this house a full year now and it's taken a while to get used to the ASHP. We've turned the hot water down by a few degrees, I'm the only one that likes a very hot shower anyway! Do you keep your hot water at the same temp all of the time or do you turn it on and off? I feel like we're using more energy by it being on all of time as it's only needed at specific times of the day

We’re a three bed modern tiny terrace. We used 8500 over the last year. We have no dishwasher or tumble dryer. The hot water tank is turned off unless we need a bath. We adjust the heat in each room - 18 upstairs (although the bathroom needs higher or it gets mould) and 19 downstairs. We shut the living room door at night and don’t have any heating in there until the evening.

We keep ours the same all the time. I think with the ASHP it's more economical to minimise any temperature changes and rely on the insulation around the tank to keep it hot. DH is trying to do loads of research into optimising it. Think we'll try to keep the water in the heating system steady too rather than off/on based on room thermostats. We'll probably make changes and then monitor usage for a few days. I just think whatever we do we won't be able to shave much off because in actual total kWh usage terms we're already doing pretty well!

Hoping to get a solar/battery system installed which will help with hot water in the summer but I can't see how the cost of heating the house in the winter can be anything other than astronomical which is shit given we've installed expensive, green kit.

Coming late to this, marked the thread to watch so that I could check our usage. We have 3 bed 70s terraced house, well insulated, new double glazing about three years ago, storage heaters and on Economy 7 tariff (there is no gas supply at the property). Our usage last year was 9500 kwh.

We are in fortunate position of having paid off our mortgage a few years ago, which is a good job because I think our power bill this winter is going to be astronomical.

3 bed semi detached here with Economy 7 night storage heaters.
We use approx 12,000 kWh per year.