Can't believe how many kwh of energy we are actually using

[TattiePants]

Stupidly, I've never paid any attention to how many kwh of energy we use in a year. I read the meter every month, know how much our monthly DD is and make sure that's enough to cover our bills and that's it. For most of 2020/2021 we paid £121 a month for gas & electric which for 4 people at home a lot during lock down, in a bigger that average house didn't seem unreasonable.

With the price cap rising yet again and after reading many threads on MN I decided to calculate our actual usage. Oh My Fucking God! In the last 45 weeks we have used 28,500 kwh of gas, with a current annual estimate of 31,500 kwh. The average usage is 12,000 kwh so how the hell have we been racking up so much!! Our electricity usage is pretty average. We have gas central heating / hot water but this last winter I was much more careful and didn't heat the house during the day when I was home alone. I just can't believe how much gas we've used despite me working under a blanket with a hot water bottle most of last winter. I guess on a positive, we've got LOTS of room for improvement!

Anyone else been completely shocked at how much energy they're using?

That should say complicated calculation 🤦‍♀️

Prompted by this thread I just checked our usage on the BG site.

For 2021 gas was 43594 kWh, and electricity was 7541 kWh.

Holy fuck 😰 😩

We're in a 3 bed Edwardian semi with an outbuilding which has its own heating. Gas central heating and hob, electric oven.

On the bright side, usage this year is less so far (Jan - Jul 2021 was 28578, same period for 2022 is 18471).

Definitely going to have to shiver this winter!

Do you have a water tank or is the water heated by a combi boiler?

Is it a power shower and you're having long showers? You could be using a lot of hot water, so something to look at.

Are you sure about the heating only being used for a short period?

Can you improve your insulation?

Using thicker curtains and closing them when it gets dark can help keep the house warmer in winter.

Do you use all the rooms or can you keep some of them closed off (turn the radiator to low so it will come on for a bit for frost protection).

Do you have a good thermostat (Hive type) so the heating is only on when necessary.

There's a few 'indulgent' behaviours that seem to have been normalised so it really shouldn't be considered to be a hardship to reduce these in order to reduce the very very high usages that some seem to have.

It really shouldn't be consider 'normal' to heat the house at night or to t-shirt levels in winter, to wash things after only one use/wear, use a tumble dryer when you could line dry or use an airer.

If you use a lot because you're doing this, you're part of the problem. The reason that prices are skyrocketing is because demand is outstripping supply.

Of course the Government needs to be helping low to middle income households with the enormous price rises, but what they don't need to be doing is helping wasteful people continuing to be wasteful because up to now they've been able to afford it.

@OliveHenry it's a bit of a shocker isn't it when you realise how much gas you're going through. I asked on our street's WhatsApp last night as our houses are all similar size/age and it turns out ours is one of the lowest usage!

@BarbaraofSeville we do have a combi boiler but looking at our gas usage for the last 3 months when the heating has been off, it's not too bad. We definitely could improve it (I can cut down on the number of baths I have and DS can shorten his showers) but I don't think that's where our main usage is. It's definitely the central heating as we use 10 times the amount of gas in a winter month compared to a summer month and that was being careful with the heating last winter.

I’ve just had a look at our bills as I’ve never really took notice and it’s saying estimated 4000kwh for the year! We live in a 4bed detached that seems super low! We don’t scrimp at all on heating. I just had to do a meter reading and in the last 20 days we used 1unit which works out at 32kwh for 20days

It's very odd - in winter we have our thermostat set at 15 overnight then I put it up to 20 or 21 when I get up and it stays on all day (both retired) till bedtime around 11pm.

Our gas useage 2021 was 10540kWh. Showers only. Wash-up by hand once a day.

2 bed Victorian terrace, 2 people.

We live in a 3 bed detached but it's a warm house. Partly due to good glazing and insulation. Sadly we don't have solar panels and our aspect isn't the best to fit them. We also have a woodburner which, of course, also costs but differently.

We are I reckon about as low a use as we can do comfortably bar our luxury second fridge and fish pond pump. So any new changes will have an impact on us. Second fridge will be turned off very soon as we dont use it in winter apart from Christmas. We will have to make changes as the estimate on Martin Lewis's website is that our use is pretty average so when our fix ends we will be on £3700 a year.

@BarbaraofSeville I can only speak for my family but undies get washed after one wear and so do tops, otherwise they smell (and yes, we do use deodorant!).

We've got a smart meter and seem to use around half what many people here are despite 4 adult (helps that the two younger members of the household seem to have a phobia of showers and rewear their clothes plenty but need to kick their habit of using the dryer on sunny days!)

I'm not sure how we use so little - it's a modern townhouse but we have a lot of electrical appliances, they never turn off lights etc

I found this thread by googling "gas usage 26000 kwh pa" when I just worked out my own!

To say I was shocked was an understatement, as like you, OP my energy was affordable. I know last year I even got it down considerably by using the log burner a lot more.

I genuinely thought my usage would be average or lower. I have a log burner, solar panels, got rid of my electric car, stopped using the dryer quite so much, turned the thermostat down and STILL my electricity is 3200 pa and gas 26k per year. Yes, I do have quite a large house but it's not a mansion and well insulated. Maybe I'll just burn all the furniture. Or 50 pound notes...

@Cassillero it really is shocking when you work out exactly how much gas you use. We've had a smart meter fitted so hopefully that'll help us keep track but I had to relent last night and put the heating on for an hour. It's freezing up here on the north coast! I do think a lot of it comes down to the size of your house as all my neighbours have huge gas bills too.

I'm sat here in an Oodie as I have the day off today. My house wasn't even THAT warm using all that gas. I do WFH 2-3 days per week and had a tendency to boost the central heating. I won't be doing that anymore.

I do have daily baths which uses gas to heat so that's getting swapped to electric showers. I've bought heated blankets, thermals, sheepkin slippers, more coal and wood for the burner. I know years ago my consumption was crazy high compared to friends but I genuinely thought I'd cut back to the bone. In fact I was quite smug about it as I'd got my direct debit down from 365 per month at it's peak to 185 and built up a large credit. But then when I've calculated actual usage it's still ridiculous.

Maybe I should work more from the office just to keep warm...

Hi. Year before price rise my energy consumption probably was exactly the same as yours. Then in May 2022 I explained to kids that price is going up and will need to try use less.

Energy consumption hasn't changed much but gas we managed to drop under 4000kwh a year usage from previous 12k usage. We used more electric blankets over the winter and instead of watching TV downstairs where is colder we watched TV in bed with electric blankets on.
To make it more understandable I explained kids " less gas energy we use less we will need to give energy company. Instead money saved you will get every month to spend on what you want"

After that was giving them 10,20 or even 30£ each a month. And no, we wasn't freezing. Kids was told if feeling Cold I don't mind turning on heating. Occasionally I asked should I put it on and they just wanted watch TV in bed.