Elec Bill - 3bed house. 3 people - happy to use Dishwasher, tumble dryer etc. Work from home. EV.

[workingcocker]

My electric bill is £170 a month.

I have an EV which charges only once or twice a week (overnight on cheap tariff)
We use dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer without thought. (Definitely used washing line during hot summer though).

We both work from home but only use laptops.

We have oil heating and don’t even have an immersion.

Why is our bill so high?

what is your bill in similar circumstances please?

Ours is around £140 a month, oil heating

We have EV so all washing/drying/dishwashing is done on cheap rate overnight = well actually Im up for work at 4:30 so stick it all on then

That's 2 of us, at home most of the day every day , and over here, electric costs a lot more then over there, here Im paying 38p day and 17p night . So Im not actually excessive with fuel, just costs a lot :(

I pay £165 a month for 2 people. I have a dishwasher, but no tumble dryer. Very frugal with energy. Not sure why so high. 3 bed house. It’s a 300 year old home though which may explain the gas, but not convinced it explains the electricity costs.

I am renting and using the integrated fridge and freezer which I estimate to be at least 12 years old (that’s when the property was bought). Could this be the reason for my high bills?

How can you make a tumble dryer work on a timer unless you stay up to start it?

@Catlady26 you can buy electricity monitoring plugs (I just got a second hand one from Vinted for about £6. You plug your appliance into it and it tells you how much electricity it's using. It's a good way of working out where your expenses are coming from.

The cheap overnight EV deals tend to come with more expensive daytime rates and higher standing charges. So if you don’t charge the EV that much you might be spending more on higher standing charges, daytime tumble dryer, washing machine and dishwasher usage than you save on cheap charging…

Don’t most white goods now have a ‘delay start’ button that lets choose how many hours to wait before the machine runs? I know that all of mine do.

4 bed house but one usually empty. 2 or 3 people usually. Use DW but TD rarely. EV used for about 70 miles / day, 4/5 days per week.

My energy supplier suggests that my fridge and freezer make up the 2nd highest part of my energy consumption. I might buy a cheap free standing fridge/freezer see if that jars a different

That’s a Summer bill! Which is lower obviously. My direct debit is £170 a month and I suspect this will increase

We are similar, 2 at home, use dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine as needed. The tumble dryer is an heat pump one. Although we don’t have an EV (yet, due to get one next month). Our annual usage is £1800, so on average £150 per month, without an EV.
we are about to move onto a dual tariff with cheap night rates for the EV and big appliances. We are also looking into solar and large battery storage which can charge from both the solar panels but also the cheap night rate. I think we would break even after 5 or 6 years.

@suki1964you must be in NI too! We are just moving to a dual rate and I can’t believe how much more our energy costs compared to GB. AI keeps telling me about Octopus rates of 7p a unit at night. I wish.

If your tumble dryer is not a heat pump one, cost up replacing it. We did a spreadsheet and the energy savings mount up quickly.

Possibly it's not wise to run appliances overnight but we run dishwasher and tumble overnight as much as possible. If you can get to the DW socket you might be able to add a timer with a smart switch thing, I'm not sure. But my bet is switching your tumble dryer will help.

Also do you use a heated airer? It may sound silly as they advertise they only cost 9p an hour or something but because ours takes so many hours to dry a wash, it ends up costing more per wash than the heat pump tumble dryer.

With the EV our Octopus deal has changed. We only get cheaper car charging between 1-5am or whatever the times are, so we need to be topping up little and often if we want to do it all at the cheaper rate. Previously the app would give us cheaper electric for the car whenever we let it choose when to charge.

We have an EV and are on an EV rate but bear in mind that because the overnight rate is so low the daytime rate for 18 hours is considerably more and if you're using big appliances it does make a difference. We probably pay similar amounts but for 4 people and an EV that's charged every night. Our dryer is a heat pump one that's very efficient and I use it as little as possible at this time of year. We do a daily wash at midnight which I just spin first thing and the dishwasher also goes on at midnight.
we are looking at solar panels with a big battery. Big outlay but long term the savings should work well.

I prefer to use my drier to avoid damp and to not put the heating on.

Mine doesnt use that much. Plus clothes always smelt awful drying on close horse. Was always a musky smell.

£170 is what you pay not what your bill is - are you in credit currently bearing in mind we have just come through summer?

You are not optimising the tariff you are on - it is much higher during the day to trade off on cheap overnight rates - you may be better looking at something else but move fast as rates are increasing and predicted to go quite high in January

£70pm average is probably averaged across the year - high in winter / low in summer

I think my average bill is £150 per month with solar, batteries and a heat pump - i am very happy with this as live in a 4 bed detached house and temperature is maintained throughout winter

Use chatgpt or something to figure out the best type of tariff based on your usage

We have a 4 bed house with 5 people and an EV.
Electricity was approx £80 in the last month.

But we do have solar panels.

Our monthly amount averages £44/45pm. You have an extra person in the house, use tumble dryer/dishwasher, we don't. We're both retired, DH has tv on far more than I'm sure you do, but then you use laptops more. We have an electric fire, but shower runs off boiler. You use an EV, we pay for petrol - the last month ours has been £60 (would normally be less, but have a new car so going out a bit more for fun).

Im not sure mine does. I will have to check. Thanks.