AIBU to think we're spending way too much on our electric

[Ajahd]

Hi
I'm looking for a bit of advice around how to cut my electric bills.

We live in a 1980s 3 bed semi detached country house with electric heating. We have no access to gas. We've lived here for 3 years and it's always been expensive to run the heating but we've accepted it for so long. When the survey was carried out, the boiler had an F efficiency rating I think it was, so we knew it wasn't very good.

I'm the summer we use around £50 a month of electric which seems reasonable. In the winter we would have the heating on a bit, but would first go for a blanket or extra layers. I had a baby in September so we've obviously had the heating on a lot more.
We pay £170 a month for the electric, and we were using way more than that. We had always planned to get a new boiler, having a combi boiler fit for the hot water convenience.

The boiler was fit yesterday and we also paid for hive thermostats as well. I've set them up so that the rooms which don't get used are sat at 12 degrees. The rooms we are in regularly (baby's bedroom and living room) are set to 16-17 degrees and kitchen set to 14 degrees. This is all set for between 8am-6pm.

Since the boiler guys left Saturday afternoon, till about 24 hours later, we used 60 units of electricity. I've worked that out to be around £10 worth of electric! I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. Isn't it normal to have the heating on for that amount of time? We don't have it excessively high. In that 24 hour period we've had the washing machine on using eco mode and then the tumble drier for one load. The washing machine was bought this year and the tumble drier is maybe 4 or 5 years old. The TV is on for maybe 5-6 hours a day, always switched off when not in use. Lights are switched off if we're not in the room. I've run enough hot water to clean dishes and bottles, and ran a bath for my son using his baby bath which only uses 2l of water.

I honestly don't know what to do. I can't afford to run the heating at £10 a day.
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to include all regular day to day usage to give a full picture. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep costs down?

I have posted on MSE, but I find there are more night owls on here, hopefully someone who could offer a bit of advice!!

We don’t heat rooms that are never used. Two spare bedrooms, hallways are not heated. We also don’t have the heating on in our bedroom as it’s too warm. I don’t run the heating all day either. It’s on for a couple of hours in the morning and then again early evening for three of four hours in the winter.
Do you leave gadgets on standby?

I have the same problem, big cold house which is difficult to heat. Tried everything to reduce bills, in the end we bought some portable gas heaters and just heat two rooms. They give out a lot of heat and you can have the cylinders delivered. Sorry I have no useful advice about reducing your electricity bill unless solar panels are an option.

Electric heating is expensive and gas far more economical (I know this doesn’t help you specifically). Turn off anything that is not needed to be on, and turn heating off in rooms that don’t need to be heated (unless it makes the house warmer of course otherwise you need it on in the rooms you use more to keep temp up). Is there any way to insulate better so you don’t need it on so much?

“Electricity ”

Assuming by 'unit' you mean 1 kWh, then 60 units should be about about £8.62 at the average cost of 14.39p per kWh for electricity, so maybe shop around?
As to usage, that does seem very high, especially as you have the thermostats set pretty low - whereabouts do you live?

Can you turn everything off and see how the electricity is running. .then gradually turn things back on so you can check? I don't know if that's a thing.it's just what I would do.

do you have good insulation?

The reason we heat unused rooms is to prevent damp. The walls on the external right side of the house get very cold. The house allegedly has cavity wall insulation (we have a certificate from when it was done by previous owners).

We switch off all appliances in the kitchen at the wall (barr fridge/freezer obviously). TV is on standby but from what I've read online the cost of a TV on standby is minimal. Computer is rarely used so is switched off at the wall unless in use.

If we don't have the heating on, the rooms at the moment sit at 12-13 degrees. We set up baby's room in the warmest room in the house which does retain the heat very well as it is on the neighbour side, and has new carpet and underlay. If it's heated in the morning, it doesn't need to be on much for the rest of the day. Its currently sitting at 14 degrees and baby is wrapped up warm. The other rooms however don't retain heat as well.

I'm in Scotland, but even then its not that cold at the moment, 7-8 degrees outside. I pay around 15p per kWh, I think I rounded it up to £10, even at £8.62 that's s £250 a month which sounds ridiculous to me!

I absolutely get that electric is more expensive, and totally accept that. Its the sheer amount of kWhs that are being used in such a short space of time that I don't understand.

I say the heating is on in rooms that aren't used, Ive set them to 12-14 degrees during the day, which is what they reach normally I believe. With the hive heating if it drops below that it will heat it back to that temperature, so it's not like the heating is on all day long if that makes sense. This is what the heating is like at the moment with nothing being on since 6pm. I'm still working it out, I don't know what the middle one is 😂 boiler cupboard maybe?

For your house to get that cold, that suggests you have a lot of heat leaking out.

The temperature in our house doesn't even drop that low unless overnight in midwinter and it's not that cold in UK yet.

Do you have draughts? What are your windows like? One thing to do is see if you can get grants for better windows, but in the short term, thicker curtains that are closed during hours of darkness should help.

Are you on the best electricity tariff? You should be comparing and changing every year or else you'll end up on more expensive tariffs. Also pay by direct debit if you can.

Is the middle one the read out from the main thermostat, the square box thing?

@barbaraofseville that's what I thought about the box, but it's currently in bedroom 2 with me, not far away from the radiator thermostat itself, so I don't know how they could have different temperatures.

We have double glazing, don't know how old but I would think they should keep the heat in. Recently had a hinge in the bathroom window fixed.

We already have cavity wall insulation and I think the loft is insulated. I'm not sure if there's another type of insulation we could add?

Tumble dryer, washing machine, kettle, toaster and microwave are all high use... We have a smart meter and we're shocked at the spike when these items are used...

Also if oven is on for long periods it uses a lot. Could you just use one bedroom?

I always try to think of it as half the price as during the summer months you will use very little heating. We pay a set amount a month (was £110 but have switched this month will now be £87) so when I look on my account it builds up over the summer so we are in credit to cover the higher cost over winter. Is it just that because you have only just had it sorted this month it seems high as it hasn't had chance to even out?

I think your house must be loosing a lot of heat from somewhere and then is working really hard to keep the heat at thermostat level (which are really low and not that warm). We've just had a ton of insulation work done to our house and when it was 8 degrees outside, it's consistently sitting at 17-18 degrees inside because the heat is retained inside now, not leaking out. Our heating barely comes on anymore. We were paying £250 month on heating before though (gas and electric) so I'm hoping it will go down now!

We do just use one bedroom as baby is under 6 months. I would say oven/hob is on 30-60 minutes a day, but that's average surely? Maybe worth getting a smart meter installed so I can see where it's going. It must be the heating though as in the months when the heating isn't on we spend around £50 a month which seems reasonable. That was obviously before baby, so we do use the washing machine more, and unable to hang washing outside so tumble dryer is on more

@xxmass could I ask what insulation work you've had carried out?

Feel so daft for forking out all this money for a new boiler thinking that was the problem.

Just went to look at this months statement which I've attached. We are duel fuel and use over the national average for gas.

We've just had exactly the same conversation as I noticed this month we'd spent £90 on electricity and only £15 on gas.

We spend only £55 last month on electricity and other than two nights, for a few hours, we've had a dyson heater in in the bedroom as we were decorating, there's no difference to out usage (I think)

Seems a massive difference

Yes, I wondered if £250 pm was just normal winter usage for the OP.

If you had 4 months a year of £250 pm, 6 of £50 pm with little or no heating and 2 of £100 pm for a bit of heating, that would be £1500 per year or averaging at £125 pm, which is in the right ball park - annual average I believe is around £110, but that includes smaller and/or better insulated properties and those with gas heating which is cheaper.

But I do think sadly, OP that you need to prepare yourself for higher bills as we get into winter proper. Was the house very cold before you had the boiler fitted? If so, it might start to cost a little less once the house has fully heated up and its not trying to heat from a very low temperature in a relatively short period of time - its only been a day or two.

We pay £95 pm combined for gas and electric, we had our meters read last week and got an updated bill of £650 which is what we owe since February.
Mine is mostly on washing and drying - dh always leaves lights on upstairs in empty rooms which cracks me up.

Electric heating is notoriously expensive. Can you just heat the room you are in most? See if that makes any difference? Also simple things like checking for draughts, having heavy curtains to keep heat in, etc.

[quote Ajahd]@xxmass could I ask what insulation work you've had carried out?

Feel so daft for forking out all this money for a new boiler thinking that was the problem.[/quote]
We've had huge amounts of insulation work done to the roof, tops up to cavity walls, and things that I don't really understand around windows. But it's made a massive difference!

I have electric heating. It is more expensive than gas. I live in a brand new build, super duper insulation, and it costs me more to heat this house than it did to heat my draughty, damp, 100 year old terrace on gas!

We've cut down on how much we use the tumble dryer. I never dried a full load, but it would be on most days. Now, I only use it for towels and sheets, so its on a couple of times a week maximum. Its making a difference. My electric usage was less this November compared to last year, despite me WFH this year so being home more.

I always put my washing machine on during the night, to use the cheaper electric and a heated dryer to dry. is your electric cheaper at night?

It's the same price day or night :(

I've just looked up our survey from 2017. Apparently it was well insulated. Has cavity wall insulation and roof insulation. Saying that, cavity wall insulation has like a 25 year guarantee doesn't it? I'm sure there's a certificate somewhere. I might see if I can speak to the company who installed it to see if there's an issue