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 are in northern Scotland. Our house had electric storage heaters when we moved in. The previous owner apparently spent £1k a month on electric! So we removed those and had oil heating installed and solar panels. The solar panels provide all the heat we need in summer for hot water when the boiler is off. Not sure if you have space for an oil tank but it made a worthy investment for us. We also have loop - a device that monitors our electricity usage and suggests the cheapest provider for what we use. We've switched a few times to whoever offered the best deals and saved quite a bit of money that way. Lastly, you could call home energy Scotland. They come round and assess your house, make suggestions on what you can do to increase efficiency. It's free and you don't have to go with their recommendations.

You need to check whether the loft is unsulated first of all, otherwise that heat is going straight through the roof, top it up even if is in there, a couple of rolls of insulation makes a massive difference.

Next you need big thick curtains at all the windows and close them as soon as it goes dark, makes another massive difference, as do thick door curtains.

Is it radiotors you have? If so tinfoil wrapped around cardboard slipped behind them bounces heat back into the room rather than heating the walls.

The tumble dryer will eat loads, any chance of replacing it with one of those new ones that recycle the heat back into the machine? They are about £600 but will be much more economical to run.

I've lived in a house (a 1900 mid terrace with no cavities to insulate) that was always cold and it was miserable and expensive. I did all the above things, plus thermals under clothes, layers on beds, throws on sofas, thick socks etc. Gas bill was still £50 a week over winter and £20 a week over summer, mainly because the heating system was pure shite.

We moved to an eco build house after that one, it's bliss. And a lot cheaper even though the rent is 20% higher!

Sounds about right to me. We had the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning, then four hours in the evening yesterday. The oven was on for about an hour and I put the boiler on for a bath and our meter showed just over £7. We’re in a very well insulated small, mid-terrace 3 bed house built in 1996. In the summer we use £30-40 a month; in the winter it can be £150-£300.

That sounds about in line with what we pay - on average we're paying about £8 a day for electricity but that doesn't include heating or hot water as we're on oil too.
My mum has gas for heating/water and she averages out the cost during the year then pays the same amount each month plus 10% to cover cost rises.

Thank you @blueseawhitesand, I'll give Home Energy Scotland a call.

I'm going to invest in some thermal curtains I think. Hopefully they will help. The house is cold during the day though, I don't find the sun heats up the house much (unless it's summer and then it TOO hot!), despite having big windows in the living room.

Maybe I just have unrealistic expectations 😂 will be interesting to see what it's like over the year.

If it were still just me and my husband, I wouldn't mind. We dont like to be too hot and are more than happy with a cosy blanket and slippers. I worry about my baby being too cold though. I layer him up and he has a thick swaddle bag to keep him warm at night, but I always wonder if he's uncomfortable. I go to other people's houses and they're so much warmer so I always we were the odd ones out

Check the loft insulation situation first, because it's not a 'once and done' job, it compresses over time and becomes less effective. It's also the biggest single route through which heat is lost (about 25%) and is the cheapest and least disruptive to rectify, you may be able to get a grant towards it. I agree with talking to your local energy saving trust who will be able to advise.

What's sticks out to me though, is the interior room being much warmer than the external wall rooms and the temperatures you've got which are much closer to my experience with living in a non cavity wall insulated Victorian house, than a cavity wall insulated 80s built property. If you're still in guarantee, I think it's worth following up. The cavity wall insulated place happily maintained 18 degrees the non cavity I had to crank the heating to get the temps above 14, even with new loft insulation, double glazing, new exterior doors, thick curtains etc....

What you cross posted about the iving room getting too hot in summer is also consistent with the cavity wall insulation not being great. The big window will contribute but it may not be the only issue.

I feel you pain OP. We moved house in November 2019. It is a stone built house with solid walls. Internal walks are solid concrete. No wall insulation. Adequate lift insulation. Heated by 1 coal fire and 4 electric wall heaters. We are not on mains gas. I changed electricity supplier after 10 days. Our electricity bill was £180 !!!!!!.
Stopped using wall heaters and went to a Travelodge a couple of nights just to get warm.
Virtually lived on top of a coal fire last winter, used wall heaters minimally Absolutely freezing. Our bills were around £50 pcm in summer. We have had a log burner installed so we now have one room that is warm. In time will will be having heating installed througout and internal wall insulation but we have a lot of building work to do before we can do that.
For us it was the electric wall heaters and using the emersion heater for hot water that were so expensive.

Just found the cavity wall insulation guarantee. The company went bust the year we bought the house. Typical.

Check that you aren't running the Emersion (not sure how to spell it?) for the hot water to be on all the time ... if not that, turn the heating off, see how much electricity you are using in a 5/10 hr period - then you can know for sure it's the heating. Personally I think there's something else using up all the electricity - you need to play detective to see what it is ....