To ask another energy question? Re usage in kWh.

[AmandaStaveleysBlackNWhiteArmy]

Sorry I know we might as well be named ‘Energynet’ these days but I’ve just received my post April projection.

We have a 4 bed semi with en suite, family bath and downstairs toilet. Gas central heating. DH and I both home workers. Have been reducing heating usage for a while now and have the thermostat set to 14 degrees during the day with it upped to 18 degrees for an hour or so in the evening.

The information suggests we use just over 6,000kWh of electricity per year and almost 17,000kWh of gas per year. That seems high and a Google seems to agree but is there a possibility it could be wrong?! Grasping at straws here as they reckon I’ll be using almost 5 grand per year of energy as of April

Have you got an energy bill from April 2021 -March 2022 so you can compare?

Sadly not, my energy company was one of the first to fold last year and I had not long moved to them at the time so this time last year is 2 energy providers ago.

My gas is projected as 14608 and electricity is 5786. I send monthly meter readings so should be fairly accurate.

4 bed detached in Scotland- 2 adults and 2 teens. Heating on 6-11am and 5-10pm at around 18/19⁰C

So gas seems a bit less @dementedpixie and electricity is around the same. Ugh this is all so confusing!!

Those figures sound realistic to me. I live in a modern, well-insulated flat, and I use 5,000 of electricity and 12,000 of gas.

Ok that’s reassuring @Getoff thank you.

Although I do keep my heating at 22 degrees for 16 hours a day. Having said that, I've calculated that heating is much less of a my gas bill than I'd always assumed, hot water costs more than I realised.

On your figures you're averaging 16.4kWh per day in electricity and 46.6kWh in gas.

We have a four bed detached with gas CH and hot water, electric everything else, which we heat up to about 21 deg-ish all day (two adults and two preschool DC all at home all day). It is, though, a new house with very good insulation.

For gas we range from 18 kWh per day in summer to 64kWh per day in winter so you're slightly higher than us, but our electricity averages 6.9kWh per day in winter and creeps up to 10.8kWh per day in summer so you're using a helluva lot more than us.

That said, my MiL lives by herself in an isolated farmhouse and averages about 17kWh per day in electricity (which crucially includes hot water) without being especially extravagant, so it doesn't strike me as outrageous.

What's your insulation like? What heats your hot water? What type of gas boiler do you have?

You need to work out what high use appliances/equipment you are using a lot of.

If your thermostat is accurate and your house is actually those temperatures, I don't think it should cost that much unless your insulation is poor and heating system inefficient.

Your electricity usage is about twice the national average which sounds like more than an issue than WFH, normal laptops don't use much. Anything electrically heated? Anything like a fish tank, hot tub? Lots of old style lightbulbs? Gaming style PCs on all the time?

Do you have DC or is it just you two?

I have the same kind of house as you and am using 11000kwh in gas per year (and 8500 in electricity) and am trying to trim it because I gather that that is above average. So yes, yours must be an extra level of high.

Our house is the same as yours. Two young DC. Our electricity is 3800 k Wh annual usage and gas is 18685 kAh

Ok to answer some questions.

There are two children, both out most of the day at school and the elder one works or is out most evenings as well.

We have a combi boiler which was new in 2014 so getting on a bit now I guess? Serviced yearly and probably due one now.

We replaced all of the windows upstairs and the windows at the front of the house just last year. New front door also. At the back of the house the room is a bit exposed and cold (north facing) as there are two sets of patio doors and a window. None of which were replaced due to cost. There is a conservatory off one of the set of double doors.

There is no cavity wall insulation as far as I’m aware, we looked into getting it done and it was such a small part of the house that was suitable for it it wasn’t worth it. The loft is used for storage so I’m guessing not insulated?

How do you heat your conservatory? Ours is underfloor electric and accounts for over half our elec usage

Also I would worry about your boiler - 8 years old should be fine

The conservatory is heated by a small portable oil filled radiator whenever someone is in there. There aren’t any radiators etc in there.

We are a 3 bedroom house with gas heating but electric shower and an electrically heated office. Last 12 months (working from home) was 12500kwh gas and 8000 kwh electricity.
We've decided to go on the capped tariff and see what the future brings. IIRC the quote was about £3600 per year, up from just under £2000.

I wish our usage was as low as yours. We have used around 24,000 gas in the last year and 9,500 electricity.

5 bedroom house (30 years old), with open plan areas with some electric and some water fed underfloor heating, 2A and 2DC (both gamers ). Both of us wfh some of the week. I have a hybrid car which is charged daily.

I am hoping that our gas usage will decrease, as we had a new pressurised hot water system and new boiler fitted in December, with electric controls. It feels as though it's much more efficient, and more easily controlled so we can switch it off easily when not needed. We also have a much bigger and better insulated hot water tank now.

We have a woodburner which we hope to get more use out of this year.

We have added more loft insulation in recent years, but know that our cavity wall insulation will be rubbish. When we added an extension, the 'cavity' is barely wide enough to slide a finger in.

The thing about a combi boiler is that it has to be fired up every time someone runs the hot tap which, if you have certain types of mixer taps, can be every time someone runs a tap full stop. It's running at full blast for every second you wait for the hot water to come through, then it all cools down again until the next time. If the boiler isn't a condensing one (more efficient) then you might want to think about replacing it and if you're going to do that you might want to think about the whole system and heat pumps etc.

But if heat is leaking out of the walls, patio doors, and ceilings, you'd probably want to tackle that first. Do you have a basement or crawlspace under the floorboards? Might be worth underfloor insulation there too. You seem to be using a lot of gas to have a not very warm house.

As for electricity usage - what sort of appliances are running constantly? Older freezers, tumble dryers are usual suspects, but what about gaming computers?

@AlwaysaLittleBitTired yikes that sounds crazy. Solidarity if nothing else.

I have to say I don’t massively understand the projections that have come through. I can’t understand why the personal projection for the year is a totally different price to the estimated annual cost.

If anyone can explain it that would be amazing.

So, no basement or crawl space.

Could possibly stretch to a new boiler but the money just isn’t there for a complete new system complete with the redecoration etc that would be required.

Fridge/Freezer is less than 18 months old. No gaming computers. Tumble drier is used frequently so I guess that’s an area to cut back for definite.

Sounds high to me.
Last year we used 4285 electric & 7828 gas, this years usage has been similar to last years so far. 3 bed semi, 8 of us inc baby so house around 17/18C most of the time. House was built in the noughties though so pretty well insulated. Getting dehumidifiers a few years back made ours feel much warmer.

What dont you understand

Electric calculations are:
6058 x 27.09p
365 x 48.6465

And then for gas
16909 x 7.224
365 x 27.216

[quote AmandaStaveleysBlackNWhiteArmy]@AlwaysaLittleBitTired yikes that sounds crazy. Solidarity if nothing else.

I have to say I don’t massively understand the projections that have come through. I can’t understand why the personal projection for the year is a totally different price to the estimated annual cost.

If anyone can explain it that would be amazing.[/quote]
Just replied at length then lost it.

Those projections show what you will probably spend if you stay on the variable rate you’re on.

Underneath they’ve told you what you’d spend on their lowest fixed rate, for comparison.

Plus the fixed rate offered is only over 10 months not 1 year

Yes the Estimated annual cost is for the fixed rate so for Gas it would be 2174.32 rather than 1320.84 on the variable. For Electricity it would be 2473.77 on fixed or 1818.78 on variable

I wonder if some of the usage relates to hot water, rather than heating?

How often do you all have your hot water heater on for? I think we might be overusing it....

We might have 2 showers in the morning, a bowl of washing up water later in the day, and one bath in the evening, sometimes it's 1 bath and a shower. It depends on who has what activities going on. We do tend to share bath water sometimes.

I am just going through the Hive schedule now to see how I can use less gas! Is it enough to have an hour in the morning, and an hour in the evening? I am hoping that the new tank will retain the heat.