Help! Where can we save electricity

[ilkleymoorbartat]

Two adults and two children, adults at home all day working on computers. We're using around 20kw per day of electricity which seems a lot compared to others. I'm fastidious about switching off lights. We're trying not to use the tumble dryer. Dishwasher goes on once a day and a load of washing probably 4 x week.

I didn't think switching off all plug sockets made a difference so I don't do that.

We have a separate water tank that goes on for an hour twice a day.

Are all your lightbulbs energy saving? Do you have light fittings with loads of bulbs?

Can you save in other ways. For example, we fixed our broken shower, so am now having showers rather than baths, therefore saving on water costs and heating?

Can you put on warmer clothes rather turning the heating up?

Think about cooking. If you’re using the oven, bake a cake or put a casserole in so you’re not wasting the heat.

I need to check about whether they're energy saving. We don't have light fittings with lids of bulbs, but the kitchen has spotlights. I thought they were quite low energy though (the small ones with pin type fixtures).

Thanks @Riverlee we're not actually putting the heating on at the moment at all. We don't take baths. It just seems compared to some our electricity usage is quite high. I do make a lot tea.

Is the water tank an electric heater? If so that could be using quite a lot of electricity

Try reducing your hot water to 20 mins twice a day- we find this enough.
You can check:
energysavingtrust.org.uk/energy-at-home/
Also reduce wash temperature of washing machine to 20 degrees for average wash if you can.

When you say separate water tank, is that an immersion heater? They use about 3kwh so that’s 6 of your 20 right there if so.

Do you have an electric oven, and any old fridges/freezers?

It might well be, I'll check this. That's really helpful to know. I'll reduce the time it's on for sure!

Electric ovens eat electricity

Yes @AtomicBlondeRose it's an immersion heater! Would reducing the time it heats up help or does just having one mean the electric will always be high?

Ok, so using an immersion heater is about the most expensive way to heat water there is. Reducing the time it’s on for will help as it’s basically a big kettle boiling away all that time!

I make a cup of tea when working at home, then out a second one in my contigo mug so it is hot for a second drink and don’t need to boil the kettle again. As I can never quite put enough in for just one cup of tea!

This is a really daft question, but I'm guessing we need to have the immersion heater on to have hot wateee.

How old is your fridge/freezer - and how much power do they consume? We bought a plug in device to measure our electricity usage and found that our fridges/freezers in house and garage were costing £750 per annum to run on prices prior to October 1st so bought new ones which will pay for themselves within 2 years - I know not everyone can afford to make this type of change to save money but I was astounded by how much they were drawing.

The microwave, hob, dishwasher and two ovens use around 0.5 kW per day just to keep on standby so they are now switched off. Our TV’s, washing machine and tumble drier all pull some power even when not in use so they have been switched off too. A dehumidifier in the garage was using around 4kw per day. All in all, we’ve managed to reduce our electricity consumption from an average of 25kw a day to 12kw over the last month just by being more conscious of what we don’t really need to have switched on.

Have you any other way to have hot water?

The thought of running an electric immersion heater 😱

Do you have cheaper overnight electricity? If so check what time and run it for 40 mins at the end of the cheaper hours as it should stay hot for hours if it's properly insulated.

Yes if you don't ever turn the immersion on then you will only have cold water!

Do you have an electric shower?

Fridge freezer is inherited and old! The immersion heater is new and hopefully more efficient, but still 😬😬😬

This isn't actually any more efficient than just boiling the amount of water needed each time.

You could fill the cup you're using with cold water and then tip the water from the cup into the kettle so you have measured the right amount.

What kind of heating do you have in your house?

Are you an all electric house or do you have gas? Gas is a lot cheaper than electricity per kWh so if you do have it it's cheaper to use if possible.

Your question about turning off the immersion heater and having no hot water isn't actually definitely stupid as if you have an electric shower then you would still have hot water there and if you don't mind not having hot water at the bathroom taps and boiling a kettle or using a dishwasher for washing up then you could do without the immersion.

We actually have gas heating and water heating and still have an immersion heater on situ it's just switched off, we're probably not the only ones, I don't think these things were always removed even if something else was installed.

I'm pretty sure it's all gas central heating. Including the shower?

Do your lightbulbs get hot? If so they're probably not energy saving. Energy saving ones use 10% of the electricity of incandescent, however I don't think all light fittings can just be switched to energy saving bulbs, you'd have to look this up.

How long is everyone having a shower for ?

Thanks so much for replying everyone. This is really helpful. I'm trying to reduce shower times, but they might be as much as 5 minutes

Do you have a gas combi boiler? If so you could just switch the immersion heater off and have hot water on demand from your boiler which would be much cheaper.

Try googling whatever is written on the front of your boiler to find out what kind it is and what it does.

Are you sure you need to use the immersion heater? Usually a gas boiler can do your hot water too, and the immersion is only for emergencies. The immersion will use a tonne of energy. If you do need to use it you could have it coming on once a day only.