Monthly kWh used for gas and electricity?

[deuxgarcons]

So the price cap (average family use) for gas is based on using 12,000 kWh pa (1,000pm) and electricity 2,900 pa (242pm).
I sat down this morning to review usage and am astounded at our kWh usage and really need to work out where we use it as we use much more than this.
I started to take monthly readings in July and our usage has been
Gas
July 437
Aug 909
Sept 1908
Oct 2272

Electric
July 456
Aug 523
Sept 526
Oct 484

Gas hot water, heating and gas fire which we haven't used in above figs and won't use this winter as we have now blocked up chimney to reduce drafts. Our boiler is ancient so it must be that?. We have turned down temp on water and have it on less. Heating now on 1 hr in morning and 2 hours evening.

Electric I am wondering about old freezer in our cellar which is an 'overflow' freezer for main one but think I'll defrost and switch off as it only has frozen chips and bread in it!! Also cellar has old fridge and florescent light which is always on so will turn that off now. No electric showers.

We are in a semi 5 bed (drafty) Victorian house. 4 people down to 3 now as one has gone off to Uni which is why I think electric went down in Oct!!.

What is everyone else's kWh usage?

Your gas seems very high.
3 adults in a 5 bed, detached period property here. Quite draughty at times! I have the heating on low 24/7 (16°)
For October our usage was: 664 kWh gas and 1009 kWh electric. We run two electric cars which accounts for a lot of our power usage.

Could the ancient boiler really make that much of a difference I wonder. Ours seems huge in comparison to yours for a similar property type. Do you have a modern boiler? I can see we're not paying for anyone else as the meter is still as nothing needing gas is on at the moment!!

Possibly. We had a new boiler put in about 7 years ago; our gas bill definitely decreased but we were being massively overcharged beforehand.

Not answering your question, but Jul and Aug are normally much lower due to no heating, less cooking. Your use is more in August than July, so unless you were away in July, what changed in those two months making August more? Whatever you were using more of might help you account for the extra use now.

What temperature is your heating set to and how long are you having it on?

We were actually away in August for one week and turned hot water off. (heating was also off during the summer) How wierd. We don't have a heating thermostat so when heating is on its full blast. So I need to look at new boiler and a thermostat don't I !!
We tried to get a smart meter put in but when the guy came he said he couldn't touch the old meters in our cellar as a 'specialist' was needed and we are still waiting on that.

Gas 0 (no gas where I live)
Electricity 3600kWh annually.

Old house, poorly insulated, draughty, single glazed, one log burner one adult and 1-2 children (I foster so the number of children can fluctuate in this house)

Gas
Jul 67
Aug 78
Sep 84
Oct 119

Electric
Jul 86
Aug 93
Sep 86
Oct 98

Two of us in a three bed semi

I think it is your boiler. Ours is really ancient and we use approx 16,000 kwh per annum😱 (or were, can't afford that now!). We will replace it at some point.

3 bed semi. Me and 2 teens. Heating on 19° 24/7 now. Combi boiler. New dishwasher and washing machine.

Oct;
Electric 295
Gas 57

Nov; (I take daily readings so accurate estimate to the end of the month)
Electric 235
Gas 170

Electric has dropped as the electric shower head was broken for a bit and I've tried to minimise oven use with more batch cooking. And I read the DC's the riot act about 25 min showers......

@Athenen0ctua wow that is low for kWh. Is that kWh or cost?

kWh, couldn't afford that in pounds! Winter is obviously going to be much higher for gas with heating on, looks like it will be about 25 units, so 275 kWh for November as I'm up to 21 today.

@ClaudineClare yes I think it's the boiler and lack of room thermostat to regulate the heating. Our radiators have thermostats so I've turned them all down. We have used 25,750 kWh of gas so far this year 😳. We hadn't submitted a reading for ages so the first half of the year was estimated but it wasn't far off actual when I did reading in July. I now put in a reading every month. I'm not having the gas fire on (all day) this winter as it's too expensive and looking at where else we can cut back.

Oct 2022

159 Wkh Eletric
476 kwh Gas

Electric 2022

Jul 323
Aug 355
Sep 253
Oct 210
Nov 220

Estimate for 2022 full year approx 3,300 KwH vs 4287 in 2021

Gas 2022

Jul 609
Aug 519
Sep 423
Oct 425
Nov 677

graphs are our monthly gigs for 2021 and 2022

Estimate for 2022 full year approx 11,500 KwH vs 15,500 in 2021

4 bed detached ; 3-5 adults dependent on time of year, 2 of those away at Uni for a good part of the year - not summer as leccy usage shows!. Gas CH and water, plus hob. Heating on 2-3 hrs typically every day for past couple of weeks, a bit more random earlier in November and back in October.

@megletthesecond

how do you insulate your house? having heating on 24/7 and only using 170kwph is really good, thats going to be costing you around £17 for the month wow

Athenen0ctua. how do you keep your gas usage so low? I need to know your secret! Ive looked at mine and in comparison what you are using in a month I'm getting through in a week, thats 2 of us - and thats in august with just a shower and gas hob.

We take short showers (both of us do shower every day). We shower in the morning so don't have time to just stand under the water. I have a stovetop pressure cooker so things like soup, chilli and bolognese cook in half the time. I batch cook as there are only two of us, and reheat in the microwave.

We take short showers (both of us do shower every day). We shower in the morning so don't have time to just stand under the water.

we shower every day and have a 4 minute timer set up, I use the slow cooker - so thats electric anyway and the microwave, the hob isn't used daily.

Im scratching my head on where I can reduce my gas usage to yours and megletthesecond level, its very impressive

If you have decent water pressure, then switching to a combi boiler can make a huge difference. It did to us. Hot water is only heated when it is needed, so there's no guessing at how long to have the hot water on for. They are much more efficient than older boilers.

A thermostat will help a lot too and being smart about how warm each room is kept with the TRVs. They don't all need to be at the same setting.

October this year:
Electric 41kwh
Gas 393 kwh

November (so far):
Electric 40kwh
Gas 680kwh

I want to know how @megletthesecond gets their house so warm with so little gas use too!

^that's just me in a 1 bed flat

For this Winter I’m using this week as a guide
212 kwh of Gas £22 (with standing charge). That’s heating on, set to 18/19°, I’ve been at home all week too.

2 Baths and 4 showers, gas hob used twice, around an hour in total.

£22 Electric inc. standing charge. BG app shows it in ££s, haven’t looked at kwh but assume around 58.
So £44 a week for Winter.

Extrapolate that out and it’s around £950 for October - March.
Take off £400 ‘help’ credit so £550 = £92 a month. I could reduce my dd but I’m leaving it at £160 to build credit for next year.

Ok. 3 bed semi - 2 adults 1 child

I’ve put mine next door to yours in bold to help show diff

Gas
July 437 - 239
Aug 909 - 285
Sept 1908- 254
Oct 2272 625

Electric
July 456 - 489
Aug 523 - 500
Sept 526 - 507
Oct 484- 409

havnt had November yet but assume will be a lot more as been using heating more

your gas is a lot higher than ours but I’ve been really good with heating.

electricity roughly the same

Hang on, hold your horses, I might have given crap advice. For us it was much cheaper, but the Energy Saving Trust say it can vary according to the household.
Sorry!

Ive added mine up now

my gas for October 1st -3rd November was 337kwph

I give weekly readings so the dates are from Wednesday to Wednesday

electric is 157kwph for same dates October 1st -3rd November

detached 3 bedroom and 2 of us

my gas for November is much higher as its 568kwph already with one more week to go - obviously from 3rd November, so its 3 weeks, electric is 104kwph for the 3 weeks so much the same as last month

1364kwph was last years gas for November and 177kwph for electric