Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

How many units of electricity do you use a day?

74 replies

SpeckledlyHen · 10/12/2022 14:16

Does anyone know roughly how many units of electric they use a day? Reason for asking is my husband has calculated based on our current usage that our electricity bill is going to be about £1100 this month. I am gobsmacked. He said we are using approx 100 units a day - a unit is 34p, so that's £34.00 a day.

This CAN'T be right can it? He said so far today we have used 20 units. The only thing that is on is the heating (but not high) and the aga (although we set this to a low tick over heat during the day. The house is not by any means boiling, yesterday I did plug in an electric heater to top it up whilst I was working from home. We don't have pools/hot tubs or anything apparently obviously gobbling electricity that I can think of to switch off.

This is not a smart meter reading but just reading the numbers on the ordinary meter.

I just did a very quick google and an "average" household seems to use between 4-6 units a day.

I am going to phone the electricity company soon but this just seems totally and utterly ludicrous and I can't get over what we "appear" to be using.

We only moved into the house in August and I am wondering if the meter needs replacing.

OP posts:

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 10/12/2022 15:04

184kwh in 14 days

ohioriver · 10/12/2022 15:10

Does your aga have the eco controller module?or a dual control?

How many ovens is it?

WrongLife · 10/12/2022 15:11

We use about 300kwH / units a month.

Are you sure he's not reading a figure after the decimal point, as that would put you a factor of 10 out which is about right - as that would have you using 10 units / kWh a day which is much more reasonable

dieselKiller · 10/12/2022 15:12

Since your numbers could well be out by a factor of 10, I’m wondering if it’s possible you misread the meter and included one of the decimals?

teraculum29 · 10/12/2022 15:14

are you sure??you are using 100units a day?? thats a lot,
we used about 120units a week (3bed, 2adults and school age kid)

Hooverphobe · 10/12/2022 15:22

30/day - all electric house in a challenging climate.

I use 8-10 in the summer.

Clarabellawilliamson · 10/12/2022 15:23

Do the numbers on the meter correspond to KWh? Do you have a smart meter?

Shadesofscarlett · 10/12/2022 15:28

Google says an aga uses 50 units a week, which seems very low. The only way to find out is switch everything off. Is meter still using units? Then turn one item at a time on and watch the meter to see how many units used over a day. Also do you have smart meters? If so, get the Loop app - it shows cost per day.

byvirtue · 10/12/2022 15:31

It’s the electric aga they cost a bloody fortune to run even on a timer (we have aims). we’ve not turned ours on yet as it’s not worth the cost to us.

Withnoshoes · 10/12/2022 15:33

Between 2-7. Depends on when we do washing and heavy cooker usage etc.

byvirtue · 10/12/2022 15:33

Shadesofscarlett · 10/12/2022 15:28

This isn’t reliable as they have been making electric agas for donkeys years so depends on the age of the aga, the temperature it’s maintained at, how often it’s used etc.

Elieza · 10/12/2022 15:40

An aga is a cooker. Cookers cost a lot. Back in the day I could see the little wheel inside my electricity meter going round fast when I had the oven on!

My moneys in the cooker.

In the meantime I’d make sure the kitchen radiator has been bled ie it’s equally hot at the top as it is at the bottom (once up and running, not initially) as heating air inside it is a waste of energy.

Elieza · 10/12/2022 15:41

“On”. On the cooker. Stupid fat thumbs. I’d not burn money lol!
😂

Shadesofscarlett · 10/12/2022 15:46

byvirtue · 10/12/2022 15:33

This isn’t reliable as they have been making electric agas for donkeys years so depends on the age of the aga, the temperature it’s maintained at, how often it’s used etc.

Show quote history

Yes I know - which is why I said it seems very low. I expect the Aga is costing a small fortune to run - but you will only figure this out if you take a reading and switch on 1 appliance at a time and check unit use over a day or so. Anything which heats like a cooker or a water immersion will use a hideous amount of electric.

GasPanic · 10/12/2022 15:55

Agas are pretty silly.

If you look on this Which thread, an electric Aga could use £33.60 a week.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/range-cookers/article/should-you-buy-an-aga-ahbDW9l4qX20

Now, the electric cost has doubled since that article, so that's about £70 a week, or £10 a day.

To put that in units, about 28.5 units a day.

So a lot. But not 100 units a day. I guess if you use a lot of power then you could use another 15 units a day or so, so that would total up to about 50 units a day.

So 100 units a day sounds a bit improbable, unless the aga is some sort of massive always on electric one. For it to consume 100 units a day it would need a continuous power rating of about 4 kW.

You could get a small electric heater to heat your kitchen, or if your boiler is powerful enough just replace the radiator for a bigger one for maybe less than £500.

Cheesuswithallama · 10/12/2022 16:10

100 units a day is a small weed farm. Not joking.

I think it's a misread meter. We use about 5 (1 wfh, has heating) but we don't have an Aga!

byvirtue · 10/12/2022 16:10

We average around 15 units a day until we turn on the electric aga which adds about 30 units.

Your usage does sound very high.

Afterfire · 10/12/2022 16:13

Your usage must be wrong. Surely. Maybe the meter itself is wrong?

We use a lot - washing machine every day, dryer most days, someone home all the time, gadgets, Xbox, 10.5kw showers 3 times a day (3 of us) etc etc - we use about 19kw a day.

Reluctantadult · 10/12/2022 16:14

Between 4 and 11kwh here, more if charged the car though.

Bluerisotto · 10/12/2022 16:21

About 3kwh per day,.working from home. About 5-6 if I do laundry. Heating and hot water is gas though.

bloodywhitecat · 10/12/2022 16:33

Around 11 a day, heating/hot water is heated by oil, cooking is electric, have tumble drier/dishwasher and run 2 dehumidifiers.

Roselilly36 · 10/12/2022 16:35

We can easily use 20 per day in the winter, 4 adults all working from home.

ThisGirlNever · 10/12/2022 16:57

Just under 10 kWh p/d.

Family of four.
All LED lighting.
Electric cooker.

Washing machine doing 'full' cycles.
No tumble dryer.
Dehumidifier on to dry clothes as required.
Gas central heating.
No additional electric heating.

DH WFH.

Original poster

SpeckledlyHen · 10/12/2022 17:36

Thanks all for the answers. I have taken a meter reading at 2.30pm today and written it done and will do so at the same time tomorrow. Then on Monday we are going to turn the aga off and take the meter reading again at the same time to see the difference.

Also, we are not on a smart meter, I phoned the energy provider today and said I wanted a smart meter, will have to book an appointment for it to be fitted Jan. They "reckon" if the smart meter reads differently after the first few days we will be refunded the over payment due to a dodgy meter. Honestly, that's all I can think it is. The aga is on, but not full blast all day and we have programmed it to go on a low tick over most of the day and overnight. It only really heats up in the morning and in the evening.

Flipping nightmare! But hopefully resolvable.

OP posts:

Shadesofscarlett · 10/12/2022 17:39

I think the trouble is even with hardly any appliances on the bills are still ridiculous, but the huge cost of energy now is really highlighting which of our appliances use far too many units

Flip

1 2 3