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Housekeeping

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Original poster

If you have a large 5 bedroom house, what is your electricity spend per month?

90 replies

hmcReborn · 21/10/2015 08:07

Assuming that you have a boiler and gas central heating and hot water.

I am almost too embarrassed to declare ours. I never normally monitor bills Blush, and confess I haven't really noticed before, but I just had to take the recent bill out of the filing cabinet and photocopy it for proof of ID, and noticed that it was (oh God, here goes) £160 for the month. Is this normal ?!?!

We are a bit lax with leaving lights on and tv on - will change my habits for my pocket and the planet, but we're not that lax

OP posts:
wickedwaterwitch · 21/10/2015 09:45

Also our house is very old and draughty

PacificMouse · 21/10/2015 09:49

What piglet says.
Also look at akk the appliances that have a clock on them. Did you know you are using as much electricty in thre year making that little work than yu do by using your microwave?

Our bill is much lower BUT we have solar panels, don't have a tumble drier, lights are all LED, no TV on stand by etc etc

PacificMouse · 21/10/2015 09:50

There are some systems that can follow your consumtion and show exactely how much it costs to turn x appliance on or turn y off.
Maybe worth looking at so you can pinpoint where your are spending so much money on.

Kangenchunga1 · 21/10/2015 09:57

God ours is awful too. I think we pay £170 per month. We have a very old thatched cottage and a barn annexe although as we don't use electricity to power the heating the age of the house shouldn't really be making a difference.

Dishwasher is on twice a day, washing machine once a day, tumble drier pretty much never. My DH does work from home though and is in IT so big computer usage, plus DC's massively into computers. I'm still shocked though that it's so high compared to others with similar sized houses. Need one of those devices which shows how much everything is costing at any given time.

Even our AGA and heating is oil fired (that's another £200 pcm).

tldr · 21/10/2015 09:58

I nearly posted this thread this week when I noticed our (combined) bills are £304/month.

I'm going to come back and read it properly later. Something has to change!

yeOldeTrout · 21/10/2015 10:03

About £38 for lekki & maybe £45 for oil. DH works from home and doesn't mind shivering.

No tumble drier, wear clothes a few times before washed, only run the dishwasher when full, etc.

MrsB1988 · 21/10/2015 10:13

I was a bit disgruntled recently to find our average month for combined gas and electric is £100. We have a 3 bed semi but it's quite big and a lot of massive radiators, no cavity wall because it's solid brick construction, so in theory takes more energy to heat, and I use my dryer all the time. Suddenly feeling very lucky though...moving to a smaller 3bed semi be interesting to see how it changes. My bills are very cheap compared to everyone else's! Not disgruntled anymore Shock

MrsB1988 · 21/10/2015 10:18

I have a hive thing that we got with a new boiler last year but it only has a thermostat in one place and assumes that is the temp of the whole house. Had already decided to buy one for new house...will have to do some research, the zone thing someone was posting about earlier sounds brilliant.

Ragwort · 21/10/2015 10:18

I pay £130 per month for our 5 bedroom house (combined gas & electricity), I rarely use the tumble dryer though. Modern house so insulation is very good.

CQ · 21/10/2015 10:26

OP our is about £160 a month for gas and elec combined. It used to be as high as yours, then I went on USwitch and got a better deal - saved us over £700 a year Shock

The daft thing is, we switched from British Gas to Sainsburys Energy - which uses British Gas. Our bills are in the same format, same font, everything - only orange now. And smaller. Go figure Hmm

specialsubject · 21/10/2015 10:57

easy - Sainsbury's don't have to generate anything, maintain anything or pay for any infrastructure.

Original poster
hmcReborn · 21/10/2015 11:01

I didn't realise that spotlights and downlighters are absurdly inefficient

OP posts:
Original poster
hmcReborn · 21/10/2015 11:01

I think I need to look at switching for a better deal

OP posts:
WaitroseEssentialPancetta · 21/10/2015 11:05

We have about 50 of those little spotlight things dotted around the house, mostly kitchen bathrooms and hallways. Gs10 or something. Is it those ones that will be LED soon?

QforCucumber · 21/10/2015 11:11

waitrose that's right, GU10 halogen bulbs are hefty electricity users, DP is an electrician and brought home some LED ones for our downlighters in the bathrooms and kitchen and we have really noticed a bill difference.
He's now made it his mission to replace the gu10 bulbs in the bedroom fitting and lounge lamp too haha.
Can't really give a house comparison as we are in a 3 bed detached newbuild and there is only the 2 of us at the moment - £50 a month for both gas and elec but not accurate on the comparison to you.

MajesticWhine · 21/10/2015 11:14

We appear to be paying £91/month. Tumble drier used occasionally, dishwasher once per day, washing machine every day. We have tons of halogen spotlights. No air-con but most of my neighbours do - makes me laugh. I can hear it cranking up for about 2 weeks of the year when its hot Confused.

ThatsNotMyHouseItIsTooClean · 21/10/2015 12:35

£210 pcm but I know we have gone into this winter with a small amount of credit.
On one of the better deals but have a poorly insulated house to which we have done what we can, do about 10 loads of washing a week & use drier for most of those, dishwasher on at least once a day, I wfh one day a week & DH another and we all feel the cold. The previous owners had spotlights everywhere which we are slowly changing.

Thethingswedoforlove · 21/10/2015 12:41

We switched our heated towel rails off and saved a fortune

NattyGolfJerkin · 21/10/2015 12:51

Are they electric, thethings? Mine are plumbed in as part of my gas central heating and don't cost much to run.

coffeeisnectar · 21/10/2015 13:00

We have just moved house and I just got off the phone to the meerkats. We are now paying £67 a month for gas and electricity. Half what we were paying before. Definitely compare quotes, check meter readings and get a better deal. There are lots of new companies out there now.

Fluffy40 · 21/10/2015 13:00

Ex utility worker here, most high bills were caused by immersions left on and poor knowledge of how to use different tariffs.

And faulty freezers!

PigletJohn · 21/10/2015 13:14

Talking about the meter readings is much more useful than talking about the monthly payment, which will be distorted by price changes, averaging, estimates, and previous underpayments and overpayments.

I'll start.

Electricity, 3336kWh in 12 months to end September.

Gas, 1167 cu.m (but in a cold winter it can be 1350)
prior to changing the boiler and improving the controls, it was 1400 - 1800 depending on winter, and was substantially higher before getting CWI.

PigletJohn · 21/10/2015 13:22

Opps, sorry, that's for a modern 4 bed house.

Previous 5-bed detached Edwardian (solid walls, big windows) was
Electricity 5000 kWh

Gas 5050 cu.m

(includes extra heating for disabled person)

Original poster
hmcReborn · 21/10/2015 15:14

Immersion heater not left on - but freezer could well be faulty. It seems to ice up quite quickly

OP posts:
Thethingswedoforlove · 21/10/2015 15:29

We thought they were plumbed in but they were in fact electric!