Electricity Usage - what is your number?

[AlwaysaLittleBitTired]

We are in the process of switching energy providers, as at the end of our fixed price deal. We will be stung now by the recent price hikes to thtune of an additional £400 for the year.

Our electricity usage for the year is extremely high (I think) at 19400kwh. How does this compare with everyone else with similar house/family set up?

There are 2 adults and 2 DC (both under 11yrs) We have a 5 bed house, with electric underfloor heating in a bathroom upstairs and in the knocked through kitchen/diner. Otherwise we use the gas central heating and the wood burner for heating. The oven is electric, but hob is gas. No games consoles or other high energy hobbies, just the usual TVs and chargers for devices.

Is this just the underfloor heating causing the problem?!

Ours is about 7000 kwH. Heating and cooking are gas. Three adults. Four bed terrace.

janinlondon - thanks for your reply. Yours will probably have suspended timber floor I am guessing? As have we, and I think this doesn't help. Still, I think there is something amiss here - why do we use so much power? I think we must be entitled to some sort of industrial use discount!

Take a reading now and then again in 2 or more days time and read again . Longer time would be more representative. Do some sums and see it it gets anything like your annual reading.
Perhaps experiment for 1 or 2 days with underfloor heating on as it would be during winter.
It does seem high though or do you like your house 'tropical'?

I've just looked and last Mar to this April ( so 13 months) we used roughly 5000kwh , that's a 25 yo largish 4 bed detached , all gas heating but tumble dryer on loads , every gadget imaginable to man charging and a TV on for about 16 hrs a day ( sports channels I might add so not being closely watched ) . There's 4 of us all 17+ . Should also add we've got fans going alround the place all summer including overnight .

4500 large 3 bed semi - gas central heating - electric shower and dryer. all lights led and everything switched off when not in use

2 adults 2 teens

Blimey - we are clearly monopolising our local grid. Thanks for sharing your figures, it is really helpful as I have been able to convince DH that we're not normal.

I have started taking daily readings, which I will do for 7 days to see what I find before contacting the fuel co to check the meter. (I'll try it with the floor on tomorrow when I'm working at home). We're up against our end date on the fixed in 3 weeks, so I'm keen to get it sorted.

I reckon you are powering a neighbours cannabis farm !

Are you sure your figure is correct, that does seem an enormous amount for a household, mines around 5000 so similar to others but I think we use too much. I'm cutting down where I can.

Central heating is gas, only use the tumble dryer in the winter, try to switch the lights off etc.

That is an enormous electricity usage. We are on electricity only as there is no gas supply and our heating and hot water are provided by an air source heat pump and we use less than half that (just under 9000kw/h year) on a 5 bedroom house with UFH downstairs. It can't be right.

Ps your electric ufh will be a large part of the problem as electric heating is far less efficient than hot water ufh ( through a network of pipes set in concrete under the floor). Unfortunately, also expensive to replace.

Bloody hell.

Two adults, leccy for oven ( not often), lights, TV, tech, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge , shower, big freezer. Heat with oil and wood, cook on gas.

2600 units a year. Unit prices up 30% so you may want to take action!

We use about 9,000 kWH a year I think. Have an oil powered heating system but all cooking is electric and we're not exactly careful about switching lights off etc. Yours does sound high

1600 for me and two children in a small 2 bed house.

Try an OWL meter, you attach part of it to your meter, then have the wireless display unit where you can see it. It tells you how much electric you're using at any one time. Sometimes available to borrow from libraries. You can have hours of fun going round turning things off and on to see how they affect the reading.

Most likely culprits the underfloor heating or the immersion heater... they use shed loads if left on 24/7... just turn it on 20 mins before a shower or 40 mins before a bath. For washing up/small amounts of hot water boil the kettle. Also, anything that heats up... ironing uses a load, recharging the laptop uses a minimal amount.

Also, make sure your hot water tank is set to 60... it doesn't need to be any higher. Any lower and you'll have undesirable bacteria growth in there.

If op has a power shower it will use more hot water than a bath unless she is quick.

Time to heat a tank of hot water with an immersion depends on capacity of tank, starting temperature, ending temperature and power of immersion. There's a simple formula.