Why are we using SO much electricity?!

[Babynamef]

So for quite a few months we’ve been questioning how our bill/usage can be SO high. We live in an old house with oil instead of gas and a hot water tank which I think must use electricity. It’s a 3 bed but our two kids are very young so virtually no electricity is used by their rooms. We have a boiling water tap but I can’t think what else could possibly be using all this electricity. Our annual usage was 8300kwh which seems to be more than double the average for a similar house 🤔 Would a smart meter tell us what’s using so much?!

Do you have an immersion heater? Is it on? A smart meter will tell you your current draw so you can go round switching things on and off until you see what is the root cause of the elevated consumption.

How does the hot water tank work? Is it an immersion and does that have a timer, or is it permanently on and heating the water? If the latter that would be incredibly expensive.

Smart meter could help as you would know what your usage is when you are not there. Then you will know the cost of running your router and fridge /freezer, and you'll be able to see a change when you run the tumble dryer or the oven for example when you are home. My parents have a gizmo in their house that shows what their usage is in real time so they can see the cost of switching on the kettle or doing the laundry.

You also need to work out how your hot water is produced. If you are running an immersion heater all the time (that tank) it will cost ££. Ours is heated by the oil boiler so no electricity cost.

We had a similar issue. You really need to look into it. Get a smart meter and in the meantime you could get something like this to test how much appliances are using https://www.screwfix.com/p/energenie-ener007-energy-saving-power-meter-socket/3477h

If you don't know how your hot water is heated then get on that - immersions are incredibly expensive so switch it off if it is.

Was there a point which it suddenly went up?

Check your meter every day and get a handle where you are at my daily useage is around 13 kilowatt hours for a large Victorian house though only two living here.

My husband knows better but we have a switch and it needs turned on a few hours before you want a shower/bath or itl be cold. We weren’t sure at first though whether it was better just to leave it on rather than keeping on letting it go cold and need to be fully reheated again. I suspect that’s likely to be what’s costing us so much

Go and turn everything off (including fridge/freezer) and see if your meter is still changing. Then turn on fridge/freezer. Slowly add in more stuff.

we have a switch and it needs turned on a few hours before you want a shower/bath or itl be cold.

That's an immersion heater, very expensive to run. You could look into getting a combi-boiler that will provide your heating and hot water on demand. They do cost around £2000 though. They work on gas or oil.

Thanks.. no it has always been high since we’ve lived here, just haven’t stayed here very long so not 100% sure what is using so much when the average seems to be much less. We’re £250 a month in electricity then we have to buy oil every winter at around £1000 too. With the cost of living crisis though I assumed everyone was paying this much 😳

Thanks, I thought so.. we don’t plan to stay here very long or we would definitely look into changing it. Just going to have to switch it off all the time. We did do that until recently but so many times we’d go to run the kids a bath and realise we’d forgot to turn it on because we weren’t in at 4/5 o’clock. Just going to need to set an alarm on my phone and try to put it on every day

Is the water tank properly insulated? If not, that might be a worthwhile investment.

Setting an alarm to remind you to turn the water on and off again is also an easy, free thing that will help control the cost.

Ah

Buy an electric shower and keep the water tank switched off and don't have baths

Water tank will be what's eating it all op

Horrendous consumption on them

I would get an electric shower and part fill the bath with that or if kids are old enough shower rather than a bath so you don't have to leave the Emerson switched on

Leaky seal on fridge / freezer?

That plus explore whether you can control the immersion with a timer. They're fairly simple to fit as it's just a break in the supply line across which the timer controller is wired.

Most immersions have a thermostat, usually under the cover where it's fitted to the cylinder.

If you have good insulation then Economy 7 might allow a tank to be heated cheaply at night.

If you have an Immersion heater then you should only need to run it for about 3/4 hour to an hour before use.You dont need a cold bath ,but not Roasting hot either! Not good for you or your bank account! Do DC need a bath every day? Maybe just every other day would be enough.I set my phone so I dont forget! They eat Electric ,really gobble it up!

Can you not fit a timer on the immersion heater?

I'd also look at how long it needs to run for to get enough hot water. Ours used to take 40 mins. So, I'd start on however long you usually leave it on for, and reduce by 15 mins every week until you haven't quite got enough hot water. Then increase it by 15 and keep at that length.
You may find that it needs longer in winter.

Does your oil boiler not heat your water?
Look at the heating controller and check if it has a water function. I don't think I've ever seen one that doesn't. We have oil heating and in the summer just have the water on for about 45 minutes in the morning and that is plenty for 2 showers, washing up etc. If somebody wants a bath at night, I just flick the boiler/water on for 10 mins and that's plenty. We never use the immersion heater.

@FallingAutumnLeaf good idea, I’ve kind of done that accidentally in the past by forgetting to put it on and putting it on too late. My husband works in construction so has a shower as soon as he gets in. Then we run the baby her small bath and my son half a bath so they all get it warm, even if we’ve been late in putting it on. When everyone’s in bed I go for a bath (the highlight of my day 😂) and it’s always me who suffers because I just go to step in then realise it’s freezing 😭 that’s even with 2 hours or more to heat it so I think it needs closer to 3 but will try moving it by 15 minutes and see if it’s costing us this amount

@mateysmum oh this could be interesting. I’m pretty sure it does but to be honest I don’t have a clue so I’m just switching the switch on the wall every time. Maybe il try not putting it on and using the water button on there instead to see if that works 🤔 luckily the boiling water tap has saved us a few times, especially when filling the baby bath or for filling a basin for the bottles

Im in an old house, oil heating so comparison wise, kind of similar.
(detatched, minimal insulation, draughty etc.)

My annual electric is 4858.5 kWh without electric shower.

Using your immersion heater is your issue, without doubt.

Ive never known an oil boiler not heat the water, if you have a hot tank, its certainly worth checking you know the system properly. My old burner was over 40 years old and heated the water, ive recently replaced it for a new much more efficient / cleaner combi one and done away with the water cylinder in a spare bedroom. - Given your extra electric ( and oil) costs it might be worth looking into, youll save in the long run.

@Babynamef Seriously, using the boiler to heat your water is the answer. Spend a bit of time learning how to programme the water timer. It should be the same as programming the heating. Most are intuitive but if not google the model number and you'll probably find a manual online. You might need to play around with the timings till you get it to match your usage. Madness to use the immersion especially as we come into winter and you will be using the central heating anyway. Also, make sure your hot water cylinder is properly lagged otherwise the water won't stay hot.

I'm guessing from the OP that she has a heat only boiler. This is quite common with oil heating. So no choice but to use the immersion for hot water.

EDIT posted without reading updates, seems OP doesn't actually know whether she has a combined boiler.

@BCCoach She's said she thinks it does have a water switch. I've lived in a number of oil fired houses over the last 30 years and have never had one that was only heat.
In the event it is heat only, it might be cheaper to change the controller than pay for the immersion heater!

What hot water tap do you have? They can be quite costly too