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?!

@mateysmum yeah, missed the updates, apologies. Heat only oil boilers were definitely a thing - my parents still have one. Unfortunately you can't just change the controller, you have to buy a whole new boiler.

Seems you can still buy them: https://www.cityplumbing.co.uk/c/product/heating/boilers/oil-boilers/oil-heat-only-boilers/c/1838012/

Lots of good advice on logistics. This is also going to be a more expensive use pattern in any case. Is your baby nearly old enough to bath with her big brother? It can be nice for them both, even if a bit intense and very very occasionally a bit grotty!
Filling a bath costs 50p or more with an immersion heater, so your daily bath alone is likely costing you over £200 a year, could be more if the heater isn't efficient.

If it's your favourite time that's great, but maybe then look at this as part of your luxury budget - or maybe you'd rather bath a few times a week, shower the rest, and get a spa treatment or two instead ☺️

We've just switched to have our hot water heated by our oil rather than electricity and our energy bill has plummeted. Can you look into this?

Tbe boiling water tap could be using a lot of your ekekctricity because it hot water on demand.

I have never had one and never will so if there is a way to switch the hot water tap off and start using a fast boil kettle (energy efficient) as an alternative so you can make a comparison between hot water tap and kettle to see which is the culprit.

If you have a smart meter this should be easy and if you have a standard meter it can be easy to, just remrmber to rrad meter before switching over.

Heat only boilers still give you hot water, its pumped/diverted into your hot water cylinder on demand. ( when you ask it to send hot water to your storage cylinder)
When youve used it its gone and you have to wait for it to be refilled with hot water, much like an immersion heater but faster.

Its down to your controller and plumbing if its been installed to do this. It would be crazy not to for the sake of minimal extra work when installing it - definately worth a check.

Weed farm in the loft?

Seriously though, the plug thing @TooManyKwH suggested is a good idea. But it's likely to be your hot water. Electric shower would be cheaper.

Most boiling water taps are more energy efficient than a kettle and cost less to run. They cost more upfront, but not day to day.

I initially thought it was obviously the boiling water tap but was surprised when I looked into it it seems they are cheaper to run than kettles bizarrely. It does have an on/off switch under it so I’d put it off if we were away for a few days. Sounds like the hot water system is my problem

Could you take a picture of the control for the boiler/hot water?