How much electricity do you use per month?

[confusedlots]

This year I am taking a real deep dive into our finances. I’m finding out what I have in pensions, trying to reduce our spending and invest for the future. I’ve already made some small changes such as using sites like Everup to get cashback on our grocery bill, and am already seeing the benefits and wondering why I didn’t look into some of these things earlier.

Today I’m looking at our electricity bill. We have a relatively large house and are a family of 4. The house is new and well insulated so we shouldn’t be spending a lot to heat it. We haven’t had a tumble drier for about a year as it broke and I haven’t got round to replacing it as other things have taken priority. I do use our heated clothes drier a bit but only really if I have stuff I need to get dried quickly or I’m doing lots of washing in one day. Otherwise clothes dry quite quickly in our house as it’s usually quite warm.

I do use the washing machine a lot. Dishwasher isn’t always on every day, maybe around 5 days a week on average.

We are spending £150 a month on electricity. It’s around 500kwh a month. Is that normal for a family of 4? I want to get a new tumble drier and although I wouldn’t use it lots (mainly for sheets and towels etc), that’s only going to put out usage up even further!

AI tells me to use the washing machine less so definitely going to try to make sure I’m only doing full loads. But does anyone else use this amount? Or have any tips on reducing it?

1 adult, 1 17yo with a gaming fixation, we spend about £60 a month. Four bed house.

I don't wfh, so that covers early mornings, evenings and weekends. Cooking, dish washer, washing machine, all the normal minor stuff and a gaming PC. No tumble dryer.

There's not much I can do to reduce it other than turn off things like lights, and switch things off at the wall rather than leave things on standby.

We’re a retired couple, but look after anywhere between 1 and 5 grandkids at least one day a week, more in the school holidays. Three bedroom 1960s semi, gas heating. No tumble or heated drier. Electric ovens and induction hob; I use a slow cooker a lot in winter, but do use the main ovens several times a week. I probably use the washing machine four - five times a week, always on a one hour programme, which isn’t the eco-option on my machine, and the dishwasher about the same almost always on the eco-setting. Don’t have an electric shower.

Our electric use over winter is c£55 a month, and a bit less in summer. We’re with Octopus, on a tariff I fixed in March 2025, so this will increase in May this year.

Just looked at ours and over the last few months it has ranged from just under £150 to just over £200. That’s also for a family of 4 in a relatively large house. We have a hot tub though that is on all the time so I think that really adds to it. Dishwasher is on once a day, tumble dryer has been used over the winter but have stopped now the weather is better. Heating is gas. If your heating is electric then I’d say your bills are pretty low.

4 bed house - old and not well insulated; 1 adult + 1 teen; fixed tariff + fixed amount w/Octopus. (I even claimed some back in Jan!)
roughly £65/month for electricity (gas for heating + hot water + hob)

I think mainly it's going on lightbulbs. We run the d/w and the clothes washer 1-2 times/week each. Sometimes run dehumidifier but no tumble dryer. We use the main oven several times a week and have a toaster oven. Don't watch much telly but use devices constantly. I am WFH.

In the summer, I switch off the radiators to keep the house cooler and use the immersion heater for hot water and then the electricity bill is closer to £80/mos but the gas bill drops right down to ca. £40/mos compared to £200+ in the cold months.

We have a 4 bed house, 4 people.

100 on electric and anywhere between 30 and 350 on gas depending on time of year

4 bed house with 2 young children. Dishwasher on once sometimes twice a day. Probably 7-10 machine washes a week, one tumbledry. Approx £120

4 bedroom house, 3.5 adults (one is here half the time). We average about £80 a month on electricity.

That includes ...
1.5 adults (one half the time) work from home and use an electric heater to warm the space when they are working. We have one heavy gamer. Our heating is gas, and our showers work off the gas boiler (saying this as your electricity will be higher if you have less reliance on gas).

I have solar panels and storage batteries. Apart from the deeper Winter weeks (less daylight obviously) I’m down to just daily standing charge.

I am in Ireland so slightly different. Family of 5, a 13 year old, 10 and almost 5 year old plus two adults in an 8 year old house with an electric car.
My electricity is €14c from 11pm to 8am. I put on the dishwasher, washing machine and car to start from 11pm. I leave for work early so washer finishes at 5, I put it to doing for 13 mins and put in the dryer (excluding jerseys and non dryers clothes). The dryer finished at 8/8:30am and DH turns it off before leaving for work.
We only had electricity at home so no gas and on average in the winter months we pay between €260 and €280 max a month. We use the washing machine and dryer 3-4 times a week, do loads of cooking from scratch (though not at night). My electricity is most expensive between 5 and 7pm so I work around that. Contract finishing up I. June, so need to start the switching process.

I would love this. Hoping to get solar panels if we don’t move.

Why does this read like a weirdly placed secret Advert for Everup?

My system was free too…bonus! Joint initiative with Scottish Government and Home Energy Scotland…so check for anything similar in your area.

Is your heating run by electricity? If so, thats probably right as electric is expensive for heating.

If you heat by gas or oil etc, and thats just cooking, laundry etc, its way above average.

We’re all electric (no gas in village) have an air source heat pump and 2 electric cars. 3bed extended semi, tumble dryer etc. 2 adults and 2 kids. £400pcm in winter

You don't say if you have electric heating, which will make a big difference. We have 5 adults in a large and not well-insulated house (1920s). 2 of us work from home, so 2 computers are running pretty much all day. We do have solar panels, but no battery storage as yet. We average around 350-400 KWh of electricity per month. Quite a lot of this is adult children putting the oven on in the middle of the night :(.

Also a family of 4. Averaging £3.50 a day at the mo. A bit less in summer (less tumble dryer and lighting) and a bit more in winter (electric heaters in coldest rooms) so just short of £100 a month all year round.

I live alone, but work from home (with electric heating in my office).
I have solar panels and a battery, and am a net exporter back to the grid over the course of the year. In winter I might use £20 more than I produce (short grey days plus extra heating), but that's only Nov-Feb and it balances out in summer.

3 person household (2 adults and 1 DC - teenager). Both adults WFH. For 7th Feb - 6 Mar we used £92.80 electricity.

167kwh per month on average. About £41 in usage plus £19 in standing charge, so £60.

Two adults, 1 baby, Victorian three bed.

Heating is oil, not electricity. I really didn’t think we used an excessive amount of electricity, just the usual day to day stuff. None of us work from home. I’m part time so am potentially in the house 2 days during the week, but I’m often out running errands or at the gym etc so not at home all the time.

We do tend to leave the TV on standby, but I don’t imagine that’s using too much electricity? And I do have a habit of putting the washing machine on even if only a small load as I hate it piling up, so I’m going to try to make more effort to run full loads instead where possible. But I usually do a short 30 minute wash cycle unless clothes are particularly dirty, although I tend to run the longer cycle for bedsheets and towels to give them a good wash.

Apart from that I can’t think where else we can try and make savings?

TV on standby will be using next to nothing, especially if it was manufactured in the last decade.

Big sources are things that generate heat or motion.

For your washing machine, temperature will be important. I’ve found everything except towels is fine at 20°C.

A tumble dryer will use a lot. We’ve gone dehumidifier instead when we have to dry inside in the winter.

But I usually do a short 30 minute wash cycle unless clothes are particularly dirty, although I tend to run the longer cycle for bedsheets and towels to give them a good wash

Short cycles often use more energy than longer ones due to agitation instead of soaking.

Do you cook a lot? Long showers with electrically heated water?

Our electricity bill including everything except GCH, ie electric shower, all electric cooking and a dishwasher is about £50-60 pm. So £150 seems very high.

We are a household of two retired adults. We use approximately 260 - 290 kwh of electricity per month. Our usage is the same throughout the year. Our single biggest user is the kettle.

What temperature are you washing at? It can actually use more energy to heat up water for a short cycle than a longer cycle (particularly an eco cycle) would do. Your clothes might also not be spun as much in a short cycle so if you're using a heated airer to dry them, that will use more energy.

Your bills do seem a bit high if you are not using electricity for heating.

do you have a smart metre? Can you do a "forensic" investigation? Turn off everything that uses electricity that you don't need to have on (so leave on the fridge, but turn off the kettle, for example), to see what your base rate of electricity usage is. Then you can start adding appliances one by one.

do you have an electric shower? Games consoles? Those things that can use more electricity that you realise.

2 adults and 3 kids- 3 kids and 1 adult in school/work all day and other adult WFH 3x per week. 4 bed house. We use about £180 and I have no idea how.. Our water is also £185!!! Mind blowing