How the hell can I reduce my electricity bill?

[aliciaflorrick]

I've just got my annual electricity bill this morning and have spent the last 12 months actively trying to reduce electricity used only to find we've used 400kw more. A three bedroomed house and I've used 6516Kw in 12 months.

My central heating is wood, we changed the pump this year to an A* but have only used the heating about three times because we use a stove in the living room.

I work from home and computer is on from 7.00 till midnight, but I sit covered in blankets all day because I don't have the heating on.

TV is off all day until between about 7.00 and 10.00 then turned off again at the switch.

Water heater was on all the time because someone told me it was more efficient to do this, I've cut it down to two hours a day now (for the last three months).

Cooker/oven is electric but I've stopped baking as much because I didn't want to use the fan oven.

Dishwasher probably on daily and washing machine probably about five loads a week. Haven't used the tumble dryer in 18 months because too expensive.

New fridge and freezer bought two years ago both A rated in an effort to get bills down.

Two digital radio clocks in the house for time telling and radio.

3 electric blankets on for 2 hours a night before bed.

Kettle.

My bill is 120 a month which I struggle with. The only thing I can think of doing to reduce the bills is to change the cooker/oven for a bottled gas one. I can't turn the computer off because it's my work and I need it.

Any suggestions as to what I can do?

House was fully re-wired about 8 years ago so not old wiring - stupid economy bulbs that you can't see with everywhere. Nothing is ever left on standby.

Sorry forgot to mention I've been so paranoid about it in the past that I have done all the pulling of plugs out thing to make sure that nobody is tapping into our electric, unfortunately pull everything out and the meter stops.

Hopefully the new tariff and the new meter will make a huge difference, I'm going to keep a check of usage between now and Wednesday on a daily rate and then do the same from Wednesday after the new meter has been installed and see if there is a difference.

heck! I use lots of things much more than you do and am home most days - both DH and I are terrible with the computers. Hope it all levels out for you

Most of the appliance you mention use trivial amounts of electricity. Lighting, assuming you have mostly CFLs (energy saving bulbs) is trivial. Central heating pump is trivial. Clock radios and electric blankets are trivial. Devices on standby are trivial. TV is trivial although if you have a big heavy one with a tube (not a flat screen) it will add up. Kettle and toaster are trivial because, although they may use 2kW or so, they are only on for minutes at a time, unless you like to heat up two pints of water for a single cup of tea. Modern fridge and freexer are not much.

By water heater I will guess you mean immersion heater. It will be rated at 3kW. This is an expensive way to heat water, especially if you have a wood-burning stove. It needs to be very well insulated. Has it got a factory-fitted plastic foam coating, or is it bare copper with a red jacket? The insulation needs to be efective enough for the water to be hot enough to wash in 24 hours after it was turned off (and not used up). Is the hot tapwater scalding?

If your house is generally cold, does anyone seek comfort in an electric heater? Is there heating in a shed, garage or loft?

The computer might use 200W so it could be costing you 2pence an hour.

The cooker does not actually use much, especially the oven. The oven might be rated at about 2kW, but because it has a thermostat, it only uses that when it is coming up to temperature, then it ticks on and off to maintain it, at a trickle. Hobs use far more if all rings are running.

The dishwasher might be costing you about 15p per load, the washing machine might be 20p, a tumble drier can be 50p per load.

You complain about low light from your CFLs, what rating are they? 8W or 11W is adequate for a bedside lamp, but a ceiling lamp needs to be 20W.

Most energy is used by devices that heat space or water.

You say your heating is wood but you don't use it. Can you explain more about that?

Our heating is solid fuel, we don't have another stove so that is the stove that is lit. In terms of electric used, we use less electricity having the stove lit and the heating pump kicking in when the hot water tank is hot 24 hours a day than we do in the summer months just using the immersion heater for the water when it is too hot to have the stove on. Obviously there are the fuel costs on top of electric but if you are burning wood in another stove anyway........

Blimey let us know how you get on!

That's crazy, you must have been on a stupid tariff. Economy 7 is cheaper after 7pm and before 7pm, that's when we use washing machine and dish washer. Electric blankets an fan heaters are evil and I guess the water heating didn't help. Glad you got it sorted.

Be a bit careful - with Economy 7 some suppliers charge more per unit in the daytime (compared to the normal rate).

So you may save at night but spend more in the day.

The reason they're coming out to change the meter is because you're being switched to an Economy 7 tariff. You need a different meter to register the energy used during the different charging times. I suggest getting a clear idea of the unit cost at the during Economy 7 and non economy 7 times as the daytime rate can sometimes be higher than with other tariffs. You'll need to maximise your usage during the cheap time period.

X-posted with Jellykat :)

Economy 7 is not cheaper 7pm to 7am - it is cheaper for 7 hours which tend to be midnight to 7am but may be 11pm to 6am. The hours at cheap rate also shift depending on whether we are on GMT or British summer time.
The daytime rate will be a lot higher than non-economy 7 packages and most information I've seen says that you need to use 60% of your electricity at night in order for it to be worth the higher day time rate. Not ideal if you are at home during the day using electricity.
We have eco-7 but we have an electric Aga which charges up overnight and have washing machine and dishwasher on timers so they run at 2am - OK as long as you don't have near neighbours who would be affected by noise/vibrations but not always ideal.
I made 6500kw at (£120x12) a year to come out at about 22p per unit - which seems pretty high to me (close to our eco-7 daytime rate). Have you tried the price comparison websites?

Ok, I've just put 6500kw annual use into a price comparison website and most suppliers were around £750 per year for non-economy 7, ie. £62 a month. I'ld change supplier before getting new meter etc!

Agree that it sounds high ....
We pay approx £60 per month in a 5bed house full of electric gadgets and we aren't particularly careful with them.
Washing machine & tumble dyer - 5 to 6 loads a week,
dishwasher everyday,
3 computers + 2 servers - on constantly
House wired for sound - on constantly
Microwave, kettle, toaster etc
Tv's, phones, gadgets galore
2 fridges & a freezer
Ok I don't Hoover (it just lives in the cupboard)
Lots of bright lights - We changed our halogens to LED's still get sparkly bright light but for a lot less usage
All heating & cooking is gas , our second shower is electric
If after all your changes haven't worked you probably need to sit down and try and work out what you spend on what on a monthly basis room by room and look at what you can cut out, do differently , do smarter etc
Google 'saving electricity' for loads of hints - many are obvious but there may be something you've missed!

Hope you get it sorted out. Have a good think about the 'economy 7' thing - you have to use most of your power at night and barely any in the day for it to be a better deal - are you sure you'd be doing that and is the inconvenience worth it?

You are very careful with your useage.

That's an astonishing amount of energy to be using, although I appreciate it used to be much higher still. The average annual household consumption in UK is only about 2.5-3MWh, I think.

I'd definitely go on the warpath trying to figure out what was using so much. Our lekki has jumped up when we switched to immersion heater for the sunnier half of the year, but ours was on a timer, and still massively lower usage than OP reports. Presumably OP could check last quarter compared to previous years to see if the hot water heater was the cause.

I've been re-reading this. You say you used 6516kWh in 12 months. This is presumably from Actual (not Estimated) meter readings at the start and end of the period, which you know to be accurate because you took or checked them yourself.

You also say your bill is £120 per month. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) that you mean your monthly direct debit. This is very likely to be different from the actual bill amount. For example, I have noticed that British Gas in particular like to take a direct debit which exceeds the actual cost of energy, so that you are making an interest-free loan to them. Another reason is that there might have beenm n debit balance (amount owing) when the period started.

So, can you look at your bills please and see what the actual amount invoiced was for your 6516kWh?

Most energy suppliers have a website where you can register and look at your meter readings history, and bill and payments history. Incidentally you can also put in your own meter readings as often as you like, which is a good way to avoid inaccurate estimates.

Yes the meter reading was actual. With regard to the DD when I spoke to the provider yesterday they did in fact inform me that my DD was too high and that they would now reduce it to 80, and I am being reimbursed a lump sum of 150 - so already a 40 a month reduction which is pleasing. Nice of them to wait for me to ring and query too, but at least the money they are reimbursing me will allow me to buy some wood for the fire and then I can run the central heating a bit more.

My water heater is only three years old, it's excellent actually and if you turn it off it will keep the water hot enough to shower for 3 days (but then takes about 8 hours to reheat so best to keep it topped up). When you touch it you can't feel any heat coming out of it at all, which is the reason that it's now only on for a couple of hours a day to top it up after daily baths and showers, and also because I like a really hot shower and not lukewarm which it kind of is by day three (especially not in this weather).

I was upset when I originally posted because I felt I'd made such endeavours to use less electricity and in fact my usage had gone up - last year I used electric radiators to try and keep us warm, this year they've stayed in the cupboard under the stairs.

It's just me and the DCs here, so nobody using sneaky heaters, they're too little and we don't actually have any.

I'm keeping a check on the daily usage so hopefully for the next couple of weeks will be able to keep an eye on it.

The lady at the electric company told me once the new meter was fitted to let them have a meter reading every month and then they could monitor my DD payments and if they needed to be reduced after a couple of months then they could do it sooner rather than wait for the meter to be officially read again in August.

I got stung by being on economy7. As the energy is cheaper at night but I dont use appliances at that time. Being at home all day i was paying a much higher daytime rate for the privilage if being on economy 7 which had no use to me at all. Although you say they are adjusting your tariff and swapping your meter you dont seem clear what you are actually swapping to? If they are aiming to put you on economy7 and you seem to be needing your usage during the day you could well find its worse. Check exactly what tariff you were on, what were your day and night rates and the times they were effective and what they will be if you change.

Def put your usage into a price comparison site and see how your current supplier fares. I'm pretty sure you would have a cooling off period (to change your mind) with your current supplier, so you may still be able to change to somebody else.

Agree with everyone else that economy 7 is not necessarily the way to go, unless you have night storage heaters or the like you may be worse off by having a more expensive day-time rate. We changed from ours as it was more expensive for us. Also, do they charge you for changing your meter? My friend is changing from economy 7 and they are going to charge her c£90.

Also, do you have halogen lights? Apparently these drink the electric.

A lot of meters are being changed anyway to include an system were it sends readings electronically to the company, so accurate bills and no meter reading men/women.
Also provide an electric monitor thing, which is quite useful.

Please look here and put in your details, should be c.£750 a year for your usage.

Personally, had you have rung me, the first thing I would be doing would be working out whether or not you are better off on the economy 7 tariff or a single rate tariff.

As you are home in the day I would be thinking that you are better off on a single rate as you are using electric in the day. Economy 7 works best for people who are out in the day. That way all the usual stuff like ovens, TV, kettle, iron, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier etc etc is on in the evening on the cheaper tariff.

They are getting you to do monthly meter readings for 2 reasons,

1 to see that the old meter was working correctly, and

2 if your bill is still high then they should be getting an energy advisor out to you to physically walk round your house with you asking you about your usage.

I can't advise about the water heater, I have a traditional tank, it is heated for a short time daily and I assure you it gives me a scalding hot shower

We have "day and night" rates at home. Our water is timed to heat up overnight and we have storage heaters. Also have the washing machine timed to operate overnight - and the bread machine!

Careful your supplier doesn't do what ours did when they gave us a new meter - they transposed the day and night readings and I only worked it out several months of unreasonably high bills later! They sorted it out but now I don't trust their comparisons of what we used last year.

The words 'I've just got my annual electricity bill' hit me first. You need to be paying online, monthly, by Direct Debit to get the best deal. We pay £70 per month for Gas & Electric (heating on twice per day Mon-Fri and all day Sat & Sun) combined and are in credit. We do have dishwasher on every day (economy cycle) and washing machine at least 5 times per week....no electric blankets though, what's wrong with a hot water bottle?.

the storage heaters are what makes "Economy 7" type tariffs worthwhile. Otherwise, unless you have a swimming pool to heat, the extra daytime costs mean there is no advantage, and it may even work out dearer.

Without a night rate, electrical heating is much more expensive than gas (I realise not everyone has it).

OMG I am DEFINITELY getting my meter checked too. I paid £105 a month...we live in a 2 bed apartment. Both work full time. Hardly home. No tumble dryer or anything. Storage heaters which heat up overnight on economy seven. We both have one shower a day. And same as OP nothing is left on standby. We're also freezing! (wrapped in blankets, 3 layers on!) (storage heaters are rubbish!)

E-On told me that my usage was 'normal' for a property like this. But reading through what everyone else is paying, I'm now convinced it isn't. However, E'On won't check my meter (i'm convinced it's running at twice the speed it should) unless I pay out £150 up front (which we don't have)..

Our meter readings are TWICE what anyone elses is in the building.

fizzylemonade....if I change to NPower, would they check the meter for me to check it's working correctly?

Oh. I might add....E-On tell me I'm £120 in debit! :( (yet we pay £105 a month on DD all year round, so even in the summer when the storage heaters aren't on)