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.

nalube

meters are very rarely inaccurate, and when they are, they are more likely to under-read. Unfortunately electric heating is much more expensive than gas.

Make a point of reading your meter frequently, put the readings in your diary (or a spreadsheet) and also enter them online to your electricity supplier. Estimated readings often lead to distress.

Storage heaters are typically in the 1kW to 2kW range, so if you fill them for 7 hours a night, that would be 7kWh to 14kWh each. How many do you have, and what do you pay per kWh on your night tariff? If you take the readings every day for a bit, you can see how much is being used. Then turn them all off for 24 hours, and see how much it drops.

Do you use a tumble drier much?

I forgot to ask - do you use an immersion heater? Does your HW cylinder have a coating of stiff plastic foam, or a red jacket?

is the water from it scaldingly hot?

does it have an element near the bottom fed from your E7 meter, and another top one at full price?

is it on a timer, or if not, what hours do your turn it on?

Try a trip to the insulation shelves of the DIY shed first.

How many kWh a year did you use, and how big is your house?

hmmm unlesss someone else is tapping into your supply odd that it is twice as much as anyone elses...

but yes check your usage and then your unit prices.

Just to agree that is really high.

We share a large house with 9 adults and 4 children, and have a welders workshop run from our barn, and the electrity bill here is £100-120 a month. I'm going to check now, but I'm pretty sure we use more electricity every year than you do (can't see how we could use less!).

thanks all. Well...we only have the two storage heaters..they're both on economy seven but that only kicks in at about 2am - 6am...so cheaper night rate. We're cold even with them turned on (useless things..don't ever EVER voluntarily get them in your homes!) ...so turning them off is not really an option..i think we'd actually see our breath!

We paid out for the £2 a roll stuff for insulation and have laid 3 layers up in the loft. (we're actually an apartment but top floor, so there is a huge loft void above us..not that we own it)

Water is on for 2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs at night, electric boiler..- Gledhills who service it for us tell us the most ££ part is the heating up, so pointless to only have it on for an hour. It's not scalding hot - can't remember what temp it was set at, but I had it turned down last time it was serviced.

Don't own a tumble dryer.

I'll have to dig out a bill (will do later!) to check what our usage is...but we only live in a small 2 bed apartment!!! I just find it odd that until last year I lived on my own..and out of 10 apartments in the block..my meter has TWICE the total reading of anyone else's (and every other apartment has a couple or a couple and a child in the apartment) ..I've been here 6 years since the blocks were built. E-ON tell me that I can't judge anything from that because it could be that the meters were not all on zero when they were installed!!!

I just can't wait until we can get this place sold and move to a house if I'm honest.

queen who are you with?

Good Energy.

But our heating and hot water is all wood fired, that pobably makes a massive difference.

very suspicious.

I really think you need to turn some things off and watch your meter to see what it does.

If your consumer unit (fusebox) has MCBs (breakers like one-inch-wide switches) turn them all off, then back on only one at a time, and see which has the most effect on the meter.

Also the electric companies are offering subsidised insulation - seriously cheap for loft and cavity wall here

Mm. The so-called Smart Meters which send readings automatically have Other Problems.

Like the energy company being able to convert them to a prepay meter at the click of a mouse, without your agreement. So if you ever argue about a bill, they can simply claim you're a bad payer and switch you over - with the disputed £948574983 pre-loaded on the meter.

The meter's also designed to remotely switch stuff off during power companies' peak times - a kind of Economy 7 where you pay less during off-peak but they switch your fridge off when they fancy (not joking - I know this sounds sci-fi but Dept of Energy & Climate Change designs are well-advanced).

Oh yeh, and they're a huge security risk likely to be targetted by viruses, delivered over the oh-so-helpful two-way mobile phone connection which sends the readings one way and the disconnection reprogramming the other way. Like for your PC, but your crashing your whole house.

You might decide this is all fine, but you should at least know what you're getting: Anyone having a gas/leccy meter replaced with a Smart Meter? Something you need to know.

Well I've had my new meter installed for 24 hours now and have just checked my consumption. In a 24 hour period I have used 12 Kw of electricity, 7 kw on the cheap rate and 5 kw on the expensive day rate. I've multiplied that 12 Kw by 365 and it would give me an annual consumption of 4380 units. I've done nothing differently, dishwasher and washing machine went on, on the economy rate and I even had the water heater on for 3 hours instead of 2 because of the cheaper rate, and I cooked dinner in the oven for an hour last night obviously at the prime rate.

So if I carry on like that it means that my annual consumption will be down by about 2136 units give or take. I am seriously convinced that I have had a dodgy meter, even if I put the breadmaker on a couple of times a week or the slow cooker it's not going to use over 2000 units of electricity in a year.

Hopefully I'll start to get some serious reductions in my electricity bill after a couple of months.

Thanks everyone for their help.

Wow! Good news & bad news (good it's fixed, bad you overpaid for so long!)

I would be asking as a refund for previous years as a gesture of goodwill!!!

you'd better be quick, because they usually say they can't test the old meter as it's got lost in the warehouse.

Are you paying yearly? Look on MSE.com for the best direct debit deal and switch. We have a 4 bed house, out tv is pretty much always on and we are always running multiple electrical items. We pay £90 a month inc gas for the central heating. Having the immersion on constantly would have added ££££ but it sounds like you are massively over paying x

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