How much electricity do you use?

[atticusclaw]

I've just taken a reading and in the past month I've used 499 units. The EON website says I'm using 87 percent more than comparable homes. Can this be right? I don't feel like we use massive amounts of electricity

Have you noticed a smell of weed in the air or any odd looking wiring?

errrm? No?

wiring is old

When everyone is out of the house, go round and switch off EVERYTHING for an hour, inc fridge & freezer.

Take a reading at the beginning and end of the hour.

If it goes up, there's a device you don't know about - immersion heater left on or something.

Once you've identified all your devices, you can use energy monitors like these to measure how much each device uses, or see when you're really chewing through power.

Usual suspects are things that do heating or cooling, as these tend to take a lot of power (inc hair straighteners, washing machine, dehumidifier...).

We use about 6-7 units in summer and slightly over 7 a day in winter - there are only three of us.

As ParsingFlatly says, when everyone else is out switch everything off and take a meter reading. Check an hour later and the dials or numbers should be exactly the same. If anything has moved, think again if anything is in use. You could then ask your energy supplier for advice.

There is something wrong there. I have just checked our last bill and we used 179 units in May, but that was an estimated reading.
We used 166 units in April and 177 in March.

We have solar panels and because it has been sunny we are generating more electricity than we are using (currently over 300 units a month)

But do check that the previous reading you're calculating from was an actual reading, not an estimate by the utility co.

Also, some meters have a small (red?) digit as the rightmost digit - and that's tenths of a unit. It's ignored for all submitted readings.

Could your usage actually be 49.9 units? (Though that's unusually low.)

How old is your fridge/freezer?

How do you heat your hot water?

Have you got an electric shower?

How often do you use a tumble drier?

Have you got any non-energy-saving lightbulbs? Have you got spotlights or downlighters?

Do you have electricity in shed, garage or loft?

Have you got any electric heaters that might have been left on?

Does your consumer unit (fusebox) have switchable breakers for each circuit?

We are home most of the time and use about 200 units a month, year round. Except for the time I switched on the immersion by mistake, so check that. (water is heated by oil).

for comparison that is:

• a big old chest freezer
• a fridge
• 6 loads of washing a week (no drier)
• dishwasher every other day
• 3 minute power shower every day
• one TV, energy saving bulbs throughout
• electric oven used 3-4 times a week; now a gas hob.

so yes, something isn't right.

We do have a large house so I would expect it to be higher than most.

I also work from home so have a computer and printer running constantly.

Electric gates on the property too which are probably the culprits since they are shared and get a reasonable amount of use (30ish times a day opening and closing).

fridge freezer is new and chest freezer only a couple of months old.

hot water is heated using oil not electricity.

yes we have an electric shower. we do also have spotlights and non eco lightbulbs in various fittings

I will take a daily reading and see what is going on.

I bet it is the gates - I recall someone else mentioning they had them and they were being hammered with the bill.

also spotlights use massive amounts; they are practically heaters. Eco lightbulbs have come on a great deal recently and no longer take ages to brighten up, there's no reason not to use them.

Printers used to be surprisingly power-greedy, even when supposedly off, but I believe modern ones are better.

The power monitor will help you check how much the gates are eating.

Are you powering down at night on just about everything, or are there lots of small devices just humming quietly?

YY to the spotlights being obvious additional culprits, and to choice of modern alternatives.

We use more than average (about 350 to 400 a month, but we have an electric shower, and an electric oven and I bake and roast a lot. We also have some security lights and aren't particularly careful about turning lights off. The wifi thingy is on 24/7 and our fridge is about 15 years old. Also all washing up is done by dishwasher and we drink a lot of cups of tea.

2 bed house with 2 almost full time working adults, but we're in at different times so there's often someone in.

We probably use less gas than average and our combined bills are about 85 pm, which I'm not particularly worried about - I always make sure we are on the cheapest tarrif and switch once a year or so and get cashback deals when we do.

I don't know who uses less than average to be honest - people whose ovens and hot water run on gas maybe.

Hmm maybe it isn't wrong.

House is large (400 square metres) so we are of course going to use more electricity than most.

I do often have the work computer and printer on from 7am until gone midnight. Large american fridge freezer. Double dishwasher on twice a day. A load of washing a day. I cook from scratch most days so oven gets a fair amount of use. Electric gates as previously mentioned, security lights on quite frequently in the evenings. Wifi and two sky boxes on 24/7

Spotlights are in three rooms. The kitchen has new led spotlights and I hate them. They may well be more energy efficient but the amount of light they give out is dreadful compared to our old 1980s style spotlights!

The more I think about it the more I think its probably just that we use proportionately more due to the size of the house.

How many people live in your house? A double dishwasher twice a day? Are you feeding an army?

OH works from home and I work part time so we are both in the house a lot using the internet. DD is on FB a lot when she gets home from school and doesn't seem to be able to do her homework without the TV on.

The dishwasher gets runs every other day. I wash about 3 - 4 loads a week, but line dry unless it is raining.

There are three of us BTW.

Oh sorry I meant each drawer goes through once a day rather than two dishwashers going through twice a day. Its a normal sized dishwasher but it has two drawers so its like putting a half load through each time.

Electric shower will use about 10 units. per hour.

Ten non-energy saving lightbulbs will use about one unit per hour.

Tumble drier will use about three units per hour.

Wifi, phones chargers, games are negligible, so is PC and printer unless you have a dozen.

Oven probably averages about 1 unit per hour, higher if you frequently start it up from cold.

Immersion heater, fan heater, convection heater, floor-standing air conditioner, about 3 units per hour each, except that their thermostats will (should) turn them off once target temperature is reached.

By watching the speed of the electricity meter spinning disk or red flashing light, and turning off circuits in the consumer unit, then on one at a time, you can see which have significant loads. You will have to turn off computers first, and reset clocks after.

p.s.
If you have old style halogen security floodlights, three will use 1 unit per hour.

If you're putting the dishwasher on twice a day, an easy gain would be to do both drawers at once. The biggest cost is in the heating of the water.

Interactive computer gaming also runs surprisingly warm, so although it's not in the same league as boiling a kettle, if you have teens playing 15 hours a day it adds up.