How many KwH a day do you use?

[xiphias]

Trying to work out our electricity costs which we're having a bit of a dispute about (still after 6months, despite energywatch being involved..). Come to the conclusion we're using £43 a month, or 13KwH a day. This is for a 2 bedroom flat that never has the heating on (no need) and doesn't often use the dishwasher or white goods (we're quite energy efficient). This seems somewhat high to me. Oh yes - we don't have gas as we're in a flat.

[Balmoral Green]

Sounds a lot to me, the BG family in a 3 bed detached spend about that a month for gas & leccy combined.

[Plotloss]

Loads, enough to qualify for some sort of commercial rate.

[Mad_Morris]

Have your meters been checked to ensure that they're not faulty (by an independant electrician)?

[bmgm3]

Mine works out to about £40 ish a month in a one bed place with no gas.The water heating is what really whacks the bill up for me.

[sjp63]

Interestimg..........our monthly DD went up from £50 to £70 then to £100 in the space of 6 months, due to increased energy costs - but I thought it cant have doubled!! I recently bought one of those remote energy meters for £70 and its brilliant. clips on to the mains power from the meter and remotely signals live consumption to the hand held receiver. Its quite interesting (for a while) to see the effect of turning on lights, kettle, pc etc. it varies a lot depending on lights (incl outsite lights) but right now its showing 1.9 KWH. At night it drops to 170 watts (not sure why its that high?) 4 bed detached house with 3 kids. We have a few multi spot lights (kitchen/study/dining etc) and they soon soak up the power. The lounge has 2X 300 watt halogen lights which is obviously a killer 600watts - they dont get to stay on long!!

Early days but what gets measured improves.

xiphias said:

Trying to work out our electricity costs which we're having a bit of a dispute about (still after 6months, despite energywatch being involved..). Come to the conclusion we're using £43 a month, or 13KwH a day. This is for a 2 bedroom flat that never has the heating on (no need) and doesn't often use the dishwasher or white goods (we're quite energy efficient). This seems somewhat high to me. Oh yes - we don't have gas as we're in a flat.

[littlegreenfairy]

They were checked by someone who couldn't read a meter, who got the meter reading wrong and also failed to notice that there were different reference codes for the meters at HQ and actually on the meter. We have been assured that this is just a billing mistake at their end

[simpo two]

Plotloss said:

Loads, enough to qualify for some sort of commercial rate.

What, £129/qtr = commercial?

Don't forget your hot water will be heated by (electric) immersion heater.

[bluespanner]

We spend about £100/month on electricity.

[Plotloss]

Dunno, last bill before we went on it was £800+ for the year.

Gas heating, so thats straight electric...

[cjs]

Could you be on Economy 7 or similar? When I had a flat I was on this which meant a higher daytime rate than standard, thing is I did not have storage heaters to benefit from the cheap night rate, I switched and saved loads of money.

[littlegreenfairy]

We are on economy 7.

The "estimated" bill is about £120 a month which is so left of field its untrue. Hence the need to sort it all out!

[xiphias]

It is econ7. We use about 2/3rds night rate (about 4p/unit).

[Tuna]

I think the average domestic electricity use is 12kWh/day from memory, so your usage sounds about normal. Energy efficient appliances don't necessarily mean you don't use much energy - dishwashers, tumble driers, washing machines, kettles and large fridge/freezers still consume vast amounts even if they are rated 'A' class. If you have electrical hot water as well, you can use plenty of power in a day.

Turn everything off and see if your meter goes round. Then start turning things on again and watch for the big jump in usage. Anything that uses electricity to produce heat, or move heat around will be using up juice.

[princeperch]

Ours is 50 quid/month for the lecci in our 3 bed flat, which is the only power source. Not sure if this is good or not to be honest.

[xiphias]

Tuna said:

I think the average domestic electricity use is 12kWh/day from memory, so your usage sounds about normal. Energy efficient appliances don't necessarily mean you don't use much energy - dishwashers, tumble driers, washing machines, kettles and large fridge/freezers still consume vast amounts even if they are rated 'A' class. If you have electrical hot water as well, you can use plenty of power in a day.

Turn everything off and see if your meter goes round. Then start turning things on again and watch for the big jump in usage. Anything that uses electricity to produce heat, or move heat around will be using up juice.

We only have a small fridge and freezer and barely touch anything else, and we never switch the heating on. So how come it costs just as much as an "average" household?

[Tuna]

xiphias said:

We only have a small fridge and freezer and barely touch anything else, and we never switch the heating on. So how come it costs just as much as an "average" household?

How is your hot water heated?
Do you have a power shower?
Do you have halogen bulbs/funky lighting?
What about your cooker?
Do you use a washing machine? Tumble drier?
Do you leave a lot of lights on?

It could be that something is wrong, or if you're in flats that you're being charged for someone else's meter. Check your meter serial number against your bill, and as I said, switch it all off and check that the meter stops. You've got a great diagnostic tool in your meter, you just have to 'debug' the power supply with it.

[vixpy1]

£24 a month.

And i don't exactly hold back with the electrical items either.