13 and 2 seems right which would give a direct debit of £46 per month + seperate heatng costs

Yes so why am I using so much more now?

To mjohnhill [yes I agree with you] ''This isn't possible'' Your gas central should be £50 to £54 direct debit per month Your electricity bill is working out at £3.55 daily. Unit cost say 9 pence per K watt you are using 39.44 Kw daily Have a ''drastic day'' Knock off your television and computer 'Idon't know how many hours daily they are on ' then check daily electric reading around 15K w it should be. Now if your combined figure for gas and electric was £1300 this could be correct depending on your usage

To hhobby14 Myself I would wait until you get a verdict after 24 hours without your immersion heater You will have plenty of hot water from your solid fuel boiler until then, and showers should help temporary with the bath situation . [Should staggering baths prove difficult]

'I can ' understand why you would turn off your underfloor heating .This heating should come from your oil boiler.via coil pipes and not associated with electricity . Under floor electric heating would be too expensive even with off peak electricity With your system ''The Oil Boiler'' radiators to the room and heat from your oil boiler is the way forward to save money Giving you then normal daily electric readings 15 or less and rdinary electric meters give cheapest rate

I turned my emersion heater off and only used 1 unit at night and 16 in the day. Think I'm gonna have an electric shower installed that will make difference.

Because your ratio day 16 and night 1 you are not 'gaining' but losing with the night rate because your day time rates are very expensive with your shared night and day METER example say day rate direct debit first 250 units 13.20pence then 10.53 pence night rate 3.90 pence per unit these figures have no standing charge now. An ordinary meter will cost ''11.57 ''pence per unit for first 225 units then ''9.17 '' pence after including vat no standing charge and should you use 'money supermarket 'search engine 'even less' Let us take an electric shower ' which you are interested in. It would 'need to be' rated at 'least '10 K watts per hour output for a decent shower example say 6 people in the family 5 minutes each only [allowed for the shower time] now 5x6 gives
30 minutes consumption and using 10 Kwatts/hr divide by 2 for 30 minutes =5 K watts 'times' the unit rate for ordinary meter 9.17 pence= 45.85 pence daily [6 people] .For 1 person this is 7.64 pence 'each shower' for 5 minutes. Now 7.64 times 7= 53.49 pence for 1weeks shower for one person. It will be to your 'Gain' if you will remove your combined electricity meter and install the ordinary meter . As you know The only reason for a combined meter is for those homes that have NO gas, oil, or solid fuel heating .You have a solid fuel boiler [so no need for it] which will give you your baths, so carefully combined your [new electric shower ]will only be supplementing your bathing needs SAVE money 'again' get rid of your combined electric meter and install an ordinary meter . Remove your immersion heater 'forever ' [based on your findings ] once you have installed your new electric shower and with a LOWER COSTING ordinary meter you will save more money.. 'All the best'

Nah...our normal daily reading is 30! Just spoken to my provider and they've just let me in the fact that they do an Economy 10....why don't these companies let you in on this????/ Having it fitted to give that a go as it includes cheaper rates at 1-4pm 8-10pm and 12-5am, got timers on appliances so lets see if this is the way forward??? Do you think we're doing the right thing?...Cathc is it takes up to 28 days to get the new meter installed!...I'm in the wrong job!

Do you think we are doing the right thing . answer 'No' I do not . Because with your oil central heating it is not necessary to have underfloor electric heating unless it was via your central heating boiler as above coupled up to radiators. You should be on a electrical tariff of 9.17 pence per unit or less with an 'ordinary meter' and this is the way to go. and so getting back to normal electric day readings of 12 to 15 costing from £42 to £46 depending on the supplier monthly [ by direct debit.] Your way your energy costings will still give you problems .

Correction**
Do you think we are doing the right thing . answer 'No' I do not . Because with your oil central heating it is not necessary to have underfloor electric heating * *unless the heating media is water coils via your central heating boiler or as above coupled up to radiators. You should be on a electrical tariff of 9.17 pence per unit or less with an 'ordinary meter' and this is the way to go. and so getting back to normal electric day readings of 12 to 15 costing from £42 to £46 depending on the supplier monthly [ by direct debit.] Your way your energy costings will still give you problems .

Just come across an earlier post of yours. Your conservatory .These buildings because of their consruction mainly just double glazed units have excessive heat loss and so tend not to be used in winter months but they give extra space for the summer period. Fair enough use it regular in the winter time but even with the cheapest energy gas [which you do not have] Most people could not afford the high cost of winter conservatory useage.

I'm joining to tell my story - there are just the two of us (empty-nesters) in a 4-bedroomed house which is heated by oil, which also heats the water except in the summer months. We don't use all the house, and most of our lightbulbs are low-energy ones. Nobody is here in the afternoons, and only me in the mornings, working at a computer in my study, usually without heat (I'm quite hardy); when the computer gets switched off, it gets switched off at the wall as well.

However, our electricity usage is constantly in the high 30s - low 40s a day (correct). We did have the suppliers come and fit a parallel check meter, which agreed with the permanent one, so the meter is/was not faulty.

I use a Maplin plug-in meter for individual appliances (proving that my freezers, for example, use very little electricity over a 24-hour period) and an Electrisave for a more global view. Obviously, that leaps up to 3 or 4 kW when a kettle is boiled or whatever (and the water put in the kettle is already very hot, having been simmering on the Rayburn), but normally it's showing something in the region of 0.3 kW to 1.5kW (it's jumping up and down at the moment because the washing machine is on).

Last night I checked the Electrisave and it was doggedly showing 0.17 kW, the equivalent of nearly 3x60W bulbs, when nothing at all in the house was on except the burglar alarm and a tiny 3W nightlight.  Everything possible was switched off at the wall, and the freezers' compressors weren't operating (my Maplin meter shows that they use about 0.02kWh in this condition).

It seems I'm using up to 170 watts phantom power in this house, which is 114 units a month, costing me maybe £10 a month, unless my understanding of decimal points/electrical terminology is wonky.

I understand the average home uses 15-20 units a day of electricity, and I should imagine that average house to have more than 2 people in it, more washing to do because of that, possibly heating its rooms and water with electricity, and to be more continuously inhabited; so I'm at a loss, and have been for at least 2 years, as to what's going on here. 

 

 

 

Gareth,

You need to bare in mind that the oil central heating system is using electricity also and will therefore be contributing to the "phantom power".

The extra 170watts being used = 0.17kwh. Is this a every day?

If it was everyday, this would only equate to 5kwh a month = c. 50p.

If you can provide a few more details I'm sure we'll be able to get to the bottom of this.

Regards,

Scott Byrom
moneysupermarket.com

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com

Thanks, Scott -

The oil central heating is not being used at present because of the warm weather, but its electronic clock/timer is on, so, you're right, there is something there that's drawing current.

I haven't measured this 'phantom load' often enough to tell you whether it's a daily thing, but I'll keep an eye on it.

My maths, however, are obviously wrong in one respect - I was multiplying 0.17 by 24 to get the daily figure, and then by 28 to get the monthly one, and therefore coming up with 114.24.

As I write now, the only appliances I know are working are - my computer (with two LCD monitors, but the printer is off), the answering machine, the burglar alarm, two bedside alarms, and, er, that's it. The TV is switched off completely, as is the hi-fi (at the wall), and there are no bulbs on. There are various little indicator bulbs (e.g. on socket-strips) and displays (e.g. on the central heating timer) working, but I'm reckoning they don't use much power at all. My Electrisave shows a steady consumption under these conditions of 0.38 kWh.

The Maplin meter on one of my 2 freezers is actually displaying 0.15 kW over 3 hours, which, according to my dubious maths, works out at 0.04 kW per hour.

I'll post further details when I've amassed them.

 

Regards,

Gareth


 

 

 

 

Gareth,

Ok so we've clarified that we're not looking at a massive discrepancy, which is good.

If there is anything else you want me to look at give me a shout.

Kind regards,

Scott Byrom
moneysupermarket.com

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Regards,

Scott Byrom
Utilities Manager
moneysupermarket.com