How do we use so much frigging electricity?

[swee'pea99]

Does your washing machine have a built in dryer? do you have a tumble dryer? We ditched our tumble dryer and saved £120 a year

No and no. I know those things just gobble up power. Which again relates to the whole thread premise - I'm actually reasonably energy-aware, and tight as a gnat's chuff, and I just don't see how we're burning so much lekky.

 

[summerdays]

How often do you take readings? I usually take them weekly and log them on iMeasure. Winter usage is obviously higher than summer use due to the darker evenings, tendency for roast dinners, and bigger heavier loads of washing.

 

[subaqua]

you would be surprised that how much all those appliances on standby can consume. chargers left plugged in and on etc. I did the demo to Mrs Sub a few years back and she got the message when she saw that leaving things on standby was the equivalent of leaving a 1Kw fan heater running 12 hours a day.
I love the idea of electricity "leaking" out of the cables. ( there is a thing called earth leakage but thats so small on a whole household as to be negligible)

low voltage downlighters have a really low efficacy and mains halogen are not much better. LED or compact fluorescent are better. have reduced the light load in our place from nearly 3.5Kw if they were all on , down to 0.4Kw if they were all on. with no drop in light levels. every year the unit consumption per quarter is lower from changing to A rated equipment as the old stuff dies.

 

[Globalti]

Dishwasher every night? Blimey. Ours goes on twice a week.

 

[subaqua]

Dishwasher every night? Blimey. Ours goes on twice a week.

my dishwasher is used a few times a wek. I have told her she needs to do thenm daily

 

[craven2354]

Dishwasher every night? Blimey. Ours goes on twice a week.

Ours goes about twice a day you mustn't be eating enough or your on your own

 

[Fnaar]

Tumble dryer and dishwasher both broke down some time ago... haven't replaced them... saving a fortune on the lecky

 

[TVC]

Daft question, how old is the meter and have you had it checked?

 

[Sandra6]

We have one of those meter things, British Gas kindly installed it.
It drives me mad. Stupid coloured lights flashing red every time the kitchen lights get turned on at the same time as the bathroom ones!
Recently it's started switching to amber at around 9pm, then for about an hour it flicks between that and back to green. We're stumped as to why because that's when most of the kids are in bed and we only have the TV and a lamp on, but there are the usual things charging in the background.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Check with your supplier ours is EON & they will supply a meter FOC. In the last 12 months we've had cavity & wall insulation done & bills have still gone up.

Alan...

 

[fossyant]

What's 7500 kwh in sterling ?

Our dual fuel is about 110 per month, 70 ish leccy, 40 ish gas.

 

[Yellow Fang]

My annual electric consumption was about 2000 kWh. Then my electric immersion heater broke and it went down to about 1000 kWh