Posted 21 December 2023

Electric Usage - Question

Good Evening All,

I'm after some feedback from others. Long story short, I've moved from one property in a large 3 bedroomed house and using 150kw per month in Electricity, now since I've moved to a new property which is MUCH smaller but now using 350-400kw a month which is a HUGE jump. Yes we only get billed £110 for electric a month (with the daily charge included).

The difference being from old house (Built in 2011) to new house (Built this year we were the first tenant), the old place had a GAS shower now it's an horrible Mira Jump Electric shower, and the old meter was a standard meter whilst this new one sends readings to Octopus every 30 minutes so we can see them online.

We don't have any special appliances or devices, we have a single 42" TV, an Xbox thats never on, a single phone charger, all lights switched out to 40w lights, a laptop charger to charge my laptop thats about we live very barebones, even my guitar amp it's a 3w portable charger with a battery inside so we can charge it and it last ages. Everything switched off at the plug. You think it I've done it.

We took our appliances with us, apart from the cooker/hob/extractor/boiler (central heating) since they belonged to the landlord and stuff we obviously can't move.

We noticed that our shower uses alot of electric, so my partner likes to have s long soak 20 minutes and that can used up to 2-4kw per shower with the extractor fan on since we don't have a window in our bathroom.

I've been asked to do a "creep" test, meaning turning everything off at the fuse box and see if the readings so go up and we did for 5 hours on tuesday since I was defrosting the freezer for xmas and it did go up every so slightly under 1kw in total but it was used.

I'm just after thoughts and info...
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  1. Pandamansays's avatar
    I would turn everything off (or unplug) and check the meter to make sure your not accidently supplying a neighbour or something silly like a light on in the loft. Then get yourself a power meter and check each item to see if something is higher than you might expect. Lastly, take a reading before partner's shower and again after and do the maths - a 10kwh shower for 20 mins x 30 days = 110kwh or more than 2/3rds of your previous bills on top again. So 150 kwh (old lifestyle) plus 110 kwh (partner's shower) = 260 kwh plus your own (more modest showers) and you are approaching your 350 kwh.
  2. Darzet_zider's avatar
    20 mins in the shower?
    That’s crazy. We’ve got our showering down to under 1 and a half minutes each.
  3. Adster's avatar
    You used just under 1kw in 5 hours with everything(?) in the fusebox turned off? If we say its using 1kw every 6 hours thats 120kw per month.
    Nad_84's avatar
    Agree, this is impossible, no way you're using 208w an hour (150kw / 30 days / 24 hours) in the old house unless everything runs off gas and oil.
  4. .MUFC.'s avatar
    How is your new house heated? How's your water heated?
  5. bigwheels's avatar
    I must admit I shower at the gym.
    15/20 minutes of hot water bliss for £20 a month.
    Twice a day if I have time.
    My shower gel bill is huge.
  6. tardytortoise's avatar
    3 things immediatly come to mind;
    the electric shower will use more lecy than your old gas shower in old house
    the insulation in your new house could be far worse than old house
    the meter in your old house could have been giving you optimistic readings i.e it was not recording your proper usage whereas your new meter is not missing a beat.
    Justintime12's avatar
    New house is only a year old so surely would be A/B rated for insulation?
  7. aLV426's avatar
    Me thinks I need to recalculate my wattage usage as I can't believe mine would be that high and I have a lot more powered on stuff!
    My electric shower is 9kW
    IIRC the Xbox One X uses 250W & the Xbox One 90W, less at idle.
    Also are you sure you lights are 40W? If they are LED they are likely using 5.5W of electric for an equivalent 40W rated incandesent light output...
  8. Muig1972's avatar
    Like most people, I've noticed my electricity bill has gone up. I have an electric shower too, which I thought might be one of the worse culprits: so I've started to time my showers to cut down electricity use. I give myself 3 minutes!
    Darzet_zider's avatar
    My son and I have managed to get our showering done under 1 1/2 mins. We get a flannel wet under tap, apply a little all in one shower gel, lather it up and go all over, then turn shower on and rinse off.
  9. Benjimoron's avatar
    We use about double that and don't use electric shower, gas heats all the water etc. So could well be right.
    Justintime12's avatar
    You use 800kws per month? Wow! That's £240 per month.

    We use 180kw and live in a 4 bed detached

    51803032-swxd6.jpg
  10. bigwheels's avatar
    2 of us in a 3 bed flat, 220 kWh usage a month.
    Only rads and hot water to wash hands is gas.
  11. SaturdayGigs's avatar
    2 of us in 3 bed house, 230 kWh leccy last month, 183 previous month and 108 month before that.
  12. Justintime12's avatar
    Electric shower for 20 minutes per day is going to be using 100kw per month (£29)
    AndyRoyd's avatar
    20mins is just for OPs partner.
    Are you suggesting OP chooses to keep bills low by not bothering to shower?
    Although maybe OP shares a few of those 20mins

    Could reasonably assume 2 x showers/day = 5units/day (150units/month),
    which is three quarters of the way to accounting for increase in consumption.
  13. King65's avatar
    I have a Triton 8.5kw shower which uses roughly 0.6kwh daily for a 10 mins+ shower with extractor fan on whilst showering and EF left on for 10 mins after shower. It has 2 settings on my shower and I use the lower setting which uses less electricity.

    I am also signed up to Octopus's Saving Sessions.
  14. psychobitchfromhell's avatar
    2 of us in 4 bedroom all electric house. Ours uses 45 kw a day. Think yourself lucky. (edited)
  15. Nad_84's avatar
    4 of us in a 3 bed terrace.
    Gas heating and hot water
    Electric oven, hob and car

    500kw per month
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