931Kw Electricity usage??

Boycey0211

Boycey0211

Boycey0211

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So a friend of mine asked if it was normal for his electricity bill to consist of 931Kw over a 39 day period.

Me not knowing much about utilities and that sort of thing thought I should put that question to GD, although I am pretty vague on the details I will give you what I can! So...

Its a family of 3, no constant use of the telly or kettle or other appliances out of the 'norm' of family life, storage heater overnight inc. water boiler which only accounts for 69Kw of the total 39 day period. Neighbours are paying on average about 2/3 of the total that this family are.

Any guesses as to why this might be so high? Or is it just bad selection of a provider?

edit: he's already got all the energy saving bulb thingies.
 
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Sorry was making a flippant remark about him having a growing operation with kW/h numbers that high.

I would get them to reread the meter, as it really should be about half that for a family of 3/4 a month.
 
Boycey0211 said:
Any guesses as to why this might be so high? Or is it just bad selection of a provider?
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Since you're talking about units it doesn't matter what provider you have it won't affect the units, just the price.

Storage heaters use a lot of electricity. Has he got an electric shower?

Best thing to monitor the usage would be to get a wireless electric meter to see the household's power usage.
 
Storage heater and water boiler on overnight? Forgive my lack of knowledge but is that normal?

Edit - switching providers will not cut his energy use, just maybe reduce the cost per kWh. Useful yes but not his primary concern.
 
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thats the problem, all my utilities are inclusive and I've never been a homeowner so I'm not sure what is the 'norm' r.e heaters and stuff either :(

He just said that the boiler comes on while he is still on the night time cheaper rate as with the storage heater, I wasn't sure if A) he is using more than average or B) he is using the average but with a much higher provider.

Getting one of those wireless monitors will probably be the way forward though, at least that way you can spot a drain you didnt realise was there.
 
i would say its probably storage heaters using up the most, like 10-20kw per night, each.
leaving the electric water heater on 24/7 is okay as it tends to come on for 5mins every few hours to top the heat up and does not use many kw unless you are using all your hot water with lots of baths.
 
Also check if the two readings giving him his usage for the period are estimated or actuals. Could be he's had a few bills on estimated usage and on this one they've caught up with an actual to find he's been under charged or this is a lousy estimated figure
 
For some reference for you, my current annual usage is around 4500kw for electric and 10500kw for gas iirc.

The heating, hot howater and hob are gas, all else is electric.

Getting a new boiler and CH system hopefully this month so that gas usage could drop a chunk.

That is in a 3 bed semi with 2 people.
 
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Double the average but probably right if they have electric storage heaters. We had them in our old place, when our first bill came through at double what it used to be we were a bit shocked too.

But you have to remember he probably isn't paying for gas/oil for heating so the cost is offset.
 
So Peps1 and Freakbro are without a doubt homegrowers then. Letting on far too much there fellas.


As above - if he isn't paying for oil/gas and the place is all electric then that may not be so bad.

He should really go on a purge of all non-essential items and see how little he uses them and whether that can drop his usage through smarter timing/cutting out non-essential things.
 
Check that they're actual readings, not estimates and check what the previous readings were. A mistake may have been made somewhere.
 
Thats about the same as mine, 4 of us in a large 4 bed house and we both work from home so we hammer the electric!
 
Hight but not ridiculous figures, especially if people are in most of the day.

Also you say storage heaters, they've always been total pap in my experience so - are there any other heaters in the house, even ones they say they never use.
 
Andy__C said:
So Peps1 and Freakbro are without a doubt homegrowers then. Letting on far too much there fellas.


As above - if he isn't paying for oil/gas and the place is all electric then that may not be so bad.

He should really go on a purge of all non-essential items and see how little he uses them and whether that can drop his usage through smarter timing/cutting out non-essential things.
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loads of people know about hydroponics and growlights without being growers

some people on this forum have grow cabinets they grow chillis with if you bother to check the chilli growing thread you would see that.

pretty much everything about growing cannabis plants passes over to growing most stuff
 
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