4 Day Electric Unit Usage - Typical or not?

el Fenomeno

Hi, quick question.

Got an Energia bill today, thought it was quite large. It had an actual reading on Friday 09/04 of 4870 units.

I checked the meter just now, and it was 4955.

85 units seems an awful lot in 4 days, am I right? Though our heating and hot water all runs off of an air-to-water fan in the back garden (so we have no gas bills, everything is electricity).

As a first time home owner Im not familiar yet with what typical usage would be. Whether you told me 10 units or 100 units was normal, id believe you - no real knowledge of what a unit is before searching today.

3 bed semi-detached, 2 adults working from home and no kids. Though we wouldn't be the most "conservative" - ie. TV left on a lot, electric fire often on for show without heating element on (which is ridiculous considering no one else has been in the house for months, I guess if it looks warm, we'll feel warm…!) But just to highlight we don't give much attention to conserving electricity - I guess we will moving forward!

Thanks

loyatemu

21 units a day, is a fairly high usage but if it includes heating, not astronomical.

We've been averaging 17-19 units a day over the last few months but that's with kids at home and constantly boiling the kettle for tea, running the dishwasher twice a day etc. We have gas heating.

JimmyVik

el Fenomeno wrote: »

Hi, quick question.

Got an Energia bill today, thought it was quite large. It had an actual reading on Friday 09/04 of 4870 units.

I checked the meter just now, and it was 4955.

85 units seems an awful lot in 4 days, am I right? Though our heating and hot water all runs off of an air-to-water fan in the back garden (so we have no gas bills, everything is electricity).

As a first time home owner Im not familiar yet with what typical usage would be. Whether you told me 10 units or 100 units was normal, id believe you - no real knowledge of what a unit is before searching today.

3 bed semi-detached, 2 adults working from home and no kids. Though we wouldn't be the most "conservative" - ie. TV left on a lot, electric fire often on for show without heating element on (which is ridiculous considering no one else has been in the house for months, I guess if it looks warm, we'll feel warm…!) But just to highlight we don't give much attention to conserving electricity - I guess we will moving forward!

Thanks

We could use that in a day
Also your air to water will use a lot more in winter than it used this week.
Also remember your heating is electric, so no gas bills for heating.

el Fenomeno

loyatemu wrote: »

21 units a day, is a fairly high usage but if it includes heating, not astronomical.

We've been averaging 17-19 units a day over the last few months but that's with kids at home and constantly boiling the kettle for tea, running the dishwasher twice a day etc. We have gas heating.

Thanks, I feel a bit better about it in that case.

We're fairly diabolical (or at least I am) for what is only a household of 2 so I'm sure we can get that usage down quite a bit.

sky6

Running the Dishwasher twice a day seems excessive and will be costly. like the kettle.

To think of it in simple terms, Anything that heats water or has elements like Cookers, kettles, Dishwasher, Showers, Etc. TVs Radios use very little Electricity even if left on all day.

You should also compare your unit cost against other suppliers to make sure you are getting a good deal.
There's an increase coming so now is a perfect time to do a comparison. You could easily save 200 to 300 a year just by switching. So it's worth the effort.

JimmyVik

sky6 wrote: »

Running the Dishwasher twice a day seems excessive and will be costly. like the kettle.

To think of it in simple terms, Anything that heats water or has elements like Cookers, kettles, Dishwasher, Showers, Etc. TVs Radios use very little Electricity even if left on all day.

You should also compare your unit cost against other suppliers to make sure you are getting a good deal.
There's an increase coming so now is a perfect time to do a comparison. You could easily save 200 to 300 a year just by switching. So it's worth the effort.

I have an energy monitor on the dishwasher.
A full regular wash cycle costs 1.4KWh.

TheRef

I've been on a bit of a mission to better understand my electricity usage after getting a bill for €480.
Firstly, I had just come out of a 12 month contract, so renegotiated and got a new discounted rate and backdated.

I also switched over to Energia's smart meter rate, so can see my electric usage from previous days broken down in 30 min intervals. I also have a monitor which tells me how much (units & cost) I am currently spending at any moment. It's attached to the meter in the house.

So, 21 units a day - that's not particularly large. Over the past 4 weeks, I am averaging 25 units a day, but I have an electric car that isn't driven often.
At 21 units a day (will be higher in winter), your annual bill should be under €1400 (assuming you are on the a discounted rate).
€188 is a standing charge (assuming your not on day/night)
€89 is PSO.
So, that should mean your true annual cost is about €1120. You probably can't control 80% of that (assuming you don't use electric heaters and have LEDs), unless you want to get obsessive.