Lower consumption

[dewaltdisney]

My electric bills have been consistent over the years and my DD is £97 a month. It usually goes a bit over this each month, say a fiver or so.

In the last couple of months, I have seen a drop by £7 in January and now £20 in February on my bills. I have a smart meter so I am not involved in reads but I am concerned as to why there is a drop. As I am on the good side I naturally will not raise this with the supplier. There have only been two things that have potentially changed our use. Firstly, I got fed up with waiting for the kettle to boil so I measured out two cups of water in the kettle and bit more and marked a black level line on the see-through fill panel on the kettle. This was in January. The kettle seems to boil quicker now but I have not timed it. The second thing is that we changed our second fridge in the kitchen as the old one gave out in January. This was a Zanussi that we bought with us when we moved here so it must be thirty years old at least. It finally gave out so we bought a new Beko one to replace it.

Is it possible that these two changes could have affected our consumption that much?

DWD

[Someone-Else]

Depends how much they were using. (But you will never know as your previous fridge is now at the tip) Just keep an eye on your use, check weekly, and write it down.

[big-all]

100% mostly the fridge an old one would be perhaps 180w with a say 33% run time with failing insulation
a new one will be more efficient perhaps 135w and possibly 25% runtime as the insulation is both new and off higher insulation value
a kettle will make a difference but unless your cuppa consumption is in the 12 plus it will be pence a day

[Neelix]

Prices have dropped to some extent so unless you look at the consumption and the DD value you will only be guessing.

It could also be that you have been building up a surplus and your provider has adjusted your DD downwards

[ericmark]

I find my usage varies far more. December 2024 £75.51 with £27.77 being off-peak. January 2025 £63.81 with £27.88 off-peak. February 2025 £53.26 with £22.70 off-peak.

This includes the standing charge.

Be it the small amount the central heating uses, how many loads of washing, how many showers, or how much sunlight, the power I use will always vary month to month. I do have ways to show how much used and when, and the freezer is regularly tested, I find 240 to 490 watt is a normal baseline on the graph, if cold this will rise to around 750 watt as central heating although oil, still uses electric. Today I see a spike where wife had a shower.

I found a large change when solar panels fitted, with battery, and also when smart meter fitted, this allowed use of off-peak, and likely saved more than the solar, then increasing battery size from 3.2 kWh to 6.4 kWh a further large reduction.

It can't hit zero, as we charge the batteries overnight, and it really annoys me that what we export I am not paid for. My contract with BG ends in April, so should get that sorted then. I have 3 plugs in energy monitors, and am very much aware of how small changes can reduce how much we use. I use two 1 cup boilers, but the main variables are the three high-powered devices, washing machine, tumble drier, and dishwasher. These can be set on built in timers, so can set a delayed start.

So either 8.95p per kWh overnight with off-peak, or zero or 31.31p per kWh depending on if the battery lasts until midnight or not. It is very much guess work. If before dusk, the batteries have hit 100% as state of charge, then power used during the day has been free, but should the battery never fully recharge, then it depends on if it lasts to midnight, as to if costing 8.95p or 31.31p per kWh.

However, 6.4 time 0.3131 = £2 - 6.4 times 8.95 = £1.43 difference, that's the saving every day due to charging with off-peak and using at peak times. The batteries also stop using grid power being used when the sun goes in, so likely save me £2 a day, was it really worth it? The solar today has to this point 4:30 pm saved me a further 6.2 kWh, so another £2, that was handy being the same, so together they have saved me £4. Today is a good day, some days only the £2 saved. Without payment for exported power, they will not pay for themselves.

I think it takes about 3 minutes to boil a cup of water, 4.7p at 31.31p per kWh. So if you have 5 cups a day, and two of you so 10 cups, 47p if you boiled double the water required as over filling kettle, you have wasted 50p a day, or for Feb £14 for the month. But is it worth the bother? I have seen my wife wait until midnight to put the dishwasher on, is it really worth it?