Is 1200kwH a month abnormaly high electricity usage?

[sethfulford]

@childofgod83 Yeah I’m happy it’s right, I’m quite a geek over it. It’s a big house, 4 bed detached with a 1 bed house attached where our lodger lives, basically, bills are combined for both. We don’t use our immersion heater at all, all hot water is gas.
We used 848 in 58 days so 100 in 7 is pretty much the same, no?

 

[childofgod83]

@sethfulford Ah right, I didn’t realise it was for 2 months. My bad!

 

[sashieng]

@little_sparrow The fact that you have a basement seems to indicate possibly an older property? In which case insulation might not be great. Have you checked windows, the loft, are the walls insulated?

Having said all this, it is likely down to the pump.

 

[little_sparrow]

@sashieng House was built in 1890, so likely I can make some improvements here. We only moved in around 2yrs ago, and had to do a lot of renovating already so we didn't get to this yet.

 

[sashieng]

@little_sparrow In which case I don't think your energy usage is likely unreasonable (especially given the pump situation).

Longer-term, if the pump has to remain, e.g. you cannot rectify the ingress of water (not ideal from a damp perspective), this might be to sort of thing where investing in solar and a battery might be a cost efficient option (maybe).

 

[savedsoul2010]

@sashieng The heating is gas not electric, so even if they had all the windows open throughout winter it shouldn’t actually increase the electricity usage

 

[abim]

@little_sparrow So that 1195kWh is for two months, not one, which sounds pretty typical to me. We use around 530kWh electricity per month for a family of three, four bed townhouse, gas central heating, and charging our car once a week (which is by far the biggest user of electric at 50kWh for a typical charge). Getting a smart meter will certainly help you see real time when your energy is peaking.

 

[mattiemom]

@abim that car is 250kwh extra a month which OP doesn’t have, and still tilts them firmly towards ‘excessive’ use. Although 1200 across two months is a lot better than 1200 across one month which is what we first thought. I’d say 300-350 is perhaps more usual (about 10-12kwh per day with gas heating and gas for hot water). so that leaves 250-300 to explain away which the pump might cover?