Tech guys - what is your electricity bill?

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jonneymendoza

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As i imagine most of us here have lots of electrical tech like computers, game consoles, nice tv's etc etc, what is your average electricity bill each month and who is your provider?

My average bill is around £60-£70 a month and my missus thinks thats way too much and watching my use now on the tech i use and buy :(

For your information i have the following:

  • 42 inch 1080p TV(missus wont let me get a bigger one!)
  • ps4console
  • denon 5.1 surround sound system with sub woofer and AV unit
  • HTPC with a 980gtx inside and 4 core i7 cpu
  • Desktop PC with 6 core i7, 64gb ram, around 5 ssd's inside it and a 2080ti card
  • one 32inch 4k wide gamut hdr monitor from asus
  • one 30inch dell wide gamut monitor
  • Old midi hIfi system with 2 speakers for my pc
  • a desktop tower server with about 8-9 WD Red NAS drives inside it(i use to have this on 124/7 but not anymore)
  • raspberry pi 4 connected to two external 2.5 hdd's for my always on file server
  • another Raspberry pi 3 running pi-hole all the time


Is this overkill? Am i paying way too much for electricity?

I only live in a 2 bedroom flat
 
My bill is about the same over the year, don't think its the tech items that affect it too much
Suspect things like the double fan oven, tumble drier and heated towel rail cause more damage financially
 
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I've got:
- Electric car covering ~10k miles a year, vast majority charging happens at home.
- Solar panels, unfortunately E-W facing
- Smart thermostat
- Always on 2 HDD NAS
- 2x Raspberry Pi 3 always-on
- 2x TV with soundbar and console
- Desktop PC and laptop
- About 3x dozen smart home devices

My monthly direct debit for dual fuel is £70. A 3 bed house.


Your spend is a bit high compared to mine. But it also depends where in the country you live. I use 70% of my electricity during 7.6p Economy 7 period, thanks to EV and solar panels.

A few ways you could reduce power:
- Turn off stuff at the plug, I found my sound bar takes 6w off, while TV's take less than 1w when off. So I fitted a smart plug to the soundbar
- consolidate your Pi, the pi 4 could run both pi-hole and file server. I've got one original pi 3 running Home Assistant, Zigbee hub, solar production logging and pi-hole. Load averages is still usually under 1.
- if you haven't got smart meter, consider getting one or get one of those electricity usage monitor. Look at your idle utilisation (for your ref, it's about 250w for me) and find which high load appliance is being used too much. This is the idea behind gaz and leccy smart meter campaign.

Another thought, is your flat electric-heating only? That usually costs more than gas central heating.
 
I suggest you get your consumption figures off your last bill (the KwH figure for 12 months), and go to switch or similar two see if you can save money by switching supplier or tariff. A pile of electronics shouldn't be consuming anything much because the current drain will be minimal. As wuyanxu said, it's more likely your heating that is pushing the bill up (and hot water - is that on an immersion switch?)
 
About £80 historically and probably half of that is accounted for by the R710 that I have running 24/7. Having a 50" Pioneer Kuro plasma is also heavy on the electric.

Lower now as I have solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall, but I need to run that lot for a full year to analyze the full effect on grid consumption.
 
it's between 16 to 18p kwh edf charge and I use an average of 330-490 kWh according to one of my bill's
 
From memory I pay around 60/65 a month, 3 bed house, 2 kids so washing machine going 24/7 (seems like it).
 
Live on my own in a 3 bed semi I use about 3100 KWH per year £642 Electricity... From british gas Dual fuel secure green Fixed Dec 2021
Average £53.50 per month paid direct debit quarterly (last quarter elec £117.44 ( £39.15 month)
Probably the things with Heaters... Kettle , microwave, washing machine, Iron and shower unit and Vac, Probably use a large chunk of that.
computer stuff and TV rather less so, though they are on for far longer. Lighting takes very little these days.
My wood work shop probably contributes a fair chunk, but less frequently. large Bandsaw, lathe, Planer thicknesser, Extractor system, vacuum, table router and various smaller hand tools and sanders.

What I use is all part of my life, so I do not begrudge or limit what I do. If some months I use a lot more, so-be-it.
 
jonneymendoza said:
it's between 16 to 18p kwh edf charge and I use an average of 330-490 kWh according to one of my bill's
Click to expand...
You have storage heater right? Consider switching to a Economy7 tariff?

As a tech guy, you could also try this tariff, and use home automation to take advantage of this variable tariff: https://www.speakev.com/threads/octopus-agile-their-api.128020/#post-2375822

That tariff could go as low as 0.3p per kWh:
https://www.speakev.com/threads/my-octopus-agile-go-analysis-comparison-website.139560/page-3
 
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I can't find Bulb as a supplier in the quick comparison I just did, but I can see you can achieve lower unit and standing charges easily eg 14.3p/unit, 12p standing charge, with E.on. I suggest using either Quidco (where you'll also get cashback for switching) or uSwitch.
 
wuyanxu said:
You have storage heater right? Consider switching to a Economy7 tariff?

As a tech guy, you could also try this tariff, and use home automation to take advantage of this variable tariff: https://www.speakev.com/threads/octopus-agile-their-api.128020/#post-2375822

That tariff could go as low as 0.3p per kWh:
https://www.speakev.com/threads/my-octopus-agile-go-analysis-comparison-website.139560/page-3
Click to expand...
What is a storage heater?

i just have a normal radiator heater that uses Gas boiler
 
Ours it about £50pm for electric.

In terms of tech we have:

  • Philips hue bulbs all over, 28 in total including in the garden so these use electric all the time, although I think its minimal. I also have 8 dimmer switches and multiple motion sensors.
  • Two 8 port Netgear PoE Switches.
  • 6 CCTV Cameras which record 24x7 and upload clips to Ondrive.
  • Windows 10 PC running CCTV software
  • 58" TV in the living room with Apple TV, Sky Q etc.
  • Sonos Beam plus two Sonos Ones in the Living Room
  • 3x Other Echo Dot jobbies around the house
  • 48" TV in the bedroom with Apple TV and Sky Q
  • Two 24" monitors in the office, although I work from home regularly they get used a lot.

To be honest, I could probably cut down a little but at £50pm the costs would be very little so I don't bother and just accept it. I have no interest in a smart meter, I know my kettle uses a lot of electric but I like tea so there we are.

Each year I just compare the unit costs of other providers with what my current one is offering and jump ship to whomever is cheapest per Unit, we have economy 7 as we work during the day and I have stuff that runs 24x7 anyway it doesn't really save us much.
 
Haven't broken it down but gas and leccy for us is currently £93/month. 3 bed bungalow.
 
We're on about £50pm (oscillates wildly with SSE as they go into credit, then debit etc). We've a couple of laptops, PC screens, printers, hifi (no TV). Biggest consumer of power is the immersion heater. We've got LED lighting everywhere now - kitchen alone used to use 500W in spotlights, but it did reduce the need for other forms of heating. ;)

3 bed stone cottage in the country, heating by oil.
 
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£65 a month here in a 3 bed semi for electricity with Octopus and £45 for gas with Daligas.

I'd love to be able to cut down but with caring I have to wash and dry clothes most days which means the washer is on for an hour and the dryer 50 mins minimum before me and the Mrs, towels and bedding etc even come into it.

You should keep on top of this Jonney. I have one day per month when I go through everything, utilities, bank accounts, insurance, everything.
 
Bit more info on my usage back in feb-april

Period :25/02/19 until 31/03/19
My Reading: 28172
Estimated: 28510
Electricity united used: 338 kWh
kWh rate: 16.02

Period: 01/04/19 until 28/05/19
My Reading: 28999
Estimated: 28510
Electricity units used: 489 kWh
kWh rate: 18.24p
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Bit more info on my usage back in feb-april

Period :25/02/19 until 31/02/19
My Reading: 28172
Estimated: 28510
Electricity united used: 338 kWh
kWh rate: 16.02

Period: 01/04/19 until 28/05/19
My Reading: 28999
Estimated: 28510
Electricity units used: 489 kWh
kWh rate: 18.24p
Click to expand...

Let's ignore possibly inaccurate estimated reading and take your readings between 25/02/2019 to 01/04/2019: 827 kWh over 1 month and 4 days. That is very very high usage if the dates are correct and you don't use electricity for heating or driving.

For your reference, I use around 4400 kWh electricity a year, includes 10k miles in EV but also slightly offset by solar panels. Might be 6000 kWh without solar, which is still only 500 kWh a month.


If you can, look back and try to find your own readings (not estimate) from same month, but 1 years apart. You can then get your yearly consumption. Now simply plug these numbers into comparison sites and switch to the cheapest company. 18p per kWh is probably not cheapest.

But long term, you'll want to find why you are using so much. Is it high constant idling consumption? Or loads of high powered appliance usage?
 
Typo on the period.

its meant to be 25/02/19 until 31/03/19.

I cant think of anything else to add except usual using a clothes washing machine maybe 2/3 times a week but no dryer.

i also have an espresso coffee machine that i use in the mornings and usually gets left on for a couple of hours a day.

i also have a roaster coffee bean that i use once ever 12 days or so to roast some coffee beans that takes 15mins each session.
 
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As always, ignore estimated readings.

Looking at it closely. The reading in the first one is lower, so I guess it's done at 25/02/2019?
Period :25/02/19 until 31/03/19
My Reading: 28172
Estimated: 28510

This reading in the second period is higher....... so I guess it's done at 28/05/2019?
Period: 01/04/19 until 28/05/19
My Reading: 28999
Estimated: 28510

Therefore. You've consumed 827 kWh over about 3 months, end of Feb to end of May. This is a very reasonable consumption.
Extrapolate that to whole year => 3300 kWh a year.
So with 18p per kWh and standing charge of 20p per day, that'll mean £667 a year on electricity, or £55 a month. In line with other members with similar usage pattern. Not excessive IMHO.
 
Stayed somewhere that had what I think what was a smart meter, gave some sort of target for the day
What happens if you exceed it, sit in the dark and freeze your b*****ks off?

Bit like when people moan how much food shopping costs, buy it or starve, not exactly a choice is it
 
Our electricity costs vary between £55 and £70 per month according to time of year for two of us in a large 4 bedroom detached house.
We use gas for heating & cooking so the electricity costs cover things like entertainment (55" LCD TV, Sky, PS3 & HiFi), laundry, dishwashing, central heating pump as well as lighting.
All our lighting is LED apart from fluorescent strip lights in the garage & CFL lights in the kitchen.
We have a fair bit of IT 'infrastructure' covering things like CCTV cameras & DELL Poweredge server as well as having a couple of laptops, a backup server & a PC host for a weather station which are on part time.

Living in the frozen north (of England), we have to cope with lower temperatures & higher heating costs.
 
just seen this and i guess we have a bit of tech in the house 2 bed cottage 5 Samsung tv's 1x24 inch in kitchen 2x43 inch tv's in the bedrooms 47 inch in conservatory 55 inch in living room.
Samsung sound bars with subs living room and conservatory.
ps4 a few echo's dotted about 3 laptops & ipad pro etc.
we spend about £100pm on electric through winter (which is using 2 night stores) about £80 through summer.
(insulated hot tub room too :) )
I actually think most of our costs is down to the kitchen though with the kettle, toaster, dolce gusto, and electric range cooker.
My Mrs is a damn good in the kitchen though and loves baking all the time :)
 
not got the annual invoice yet for this year but last year 2018 worked out at £150 a month ( £1,800 for the year , 2017 £2,100 for the year ) that's with EDF duel fuel
big family in a 4 bed end terraced and a family with no clue what an off switch is :(
 
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