Best way to economise on EHU costs

[Nonna]

Currently on site with 77p kWh electric.
I have gas but am trying to save that for any real cold snap. It's a FloGas system & filling stations are thin on the ground around here.
My first week cost £150 but I've been getting that down gradually. Heating is on timer for 4 hours @ 19° in the evening.

I've been told it's probably the water heater eating the electric (Truma Combi on Eco 40°). Would it be wise/ok to turn water heater off overnight? All suggestions welcome (not just about water heater) but not the obvious - to move. I've paid up for month & have a really good deal on the pitch. Plus not many sites open all year here.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[Richard n Ann]

Yes, I only have the water heater on when needed so it's off 98% of the time

 

[Guigsy]

3-way fridges are horribly inefficient on electric. That's probably eating a couple of kwh per day.

 

[Tombola]

Where are you.
I thought they couldn't charge more for the kwh alone than they pay.

 

[Badknee]

Where are you.
I thought they couldn't charge more for the kwh alone than they pay.

They can bump it up with service charges too.
Fridge on gas and turn off at night, hot water only when needed as Richard n Ann said.

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[Tombola]

Yeah they can but costs alone now at 77p per kW hour seems high and if its an add on it should be added as service charge or whatever.

 

[starquake]

Yeah they can but costs alone now at 77p per kW hour seems high and if its an add on it should be added as service charge or whatever.

Sounds like they fixed last year at near peak of market on a 1 year fix if thats the rate. If they fixed for multiple years then they are fools.

Just run with fridge on gas as thats your main draw I expect and all heat and water also on gas, then you probably down to half a kwh a day or less.

 

[starquake]

Just saw you want to save gas for cold snaps, but a fridge uses best part of bugger all even if turned off at night ... I think I worked our consumption with it on 24h on a small dometic at 250g a day ish with it turned right down. It'd be less if you turned it off overnight as suggested. Where it will be using 4.5kwh of electric per day in comparison when we metered that.

Even water heat is TINY in electric use compared with fridge, switch fridge to gas, job done. (and turn water heat off or onto a timer if your Truma offers that like the modern panel offers). You don't want it "maintaining" the heat as thats where all the use is.

We're off to a (unmetered) site for xmas this year, precisely becuase we know our demand will be quite high for heat, fridge etc and the price I calculated based on going to a metered site would be ridicolously expensive despite the cheaper pitch fees.

 

[two]

If you're paying for electricity, it'll almost certainly be cheaper to use gas. Heat on gas only.

 

[Nonna]

Sounds like they fixed last year at near peak of market on a 1 year fix if thats the rate. If they fixed for multiple years then they are fools.

I gather that's what happened or their original tariff ended just when prices hit the ceiling.

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[Just smiffy]

Turn the water heater off, when the heating is on it warms the water too, £150 a week would soon buy you a lot of solar..

 

[Nonna]

Very many thanks everyone for all the info.
Hot water is off for the night.
I'll switch the fridge freezer to gas in the morning - if I'm still on four wheels. 85mph gusts forecast during the night. Oh joy

 

[Lenny HB]

3-way fridges are horribly inefficient on electric. That's probably eating a couple of kwh per day.

A Dometic 160 Lt Fridge/Freezer 4.2 kw/ 24 hours, that is what they quote so probably more.
On gas approx 1 Lt/ 24 hours approx ½ kg.

We only have the hot water on for showers and if you are running the heating you don't really need to turn the hot water on it just takes a bit longer to heat up.
The ECO setting is useless as it heats 40° then it doesn't come back on until the temperature drops below 27°.

 

[Two on Tour]

Blimey, an average of 27.8kWh a day.

 

[Nonna]

Blimey, an average of 27.8kWh a day.

Yep. Don't ask me how. That first week obviously included charging everything & getting things up to heat/ down to temp.
Since then I've been using as little as possible including lighting & no TV .... hence I'm already in bed. All fun here

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[starquake]

And the nuts thing is whilst you are paying 70p to the site because of their fix tonight, at same time the wholesale rate if you are on half hourly flexible billing is near 0p... the excess of wind tonight is making electricity extremely cheap.

 

[starquake]

Of course I do pity the site owner who woudl need to work out billing you on 48 individual half hourly rates per day.

That would probably be more costly to implement than it would benefit them. So above point is a bit "complex".

 

[Cush]

I turn the heating on to 50 deg for ten minutes before washing up and 40 minutes before a shower.

 

[Gina M]

I boil the kettle on the gas ring for washing the dishes and we only put the hot water on 40 minutes before a shower too

 

[autorouter]

Yep. Don't ask me how. That first week obviously included charging everything & getting things up to heat/ down to temp.

Once the place is up to the required temperature, the only power input necessary is whatever it needs to make up for heat losses. Better insulation means the thermostat can switch the heater off for more of the time. At this time of the year, when it's dark outside quite early, you could for example close the blinds, and maybe add a layer of insulation like bubble wrap between the blind and the window. Especially in the rooflights because warm air rises to the roof and is cooled by the rooflight.

Also there's actually no need to cut down on your TV and lighting. Any power they take will be converted to heat, and will contribute to keeping the room warm. It just means the heater thermostat will stay off for a bit longer, so what you use for the TV and lights will make the heater cut in for less time.

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[Gina M]

Very many thanks everyone for all the info.
Hot water is off for the night.
I'll switch the fridge freezer to gas in the morning - if I'm still on four wheels. 85mph gusts forecast during the night. Oh joy

Hope you are ok tonight with the storm winds it is very quiet here in Derbyshire so far, also doesn't your tv work on the leisure battery?

 

[Coolcats]

Currently on site with 77p kWh electric.
I have gas but am trying to save that for any real cold snap. It's a FloGas system & filling stations are thin on the ground around here.
My first week cost £150 but I've been getting that down gradually. Heating is on timer for 4 hours @ 19° in the evening.

I've been told it's probably the water heater eating the electric (Truma Combi on Eco 40°). Would it be wise/ok to turn water heater off overnight? All suggestions welcome (not just about water heater) but not the obvious - to move. I've paid up for month & have a really good deal on the pitch. Plus not many sites open all year here.

Thanks in anticipation

There could be something wrong with the metering

£150 / .77 is 194.8 kw now divide this again that's 27.82 kw per day

My home only uses 12kw per day on avarage

27.82 kw is 1.15 kw per hour

Is your water heater really consuming that much?

Personally I would put in line a consumption meter to get a 2nd view of consumption something like this that way you will confirm if the sites metering is accurate as it does seem one heck of a lot of power you are using.

 

[starquake]

There could be something wrong with the metering

Is your water heater really consuming that much?

More likely it's the space heating + fridge. Fridge is definitely at least 4.5kwh of the 27, so 22 left, so as you say about 800w constan.

The heating in my van on low is about 1kw constant -> and a full tank of water being heated we measured at 2kwh. So it kinda makes sense based on what we've measured our van on EHU at in colder conditions with the interior heat on.

 

[Coolcats]

More likely it's the space heating + fridge. Fridge is definitely at least 4.5kwh of the 27, so 22 left, so as you say about 800w constan.

The heating in my van on low is about 1kw constant -> and a full tank of water being heated we measured at 2kwh. So it kinda makes sense based on what we've measured our van on EHU at in colder conditions with the interior heat on.

Understand what you are saying I can get a bit obsessive with stuff. Just checked and since Midnight my home has consumed 6.91 kw and currently using 0.236 kw. When the wife has a shower it’s generally on the first setting and that draws 5kw if it’s on the 2nd setting that draws 10Kw the first setting is mainly battery the second setting 60% is from the network…….

 

[Nirvanauk]

Never thought about leaving the heater on when not needed.

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[Guigsy]

Never thought about leaving the heater on when not needed.

It depends on how well insulated the tank is. If it's only losing a degree or so every hour, then it's not costing much to maintain it and it's a lot more convenient.

If however it's bleeding heat to the outside world at a large rate, then yeah, turn it off until half an hour before you need it.

I tend to leave mine on eco and turn it up when I need it. Eco isn't particularly warm. But that means it's not losing much to outside. But the heating still has a couple of dozen degrees head start on warming up the tank. So it saves time in the morning.

 

[FrankNicklin]

I noticed that our fridge could be turned way down on EHU and still kept things cold. We are new to MH'ing and so have been experimenting. Initially I had the fridge turned up to about ¾ not know what to expect and my wife said things felt very cold almost freezing, so I gradually turned the fridge down and now its probably only a ¼ if not less and still keeps stuff nice and cool. 4 degs is about the optimum temperature anything less is wasting energy.

 

[Rapido925M]

I don't know about modern fridges but my old Thetford is rated at 135W. So if it was going full blast all day it would consume 3.24kWh. However, I would expect the thermostat to kick it off at some point, especially in cold weather, so I would anticipate somewhere in the region of 2kWh as a maximum value.

Gordon

 

[FrankNicklin]

I don't know about modern fridges but my old Thetford is rated at 135W. So if it was going full blast all day it would consume 3.24kWh. However, I would expect the thermostat to kick it off at some point, especially in cold weather, so I would anticipate somewhere in the region of 2kWh as a maximum value.

Gordon

Ours is an oldie, 52 plate Swift. Fridge is Electrolux/Dometic and rated 125W Mains and 120W on Battery. Consumption is listed at 2.5KWh and 270g of gas in 24 hours.

 

[Coolcats]

It depends on how well insulated the tank is. If it's only losing a degree or so every hour, then it's not costing much to maintain it and it's a lot more convenient.

If however it's bleeding heat to the outside world at a large rate, then yeah, turn it off until half an hour before you need it.

I tend to leave mine on eco and turn it up when I need it. Eco isn't particularly warm. But that means it's not losing much to outside. But the heating still has a couple of dozen degrees head start on warming up the tank. So it saves time in the morning.

I noticed that our fridge could be turned way down on EHU and still kept things cold. We are new to MH'ing and so have been experimenting. Initially I had the fridge turned up to about ¾ not know what to expect and my wife said things felt very cold almost freezing, so I gradually turned the fridge down and now its probably only a ¼ if not less and still keeps stuff nice and cool. 4 degs is about the optimum temperature anything less is wasting energy.

I don't know about modern fridges but my old Thetford is rated at 135W. So if it was going full blast all day it would consume 3.24kWh. However, I would expect the thermostat to kick it off at some point, especially in cold weather, so I would anticipate somewhere in the region of 2kWh as a maximum value.

Gordon

All sensible approaches but unless you measure the draw you will not be able to confirm exactly how many kw or w is drawn it is all subjective it needs some objectivity, the campsite meter could be wrong, for example does it need calibrating? is it actually measuring correctly? is there another drain elsewhere (are you paying for someone else's use 27.81kw per day is a huge amount of energy, if the water heater really is drawing that amount the water would be boiling most of the time. Once a water tank comes up to temperature the thermostat will cut in and only re-engage when it cools its not on all the time. 20litres takes about 20 mins to come up to temperature.

4 hours of heating won't be using 16kw unless the doors are wide open the van heats up the thermostat cuts in then out and maybe back in again and its not that cold at the moment.

Place an external meter and Measure Actual usage. you may be due for a refund or I may be totally wrong but at least you will know for certain.

Objectivity is the name of the game