[JoeSoap]

This is just me musing ...

On another thread @meldrewreborn pointed out that my average daily electricity consumption was quite high at around 12kWh. It prompted me to look back at historical consumption and out of interest I used the Estimated Annual Consumption that appears on every statement and sets the level of monthly DDs. I believe this figure will be based on the previous year's consumption to the date of the statement.

The earliest indication I could find was a message I sent to someone where I referred to my estimated annual electricity consumption about five years ago being c.7,500kWh. That would equate to over 20kWh per day.

Looking back over the last two years of statements I can see that every month, bar a couple, my estimated figures for gas and electric have steadily fallen. Here's an idea just comparing annually...

On 6/10/21 it was Gas 25686 and Elect 6975
On 6/10/22 it was Gas 22169 and Elect 6249
On 6/10/23 it was Gas 17757 and Elect 4946

The big reduction was the last 12 months where I made a big effort. The previous 12 months came as a welcome surprise. My estimated consumption has fallen by around 30% in two years and at today's rates is saving me around £1200pa or £100 per month compared to back then.

My current estimate puts me at around 13.5kWh of electricity per day for the next year and around 48.5kWh for gas.

I could still do better with more effort but there's a minimum comfort level and I'll be happy to at least maintain what I'm doing or perhaps even shave a bit more off.

[JoeSoap]

I just tried to work out if the estimated annual consumption actually does equate to the previous year's consumption and found that it doesn't... not when using my pencil, paper and calculator at any rate. Sometimes it's higher and sometimes lower. On the same bill sometimes the estimated elect consumption is lower than the previous year's usage whilst the gas estimate is higher.

I wonder how they work it out 🤔

[JoeSoap]

FloSoap just popped her head round the door and asked what I was doing. I made the mistake of being honest. She looked at me with pity and said Awwwwww. The shops are shut now so I can't even go out and get myself a life 😂

I'm off into the kitchen for a pre-dinner glass of wine and a packet of crisps 🍷

[meldrewreborn]

@JoeSoap

my gas was around your level but last year I cut about one third off by closer attention to detail and without compromising comfort, although some empty rooms were much cooler. There’s only us two chronically gifted persons in the house now, and our electricity is now about one third of yours, thanks to the reduced consumption of our freezer (any previous mentions of a fridge freezer were momentary aberrations) - long may it continue! But we don’t all live identical lives, in identical properties with identical specifications. So please do not infer criticism of your consumption levels, if you are content with the levels then that’s fine by me.

[JoeSoap]

@meldrewreborn

It never crossed my mind that you were being critical of my energy consumption. You summed things up perfectly in your penultimate sentence.

I live in a fair-sized, double glazed, fully insulated house but the three of us seem to utilise all the rooms so no radiators (apart from one) have the TRVs completely shut off. The gas boiler is fairly new at six years old and is serviced annually.

We have two fridges and two freezers of which one of each are integrated. They are all fairly new but for a twenty year old free-standing larder fridge that sits under a worktop next to the windowed back door. That one was in my sights as it seems to kick out a lot of heat from the gap between the top of the fridge and bottom of the worktop.

However, I only recently realised that it’s in the sun for much of the day so has to work extra hard during that period. I now pull the back door blind down when it’s sunny so that should make it considerably more efficient.

Also, we have recently replaced our noisy old tumble dryer with a new efficient one that we only use when necessary. Couple that with the recently purchased slow cooker and hopefully we’ll see a further reduction in consumption at the end of this 12 month period.

There will always be more to do to reduce energy consumption but I’ve come a fair way in the last year or so without a huge financial outlay. I have the huge energy price rises of last year to thank for that.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by JoeSoap

I just tried to work out if the estimated annual consumption actually does equate to the previous year's consumption and found that it doesn't... not when using my pencil, paper and calculator at any rate. Sometimes it's higher and sometimes lower. On the same bill sometimes the estimated elect consumption is lower than the previous year's usage whilst the gas estimate is higher.

I wonder how they work it out 🤔

My electric EAC is very close to my consumption from 1st Oct 2022- Ist October 2023 but the gas EAC is somewhat higher than my actual consumption during the same period. So whatever the algorithm used by the Data Collector Organisation used by Eon Next I don't quite understand it especially the gas.

The equation for calculating EACs, as specified in EPD 1.2, is such that each EAC is a weighted average of the current Annualised Advance and all previous Annualised Advances. More weight is given to recent Annualised Advances, and Annualised Advances based on a long meter advance period.The smoothing factor v controls the sensitivity of this weighting. The higher the value of v, the more the weight given to recent Annualised Advances.If the meter advance period is sufficiently long, the EAC will be equal to the most recent Annualised Advance. The period at which this will occur is approximately one year, divided by the smoothing parameter v.

Capiche?

Some more light reading from Elexon for you to put you to sleep. (esp section 3.2.2 and 3.2.4)

I could not find a corresponding document for the gas 😁

[JoeSoap]

@Mailman

Well, there we have it. Who would’ve thought it would be so complicated? I clicked on the link and homed-in on the suggested paras but only skimmed it as I could immediately see I wouldn’t understand it 😂

[Mailman]

@JoeSoap

The only thing I take from the elexson tome is that EAC is a slightly different beast to AA (annualised advance) i.e. what you used in the last 12 months.

Best to have a cup of Horlicks, go to bed and forget about EAC entirely. Just go with the AA figure you can calculate easily. That is what I do.😄

[meldrewreborn]

@Mailman

especially for gas my consumption varies quite a bit- largely on the severity of the winter. And on a rolling 12 month basis can be between 18k kW h and 13k kWh. So what a proper annual figure is entirely dependant upon the period and method chosen. On electricity I used to report that my consumption was fairly consistent over the year and from year to year, but since ditching my guzzling freezer I’m in a new era and while my recent consumption is well down on previous years, I don’t feel that I’ve enough data to make too definitive a statement on annualised figures - although 4.5 kWh per day seems to be the new normal - time will tell what the most reliable figure is. One thing is sure is that a standard industry accepted figure will be different to those compiled by the consumer.

[JoeSoap]

@meldrewreborn

Wow… 4.5kWh per day total usage? That averages less than 0.2kWh for every hour of the day. My average hourly electricity consumption just between midnight and 7am (according to Bright) is more than that at around 0.24kWh although it gets nearer to 0.3kWh during the summer months. The lowest hour I can find is 0.15kWh in a winter month but that kind of figure is rare. That’s with a baseline usage of two fridges, two freezers, three security lights (two are LED and one is PIR so is normally quite dim) and some AV stuff on standby. Maybe I should unplug that old fridge one night to see what happens.