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So following on from Joeboy's thread of what we are all planning for the year ahead I have started to layout my program of work and hit an almost immediate "niggle".

Reading all the threads avidly, I see that a lot of you have quite large batteries and solar arrays but I often also read (or think its implied) that your batteries only get you through one or two nights without recharge, is that right? The reason I ask is I am trying to get an angle on my electrical consumption as to whether its low, medium or high. Not as a comparison to how well or bad I am doing compared to others but to see whats the right thing to spend hard earned money (and scarce time) on first.

So for example December to 5th January our daily consumption was 7.85kWh/d, this included all the vestiges of Christmas, running the tumble dryer a lot because the weather here was appalling, little to no input from the solar array - did I say the weather had been bad here ? and so I think its probably indicative of the cottages worst consumption behaviour.

So how does 7.85kWh stack up with others.

Notes - DHW is all LPG condensing boiler, house heating is WBS, cooking is roughly 50/50 LPG and electric (steamer, toaster, kettle, microwave, air-fryer)

Moxi

There’s just the two of us at home Moxi, both retired. Our electricity consumption averages 15-1600 KWh pa, though we have managed 1350. Daily average 4-4.5 Kwh

We also use 1800 KWh of gas - cooking and DHW. Use approx 6 m³ of hardwood for heating, although we do have GCH that we don’t use/keep for emergencies.

When we first moved here (large 3 bed 1930’s detached, fair insulation) we weee using about 3500 Kwh of electric and 14000 KWh of gas.

We reduced electric consumption by changing all white goods to A+ or better during the house renovation. We also stopped using a tumble drier, lots of ‘gadgets’ a separate freezer and changed all lighting to LED.

Tried to stop all ineffective electric usage - eg, ironing - biggest waste of time and energy, though it helps not having to dress for work

Hope this helps as a starter for 10.

Moxi,
I am going through around 45-60kWh per day in these Winter days of very little PV. In saying that, I am actively trying to push gas use as low as possible so item 2&3 are through personal choice.
Roughly speaking,
20kWh for EV
12kWh HWT
15Kwh storage heaters
14 kWh into batteries if depleted.

All of the above are compressed into a five hour charging window as is a washing machine cycle and a dishwasher run every 2 days. The batteries easily last until the next day's charging window. Example, it's 17.00hrs and batteries are at 68%. Will likely be in the high 30%'s by the time 21.30 rolls around

March to Oct we are pretty much off the grid with a little help from the WS.

I think your 7.85kWh per day is excellent !

Over the past year I've averaged just a fraction over 26kWh/day.

I have GCH/Combi but most of the year the hot water comes from solar and very little if any GCH from March to October.

My batteries tend to charge themselves fully from solar for at least 1/2 year.

The two dishwashers and two washing machines go on in the day when it is sunny or in the Octopus Go period if not.

EV charging is almost exclusively in the cheap period, as is battery charging this time of year.

I use 20-30kWh a day. In summer my batteries very easily get me through the night until the sun comes up and starts generating meaningful power. On sunny days I barely need any grid power at all.

On very overcast summer days the batteries are topped up with cheap (currently 5p/kWh) electricity.

In winter there is very little solar so the batteries are completely cycled every day. Charging on the cheap-rate and discharging while peak-rate applies. I usually only get to mid-afternoon before my batteries are depleted.

We have a 4 bedroomed detached house about 225m2, 3.3kWp PV with Eddi.

Usage for December (20-Nov-2021 to 19-Dec-2021) about 1050 kWh (about zero contribution from PV) (500kWh heating)
Usage for September (20-Aug-2021 to 19-Oct-2021) about 400kWh (significant contribution from PV but I don't have any figure) no heating.

The house is entirely electric including heating and cooking, no tumble dryer, ASHP and UFH.

August figure is with al 4 of us at home and the 2 kids playing too much online-gaming!

... am renting an old farmhouse , on my own , the last 55 days i used 180 kWh .... so thats on average 3.27 kWh a day or multiplied by German el. price and my supplier is Greenpeace Energy , about 1 Euro a day
Will increase soon as i will go for an warm water heating heatpump and finally my 1 kw PV , i rescued from the old forum host , will find its way out of the packaging

But, am still puzzling, if i should go off grid again , as there is a small river in-front of that house too

Billi

billi wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:37 pm ... am renting an old farmhouse , on my own , the last 55 days i used 180 kWh .... so thats on average 3.27 kWh a day or multiplied by German el. price and my supplier is Greenpeace Energy , about 1 Euro a day
Will increase soon as i will go for an warm water heating heatpump and finally my 1 kw PV , i rescued from the old forum host , will find its way out of the packaging

But, am still puzzling, if i should go off grid again , as there is a small river in-front of that house too

Billi

What’s your standing charge?

Hi Billi,

Not sure how the German utilities work but assuming they’re going along similar lines as other European countries and the uk I would suggest grid tied - just depends on your long term plans / equipment mobility and as Stinsy is asking what the costs of being grid connected are.

Moxi

What’s your standing charge?

I do not know exactly , Stinsy , as am still renting, i guess/read , standing charge per month is about 10-12 Euro per month , so the lesser i consume or the more i install myself the more irrational it becomes to pay standing charges .... or i go for FiT .... but might not be worth that paperwork