Similar Homes

Hey @Gillarms,

That’s a really good question, I presume that it’s a comparison with similar sized homes. @Blastoise186 might know? They even wrote a guide on this topic (see below):

I found the following article on our website that you may find useful: How much energy an average home uses

Thanks, it looks like I'm towards the lower end of an average 3/4 bed house but much higher than a 1/2 bed flat so I must be being compared to other singletons who live in smaller properties. I'm actually quite surprised that the average electricity bill for 3/4 bed properties is £49 and mine was £57 (not £53 as I first posted) in October. I thought I was being frugal but I'm obviously using much more electricity than other people, I'm just not sure where I can cut back.

It appears that my 2 freezers are using the most electricity followed by Always on and Standby. There's nothing much I can do about the freezers and I'm a bit dubious about the Always On using so much as the only thing in my house that is always on (other than freezers) is my router, everything else is switched off at the pug when not in use.

Hey @Gillarms,

Could it be that there’s an appliance in your home which isn’t energy efficient? 

Or could your meter be clocking too much consumption? 

Similar question. When I compare my consumption to similar homes, Edwardian three bed mid terrace, my electrical consumption is 45% less and my gas consumption is 45% more.

The electric is no problem as I’ve made significant changes in the last five years. This week my gas consumption is normal but is 3 times more than similar homes. It appears that the similar homes are not using any gas some days. It also appears that I’m being compared to a single home as I can’t imagine every house is using no gas. As it is the data tells me nothing meaningful.

Since November 21 I’ve made extensive improvements to the central heating and have reduced my gas consumption by 16.5% year on year since Nov 21. I only monitor the kWh figures for comparison.

Hey @George that’s an interesting point. Does the gas heat your hot water? And is it used for cooking? Or is it just central heating. 

Hi @Emmanuelle_OVO After sending my message above I checked the comparison and data had been entered by OVO which improved my comparison. Maybe the information entered to compare similar properties is a bit basic. I’m sure over the years since my property was built  in 1907 the building regs have changed. More so in recent years. I’ve been with OVO since Sept 17 but I only have accurate data for gas from 2019. Electricity from 2018. I have a combi boiler installed Aug 2022 so supplies heating and HW. Other consumer is my hob and most of my cooking is on the hob.  My previous boiler was circa 2011. 

There has been much talk of reducing the boiler flow temperature this past year or more. Below is my experience. By reducing my boiler from 78 to 68℃ my 2022 consumption has been reduced by 15% or 2173 kWh. This is 2022 compared to the average of the previous 3 years and the heating routine has not been significantly changed. Since I made many changes to my heating system in 2023 I’m seeing a marked improvement (16% reduction) in the past three months as compared to the same months last year. Three months is a short time and will need 12 months data for the full picture. 

To achieve the recent improvements I have changed many of my radiators to larger heating capacities ie double to triple panels plus single to double panel. done in part as hopefully the system will be more ready when I’m forced to install a heat pump.

At present my boiler is set to 56℃, the house is comfortable and there is negligible vapour exiting the boiler flue. It is almost fully condensing.

This is really interesting! Thanks for the update @George, I’ll be interested to see what the comparison says with a full 12 month data set.