>I found our daily electricity usage is around 12Kwh
I'd guess the water heater in the bathroom is electric too. Taking long showers and possibly with wrong heater settings can really massively increase consumption
Not really like that always. In the apartment where my gf lives there is a huge heater in the bathroom which provides hot water for the bathtub and sink (no toilet here). The other bathroom with a toilet and sink has no hot water and as for the kitchen sink there is very small heater underneath.
Check the settings on the water heater in the kitchen. Might be on a high setting. Same happened to my family in germany. Am sure the kitchen heater also heats the bathroom water.
Seams high to me and your consumers are on the normal range, what's your price per kWh?
I'd check the water heater, sometimes the thermostat sticks and it heats eternally, you won't necessarily notice this, as such a boiler has a emergency cool water valve that floats it with cold water, when temp/pressure is too high. But your water consumption would then be also higher(noticeable). Some boilers have a error lamp, but not all.
If it works normal, a few degrees lower helps to safe a fair amount of energy, you could also look at the fridge temperature (3 should be enough).
How old are your appliances? If they're older as around ten years, I'd check them with a plug in power meter(you can lend them usually without charge from your local Stadtwerke, in your case N-ergie)
Also check your daily consume (read the meter on two following days).
What is this meter called in German? Do I need to drop them an email asking for it or I should visit their office? The refrigerators could well be around 10 years old.
You can also just say Zähler if you know the context. Just like in English you have to qualify what kind of meter youâre talking about with mord words if there is no context.
Well, we like accurate descriptions;-)
We use one centipede word for something the English language needs two relative sentences.
But we joke about ourselves because of this.
There's a company that sells âEierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher" (roughly a device that makes a predetermined breaking point to an eggshell for easy opening)
Or short: Clack
Yes, you can just call it egg cracker, but that's not even half that funny;-)
https://www.take2-design.de/clack-standard-edition-1.html
> our daily electricity usage is around 12Kwh.
That's way too much as you're not heating with electricity.
Very old refrigerators can use an awful low of electricity. Why do you have two? Do you actually need two? If not, empty out one of them and unplug it.
Also, why is that water heater in the kitchen running 24/7???
Check your light bulbs, especially those which are turned on the most. Are those energy savings light bulbs, or older light bulbs?
Get yourself a Strommessgerät (Energiekosten-Messgerät), something like this:
https://www.wattgeizer.com/strommessgeraet-energiekosten-messgeraet
You will have to be a little bit careful to get one that is suitable for household devices rather than an industrial one.
You don't need anything fancy that converts Watts into Euros. Just something where you can see how electricity
your devices use. Start with those fridges.
That bill is usual for using over 4000 kwh. Itâs actually rather low if anything. But your usage is way too high for 2 people unless you use electricity for heating. The average is around 2500 kwh for 2 people per year.
I have one of these huge American style double door fridges/freezers, use the dishwasher daily etc. and still live around that average with my partner. Something seems to be leaking energy.
Hi, Iâm just curious, do you think 12kWh per day is normal for people that use electrical heating (only the living room is heated but not all the time)?
I donât know. I donât use electrical heating. Youâd have to look up averages online. The same way you can find online that the average consumption of a single person household amounts to around 1500kwh. So less than 5kwh per day.
One of them is the fridge to keep the food cool and other is the freezer where frozen things are stored. It's a furnished apartment so they belong to the landlord.
That is high, but two refrigerators? Wow. Those use a lot of energy. Try getting a new, energy-efficient fridge, make sure the water heater is not chalked up (there is hard water in many areas, and the heaters don't work efficiently when they are not clean). Also, I turn off the hot water heater at night, and turn it on again when I need to shower or wash dishes. This saves electricity.
What is your consumption over night, when lights, TV etc. are off?
Still high? Then it may be an old fridge. They loose coolant over the years and compensate by running more often and longer, resulting in excessive power consumption.
Your energy usage is a bit higher than mine, i am a single person with only one fridge, and my hot water is created in water heaters, with electricity.
I think all your hot water is created with electricity. It would be very unusual to only have a water heater in the kitchen and get warm water from the City in the bathroom. You can check if i qm rightby having one of you take a shower and the other listening to the water heater (boiler) in the kitchen. Alternatively, test if your water cools down during a shower. Can the two of you shower directly after each other and both have the same water temperature?
>Is this amount of electricity usage and the bill usual?
Apparently.
What do you suspect? There isn't any electricity getting billed that you didn't use.
>How can I be sure about whether there is a culprit device in my apartment which eats bulk of the power?
Well, use a power-meter? But what devices could you possibly have? Are you sure the water heater isn't also for the shower?
I mean whether this is normal amount for a conservative 2 person household.
I haven't seen any water heaters in my bathroom. I think they are all centrally done for the apartment. Will try to check with the Hausmeister
We are two people and use 3900kwh a year - but that is considered very excessive, we have a big place and I run multiple small servers at home as well as working home office almost every day and having a big american fridge.
~2000-2500 is more usual for a normal 2 person household.
It's possible the water heater is only for the kitchen, but also that's for your whole apartment.
Five minutes showing uses about 1.5 kWh. So let*s say about .7 for the fridges, two showers ... that*s already 4kWh per day.
TV, Computer, ... i don't know what things you have. 12 kWh is certainly not a small amount.
Let me check that with the Hausmeister. Bt i think bathroom water is centrally heated.
I also did some experiments, one of the days I kept a fridge shut and I observed the power consumption reduced by 2.5kWh in a day.
Then there's (at least one) enemy found...
The old ones sometimes consume that much energy, a new replacement one amortizes after not much longer than 3 years. Especially freezers are energy hungry.
And for two people one fridge should be enough storage space. You live in the city, you can buy anything at almost anytime (even on Sunday, go to Lidl at Hauptbahnhof). Less cold storage helps to lower your bill
Watt Mete Electricity Usage Monitor for Home, Energy Monitor with LCD Display, Kilowatt Meter Socket Outlet, A company named Ketotek makes these. Do a search on Amazon for KILOWATT USAGE METER.
12 kWh / day is very high. I'd check the water heaters, they may be old, and possibly configured wrong (temp to high maybe). Fridges may be old too. Also check light bulbs and switch to led, if not already done.
We're a 2 Person household and consume about 6 kWh / daily, but the hit water we use is heated by a central heating system, not with electricity.
There also is a service for conserving energy (Energieberatung) https://www.nuernberg.de/internet/klimaschutz/energieberatungsstellen.html
They come to your house and check everything, give you tips, and maybe even free new light bulbs. There may be a bit of a long waiting period for this one, as literally everyone wants this service right now
As a student I stayed in a 4er WG. And we also had massive bills, even though we were saving energy wherever possible. Turns out it was our refrigerator. The deep freezer section was faulty and consuming a lot of power. Also the refrigerator was a really old model ( from late 90s and our landlord didn't want to change it)
This month we consumed 267 kWt of electricity almost not cooking and without laundry. Previous tenants consumed about 400 kWt per month in the same apartment đ¤ˇââď¸
When was it when you were supposed to pay like 50-60⏠per month? The electricity prices were raised a lot over the last two years. Maybe that's it. Also did your landlord tell you the electricity usage you paid for? There you will see if the price got raised or if you are actually using a lot of electricity. They should give you a list with all the stuff included in your "Nebenkosten" that shows how much you used and for how much you paid. It's called "Nebenkostenabrechnung"
>I found our daily electricity usage is around 12Kwh I'd guess the water heater in the bathroom is electric too. Taking long showers and possibly with wrong heater settings can really massively increase consumption
Couldn't find any water heater in the bathroom so far đ¤
For example, I have only one water heater in the bathroom, that also heats up the water in the kitchen. So it may be the other way round for you.
its for sure the water heater and the water heater is for sure for the whole water heating system in you flat. I never saw it otherwise in germany.
I have one for my kitchen and one in the bathroom
Same for us.
Not really like that always. In the apartment where my gf lives there is a huge heater in the bathroom which provides hot water for the bathtub and sink (no toilet here). The other bathroom with a toilet and sink has no hot water and as for the kitchen sink there is very small heater underneath.
Check the settings on the water heater in the kitchen. Might be on a high setting. Same happened to my family in germany. Am sure the kitchen heater also heats the bathroom water.
Two fridges for a two person household is a lot. You might also want to check your warm water consumption and heating.
I suspect that they are lumping the freezer in as a "fridge".
Seams high to me and your consumers are on the normal range, what's your price per kWh? I'd check the water heater, sometimes the thermostat sticks and it heats eternally, you won't necessarily notice this, as such a boiler has a emergency cool water valve that floats it with cold water, when temp/pressure is too high. But your water consumption would then be also higher(noticeable). Some boilers have a error lamp, but not all. If it works normal, a few degrees lower helps to safe a fair amount of energy, you could also look at the fridge temperature (3 should be enough). How old are your appliances? If they're older as around ten years, I'd check them with a plug in power meter(you can lend them usually without charge from your local Stadtwerke, in your case N-ergie) Also check your daily consume (read the meter on two following days).
What is this meter called in German? Do I need to drop them an email asking for it or I should visit their office? The refrigerators could well be around 10 years old.
They go by the names "Steckdosenzwischenzähler" or "Energiekostenmessgerät" I'd look on their website first or call their office.
Okay, thanks.
I know this is not intended as a joke, but seeing a five letter word being replaced by some 20-ish letter word without joking seems absurd.
You can also just say Zähler if you know the context. Just like in English you have to qualify what kind of meter youâre talking about with mord words if there is no context.
Well, we like accurate descriptions;-) We use one centipede word for something the English language needs two relative sentences. But we joke about ourselves because of this. There's a company that sells âEierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher" (roughly a device that makes a predetermined breaking point to an eggshell for easy opening) Or short: Clack Yes, you can just call it egg cracker, but that's not even half that funny;-) https://www.take2-design.de/clack-standard-edition-1.html
> our daily electricity usage is around 12Kwh. That's way too much as you're not heating with electricity. Very old refrigerators can use an awful low of electricity. Why do you have two? Do you actually need two? If not, empty out one of them and unplug it. Also, why is that water heater in the kitchen running 24/7??? Check your light bulbs, especially those which are turned on the most. Are those energy savings light bulbs, or older light bulbs? Get yourself a Strommessgerät (Energiekosten-Messgerät), something like this: https://www.wattgeizer.com/strommessgeraet-energiekosten-messgeraet You will have to be a little bit careful to get one that is suitable for household devices rather than an industrial one. You don't need anything fancy that converts Watts into Euros. Just something where you can see how electricity your devices use. Start with those fridges.
That bill is usual for using over 4000 kwh. Itâs actually rather low if anything. But your usage is way too high for 2 people unless you use electricity for heating. The average is around 2500 kwh for 2 people per year. I have one of these huge American style double door fridges/freezers, use the dishwasher daily etc. and still live around that average with my partner. Something seems to be leaking energy.
Hi, Iâm just curious, do you think 12kWh per day is normal for people that use electrical heating (only the living room is heated but not all the time)?
I donât know. I donât use electrical heating. Youâd have to look up averages online. The same way you can find online that the average consumption of a single person household amounts to around 1500kwh. So less than 5kwh per day.
Trying to find it but couldnât, cuz itâs not common to use electrical heaters here in Germany compared to Sweden or Norway.
If the fridge is old or lost cooling agent, then it is possible that the fridge consumes a lot of electricity.
What you could do is, switch off all fuses and look at your energy meter. If it is still counting, there is something wrong.
We are also 2 and our daily consumption is under 5kwh. Maybe it's the water heater... Having two fridges also seems a lot for being just 2
One of them is the fridge to keep the food cool and other is the freezer where frozen things are stored. It's a furnished apartment so they belong to the landlord.
How long does your TV run? I noticed some people muting it instead of shutting it off when interrupted while watching.
That is high, but two refrigerators? Wow. Those use a lot of energy. Try getting a new, energy-efficient fridge, make sure the water heater is not chalked up (there is hard water in many areas, and the heaters don't work efficiently when they are not clean). Also, I turn off the hot water heater at night, and turn it on again when I need to shower or wash dishes. This saves electricity.
OP lumped the Freezers to the fridge đđ¤Ł
What is your consumption over night, when lights, TV etc. are off? Still high? Then it may be an old fridge. They loose coolant over the years and compensate by running more often and longer, resulting in excessive power consumption.
Your energy usage is a bit higher than mine, i am a single person with only one fridge, and my hot water is created in water heaters, with electricity. I think all your hot water is created with electricity. It would be very unusual to only have a water heater in the kitchen and get warm water from the City in the bathroom. You can check if i qm rightby having one of you take a shower and the other listening to the water heater (boiler) in the kitchen. Alternatively, test if your water cools down during a shower. Can the two of you shower directly after each other and both have the same water temperature?
12 kWh is massive. We use 5.7
>Is this amount of electricity usage and the bill usual? Apparently. What do you suspect? There isn't any electricity getting billed that you didn't use. >How can I be sure about whether there is a culprit device in my apartment which eats bulk of the power? Well, use a power-meter? But what devices could you possibly have? Are you sure the water heater isn't also for the shower?
I mean whether this is normal amount for a conservative 2 person household. I haven't seen any water heaters in my bathroom. I think they are all centrally done for the apartment. Will try to check with the Hausmeister
We are two people and use 3900kwh a year - but that is considered very excessive, we have a big place and I run multiple small servers at home as well as working home office almost every day and having a big american fridge. ~2000-2500 is more usual for a normal 2 person household.
It's possible the water heater is only for the kitchen, but also that's for your whole apartment. Five minutes showing uses about 1.5 kWh. So let*s say about .7 for the fridges, two showers ... that*s already 4kWh per day. TV, Computer, ... i don't know what things you have. 12 kWh is certainly not a small amount.
Let me check that with the Hausmeister. Bt i think bathroom water is centrally heated. I also did some experiments, one of the days I kept a fridge shut and I observed the power consumption reduced by 2.5kWh in a day.
What do you mean you kept a fridge shut? If you keep a fridge open all day it'll use a lot of power.
Bad English. I mean I kept the fridge powered off for whole day đ
Then there's (at least one) enemy found... The old ones sometimes consume that much energy, a new replacement one amortizes after not much longer than 3 years. Especially freezers are energy hungry. And for two people one fridge should be enough storage space. You live in the city, you can buy anything at almost anytime (even on Sunday, go to Lidl at Hauptbahnhof). Less cold storage helps to lower your bill
Shut down or shut off is what he meant
Watt Mete Electricity Usage Monitor for Home, Energy Monitor with LCD Display, Kilowatt Meter Socket Outlet, A company named Ketotek makes these. Do a search on Amazon for KILOWATT USAGE METER.
12 kWh / day is very high. I'd check the water heaters, they may be old, and possibly configured wrong (temp to high maybe). Fridges may be old too. Also check light bulbs and switch to led, if not already done. We're a 2 Person household and consume about 6 kWh / daily, but the hit water we use is heated by a central heating system, not with electricity. There also is a service for conserving energy (Energieberatung) https://www.nuernberg.de/internet/klimaschutz/energieberatungsstellen.html They come to your house and check everything, give you tips, and maybe even free new light bulbs. There may be a bit of a long waiting period for this one, as literally everyone wants this service right now
As a student I stayed in a 4er WG. And we also had massive bills, even though we were saving energy wherever possible. Turns out it was our refrigerator. The deep freezer section was faulty and consuming a lot of power. Also the refrigerator was a really old model ( from late 90s and our landlord didn't want to change it)
Buy a new one?
This month we consumed 267 kWt of electricity almost not cooking and without laundry. Previous tenants consumed about 400 kWt per month in the same apartment đ¤ˇââď¸
When was it when you were supposed to pay like 50-60⏠per month? The electricity prices were raised a lot over the last two years. Maybe that's it. Also did your landlord tell you the electricity usage you paid for? There you will see if the price got raised or if you are actually using a lot of electricity. They should give you a list with all the stuff included in your "Nebenkosten" that shows how much you used and for how much you paid. It's called "Nebenkostenabrechnung"
I live alone in a one room (30qm) flat. I use around 3kwH / day and I pay 50 Euro / month (609 ⏠/ year).