In 2022, the total energy used by an automated home was 15,087 MWh (an average of 41 kWh/day). That’s a 7.3% decrease from last year, partly due to the loss of 2 of our ‘tenants’.
A little less than one-third of that total was used by our air-powered heat pump for space heating and hot water (4.83 MWh). This was the first full year we were able to take advantage of the work the bosses at Epitome Living did last spring to ensure our Loxone building management system kept the heat pump running in the early hours of the morning.
We also continued to use the delay start feature on our Siemens appliances to run the dishwasher and washing machine overnight, as well as use the built-in timer to charge the EV.
This allowed us to shift more energy consumption to the cheaper night tariff, significantly increasing the total share used on the Economy 7 tariff, from 35.9% in 2021 to 44.2% in 2022.
Expenses
On the cost side, the increase in the unit price of electricity has been offset by the above changes, along with the government’s Energy Price Guarantee scheme, which has given us access to incredible 1.5p overnight rates in November and December. All this means that our annual electricity bill of £2,225 is 2.1% lower than the previous year and we are now using almost a quarter (26%) of the energy we used in our previous home.
Remember, we don’t burn anything, we don’t buy gas, heating oil, coal, wood, petrol or diesel. So that £186 (average) is our single monthly bill for all our heating and hot water, all our cooking and washing, all our lighting and entertainment plus our ‘fuel’ for one of the electric cars.
You can read all the details about our system in this comprehensive post from last year.