Inexplicable spike in electricity use at 4am?!?

brewerdave

Immersion heater on timer switch????

moonrakerz

S_AND_I wrote: »

Moonrakerz, I'm aware the monitors have limitations but a spike every 24 hours is quite a consistent error. I'm going to try and plot the readings from the meter - it's just the spike (if there) is at quite an inconvenient time!
Cheers

I'm not suggesting that you sit up all night and watch the meter

Just take a reading when you go to bed and another when you get up in the morning.
You should have a good idea of what is running during the night; fridge, sky box, usually not much - they shouldn't use a great deal. A 5 - 7 kWh "spike" will stick out like a sore thumb, if it is there.

ailuro2

Change the time on the monitor to change it by 12 hours, to see if it then spikes at 2 to 4 in the after noon - if it does then it's something in the house, if it doesn't, ie it still spikes at the monitor time of 4am, then it's the monitor...



btw no-one is plugged into your power supply are they, wouldn't be the first time it has happened - old connection where someone has tapped into the house's supply.
Do you think your bills are pretty reasonable, or are the inexplicably high?

keith1950

Hi, a washing machine or immersion heater would only consume about 3kw max each and wouldn't be switching on together. The only thing that I have come across that would use 7-8 kw was a cupboard mounted electric storage unit that blew hot air through ducts around the house. It was rated at 10 kwH and ran on the economy 7 off peak rate, but as you state that you have a combi boiler then I can only assume its a faulty monitor or it's picking up someone else's information.

MrsTinks

In a house I had many years ago we compeltely removated it - and part of that was new mains and heating etc - we had all the power turned off at the mains so imagine my partners shock when he was pulling a a wire through and as it touched the copper piping a HUGE blue spark popped and blew a hole in the pipe... we followed the wire from one side in our property to the wall to the adjoining property... so we made it safe and shoved it back with a note saying "think this is yours..." as no-one lived next door... Think it originated from when they were council houses but anyones guess really
So yes... definitely worth checking everthing and especially if your meter reading is going up sharply too...

Cardew

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, a washing machine or immersion heater would only consume about 3kw max each and wouldn't be switching on together. The only thing that I have come across that would use 7-8 kw was a cupboard mounted electric storage unit that blew hot air through ducts around the house. It was rated at 10 kwH and ran on the economy 7 off peak rate, but as you state that you have a combi boiler then I can only assume its a faulty monitor or it's picking up someone else's information.

Sorry to be pedantic but we are again getting our terminology mixed up; which confuses!

An electrical device is rated in kW and it consumes kWh.

The Eon monitor records kWh and the OP states that the spike is 5 to 7 kWh.

As he has a gas combi, he is unlikely to have a hot water tank let alone an immersion heater.

Whilst a washing machine might be rated at 3kW, even on a hot cycle it is unlikely to consume more than 1 kWh and that would take a hour.

I would be pretty certain that the house is not consuming the 5-7kWh and it is a monitor/software fault. It would be easy to confirm that by checking the main electricity meter last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

For what it is worth, I have had my EON monitor for a month now. The monitor itself has been surprisingly accurate for cumulative consumption. Over exactly 30 days it recorded 512 kWh, and my meter read 523 kWh so about a 2% under-read.

The installed software on the PC is faulty, although it downloaded the data OK(so it said!) the bar chart was a nonsense, and now it displays software error - despite removing software and re-installing on PC twice it is still faulty.

DVardysShadow

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Has it occurred to you that you might not be monitoring YOUR consumption? Your meter could be picking up one of the neighbours who also has an eon energy monitor? There was another thread about it somewhere. Maybe they have some electric heating / hot water coming on at that time of day?

I was not aware of this, but this was in the back of my mind as a possbility when I suggested the null test.

ailuro2 wrote: »

Change the time on the monitor to change it by 12 hours, to see if it then spikes at 2 to 4 in the after noon - if it does then it's something in the house, if it doesn't, ie it still spikes at the monitor time of 4am, then it's the monitor...

Agree. This is an excellent idea.

ailuro2 wrote: »

btw no-one is plugged into your power supply are they, wouldn't be the first time it has happened - old connection where someone has tapped into the house's supply.

MrsTine wrote: »

In a house I had many years ago we compeltely removated it - and part of that was new mains and heating etc - we had all the power turned off at the mains so imagine my partners shock when he was pulling a a wire through and as it touched the copper piping a HUGE blue spark popped and blew a hole in the pipe... we followed the wire from one side in our property to the wall to the adjoining property... so we made it safe and shoved it back with a note saying "think this is yours..." as no-one lived next door... Think it originated from when they were council houses but anyones guess really

A really good example of why I think it is better to pull fuses in the consumer unit than just go round turning stuff off.

S_AND_I

ailuro2 wrote: »

Change the time on the monitor to change it by 12 hours, to see if it then spikes at 2 to 4 in the after noon - if it does then it's something in the house, if it doesn't, ie it still spikes at the monitor time of 4am, then it's the monitor...

Love this idea.

ailuro2 wrote: »

btw no-one is plugged into your power supply are they, wouldn't be the first time it has happened - old connection where someone has tapped into the house's supply.
Do you think your bills are pretty reasonable, or are the inexplicably high?

The bills don't seem that out of the ordinary. While the tapping in is possible, I think the timings make it a less likely scenario.

S_AND_I

Cardew wrote: »

Sorry to be pedantic but we are again getting our terminology mixed up; which confuses!

An electrical device is rated in kW and it consumes kWh.

The Eon monitor records kWh and the OP states that the spike is 5 to 7 kWh.

As he has a gas combi, he is unlikely to have a hot water tank let alone an immersion heater.

Whilst a washing machine might be rated at 3kW, even on a hot cycle it is unlikely to consume more than 1 kWh and that would take a hour.

I would be pretty certain that the house is not consuming the 5-7kWh and it is a monitor/software fault. It would be easy to confirm that by checking the main electricity meter last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

I think this is an important point. I can't fathom anything that would be using five times my peaks use for the rest of the day for a two-hour period.

Cardew wrote: »

For what it is worth, I have had my EON monitor for a month now. The monitor itself has been surprisingly accurate for cumulative consumption. Over exactly 30 days it recorded 512 kWh, and my meter read 523 kWh so about a 2% under-read.

The installed software on the PC is faulty, although it downloaded the data OK(so it said!) the bar chart was a nonsense, and now it displays software error - despite removing software and re-installing on PC twice it is still faulty.

Yep, I'm going to be comparing the totals too but at the mo just in the first week so not enough data to be 100% sure.

S_AND_I

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Has it occurred to you that you might not be monitoring YOUR consumption? Your meter could be picking up one of the neighbours who also has an eon energy monitor? There was another thread about it somewhere. Maybe they have some electric heating / hot water coming on at that time of day?

If you were really using 5-7Kw/h more in the night you'd know it - something would be getting VERY hot - that energy has to "go" somewhere and it won't be used silently or undetectably!

Given that our doorbell rings when someone rings one eight houses down the road, it is possible!

I am tending to agree with your second point but want to be 100% sure.