Extraordinary Increase in Electricity Usage

SwanJon

Frugal_Goblin wrote: »

All the bills have had meter readings.

I think perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned the previous quarters bill as I completely accept that I have lights on longer as it gets dark earlier.

My issue is more with the year on year increase in consumption, from 634kWh for this quarter last year (I've just dug out the bill) to 1885kWh for the same quarter this year.

Running out of ideas now.. were the bills last year based on real reads too?
Have you tried taking daily readings to see how much you are using each day now?

Frugal_Goblin

Yes, the bills last year were based on real reads as well - or at least the same quarter was. I haven't checked the rest. I only opened the bill yesterday so not got as far as monitoring daily usage, so I'll give that a go. I've also charged up some batteries to get my Owl going again. I've read that they're not that reliable, but surely they'll see something big!

I've been giving it some considerable thought and there's one major change this year. When we had some electrical work done, we had a new timer thingy put in for the hot water and central heating (which are both gas/solar). The electrician put the water on continuously on the basis that we would then have constant hot water (we have a tank) as opposed to running out when the tank runs out. Because the boiler is controlled by a thermostat, it shouldn't kick in until the water reaches a low temperature and then it will start to heat. This does mean that the boiler "starts" more frequently than it used to and I don't know if it has a electric ignition. If it does, would that be enough to triple our electricity usage?

The other consideration is that perhaps it is just an aggregation of marginal changes. So, I always used to religiously turn everything off at the socket. For no apparent reason I stopped turning the digital radio off at the socket. It does have a clock display so must use a small amount of electricity.

Our tv broke and before someone lent us one (both old fashioned ones) we used the laptop to watch downloaded tv programmes. I don't know if that makes the laptop use more electricity than it does just in computing mode.

I use our breadmaker around 3 times a week. I wasn't doing that this time last year as the kids weren't eating real food.

I could understand an increase, but 3 times as much does seem excessive. I'm going to look out all the bills over the last 12-14 months as the most obvious thing seems that we may have had a incorrect reading. Even if previous bills had been estimated, we've had frequent enough readings and certainly the last two were read, to have sorted that out.

Still confused!

Frugal_Goblin

brewerdave wrote: »

634kwh per qtr sounds very low to me for a house with young kids in.

Does it? What would I be using it for? This is a serious question as I'm running out of ideas and wondering if there's something really obvious I'd be using because I've now got kids and I didn't have before.

The bill is 3 times what it was this time last year and they were very small then so I would have been more likely to have had the heating on (which doesn't help as it's gas). I also no longer sterilise stuff, use a baby monitor, or breast pump.

All their "noisy toys" are battery operated so I use the battery charger more than before, but probably once or twice a month rather than every week or every day.

Premier_2

Frugal_Goblin wrote: »

... Could a small increase in use of all appliances be the cause of such a massive increase in electricity use?...

Unlikely - the bill is 2.5 times of your previous one.

Whilst lights may be on 2.5 times longer this time of year, they consumption is little compared to heavy drain items that heat things up (like kettles, washing machines, tumble driers, cookers, heaters, etc.)
I think you would know if you were using all these 2.5 times longer/more often.

I think you need to buy some batteries for that Owl monitor and start some monitoring.

Frugal_Goblin

The Owl is on. Unfortunately it's the most basic one so only tells me how much I'm using at this point in time. However, if I just keep checking it as I use things/hear electrical type noises then I should know what things are using more than others.

brewerdave

Frugal Goblin,electric usage - when we had young kids at home we were using ~ 24 kwH per day on average over the whole year- went up to 28kwH per day in Winter. In Winter coldest qtr's usage was around about 2300kwH!!!even with gas for hot water and heating.
Even now when there is just 2 adults in the house our Winter electrical usage is about 1750kWH per quarter. Don't know how you could only use 634kWH last year-This averages out at less than 7kWH per day.

Premier_2

brewerdave wrote: »

... Don't know how you could only use 634kWH last year-This averages out at less than 7kWH per day.

As I understood it, it was 634kWh per quarter, so about 2500kWh per year. (Now it's over 1800kWh just for one quarter - and that's not winter)

In comparison, we only use 2500-3000kWh of electric per year too
(like us, the OP has Gas heating)

Frugal_Goblin

Thank you for all the responses. I've had a tummy bug for a week so not had chance to sort this out until now. I phoned British Gas (who I have my electricity with) and had a chat with them. They made me read my meter again and it would appear it was incorrectly read. I had initially checked it when I got the large bill, but it looked similar to the reading on the bill at that time and having not looked up the notes on how to read the dials, it looks like I must have made the same mistake as the person who came to do the reading.
Anyway, the upshot is that they are now sending me a considerably lower bill - hurrah!

Meanwhile, I think we need to work on our general usage as I'm sure we could cut that further.