Using 27 units of electricity per day?

blazemore

Hello everyone.
Out electricity bills are extortionately high for a two bedroom flat, partly because we were with Spark energy (28.8p/unit, anyone?).

We've since switched to nPower and while the bills are cheaper I think we're using far too many units.

We're using a little over 27 units a day. Doesn't that equate to more than 1KW constantly?
We have gas central heating, so I have no idea where this is coming from.

We did a test and turned off all the devices we could, even the fridge, apart from 1 energy saving lightbulb.
We were like that for 2 hours, and the meter rolled over 2 units in that time.

We've had the meter changed so it's not a faulty meter. It is likely that someone is "tapping" our electricity? Is that even possible?

Farway

Have you got an immersion heater? Has it been left on?

How about PC / monitors on all the time?

Could it just be the CH pump?

blazemore

No central heating pump, we have hot air vents heated by gas (yes there's a fan, but that was off for our two-hour test, and isn't usually on anyway).

Not sure about an immersion heater. There's a switch on the wall that we leave on, because we turned it off once and the next day we had no hot water.
But that was off when we did our two hour test as well.
We're always careful about turning off monitors and stuff: I put my PC onto sleep when I go to make a coffee!

blazemore

But that doesn't explain why we would be using 1KW of power when the only device that's on is an energy saving lightbulb.
We literally switched everything off, even the fridge. Everything, at the plug.

Premier_2

blazemore wrote: »

...We literally switched everything off, even the fridge. Everything, at the plug.

And what was the meter recording then as being consumed?

If something, then you have one of 3 possibiities:
1. Meter faulty - unlikely
2. You haven't turned everything off - keep looking.
3. Someone is tapping into your supply. Turn the supply off at the isolation switch and wait for the shouting to start

HappyMJ

Premier wrote: »

And what was the meter recording then as being consumed?

If something, then you have one of 3 possibiities:
1. Meter faulty - unlikely
2. You haven't turned everything off - keep looking.
3. Someone is tapping into your supply. Turn the supply off at the isolation switch and wait for the shouting to start

I agree with all the above.

When you go out one day turn it all off at the isolation switch read the meter then when you get back in read it again and turn it all back on again. The fridge should stay cold enough for that period of time. It could be the immersion. It won't use a huge amount but your gas boiler should be heating the water and not the electric so it will save you a bit by turning it off. Check the settings on the boiler to check it is actually heating the water.

PasturesNew

blazemore wrote: »

Not sure about an immersion heater. There's a switch on the wall that we leave on, because we turned it off once and the next day we had no hot water.

I'd suggest that 2+2=4.

blazemore

I don't know if we have a "master" switch.
I'll try and find one.
Assuming that is an immersion heater, I definitely switched it off.

I'd like to try switching the whole system off for a couple of hours to see what happens then.

I've applies for an npower energy monitor, and I'm going to try and link it up to Google's power thing, which records and graphs your power usage, and can tell you your "baseline" usage, below which you never fall.
If that turns out to be 800W or similar, then something's wrong!

On the plus side, we're not home for the summer, so we only average about 12 units a day.

techno12

Let us know what the nPower meter says when you switch everything off.

I have one of those and when most things are off before I go to work in the morning I'm using 110-120 watts so I guess that's my baseline (some things I never switch off - obviously the fridge freezer, cooker timer, gas boiler and router/switches).

When I'm in on an evening and have the 47" LCD telly on and a few lights my total usage is around 300-350 watts. The PC (and gubbins connected to it) add another 150watts.

RHYSDAD

Why are you with Spark Energy again? Is it a tied thing? Their price promise doesn't seem to be being fulfilled....

JasX

RHYSDAD wrote: »

Why are you with Spark Energy again? Is it a tied thing? Their price promise doesn't seem to be being fulfilled....

@RHYS -> Please at least try to make it onto the third line of a thread before posting an inane irrelevant reply.

@OP What kind of property are you in house/apartment?

You must have a fuse/circuit breaker box somewhere which will let you isolate exerything for certain. Any suspicious hatches or panels near your front door or just outside?

If you live in an apartment block often all the maintenance hatches are on a standard chubb window bolt turner type key so you could get one from a hardware store for about £2 and start opening them up for a peek (don't go touching things)