Electricity night time usage mystery

Dustykitten

Please help us solve this puzzle.

We have an E:On usage meter and have uploaded our first lot of data. We are really confused to see that our usage has a peak between 2-4am and then a bigger peak between 4-6 dropping back low after this.

No use of DW/WM at this time
No nightstorage
No items on timer

Any idea what his could be? DH leaves his pc on standby all the time so will be switching off totally tonight. We do have a virgin box which is left on and obviously fridge/freeze.

Kids have been quizzed that they are not up in the night so that leaves the 3 cats.

Any thoughts. I like my bed too much to get up and investigate at that time but I might have to. Usage between 12-2 am is 7p on average but the next two band jump to between 14p and 25p.

saveallmymoney

PC waking for windows updates at 3am?

Dustykitten

saveallmymoney wrote: »

PC waking for windows updates at 3am?

Thanks - I said that to DH but he said that they don't wake up if on standby - I don't beleive that so told him to switch it off properly last night. Wonder if the kids lappies are doing that too. I'll make sure they are all switched off tonight - thanks

Premier_2

It would be useful if you could tell us what you do leave on overnight, rather than what you don't have on overnight.

Also if you could tell us how much actual energy is used rather than the cost, that would help too

It could be a combination of things. e.g. the fridge/freezer compressor(s) cutting in could account for some.

victor2

I would suspect the monitor. I have one and it gives odd readings. Since 4am on December 1 it only shows data at 2 hourly intervals, up until then (since June) it was hourly. It looks like mine gives the 2 hour window starting FROM the time given as it gave 1.5kWh for 04:00 yesterday. OH did get up and have a shower at 05:30 so maybe that is included.
But, comparing actual meter readings for the 13th and the corresponding figures from the "hourly" data, the meter says I used 8.9kWh and e.on's gadget says 10.35kWh. Long ago I concluded it was a good indicator of when you are using power but not how much. Your meter is what you are being billed against, take a reading off that last thing at night and first thing in the morning to see if it gives a comparable value to the monitor.

Dustykitten

Premier wrote: »

It would be useful if you could tell us what you do leave on overnight, rather than what you don't have on overnight.

Also if you could tell us how much actual energy is used rather than the cost, that would help too

It could be a combination of things. e.g. the fridge/freezer compressor(s) cutting in could account for some.

Average usage

00:00-02:00 0.65kw
02:00-04:00 1.7
04:00-06:00 2.25
06:00-08:00 1.00

the 04:00-06:00 is about the same as our 8pm useage when kids have tv on, lights are on etc. It is very odd.

Things that are on:
fridge
freezer
fridge/freezer
heat/water comes on at 6:00/6:30am

tvs etc all left plugged in but not on standby.
Virgin box left on
digital clocks
DH pc sometimes on standby
Landing light left on
porch light left on

I think that is it.

davidgmmafan

That is random, conclusion home energy monitors are more trouble than they are worth.

Only kidding.

I really am stumped though, anybody know how a fridge freezer works? Does it draw power evenly or as and when needed? Even then it would normally use 2-3 units in a 24 hour period. Hmm.

Dustykitten

I'm going to look at the alertme figures tomorrow. I find them difficult to compare because they are over different time periods/scales.

victor2

My fridge/freezer is one of those with an anti frost feature. It appears that this operates about once every 10 hours or so and uses about 800W against the usual 400W when just the compressor cuts in. If the fridge is just switched on, full of food and not opened, it seems to use about 1.5kWh per day, but I think in normal use it is more than double that.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Dustykitten wrote: »

Please help us solve this puzzle.

We have an E:On usage meter and have uploaded our first lot of data. We are really confused to see that our usage has a peak between 2-4am and then a bigger peak between 4-6 dropping back low after this.

No use of DW/WM at this time
No nightstorage
No items on timer

Any idea what his could be? DH leaves his pc on standby all the time so will be switching off totally tonight. We do have a virgin box which is left on and obviously fridge/freeze.

Kids have been quizzed that they are not up in the night so that leaves the 3 cats.

Any thoughts. I like my bed too much to get up and investigate at that time but I might have to. Usage between 12-2 am is 7p on average but the next two band jump to between 14p and 25p.

Hi Dustykitten

Already some excellent advice on here. Thought I would just confirm a couple of points.

In particular, as victor says, our energy monitors are not the most accurate device about. Rather, their main use is in making people aware of when electricity is being consumed.

The most accurate way of measuring your usage is by keeping an eye on your meter. I would check this before you go to bed and again in the morning. See how much electricity has been used over night.

Do this over several days and see if a consistent pattern emerges.

This will allow you to build up a much better picture of your ongoing usage.

Hope this is useful Dustykitten. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

blazemore

If by Standby, you mean a Windows computer on "Sleep mode" (NOT shutdown), then yes, scheduled tasks can wake them up.
My Linux box wakes up at 3am and installs any updates, performs a backup, then puts itsself back to sleep.