Excess electricity consumption?

Redcarzone

Just got back and checked the meter, exactly the same as when I went out so it's not in the garage, I've switched the house back on and I'll check again in 3 hours time.

couponmummy

hope you find out soon what it is thats using all that electric must be costing you a fortune

Redcarzone

Sure is, we're paying more than double what friends pay for similar property/household!!!

Redcarzone

This is beginning to get me concerned now that I've started checking our consumption;
Noon Tuesday to noon Wednesday 11kWh
Wednesday overnight from 22:00 to 09:00 4.5 kWh
last night 22:00 to 08:30 2.3 kWh
today 08:30 to 11:00 2.6 kWh made toast and boiled the kettle
today 11:00 to 12:00 lights on in garage 0.2kWh
today 12:00 to 13:00 tv on 0.6 kWh
today 13:00 to 14:00 house empty 0.2kWh
today 14:00 to 15:00 0.1kWh
today 15:00 to 16:00 0.7kWh washer on quick wash

chris1973

You seem to be using a fair amount overnight. 4.5KW/H is a fair amount to use on a summer night with no immersion heater or heating.

What sort of lights are you using. Any of those small low voltage spotlights in kitchens or bedrooms. Some of these are 35w and 50w and often are fitted in quantities in each room, so they add up?.

Any little people playing playstations or chatting on facebook all night when they should be asleep?

No underfloor heating?. A friend of mine once moved into a new build, and it was 6 months before he noticed an odd thermostat just outside on the landing which controlled underfloor heating in the bathroom, and yes it had been running 'in the background' for that period without him even knowing he had it fitted!.

Any amenity lighting?, are you in a block of flats or other type of building with hallway / doorway / street lighting? which might have been wired into your consumer unit?

Any lights left on in the loft?.

today 08:30 to 11:00 2.6 kWh made toast and boiled the kettle

What are you using?, a Commercial Kitchen??!!. 2.6KW/H seems a lot just to make toast and boil a kettle, neither of which should mean them running and consuming current for much more than 5 mins each. Electric Shower use in this period by any chance?

Redcarzone

There's just the 2 of us in our detached house where we've lived for best part of 20 years so no mysterious heating systems installed, some time ago our electricity supplier commented on our high consumption but we just put it down to 2 kids in the house watching tv playing computer games etc. usual kid stuff, but they've flown the coup now but our bills are still huge.
We don't have an electric shower or anything like that, we have one of those clever things which switches everything off when the tv is switched off so nothing on stand by, just been right round the house to make extra sure there's nothing switched on that would explain our consumption and drawn a blank.
The overnight was me watching the news for 1/2 an hour then tucked up in bed until 7am, even the bathroom light is an energy saver!!
I'm going to switch off one of the ring mains tonight then I'll switch off the other one tomorrow night and see if that makes any difference.

Naf

Redcarzone wrote: »

Just been outside and checked the meter, 21 kWh in 24 hours:eek:

Wow. My daily electricity is around that, but I have an electric shower, electric hob, microwave/kettle/toaster gets used multiple times every day, PC is running 24/7 as is the laptop (yes, I need to remember to switch it off at night), plus I don't exactly treat my daily electric shower as an in and out job... (30mins or so usually).
Where's all yours going?!

Redcarzone

Naf wrote: »

Wow. My daily electricity is around that, but I have an electric shower, electric hob, microwave/kettle/toaster gets used multiple times every day, PC is running 24/7 as is the laptop (yes, I need to remember to switch it off at night), plus I don't exactly treat my daily electric shower as an in and out job... (30mins or so usually).
Where's all yours going?!

I wish I knew, as I said we don't have an electric shower, our water is heated by oil, we have an electric hob and oven, both quite new and A rated and only used for a short time in the evening to cook dinner.
Last night I switched off 1 ring main so all that was on was the fridge, the freezer and the sky box on stand by, everything else was off and we used 1.9kWh from 22:00 to 08:30, I'll switch off the other ring main tonight and see what that does.
I took readings at more or less hourly intervals and without using anything our consumption was between 0.1 and 0.2kWh but then there was a mysterious spike between 08:30 and 11:00 where it jumped to 2.6kWh !!
All other higher readings during the day could be explained with washing machine tumble dryer etc.
The other mystery is the 48kWh we used over last weekend when we were out of the house visiting relatives, 16 kWh a day with no one in the house!!!!
If it was water I would say we have a leak but I can think of no viable explanation and I don't know where to turn to next.

HappyMJ

Do you have an energy monitor? They aren't known for accuracy but they will tell you when stuff is on or off. If you put it on top of the telly you can see when it goes up or down and take it to bed with you and watch it. Currently mine is reading 0.18kw I know from that reading that the fridge must be cooling itself. It normally reads 0.115kw with not too much stuff runnning. Mainly laptops and other chargers.

Naf

It might be worth unplugging everything from it's sockets and seeing if anything still gets used. As stated before your freezer will be fine for over 12 hours as long as you don't open it, fridge will be fine for a good few hours too. Then you'll know if something you're using is draining an abnormal amount, or if there's something you don't know about going on.