Excess electricity consumption?

chris1973

I've just noticed you seem to be using a lot of power when you are 'away'. You dont have any outdoor sockets fitted do you, or any in an outbuilding like a Garage or Shed which are unlocked or could be accessed?

Any keyholder who may fancy popping in and doing their washing and drying whilst you are out?

I know its hard to think the worst of people, but when everything else has been looked at and ruled out, you really do have to look at all off the possibilities, especially as there does seem to be a connection between your highest usage and the house being unoccupied.

Phil_GT

i use approx 200-250 units of electric a month, 2 of us working shifts so house unoccupied most of day

spiro

Redcarzone wrote: »

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

Is this the same every day? If evenly spread thats basically a 1kwh fire being on for the whole 2.5hrs. If it is the same every day try reading at 8, 9, 10 & 11 to see if its even or a spike.

Redcarzone

We don't have a monitor like yours but recently bought a plug in one to find out what each individual appliance uses when switched on and a daily average consumption for things like the fridge and freezer which are cutting in and out as required, but so far haven't found any appliance in regular use which would account for our excess consumption. The highest current draw was the tumble dryer which managed to draw almost 13 amps but is rarely in use. Our background consumption taking hourly meter readings would appear to be similar to yours, between 0.1 and 0.2 kWh.

Uther

I would also recommend an energy monitor, I got one free from eon when I switched a while ago, but you can pick them up ebay.

The advantage is you get an instantaneous read out of your current power usage, so you will see immediately if it spikes, or you can switch everything and see if you have something running you don't know about.

I reduced my consumption by about 30% with this gadget.
It may surprise you to find out how much power someone playing computer games all day uses.

Redcarzone

I'll have to look for one of those gadgets, since we've started taking note of our consumption it seems to have mysteriously become normal, although we haven't been out much?? I really can't see any way anyone can steal power from us but it really is weird. I'm off back to work now for the next 5 or 6 weeks so I'll not be able to monitor things for a wile but if any one out there has any suggestions please put up a post as I'll still be watching the site, many thanks to all who have posted so far.
Best wishes
Graham and Bea