Why am I using so much KWH of electricity ?

Talldave

Always switch off PCs at the socket though, even when they appear to be off, they're still consuming power - 2 older PCs and 3 monitors in our study were using 50W when "off".

One of the most wasteful devices I discovered in the house was a treadmill that used 40W when it was "off", almost 1kWh per day.

Leaving a light on in the loft is another embarassing one that can go un-noticed.

HappyMJ

Talldave wrote: »

Always switch off PCs at the socket though, even when they appear to be off, they're still consuming power - 2 older PCs and 3 monitors in our study were using 50W when "off".

One of the most wasteful devices I discovered in the house was a treadmill that used 40W when it was "off", almost 1kWh per day.

Leaving a light on in the loft is another embarassing one that can go un-noticed.

How did you get the figure of 50W? My laptop only uses 35W when it's running (when idle and fully charged). The desktop does use a small amount when on standby but I'm quite sure it's not 50W.

lifes-too-short

Brimbear, looking at your times of increased Kwh it must be down to lighting, how many kw of lighintg do you have in the house? for instance I have a really small kitchen but had 20 downlights at 50w = 1kw lighting for the kitchen only, times this by 2 hour food prep and there is 2kwh already, not to mention the dark mornings just now. Now if you have a big house what is in your living room, kitchen, utility room bedrooms etc? calc all this up i think you will be surprised.

BirnamBear

lifes-too-short wrote: »

Brimbear, looking at your times of increased Kwh it must be down to lighting, how many kw of lighintg do you have in the house? for instance I have a really small kitchen but had 20 downlights at 50w = 1kw lighting for the kitchen only, times this by 2 hour food prep and there is 2kwh already, not to mention the dark mornings just now. Now if you have a big house what is in your living room, kitchen, utility room bedrooms etc? calc all this up i think you will be surprised.

I'm still no further forward.Yesterday switched off the Delonghi oil heater in the dressing room as posted yesterday.
Read the meter at 0830 this am and my usage over the 24hr period was 26kwh.Bear in mind that the fridge/freezer I switched off on Friday is still off.
I suppose the saving was comprimised by it being the w/e and no school/work so tv's,laptops,ps3's etc were all in use which does not happen to the same extent Mon -Fri.
I have now switched off our devimat underfloor electric heating in our bathroom ensuite.Hopefully this is the killer usage-otherwise I'm lost.

The poster above mentioned lights,my house is full of high efficiency,low energy downlighters(allegedly).The selling point of them is they use only 7/8w but give the equivalent of normal 50w downlighters.Could these be a killer ?

All thoughts appreciated any thanks again to those who have replied so far .

macman

Not necessarily a solution to the main issue, but if the rad in the dressing room doesn't work, why don't you just get it fixed? The cost of freeing off or replacing a TRV would pay for itself in a couple of months, given the consumption on the oil filled rad.
If the downlighters are rated 8W, then clearly that is not the issue-that's what they will use.
The problem with your monitoring is that it's not really over a long enough period to give any conclusive results. I would suggest that a week would give better results.

jalexa

macman wrote: »

Not necessarily a solution to the main issue, but if the rad in the dressing room doesn't work, why don't you just get it fixed? The cost of freeing off or replacing a TRV would pay for itself in a couple of months,

I agree with that suggestion and this is really just an aside, but a flyer from a plumbing company arrived a few days ago offering fixed prices on various tasks. Nothing particularly remarkable except "TRV renew / install - £250":eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

BirnamBear

jalexa wrote: »

I agree with that suggestion and this is really just an aside, but a flyer from a plumbing company arrived a few days ago offering fixed prices on various tasks. Nothing particularly remarkable except "TRV renew / install - £250":eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Not that simple.The central heating system run is not perfect.That radiator is at the end of a run and the system was underpiped.Need to lift floors and re pipe is the only way to fix it in that room.

lithopsian

Does the high "night" consumption appear to be constant moderate use over the whole period, or some bursts of very high usage that you are perhaps not seeing? You can time the use of electricity over a few minutes and see if it is consistent with 26kWH over 16 hours or so (= 1.625 kW continuous).

Once you are sure that whatever is using the electricity is actually in operation, then it is very simple to track it. Just start turning stuff off until the meter slows down! That might be a whole bunch of lights, or a handful of electronic gadgets, or one massive overlooked object.

Frankly that level of electricity use is enough to heat most homes fairly effectively even in winter. If it is was mostly in a single room it would be like a furnace. Perhaps you have high-powered outdoor lighting?

Horseunderwater

Did you know that you can get remote control plugs that you put into sockets before you put the plugs of standby items in them and you can then completely switch off everything with one click on a remote. Argos Ebay and Amazon sell them. Our TV set up is done this way as is the stereo extension plug that I use for many things, The extension is switched off when not needed as there is alight on the extension socket to tell you when power on. I bet that if you did add these into your house you may find that consumption goes down quite a bit. I also switch of plugs for all chargers unless they are actually being used to charge. Normally done after 1.30am to get cheaper rate.

Yolina

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Did you know that you can get remote control plugs that you put into sockets before you put the plugs of standby items in them and you can then completely switch off everything with one click on a remote.

I just use the switch on the sockets at the wall... Far cheaper than buying remote plugs unless I guess if the sockets aren't accessible, but then it might just be a case of re-arranging furniture