Massive electricty user, just got an owl monitor

claire21

I posted before on the how much elec do you use thread.

I use nearly 50 kw a day.

Its a large house but we have gas central heating/ hot water. Gas cooker.

No hot tubs, massive ponds, etc, probabaly the only thing I have switched on that some people dont have is a cctv system. I am a lazy user, with all tvs etc left on stand by.

With nothing 'on' in the house apart from cctv, router, phone, fridge freezer I still seem to use about 1 unit an hour.

I have a meter with a digital display with a flashing light.

With the house just idle it flashes every 8 seconds.

I have then isolated different switches
eg the switch that goes to the garden and garage where we have a second freezer, this gives flashes of every 13 seconds, so I presume that the freezer results in the 5 second difference.
Eg the switch that runs the lights, as no lights were on as you would expect the flashes remain at every 8 seconds. The same applies to the switch that runs the kitchen sockets.
Eg the switch that runs other sockets in the house, flashes change to every 13 seconds, so things plugged in like tvs are taking the 5 on stand by.
Eg the switch to the office room, flashes up to 13 so the 5 relates to cctv, telephone, router etc.

I have just plugged in an owl digital monitor and my reading with nothing on in the house bar the fridge freezer, cctv, phones etc is saying im using between 0.451 and 0.708 kw currently, i dont know why it fluctuates.??

So what should i do now, what do these figures mean, why am i using so much and yes when i pull the main fuse on the board to cut power my light doesnt flash.

What does your monitor say you are using currently whilst our house is just ticking over?

greyteam1959

I think you must be reading the meter wrong.......
You can't really be using 50kw per day on the usage you give.
It must be 5kw...........
HTH

claire21

No its correct 50kw a day.

18000 a year, that does include running a swimming pool filtartion pump, note not pool heater as that is gas during the season but pool pump is off now.

So if my just idle cost are showing at this moment at .7kw on the owl monitor thats 16.8 a day for just "being a house" before kids come home, lap tops, tvs go on, before washing machine, dishwasher and lights go on, before i hoover or have a cup of tea or do ironing.

savemoney

Have you got an immersion heater on all time. Even with that on 50Kwh per day is huge. Something doesn't sound right at all. I use around 13kwh per day no electric heating. My owl reads at mo 580w thats with pc on and washing machine and a few things on standby

greyteam1959

My daily usage over the whole year averages 8kw per day.........
I would be double checking that somebody has not left the electric immersion heater on.

claire21

I have a gas combi boiler , no immersion.

claire21

savemoney wrote: »

Have you got an immersion heater on all time. Even with that on 50Kwh per day is huge. Something doesn't sound right at all. I use around 13kwh per day no electric heating. My owl reads at mo 580w thats with pc on and washing machine and a few things on standby

Do you mean 0.580 kw is your reading now with your items running?

penrhyn

Readings below around 0.5 kwh are fairly meaningless as this type of monitor is extremely innaccurate below this figure. Variation is probably down to the compressors in your fridges turning off and on.
You use more electricity than i use gas to heat a 3 bed house,

greyteam1959

Yes thats what savemoney means

greyteam1959

Why not forget the Owl meter & take a reading from your digital electric meter ????
That will give you a highly accurate reading

Tiglath

I've just checked my energy tracker with E-on.

Electricity: in the winter months we use around 18Kw/day versus 11Kw/day in the summer months. TV etc on standby, electric cooker, two freezers, combi boiler so no immersion - we do tend to use the tumbledrier a couple of times a week.

Gas: Just the GCH - 25-45Kw/day in winter.