Massive electricty user, just got an owl monitor

closed

Everything has to be taken into account, as it all contributes to the final bill. If a second chest freezer costs £150 pa to run (it may not, depends on size, efficiency), then it's a significant outlay when compared to the average annual bill. The supermarket does this for free and rotates stock, so unless you really don't go shopping very often, or freeze roadkill, it can be an expensive luxury, more so if old food sat at the bottom of the freezer is thrown away after a few months of freezer burn

According to your brief flashing light test, the freezer/garage circuit is using approx 33-61% (the numbers posted conflict somewhat) of your background electricity, not insignificant.


Electric Showers, Immersions, Electric Cookers, kettles, Washing machines, TV's, Non energy saving lights or outside lights, PC's, Dishwashers, Iron, Freezers, Pumps, games consoles are the things to check first.

PVR's, Set top boxes, laptop chargings, cctv with hard disk recording are all in the order of 40w.

Phones, routers and the like maybe 10w or less.

Each watt is around £1 pa if on continously.

a flash once every 8 seconds is about 11 units/day 4000 units/year
a flash once every 13 seconds is about 6.5 units/day 2500 units per year

to use 50kwh in a day, the flash should be blinking (on average) once every 1.7 seconds

chris1973

I suspect most of your daytime energy use is shared between the two freezers. How old are they?, what setting have you got on the Thermostat?. Unless you have a heated garage you won't need the thermostat in that one set very high as the ambient temperature will be low. You'd be amazed at how many people have their freezers cranked up to 6, just because the dial goes up to 6, or have just left them on the setting which they left the Factory with!.

Also check that the door seals haven't perished and are still giving an airtight seal. It's all well and good quoting manufacturers figures of xxx KW/H consumption a year, if you have a brand new freezer and its airtight and its running in a climate controlled 'Green' test lab in Germany, however just like MPG figures on cars, this figure often becomes meaningless 'in the real world' as every household is different, especially if the OP has inherited Grannie's 25 year old Hotpoint with perished door seals and its unsuccessfully trying to air condition the house!.

Freezers should switch on / off periodically as the thermostat allows (assuming a realistic setting!!!), but from the OP's observations it sounds like at least one of them is consuming power continuously, and this could indicate a knackered thermostat or perished door seals, you'd be shocked at just how common that is.

Also make sure that your Freezers are well away from sources of heat, such as central heating radiators, direct sunlight, Ovens etc. It sounds obvious, but the higher the 'local' temperature, then the harder the compressor has to work / more frequent the running periods. This is why the one in the garage / outbuilding can often be set lower than one inside a heated house.

What lighting do you have in bedrooms, kitchen, hallways etc?. Any of those nasty little recessed halogen spotlights, these can consume 20w to 50w PER LAMP - depending on the type, so a row of 6x 50W GU10's in a large kitchen, conservatory or bedroom for example will consume 300 watts. If you do have bedrooms or living areas using these, toss in a couple of bedside / table lamps with 12W energy saving bulbs in them instead, you'd be amazed at how much it will save, as well as giving a more gentle light

Large screen Plasma TV's can consume 200W - 400W, LCD's can use upto 200w depending on the size and age of the TV - do the kids have a TV each?. Read the rating plate on the back of each TV, to ascertain its loading, again you might be surprised how much this add's up with 2, 3 or 4 sets!.

Xboxes / PS etc can also consume anything upto 200w per console, again depending on the age of console and the extras fitted.

It is amazing how entertainment based appliances can add up, especially in larger families.

Any outside PIR controlled security lamps?. Are these set up correctly, or are they randomly switching on/off during the night in response to wind / cats / heating vents etc?. Consider replacing the halogen tube in these for 24W low energy retrofit types.

HappyMJ

claire21 wrote: »

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

90W...that's a phone charger, a laptop turned on, a router, a hub and the energy monitor itself. If I add the actual wattages of each device together it comes to about 50W so it is very inaccurate. My weekly usage at the moment with off peak E7 electric hot water and electric shower comes to 38kW. Currently no heating.

Neil49

I find the figures you are quoting quite horrific given that my daily average over a year is between 4 and 5 kWh and when the house is 'on idle' it uses about 70 watts (i.e 0.070 kWh).

You stated "With nothing 'on' in the house apart from cctv, router, phone, fridge freezer I still seem to use about 1 unit an hour". That is 24 kWh per day (or almost what I use in a week total!)

Earlier this year I had a similar problem and ended up monitoring usage (using an Efegy monitor) to work out where the power was being consumed. In my instance it turned out that the meter was actually faulty (overreading by about 3x) but a clue was in the fact that the meter kept running even after turning off the power at the main supply.

You have already done this and the meter has stopped. Also you have ascertained in the short time that you have used the Owl that its readings and your usage recorded on the electric meter are fairly similar.

I suggest you continue to monitor usage over the next few days taking readings from your electric meter every 24 hours to see how the situation progresses.

My Efegy monitor allowed me to download the readings to my pc which meant I didn't have to watch it all the time but even just glancing at it gave me a good idea of usage during the day.

If the figures still don't add up then I would take more frequent readings to see where any peaks occur.

Basically, what I am saying is that you need to have plenty of concrete evidence of a faulty meter before approaching your supplier to investigate further. If you are using the power they say you are then you would almost certainly be charged for the (false) callout.

Could you also clarify whether this consumption level has always been this high or has it gone up recently.

Finally, if you do need to contact your supplier, some of them have representatives on this site who can take up your case. I found this to be a much better option than attempting to get resolution via a call centre where you never spoke to the same person twice and who didn't always understand what you were trying to put across in your argument for some sort of resolution. It also means you have your correspondence in writing rather than hope that someone on the phone has interpreted the situation correctly.

Hope this helps

claire21

Thanks everyone once again.

My meter reads have always been high but somehow I was oblivious to what others peoples were. Its a big house and I just thought that was it, but when it sinks in that a big house with gas heating and water should not be that different to other houses as in we all have washing machines, kettles etc and even dishwashers , laptops, xboxes etc are fairly standard items in the majority of houses.

As i said cctv is the only real thing i can think of that the majority of houses dont have. Along with the pool pump which is now off, just to state again pool is heated by gas not electric.

I could understand if i was even 3 times higher than a normal house but 40 to 50 a day and what i cant get a grip around is the idle figure.

Mass testing day tomorrow with the plug in.

Plug on garage freezer now.

My house fridge freezer is maybe 15 years old, its quite big and set in a recess with the plug behind it so will have to pull it out.

10 out of 24 lights in the kitchen diner are 50 w hallogen lights, its a very big room with the main kitchen area being without windows and french windows towards the eating area, at the time all LED downlighters in the kitchen made it too dark. Maybe brighter LED downlighters are availavble now? But during all my night time testing these lights were obviously off and still running at 1 unit an hour, they were off during this afternoons experiment too.

If my owl and meter readings agree that means I am using it doesnt it?

closed

24 lights, in one room..., a few 14w energy savers would be cheaper.

fastest way of narrowing it down is to isolate circuits, count the blink rate, and unplug appliances, room by room

rogerblack

claire21 wrote: »

If my owl and meter readings agree that means I am using it doesnt it?

Pretty much.
Good luck with your experiments!

Chrishazle

GU10 50W lights are a killer - previous owner put a load in this house. I changed the 8 in the kitchen for low energy ones - like the OP I tried a few LED versions but they were not bright enough and/or the light was too "cold". The low energy ones take a minute to "warm up" to full brightness, which takes some getting used to - but as kitchen lights are on a lot, in my case 8 x 14W is a lot better than 8 x 50W (112W instead of 400W!!).

Watch the depth of the bulb though - most 14W energy saver GU10's are longer than halogen GU10's so you either accept the bulb protruding a bit from the fitting or change the fitting to one made for ES lamps.

Slowly_does_it..

Hi,

You said your meter jumped up when your neighbor started mowing the lawn.. I have seen some items where one person is paying for the neighbors elec, maybe try turning off the mains at night, and if their house goes dark, you might have a start of an answer! - I agree with the comments about the lights as well, they drink!

lovinituk

Slowly_does_it.. wrote: »

Hi,

You said your meter jumped up when your neighbor started mowing the lawn.. I have seen some items where one person is paying for the neighbors elec, maybe try turning off the mains at night, and if their house goes dark, you might have a start of an answer! - I agree with the comments about the lights as well, they drink!

LOL - read the rest of that post. The elec jumped up because the posters other half started the microwave. It was just a coincidence that the neighbour had started their (petrol!) mower at the same moment!