Electricity use seems a bit high, looking for advice

Tylium

Hello,

I've just moved in to a 1 bed flat and I'm keeping a close eye on my electricity meter. Today At 9am, I read it at 19820. At 2pm it is on 19823. The fridge is on ( rated 213khw per annum) and ive boiled the kettle once with enough water for 1 cup. Three units in the space of 5 hours seems a bit high especially with nothing else on.

The difference in readings between yesterday and today was 5 (19815 to 19820) and that was with several boils of the kettle, fridge on, lights on in the evening, cooking using the electric stove and the tv on for two hours. I'm also going to leave everything off tonight, bar the fridge, and see the difference in readings.

penrhyn

I'm very frugal with electricity and average 5-6 Kwh / day.
By electric stove do you mean heater?

Tylium

Right. Just taken night rate readings. 28059 to 28080 in one night with nothing on that wasn't on during the day, fridge. Can anyone shed any light on this?

HappyMJ

That could be hot water. If it's too hot you might want to consider lowering the temperature to save a little bit but you run the risk of running out of hot water and reheating a cylinder at peak rates is very expensive. My hot water cylinder is set to 55 degrees and only consumes 4kWh per night...but...it's just enough for hand washing, dish washing (by hand) and a very shallow bath. I also have an electric shower rated at 9.5kW to have a shower which doesn't use any of the hot water. The washing machine and dishwasher heats it's own water which is always timed to run during the night to save a few pennies.

Could also be storage heating....but you did say you turned everything off...I assume you also meant the heating.

notbritishgas

Tylium wrote: »

Right. Just taken night rate readings. 28059 to 28080 in one night with nothing on that wasn't on during the day, fridge. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I presume you have electric heating, was it on last night (very cold here).
How do you heat your water for baths etc.

21kwh could indicate one large storage heater on for the 7 hours.

Tylium

notbritishgas wrote: »

I presume you have electric heating, was it on last night (very cold here).
How do you heat your water for baths etc.

21kwh could indicate one large storage heater on for the 7 hours.

I have electric heating but they were all off. Water heater was also off. The water heater has a switch with timed and off, and a timer so it only heats up the water during night rate hours. Yesterday I made sure to turn everything off apart from the fridge. As a comparison, between the 23rd and 24th when I did have the water heater switched to timed And the storage heaters off it counted 16kwh.

penrhyn

Turn everything off for an hour or so, won't hurt the stuff in the fridge.
If you are still consuming power turn everything off at your consumer unit, if it stops then you have missed something.

notbritishgas

Tylium wrote: »

Right. Just taken night rate readings. 28059 to 28080 in one night with nothing on that wasn't on during the day, fridge. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Tylium wrote: »

I have electric heating but they were all off. Water heater was also off. The water heater has a switch with timed and off, and a timer so it only heats up the water during night rate hours. Yesterday I made sure to turn everything off apart from the fridge. As a comparison, between the 23rd and 24th when I did have the water heater switched to timed And the storage heaters off it counted 16kwh.

Well you apparently used 21kwh in 7 hours with only the fridge on.:eek:
That amount of electricity used would be obvious to you by way of a glow in the dark or a lot of heat emitted.
The water heater alone would not use 16kwh in a night as it would switch off when the temperature was reached, more like 3-4 kwh.
Your daytime usage is quite normal, perhaps even a little on the low side at 5kwh, so what happens at night.
Further investigation required.

Tylium

I turned the storage heaters and immersion heater off at the breaker. Everything else was unplugged apart from the fridge. The night rate went from 28080 to 28099. Another 19kwh In the space of 7 hours. It was bloody freezing. It seems fairly consistent, around 5 on the day rate and around 20 on the night rate despite things being on or off.

Im going to phone western power tomorrow morning and reconfirm the meter number. While everyone is out, im going to run some appliances and make sure its my meter that is ticking. Im going to phone the letting agent and ask them to confirm their readings from the check out before i moved in. I also have a energy monitor from eon that ill use. There are two feeds it seems, one labelled on and one off. Whic one do i put it around and why are there two to begin with? Hopefully i can head this off before it gets out of hand.

molerat

Do you have a communal meter cupboard ? If yes then you probably have the wrong meter.

The meter should have a red flashing light if digital or a spinning wheel if mechanical. Switch your main switch on the fuse box off and see if the light is flashing or wheel spinning at all.

Tylium

OK. I ran the heater on boost while no one else was in this afternoon. The meter registered to my flat wasn't flashing but the one next to it was going haywire. This other meter completely stopped when I turned everything off at the consumer unit while "my" meter was still going. The other meter started flashing again when I turned the consumer unit back on.

It's obvious now that the meter registered to my flat isn't my meter. I have taken video and photos of the whole testing process but what can I do now? Do I contact my supplier or the DNO to get this changed? This has also been going on for some time, possibly since 2004, because the letting agent had significantly lower readings on their check out than i did on my check in.