How much kw do you use overnight?

lstar337

amtrakuk wrote: »

Yeah it does bigtime! Trying to sort the electric out as I gave a meer reading to my supplier the other day, assuming I'd be using around 40-50 units a day (as I do in winter with an all electric house) only to find over the last month I have been burning about 5 units an hour!

I thought it could be the thermal store (for hot water) as that just runs on thermostat 24/7 but between 8pm and 11am overnight it only saved 3 units. Last night it hadn't overheated or anything.

Ironically I thought I'd put the oil filled rads on timers as they too were running on thermostat 24/7. They were set to switch off at 11 last night and come on at 7 for a couple of hours with the exception of a 1kW one in the bedroom.

Came down expecting about 8-10 units used and was horrified to see I had used 50 units!

To rule out any of the large consumers I'm going to turn off ALL the oil filled radiators and thermal store at the wall. If I've used any more than 10 units I will move to plan B - phone up the electric company.

Just going round the house the things that are plugged in and "on standby" with the exception of the heaters and thermal store are;

Front room - TV, Youview box, VCR, PLA / Wireless point
Kitchen - Fridge freezer (m/wave has mechanical timer)
Box Room - Laptop (server), router, PLA adaptor
Bathroom - nothing
Bedroom - Alarm clock, 2 x phone charger, laptop adaptor
Attic Room - 1.5 KW Radiator on frost protection.

I have a EFergy electric meter. I'll see if I can zero it and see if it will record my usage as a second reference.

I would start looking for cables that disappear through walls and into neighbouring properties!

amtrakuk

I've set up the Efergy meter reading the energy into the fuse box and already:

11:45 am 7.635
12:10 pm 8.163

Oddly enough the meter settles on about 300 watt then every 5-10 seconds, jumps to 1.2kW for a couple of seconds... I could understand it jumping up if the 1kW rad is on, but for a couple of seconds..? Any ideas?

Seems like the electric meter is not fibbing... All rads are off except the one in the bedroom running on stat. I think I will go out and get timer switches for he remaining radiators.

shavy65

first things first here.....I`m no expert.

Just thinking, could you not monitor the meter and individually `trip` seperate switches in the fusebox, that`ll surely narrow it down for u. i.e. u`ll know if the power hungry offender is coming from downstairs ring main, up stairs lighting etc etc

Just a though

amtrakuk

Good idea... Going to switch all the hungry items off tonight and see what it reads in the morning.

amtrakuk

Way hay, getting there - down to 50 units in the last 24 hours... What times do you have you heating coming on and off?

System

Mines E7 and use round about 50 units a night water plus 2x 2.5kw storage heaters and 1 1.5kw storage on. my unit price is 5.75.

day rate is 12.63 only use a few units a day.

its the standing charge that gets me 34.25 a day i could change for a cheaper standing charge but then day rates go higher.

amtrakuk

mackemps3 wrote: »

Mines E7 and use round about 50 units a night water plus 2x 2.5kw storage heaters and 1 1.5kw storage on. my unit price is 5.75.

day rate is 12.63 only use a few units a day.

its the standing charge that gets me 34.25 a day i could change for a cheaper standing charge but then day rates go higher.

Those are the sorts of figures I was using before putting timers on everything and what an effect 45-50% reduction with only a little difference in comfort - most of all its all automatic. Is E7 really worth it? The reason I'm asking, I've learnt leaving heating on 24/7 for me works out expensive. I like the idea of E7 but would an average daily bill be more of less than £4 a day?

System

i think when i checked to meter i used about £2.70 ish for heat and water plus add a few units for day then the standing charge i would use less than £4.00 per day, took me a while to get used to e7 but my flat seems warmer all the time, uness am getting tougher lol

amtrakuk

Glad tp speak to someone who is on E7 with storage heaters.

I am tempted by an E7 tariff and I know everyone’s usage is different. I did look into it but I heard horror stories about the amount of energy they used, having to know how much heat you will need the next day, the heaters running out of heat half way though the evening and general inflexibility.

How do you find using storage heaters or are they something you have to "learn to drive"?

GolfFoxtrot

amtrakuk wrote: »

Glad tp speak to someone who is on E7 with storage heaters.

I am tempted by an E7 tariff and I know everyone’s usage is different. I did look into it but I heard horror stories about the amount of energy they used, having to know how much heat you will need the next day, the heaters running out of heat half way though the evening and general inflexibility.

How do you find using storage heaters or are they something you have to "learn to drive"?

I think it depends on the hours you are in the house, for me they are rubbish as the house is nice and warm when the heaters are heating up (between midnight and 7am) and also first thing in the morning. I then leave for work and when I get back at 6pm the heat has leaked out of the heaters and theres none left to make the house warm for me.

At the moment it's costing me about £3 a day to heat a small 2 bed flat, using around 30 kWH overnight each night.