My electricity usage has suddenly doubled!

thegfb

Hi, bit of background:

I live in a 3 bed semi detached house with gas central heating and DHW, everything else is electricity.

I've lived here about one year. I've fairly routinely read both the gas and electricity meters on average once every month or so since I moved in.

I've submitted a read yesterday and was shocked to see how many units I've used over the past 40 days. Since we moved in, our average units per day has been 8, some months 7.7 per day and some months 8.6 but fairly steady.

My average for the last 5 weeks or so is 20 per day!!

Our usage hasn't changed at all, doing exactly the same amount of cooking, washing etc. If anything it should be lower because we took a week's holiday during that time

The one thing I think it might be is our integrated fridge freezer has been playing up, I think the thermostat has been slowly failing. Within the last week only, I had have had to leave it on fast freeze permanently to keep the temps down but surely that wouldn't explain the massive increase?

Any tips welcome.

PS - my electricity meter is a newer one (digital readout) not like the older ones where the dial can be seen turning, don't know if it could be misreading?

sheffield_lad

I would check if the immersion heater is on first of all (if you have a cylinder). That could account for 6-9upd.

thegfb

Hi sheffield lad, thank for the reply, hot water comes from a gas combi boiler, no cylinder and no electricity used for any heating.

As for the faulty fridge freezer - it's not a 100% accurate diagnosis but it sounds like the thermostat so I've taken a punt on a new one for £40. If it's not that I can always flog it on. Still not sure how this would account for the massive increase in usage even if it was on the blink.

I'm gonna borrow an electricity usage monitor from my brother (the one which measures the current at the meter), I know these are fairly broad but if something is sapping the juice then I should see a drop if I power it down.

[Deleted User]

Can you not just do a useage check on the chief suspect.. the fridge freezer. Switch everything off except the f/f and monitor for an hour. They switch on and off every now and then so if its on constant it would account for the big increase..

thegfb

Well, it's still early stages but it looks like my meter might be faulty.

I borrowed a usage monitor from my brother (an Efegy Elite 2.0) and set it up. I actually waited until my meter turned over a unit (to xxx68) and then immediately reset the usage data on the the monitor to zero.

The monitor now reads 1.21 units (kWh) and the meter has already turned over to xxx70 which means it is has registered at least 2 units!!

I know the monitors probably aren't 100% accurate but if my meter is actually right then it's suggesting that the monitor is under-reading by more than half, which doesn't seem right and it ties in with the massive bill being about double previous usage. I'll have a better idea once I've let it run 24 hours or so, but the instantaneous read out seems bang on (0 with the mains turned off, ~0.15kW with all appliances off, ~3.0kW when I'm boiling the kettle).

I've already sent a letter to my supplier making them aware and asking them to investigate it, now the fun begins :mad:

System

thegfb wrote: »

Well, it's still early stages but it looks like my meter might be faulty.

The monitor now reads 1.21 units (kWh) and the meter has already turned over to xxx70 which means it is has registered at least 2 units!!

I've already sent a letter to my supplier making them aware and asking them to investigate it, now the fun begins :mad:

Not necessarily. Meters have decimal points, so it is possible that the reading was xxx68.8 and 1.21Kwhs caused it to jump to xxx70. My meter read 50033.2 yesterday and 50037.8 today.

What is the instaneous reading with just the suspect appliance turned on? I also do not understand what you mean by 0.15KWs with all appliances OFF. This usage alone would use 3.6Kwhs per day. Checking a couple of websites, an old fridge/freezer can have a maximum power consumption of 500 watts. If you are leaving the fast freeze on then consumption could indeed be high as it will not switch off.

I would also take a little time to test your system before asking for a meter check. My understanding is that you will be charged if the meter is tested and found to be operating satisfactorily.

thegfb

Hengus wrote: »

Not necessarily. Meters have decimal points, so it is possible that the reading was xxx68.8 and 1.21Kwhs caused it to jump to xxx70. My meter read 50033.2 yesterday and 50037.8 today.

What is the instaneous reading with just the suspect appliance turned on? I also do not understand what you mean by 0.15KWs with all appliances OFF. This usage alone would use 3.6Kwhs per day. Checking a couple of websites, an old fridge/freezer can have a maximum power consumption of 500 watts. If you are leaving the fast freeze on then consumption could indeed be high as it will not switch off.

I would also take a little time to test your system before asking for a meter check. My understanding is that you will be charged if the meter is tested and found to be operating satisfactorily.

Hi, sorry I was a little hasty in my reply and didn't explain some things.

1) I get between 100 and 150 watts 'background' usage (0.1 - 0.15 kW) with the following things drawing a small amount of power:

Fridge freezer on fast freeze
Cooker (on standby)
Microwave (on standby)
TV, Sky box and DVD player (all on standby)
Smoke alarms sensing
Router on
Fish tank pump and lights on

Switching the freezer on and off showed neglible change in the power on the monitor, I hopefully will be able to test this more when I get the replacement thermostat.

My meter has no decimal place on the display, and as I said I waited for it and watched it visually switch to xxx68 (so xxx67.9 to xxx68.0) then activated my monitor.

In any case, it's 22 hours since I did so now. The monitor is coming up to 7 units (which is in line with my usage) yet my meter has increased by 13 units!!

[Deleted User]

Ok, go for a meter check, but Hengus is correct in that you will be billed if the meter is found to be within its tolerance. Last time I enquired with a customer who went down that route, it was over £80 if their meter is nt the problem. I take it you have a digital meter, they are more likely to go wrong than analogues

Happygreen

You wouldn't have a teenager living with you by any chance? They are worse than toddlers with leaving things on....
Is the sealant intact on your electric cooker/oven door? That brought our charges up before.
Or did you get a new TV? Apparently some new models are much higher in consumption.
You could ask you energy company to check the meter or give you one of these individual readers you can plug in to check on your appliances.

thegfb

sacsquacco wrote: »

Ok, go for a meter check, but Hengus is correct in that you will be billed if the meter is found to be within its tolerance. Last time I enquired with a customer who went down that route, it was over £80 if their meter is nt the problem. I take it you have a digital meter, they are more likely to go wrong than analogues

Well it's already cost me more than that if it is wrong so I see it as a bit of a no brainer really.

I take it I've done the right thing by writing to my supplier to get the ball rolling?

Happygreen wrote: »

You wouldn't have a teenager living with you by any chance? They are worse than toddlers with leaving things on....
Is the sealant intact on your electric cooker/oven door? That brought our charges up before.
Or did you get a new TV? Apparently some new models are much higher in consumption.
You could ask you energy company to check the meter or give you one of these individual readers you can plug in to check on your appliances.

Just two kids under 7 who watch TV, play games etc as normal kids do but nothing too much and certainly no more than usual. I've always been a bit of a control freak for switching off lights, TVs etc when not in use

The oven door seals fine, and we have had no other new appliances.

[Deleted User]

From what you're saying it does rather look like the meter. I recently made a big improvement in my consumption by chucking out an old fridge with a leaking door seal, and an old cooker with a knackered oven stat.