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My electricity usage has suddenly doubled!

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

    He's looking for a discrepancy of 500W some where. If you were to put that much extra power into the tank without drawing off any more water it would soon boil.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,342 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    thegfb wrote: »

    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.

    The above really doesn't make any sense. You are now suggesting that turning the fridge/freezer on and off doesn't make any difference. Clearly, something is turning the freezer off. Personally, I would let the freezer 'warm up' for a couple of hours and then turn it back on to get an accurate reading of consumption.
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • thegfb wrote: »
    Hi, sorry I was a little hasty in my reply and didn't explain some things.


    Microwave (on standby)

    its a few years ago ,so my memory is not perfect,
    i had a problem & the cause was the microwave left on standbye was the problem , so i always switched it off on the wall sockett.
    When i did replace with a new one , the electric used by the new one on standbye mode ,was negligible.
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Do not rely on figures from a portable monitor.They're cheaply made and can be very inaccurate, especially at low power levels.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • thegfb
    thegfb Posts: 47 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Hengus wrote: »
    The above really doesn't make any sense. You are now suggesting that turning the fridge/freezer on and off doesn't make any difference. Clearly, something is turning the freezer off. Personally, I would let the freezer 'warm up' for a couple of hours and then turn it back on to get an accurate reading of consumption.

    I'm not sure exactly what is going on, and as I said I will be able to test it more reliably when I get a new thermostat. Despite being on fast freeze, I can audibly confirm that the compressor is NOT running 24/7.
    macman wrote: »
    Do not rely on figures from a portable monitor.They're cheaply made and can be very inaccurate, especially at low power levels.

    I guessed this might be an issue, however I'm certainly not relying on it but merely using it as a guide. It does seem very coincidental that the monitor is providing readings pretty consistent with my usage over the past year before this sudden spike to about 2.5 times what I was previously using. If it is not accurate, it is out by massive amount still.

    I'll leave it on a week and see how the units stack up on the monitor vs the actual meter and make sure I record the difference. Maybe then I'll connect it up to a family member's system for a day or so and see if the difference is still present or if it is consistent with their meter readings.
  • How about switching everything else off in the house and for 1 hour use a 1000 watt one bar electric fire. Start the test as soon as your digital meter advances a unit,so it should advance exactly 1 unit on the hour.
  • sacsquacco wrote: »
    How about switching everything else off in the house and for 1 hour use a 1000 watt one bar electric fire. Start the test as soon as your digital meter advances a unit,so it should advance exactly 1 unit on the hour.

    I don't have any electrical heating appliances like that but I do like your idea. Just trying to think of something else I could use of a fairly high and fixed wattage.
  • thegfb
    thegfb Posts: 47 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 12 September 2014 at 10:25AM
    I did a bit of research and found a video on Youtube, a simple 'no load test'.

    I did this, turning my main fusebox off. The house was dead, and my monitor showed a reading of zero.

    I went out and looked at the meter, and the red LED was still blinking! I counted it 11 times over 120 seconds. It says something like 1000 imp / kWh which I assumes means every blink of the LED is 1 watt hour. Therefore if I'm right, that shows a phantom usage of roughly 8640 watt hours per day, or about 8kWh!
  • I would give your electricity supplier a call and explain what you are seeing. You don't have a garage or anything else outside connected to the meter but not your internal fusebox do you?
    Cleared my credit card debt of £7123.58 in a year using YNAB! Debt free date 04/12/2015.
    Enjoying sending hundreds of pounds a month to savings rather than debt repayment!
  • thegfb
    thegfb Posts: 47 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I would give your electricity supplier a call and explain what you are seeing. You don't have a garage or anything else outside connected to the meter but not your internal fusebox do you?

    No nothing at all to the best of my knowledge.

    I've called my supplier and they have told me to take a reading each day than after a week they will consider arranging a meter check.

    I can't seem to find any solid answers but it seems that the red LED should not flash at all if there is no load through the meter.
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