Crazy Electricity Consumption

Up.to.our.necks

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand my electricity consumption. It's very high ( I think ) at 17,873 kwh per year which is over triple Ofgem's high usage average. If I knew why, I could make choices but at the moment I'm not sure.
We do have a big house 4 bed / 3 receptions but it's 11 years old so fully insulated with double glazing and gas central heating. We have a gas hob & grill but electric fan oven and we use our microwaves quite a bit. We have a chest freezer in the garage and we use our dishwasher about 5-7 times a week. Our washing machine is A+++ rating. We do use a tumble dryer depending on the weather but I do try not to. Some things are left on standby - 2 tvs, sky box, micowaves, radio, ioniser (asthmatic) and sometimes pc's but hubby is an electrician and tells me that the usage wouldn't be due to that. We host foreign students but they affect the gas with showers and phone chargers are the main difference when they're here. We've checked appliances with a meter but nothing horrendous showed up.
We're with Scottish Power and last week I changed from their fixed Feb 2016 dual fuel tariff to their Fixed Oct 2016 tariff to avoid my bill going to £294pm. It will now be £244pm - £197 of that electricity,.
I had an email saying that my tariff confirmation was online so I logged into my Scottish Power account today - so weird as last week my debit balance was about £250 and today it said that my balance was £5299.68 CREDIT !!!!! !!!!!! !!! I went to check on usage and bills but I couldn't access anything since 2013 !!?? What the hell's going on ?? I phoned and spoke to a lovely helpful girl but I think she was quite new who said that they were checking our high usage and that it would be sorted and the bills would be back online in a few days. She suggested getting a check meter but we'd have to pay £50 if there was no fault. (I think hubby can get one of these so I've asked him)
I checked the meter again and In the last 2 weeks the actual daily average electricity is 30kwh. How usual is that ? There are 2 of us in the house now and 2 foreign students just left last weekend.

Confused.com - any constructive ideas gratefully received, thanks.

D_M_E

That's over 40 units a day - about 9 times what we use here.....

I suspect the tumble dryer, the televisions - are they really on standby, or turned on and showing a black screen? - and do you have an immersion heater which is permanently turned on?

Does the 17873 relate to actual readings, or is it a Scottish Power estimate?

Try turning off everything in and outside the house and see if the meter still moves and if it does, then there is something else consuming power or you have a faulty meter. If nothing moves, and you are convinced the 17883 is correct, turn your stuff back on one by one and check the meter after every switch is operated and see if this will identify the culprit using so much power.

You should also, if possible, check that your house is the only one supplied by that meter - I know of one property a few years ago which had the local lampposts wired into its meter and that knocked up the bill no end, and another (in the same road) that had its meter wired up to supply 3 other properties as well - both, I remember, took about 3 years to sort out.

Up.to.our.necks

Thanks for your reply.
No immersion heater at all. The 17873 is actual use - my readings. Unfortunately we have a digital meter so it doesn't show small movement like the old dial ones that I used to love to watch at home. The house was built between a row of existing ones so I doubt anything is 'piggy backing' - shame.
I will nag hubby to turn it all off & test at the weekend. Son has a convector heater in his shed in the garden in the winter but it is on a thermostat and a time clock so only on for an hour a day max - and is not turned back on as yet.
I'll ask hubby about monitors & tvs - I think they're on standby but I'll check.

Thanks again

Up.to.our.necks

Just seen typo in heading - how embarrassing !!!! Sorry !!!

matelodave

Do some daily readings to see when you use it and how much you are using to try and pinpoint any anomalies. waiting for the bill is too late - it's already been used.

What about lighting, a kitchen full of halogen downlighters left on can soon ramp up a fair bit (10 x 50watts = 500watts). Look for all the stuff that you've got plugged in to see what it's using - a plug-in energy monitor can be quite revealing.

Every watt that's on continuously costs you over £1 a year - our electric reclining chairs, if left on use 15watts each = 30 watts for two = £30 a year. So it's not hard to save £100 by making sure that stuff is shut off at the wall when not in use.

Up.to.our.necks

Thank you - I'll get hubby to look at it properly at the weekend. He's an electrician so can be a bit blase about it but he's not the one paying !!!

Nada666

Up.to.our.necks wrote: »

Just seen typo in heading - how embarrassing !!!! Sorry !!!

If you 'Go Advanced' you should be able to edit the thread title.

victor2

Up.to.our.necks wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
No immersion heater at all. The 17873 is actual use - my readings. Unfortunately we have a digital meter so it doesn't show small movement like the old dial ones that I used to love to watch at home. The house was built between a row of existing ones so I doubt anything is 'piggy backing' - shame.
I will nag hubby to turn it all off & test at the weekend. Son has a convector heater in his shed in the garden in the winter but it is on a thermostat and a time clock so only on for an hour a day max - and is not turned back on as yet.
I'll ask hubby about monitors & tvs - I think they're on standby but I'll check.

Thanks again

If you're using 30kWh a day, it shouldn't be too difficult to track down the cause. I agree the older mechanical meters were much more interesting to watch (if you are that way inclined!), but don't digital ones have a little pulsing indicator and on the front it will indicate how many pulses make 1 kWh?
Using the process of switching everything off, then gradually back on can still work. Just count how many pulses you get over a minute or so, and watch for a sudden increase as you switch something back on.

[Deleted User]

When I was a young man sharing lodgings with other young lads a couple of them used to have a three bar electric fire blazing away all night because they liked it hot. Were these foreign students from a warmer climate and liked it as it was in their homeland ? Three kilowatt fires are easily stowed away in wardrobes. Has the usage dropped drastically since they ve left ?

Biggles

Up.to.our.necks wrote: »

In the last 2 weeks the actual daily average electricity is 30kwh. How usual is that ? There are 2 of us in the house now and 2 foreign students just left last weekend.

Yes, as sacsquacco says, that last sentence may be the clue. What is the daily kwh now they have left?

Up.to.our.necks

I'm afraid not These were German youngsters.
We're going to take daily readings for a few weeks and do all things suggested above.

Thanks everyone

I am concerned with what Scottish Power are doing with my account though - balance was £250 debit last week and then £5299.68 credit yesterday with no history available since 2013.
Can't log in to my account at all today so presume they are working on it.
Worrying me though - any thoughts ?