Incredibly High Electricity Usage

dan1d

Hi,

When looking at outgoings and bills this evening we entered updated electricity meter readings into our EDF account. They had been estimated once since we last gave a meter reading last October but the energy we have used according to our meter in the last ~14 months seems incredibly high, so am looking for any advice.

We are two people living in a 2 bedroom apartment in a modern (2005 build) apartment block. We are generally out during the day so little electricity usage then.

We have an economy 7 meter and our meter readings as of October 9th 2014 were (night) 22220 and (day) 62169. These have jumped up to, as of this evening (night) 26489 and (day) 73320. This is a usage in the last ~14 months of (night) 4269 and (day) 11151, meaning we've used a total of 15420 units. Naturally, the bill cost after these were put it was shocking!

We are by no means tight on energy usage, but even then this seems enormous. The apartment has no gas, so hot water is done by an electric boiler (new boiler fitted around June) which supposedly comes on for around 4 hours a day, a storage heater (off for most of the year) and electric panel heaters which have only just started to be used again (so off most of the year). We have standard appliances in the kitchen - fridge/freezer on all the time then daily usage of an induction hob and oven. Dishwasher is used 2-3 times a week and washing machine used 1-2 times a week. Living room has TV with apple TV plugged in on standby, and then WIFI router on 24/7. Bedroom has a TV left on standby and a landline plugged in then 2 phone chargers plugged in all the time but only used overnight. We also have laptops which are generally used plugged in and left plugged in when not in use, but these shouldn't draw power all the time when off and fully charged? We are generally quite good at keeping lights switched off when we don't use them as well.

The only other thing which could have caused some high usage is a heated clothes airer (as we are not able to hang washing outside) that is left on for perhaps a couple of days a month (admittedly, sometimes we do forget and leave it on for a couple of days at a time), but these are supposed to be reasonably cheap to use.

We are basically looking for any advice you have on what may be causing the usage, and what we can do to correct it, or see if this must be caused by some kind of fault?

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted User]

Usually night storage users will use more kwhr on night rate than day rate . I suggest that the day/night reads have been transposed by supplier estimate, you, or meter readers. When night storage users get transposed they soon notice the extra cost

ChumpusRex

15k units is about right for a 2 bed flat for 14 months; Perhaps a little on the high side, but not ridiculous. What is unusual is the mix of day and night - I would expect the opposite, about 10 k night and about 4 k day.

It would be unusual to use such a lot of electricity during the day; the only thing that could use that much would be heating (and that much space heating would be really obvious).

One possibility is that your water heater is being switched on during the day (or you are using the boost function). The heater should only be switched on during the night; if it is timer controlled, you should check that this is correct.

If you have "smart" storage heaters, these often have a normal fan heater in addition to the storage system. If the storage system isn't working, then they will use lots of full priced electricity to make up for it.

If the heaters seem to be working correctly, and the water heater isn't heating during the day, then you need to think about a meter problem or a billing problem.

A common problem is suppliers getting the day and night readings mixed up. You should check your meter during the day and late at night, and see which readings are active at which time.

The other possibility is that the wrong meter is being read. It's quite common in blocks of flats to have plot numbers for construction which don't match the final flat numbers - as a result, meters frequently get labelled as and registered to the wrong address. You could do some testing by turning all your appliances off and seeing which meter stops going up, and then turning everything you can think of on, and seeing which meter goes crazy.

dan1d

Thanks for the quick reply! It was the bill amount (over £2k for the last year) that made me consider that the usage must be very high, but hadn't considered that they may just be taking them the wrong way round.

I believe both of the readings I gave were done by ourselves and we are definitely reading the correct meter (only 2 meters in the cupboard on this floor). The readings are listed as rate 1 (normal) and rate 4 (low) which I take to be Day and Night respectively. Is this correct?

Readings were originally taken by EDF back in March of last year in which the higher number (rate 1, then ~60k) was the day reading on our bill and the lower number (rate 4, then ~22k) was the night reading. Did they get this the wrong way round then?

The storage heater is quite old and so probably not 'smart', but we haven't had it on for much of the year anyway.

We have used the boost function just a couple of times (for only a few hours each) in the past year, so it shouldn't be that. The boiler is set to be on for a few hours overnight and then an hour just before we come home from work to give us hot water for the evening (for a bath, washing up etc). Would this usage push up the cost significantly?

Our meter is a digital one, and when you cycle through the display, the "rate X" number flashes on either the rate 1 or rate 4 view. Would you think this is showing the one that is active at the time? When I looked when i posted my original message the rate 1 was flashing, whereas now the rate 4 is flashing. Would this suggest that rate 1 (normal) was being used at around 23:50 and rate 4 (low) is being used now, as it should be?

notbritishgas

In the OP you say you have " a storage heater " and some " panel heaters ".
The 14 months included last winter. The panel heaters would use expensive day rate. So how many and how often are they used.
Only one storage heater would perhaps indicate why the night usage is smaller than the day rate.

macman

By 'electric boiler', do you mean an immersion heater? If you set that to run during the day then yes, you will be paying about 350% more per kWh than during the cheap E7 hours. Assuming you don't run off all the hot water during the morning, then the residual hot water should stay hot all day with a properly lagged tank.
It's crazy to mix panel heaters and storage heaters on an E7 tariff. All the panel heater usage will be charged at the premium E7 rate. If the bulk of your usage is on premium rate then you need to switch to a single rate tariff, but you then lose your cheap rate hot water and the output from the single NSH.
Your bill is enormous because you are using around 75% on E7 premium rate, most of that probably being winter use of the panel heaters. The developer who installed such a mixed system is an idiot-why would you fit a single NSH?
Forget about your wifi router and phone chargers, these use next to nothing. What matters is heating and hot water, which will be around 80% of your usage.
Put your figures through any comp site. once for E7 with the split as described, then once again as single rate. It''ll be cheaper with the latter. You then have the choice of switching to single rate as a short term fix, which may require a meter change, or the cheaper long term option of replacing the panel heaters with NSH's

macman

I should add: your usage is not that high. It's just that most of it is on the premium rate.

[Deleted User]

yes rate 4 is low but pay attention to the timer switch which controls the switchover times.If its a 24 hr analogue circular timer the cheap 7 hrs could be anywhere within the 24 hrs and you re missing the cheap slot for heavy use appliances, showers, dryers, ironing etc.
As Matelodave says, maybe best to ditch the storage heater if you can t make more of the half price electric, and grab a cheap one year fix. I ve just signed up with the BG MSE collective and getting my electric at only 8.25 p/kwhr single rate, although this rate is dual fuel only.

matelodave

Try reading the meter weekly for a month or so to find out when and what is using the energy - once a year isn't enough as you've already used it all and there's nothing you can do about it.

Do the checks suggested above, 1- that it's actually your meter, 2 - that your day & night rates are being recorded properly, 3 - that you know when the switch between day & night rates happen.

Once all that is confirmed you can try to optimise your use to gain the best advantage out of E7 by using as much as you can during the low tariff period (including your clothes dryer - fit a timer so it only comes on during the low tariff period).

Make sure your immersion heater only switches on during the low period, as suggested usually overnight but make sure it doesn'y overlap into the peak rate period, have your showers in the morning there should be enough left for your washing up and bed time ablutions. Limit the amount of hot water you use by fitting flow restrictors to the taps & shower. Reduce the amount of time you stand in the shower and have shallower baths if that's your thing. Don't let hot water run down the sink when washing or rinsing stuff (including you)

Use the washing machine & dishwasher during the low tariff period and minimise the use of panel heaters or any other sort of heating. during the peak period.

Leaving other stuff turned on or plugged in may not use a lot but it all adds up Just one watt on all the time uses nearly 9kwh a year - about £1 or more at E7 peak rate and most stuff uses more than that so turn it off at the wall when not in use as it all adds up.

Halogen downlighters use lots - usually 50 watts each, so changing them for LEDs would save 46 watts per light (our kitchen has 10, so LEds save us around 6p an hour, even more at E7 peak rates)

Lastly, if you can't improve your balance between the high & low tariffs you might be better off on a single rate - but in that case you'd need to stop using the storage heater.

dan1d

notbritishgas wrote: »

In the OP you say you have " a storage heater " and some " panel heaters ".
The 14 months included last winter. The panel heaters would use expensive day rate. So how many and how often are they used.
Only one storage heater would perhaps indicate why the night usage is smaller than the day rate.

During the winter we use probably 2 large panel heaters for at least several hours a day, but these were switched off for most of the year.

macman wrote: »

By 'electric boiler', do you mean an immersion heater? If you set that to run during the day then yes, you will be paying about 350% more per kWh than during the cheap E7 hours. Assuming you don't run off all the hot water during the morning, then the residual hot water should stay hot all day with a properly lagged tank.
It's crazy to mix panel heaters and storage heaters on an E7 tariff. All the panel heater usage will be charged at the premium E7 rate. If the bulk of your usage is on premium rate then you need to switch to a single rate tariff, but you then lose your cheap rate hot water and the output from the single NSH.
Your bill is enormous because you are using around 75% on E7 premium rate, most of that probably being winter use of the panel heaters. The developer who installed such a mixed system is an idiot-why would you fit a single NSH?
Forget about your wifi router and phone chargers, these use next to nothing. What matters is heating and hot water, which will be around 80% of your usage.
Put your figures through any comp site. once for E7 with the split as described, then once again as single rate. It''ll be cheaper with the latter. You then have the choice of switching to single rate as a short term fix, which may require a meter change, or the cheaper long term option of replacing the panel heaters with NSH's

The boiler is a Pulsacoil Stainless 180 with peak and off peak immersion heaters (presumably the peak one for the boost?). It has been on for 1 hour during the day for those 14 months, would that be particularly costly?

We've now turned the daytime hours on it off, and will look at how well it keeps the water hot for the evening from just being on during the cheaper nighttime hours.

matelodave wrote: »

Try reading the meter weekly for a month or so to find out when and what is using the energy - once a year isn't enough as you've already used it all and there's nothing you can do about it.

Do the checks suggested above, 1- that it's actually your meter, 2 - that your day & night rates are being recorded properly, 3 - that you know when the switch between day & night rates happen.

Once all that is confirmed you can try to optimise your use to gain the best advantage out of E7 by using as much as you can during the low tariff period (including your clothes dryer - fit a timer so it only comes on during the low tariff period).

Make sure your immersion heater only switches on during the low period, as suggested usually overnight but make sure it doesn'y overlap into the peak rate period, have your showers in the morning there should be enough left for your washing up and bed time ablutions. Limit the amount of hot water you use by fitting flow restrictors to the taps & shower. Reduce the amount of time you stand in the shower and have shallower baths if that's your thing. Don't let hot water run down the sink when washing or rinsing stuff (including you)

Use the washing machine & dishwasher during the low tariff period and minimise the use of panel heaters or any other sort of heating. during the peak period.

Leaving other stuff turned on or plugged in may not use a lot but it all adds up Just one watt on all the time uses nearly 9kwh a year - about £1 or more at E7 peak rate and most stuff uses more than that so turn it off at the wall when not in use as it all adds up.

Halogen downlighters use lots - usually 50 watts each, so changing them for LEDs would save 46 watts per light (our kitchen has 10, so LEds save us around 6p an hour, even more at E7 peak rates)

Lastly, if you can't improve your balance between the high & low tariffs you might be better off on a single rate - but in that case you'd need to stop using the storage heater.

Yes, we will definitely be keeping a much closer eye on it from now on!

1 - We are sure as can be that it is our meter. They are labelled and with only 2 meters on this floor we have checked before with the neighbours.

2 - Last night, we switched off absolutely everything other than the fridge/freezer (didn't want food to spoil), WIFI router and the boiler. Between 1:30 and 7:00 the rate 4 tariff went up 4 units (26489 - 26493). That was with the boiler set to come on for 2.5 hours. Since then, the rate 4 tariff has not changed again, and the rate 1 tariff has not changed at all in this since 1:00 either.

3 - As i mentioned in my second post, the digital meter has the 'rate x' flashing which I assume means it is currently on that tariff? According to a quick google search, our economy 7 times for this region should be 00:30-7:30. Yesterday around midnight, rate 1 was flashing then at 1:00 rate 4 was flashing. Then this morning at 7:00, rate 4 was still flashing and now rate 1 is flashing. So it looks like the meter is kicking in at at least approximately the correct times?

We will definitely now be more careful about what we are leaving on, but as i said, we are generally quite good at not leaving things left on other than things like laptops and phone chargers which shouldn't draw power when not in use (i.e. phone isn't plugged in or laptop is shut and already fully charged).


Today, our plan is to slowly start turning things back on as we would use them normally and check if anything unusual sends the usage unusually higher than we would expect. Does this sound doable or even useful?

Thanks again for all the replies!

matelodave

My laptop takes around 20watts when it's shut which can go up to around 60w when it's in use. Phone chargers take a couple of watts even when not charging. The router takes around 10 watts.

Stuff like X-boxes, Sky boxes take up to 20 watts when idle and even more when recording or playing back. I've also got a couple of Powerline adapters running continuously at around 6 watts each.

Even my electric reclining chair consumes 15watts when plugged in, so for both of us = £30 a year.

My actual baseline electric consumption is about 200 watts = £200 a year (fridge, freezer, heating standby, router, powerline, Sky box etc).

Clocks in cookers, microwave ovens and anything that has a touch switch or standby function to activate it takes power.

We even shut off our oven & induction hob, both od which consume power when not in use. Both the washing machine & dishwasher have electronic controls and get turned off at the wall.


I reckon most people could save £50-£100 a year by turning stuff off at the wall.