High Energy Usage?

mbramwell

I'm new to this site, but looking for a bit of advice! I live in a 2 bedroom flat on my own, pretty well insulated. I have 2 storage heaters that come on on economy 7 between 00:30 and 7:30, and an immersion heater that comes on for the same time. I work from home so have a laptop on all day most days, and a TV also running all day most days. Aside from that I have a fridge freezer which is on 24/7, an electric shower that is used for roughly 10 minutes a day, an electric oven which gets used usually once a day and a washing machine that gets used occasionally. I have all LED lights which are only ever on at night and only in the room I'm in.

Last month my electric usage was 327 day time units, and 207 night time, the 207 I think seems about right, but 327 in the day seems high... I took a reading yesterday afternoon and again today and have used 8 over night, and 14 during the day, so a total of 22 for 24 hours.

Is this high? I'm a bit new to all this, but it seems pretty high... Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

okigen

The fact that day time usage is a lot higher than night time is quite odd, check if the reading is not the other way round. Given 2 storage heaters + hot water tank on everyday I would expect night time usage several times higher than day.

[Deleted User]

Read the meter at 8am and read it again at 8pm. Which number has gone change? It should only be the day rate.

Also find the storage heater manual and ensure the controls are set correctly.

mbramwell

Hi Guys, Thanks for the replies on there. So, I can confirm that the readings are indeed the right way around, readings for today are 11 Day Time units and 7 Night time units, so slightly lower than yesterday. I have noticed that the time on my meter is about half an hour behind, given that I am on Economy 7 I would assume this makes a difference? My supplier seems to say not but I would tend to disagree. I checked this morning when I got up and the day reading was 32831, and today at 18:00 it was 32832, considering I've had nothing on all day other than a laptop and a router, this seems about right, but between going to bed last night and getting up this morning I somehow used 10 units of day-rate electricity?

Am I right? Being on Economy 7 surely the time must make a difference?

okigen

Yes it is.

[Deleted User]

If your meter is showing the time difference as only 30 mins or so your meter is better than most.We are now in BST and your meter sticks rigidly to GMT, so even if your meter was at the correct time last March it would be now an hour behind in BST. The suppliers do not accept any responsibility for maintaining the built in clocks on digital meters. Old style analogue meters with a 24 circular timer switch the cheap 7 hours could be anywhere in the 24 hours and not in the published times at the dead of night.Even Radioteleswitch timers stay on GMT.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

do you have another switch for your water heater, maybe it is constantly on boost.

mbramwell

Hi Guys, Thanks for the replies. I do have another switch yes, its a separate timer though so I can set it to come on and off when I want. I also have the same for my storage heaters, there is a timer in my fusebox so that I can set them. As an experiment last night I set the timers on both of these to be 34 minutes ahead, to offset the 34 minutes behind on the meter, and low and behold I used 3 units of day time electric between going to bed last night and getting up this morning, compared to the 10 I used the night before... looks like I may have found the culprit... or at least part of it anyway.

[Deleted User]

As has been noted, the clocks on E7 will be out of sync with the real world time.

Once you have figured out by how much (it currently seems to be greater than 34 minutes given the 3 units of day time used after lights out), then you can configure the timers to suit. Just remember to check again in October when the clocks fall back and correct as necessary.

mbramwell

Thanks for all the help everyone... so its been a few hours now and I've not even used a unit of electric yet, so it would seem that my issue has been the Economy 7 timer all along! Considering yesterday between 8am and 8pm I used 2 units, its looking like I will have cut my day rate by about 7 or 8 units, and considering my economy 7 rate is half that of my day rate that effectively almost halves my monthly electric bill!

My supplier wont take any responsibility for it, so its looking like I just need to keep my timers roughly 34 minutes ahead. As for the 3 units used over night, I did have my phone on charge and an EE TV Box running recording the snooker, so I'll chalk it down to that, maybe a bit more fiddling and I can cut it down even further... You'd have thought there would be an easier way to set the time on a meter, or that they would be radio controlled or something?!

macman

Most modern E7 meters are tele-switched, using a radio signal. The older ones like yours are basically a clockwork timer.