is it possible to "leak" electricity?

lorhen1966

Rubidium wrote: »

I don't think that you need to concern yourself about the wiring - as Cardew has said if the high consumption was due to faulty wiring, then your house would have burnt down by now and your usage has been consistently high for several years!

You have not mentioned lighting? If you have lots of halogen lights, they can use many kWh e.g. 12 x 50W in your kitchen = 600W alone for one room and if you have halogens, these should be replaced by energy efficient LED's giving a massive saving.

We are starting to replace all of the bulbs in the house with LEDs. We do have halogen bulbs in 2 bedrooms but to be honest they don't get switched on that often we tend to use lamps mainly with energy efficient bulbs. We do try to be as efficient as we can be which is why I so perplexed, I could understand if it was a little higher but by all accounts this is huge and its not as if we have a lot of appliances going full belt all day long.

Can anyone recommend a good energy monitor please, that is easy to install for a numpty/complete novice like myself

lorhen1966

spadoosh wrote: »

I cant imagine your wiring is dodgy, you just use a copious amount of energy.

If you want to save some money. Avoid using the UFH (assuming its not a wet system), avoid using the electric showers and use the gas one instead, get rid of second fridge freezer (do you have that much food for 4 people, ive shared a fridge freezer with 8 people before?!). For starters as easy to reduce.

Thanks, I'm pleased I raised this as my concerns about the wiring at least have been allayed. Will try some of your suggestions to see if that makes any difference over the next few weeks. Unfortunately we cant do without the other fridge/freezer as my daughter has severe food intolerances and her food needs to be kept separately from the other 4 of us

Cardew

lorhen1966 wrote: »

Forgot about the showers, yes there are 2 electric ones and another that user the hot water from the system, all are used every day

Electric showers use a great deal of electricity. They are usually between 8kW to 12kW.

You say they are used every day, so taking the power as 10kW and a 10 minute shower, that is 608kWh pa per shower - so 1,200kWh(units) for both showers.

Assuming that the underfloor heating is electric, that like any form of heating, has heavy consumption.

footyguy

Its not really possible for electricity to 'leak' anywhere.

Perhaps first and easiest check to make is to turn off every appliance in the property (not switch off the electricity at the consumer board) and check the meter has stopped.
If not, it means something is still on somewhere - check everywhere to try and find it, even the loft. (amazing how many people leave a light or other appliance burning in the loft)

If the meter still does not stop, switch off at the consumer board and that should stop it (if not, then suspect a faulty meter)
If it does stop, and you are sure you have turned everything off, then perhaps someone has tapped into your supply (but unlikely with a detatched property)

Once you are sure only you are using your electricity, to understand where it is going, there are several monitoring devices available.
e.g. there is one made by OWL (other manufacturer's are available) that monitors the whole supply - that's useful to indicate both whether or not your meter is accurate and also when you are using your electricity as it comes with an in-house display unit (like a smart meter)

It only tells you about overall consumption real time (and cumulatively), not what each appliance is using, but perhaps you can work out the big hitters depending on when you see a peak in consumption.

There are other monitors that monitor how much energy each appliance will use, but these usually only work with plug in appliances.

You can check with your local library - I've heard many lend electricity monitors out free of charge.

2 electric showers, 2 fridge/freezers, underfloor electric heating, 9 TVs ... all on top of gas central heating. You are not an average household so it is unsurprising you do not have an average consumption

lorhen1966

Your answers have all been great guys. Ive tried to monitor the usage of single items but we don't have a meter with a "red" display so its a lot more difficult to gauge if its going round faster than when not switched on. Before we changed our meter we had the one with 5 dials and a red one which whizzed round if something was using a lot of energy

frugalmacdugal

Hi,

does your digital meter not have a 'pulse' that flashes quicker the more you use, it normally says how many pulses to the kwh.

This one says 1000 imp/kwh.

Carrot007

spadoosh wrote: »

Even with a high end electric shower you would need to be in it for 380 hrs a year to get the discrepancy between high electric users and how much the OP uses. I suspect its a culmination of inefficiencies.

Or about an hour a day. Which seems viable!

Boxman

For a good place to start your investigations, next time you go away for a period leaving the house empty, perhaps a weekend (minimum), take a note of your meter readings and the time just as you leave and again immediately on your return. This will give you some idea of the 'base' usage of your house ie how much things you don't switch off such as fridges, freezers, wifi etc are using. For example in my case the consistent background usage is in the order of 2.25 units per 24 hour period.

When you have some idea of this figure you can then work out if there is something unexpectedly using energy that you may have overlooked.

reeac

Boxman wrote: »

For a good place to start your investigations, next time you go away for a period leaving the house empty, perhaps a weekend (minimum), take a note of your meter readings and the time just as you leave and again immediately on your return. This will give you some idea of the 'base' usage of your house ie how much things you don't switch off such as fridges, freezers, wifi etc are using. For example in my case the consistent background usage is in the order of 2.25 units per 24 hour period.

When you have some idea of this figure you can then work out if there is something unexpectedly using energy that you may have overlooked.

Good idea. Our place uses around 3kWh per day
When we are away. That's principally to run 2 fridges and 2 freezers. When we are there we use 10kWh per day.

Raxiel

lorhen1966 wrote: »

Thank you, that is really useful information. I know that we are classed as high users and have compared with other users using the following parameters, detached house, 5 bedrooms (only 4 used), 5 people, built in 1989. Loft is insulated and cavity walls are insulated. Heated by gas central heating which goes on at 7am for 2 hours and then back on again at 3pm until 11pm weekdays, its on a bit more at the weekend. Underfloor heating in extension which was added in 2008, boiler and electric circuit board replaced at the same time. No electric fires etc. Main appliances are 2 fridge freezers, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier, microwave, induction hob, oven replaced in 2014 for more energy efficient one, 2 desktop computers, 9 TVs but max of 3 on at a time, usually in the evening for 4/5 hours, Sky Q with 3 mini boxes, plus everything else everyone else has ie kettle, iron, vacuum cleaner etc. Nothing stays on standby, all gets switched off when not being used. My main worry is whether the wiring is safe. We have a digital meter which only displays 5 digits and Ive taken a reading at 2pm this afternoon. I will read it again at 2pm for the next few days to see if I can get a daily usage figure.

I remember hearing something a couple of years ago about induction hobs being really bad for 'vampire' draw. Don't know if it was a particular brand or just ones with soft touch controls, or all of them, but could be worth looking into.