Help! - electricity usage is incredibly high?!

Talldave

The IHD might not work if the communal cupboard is too far away.
14 kWh is over a day's use for us. In 2 hours that's car charging type consumption. You need an energy monitor for your flat to clip around the live feed into the consumer unit and do some serious research. 

Gerry1

14kWh in only two hours seems strange.  At 240V the washing machine and tumble dryer can't draw more than 3.12kWh each, so that's 12.48kWh in two hours.  But they won't get near that because the maximum demand will be intermittent, especially with the washing machine.

A_Lert

Just because the meter correctly records zero usage doesn't mean it correctly records non-zero usage! You can get it checked, though there'll be a fee if it checks out correct.

matelodave

A smart meter is the meter that sits in the meter room recording your consumption. The IHD (In Home Device) is the unit that you have indoors that allows you to remotely read your smart meter. It's unlikely that you'll get the IHD to show your meter data if you live in a flat.
We live in a bungalow and our IHD only just manages about four metres before it loses communication so you wont get anything through several floors.

brianposter

Easiest check to make first is probably to record your hourly consumption through the day - that should give you some idea of how the electricity is being used.

matelodave

If your meter is too far away to access then Talldaves suggestion of a standalone energy monitor clipped to your incoming cable at the isolator or entry to your fuse board would give you a lot more info than you get from a smart meter.

I've got an Efergy which gives me a minute by minute graph of what I'm using together with historical hourly, daily and monthly data which I can download as an Excel spreadsheet  if I want to
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sze8h2zoqf866sy/Screenshot 2020-02-29 10.00.55.png?dl=0

Talldave

matelodave said:

If your meter is too far away to access then Talldaves suggestion of a standalone energy monitor clipped to your incoming cable at the isolator or entry to your fuse board would give you a lot more info than you get from a smart meter.

I've got an Efergy which gives me a minute by minute graph of what I'm using together with historical hourly, daily and monthly data which I can download as an Excel spreadsheet  if I want to
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sze8h2zoqf866sy/Screenshot 2020-02-29 10.00.55.png?dl=0

That looks great!  As one of the first users of the DIY Kyoto Wattson I've been into this stuff for years.

matelodave

This is what my heat pump used through February 2020 https://www.dropbox.com/s/4dlu078nh19t48h/Screenshot 2020-02-29 12.25.19.png?dl=0 and this is what it's doing at this moment https://www.dropbox.com/s/slp3hzwgfb8a34x/Screenshot 2020-02-29 12.27.11(2).png?dl=0

Drumsloot

Hi everyone, I have a quick update on this. I want to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who has responded to the thread with all your great ideas, I'll be sure to look into them, especially that Efergy thing... seriously, thanks!
So, the update - after a phone call with E.On on Friday, I provided them with our meter reading, which was almost 1000kWh higher than last month, as previously mentioned. However, last night I checked my account on their website, and they had superseded my reading for a considerably smaller 117kWh increase, as an "estimate", without saying anything to me, and now my account is quite vastly in credit.
However, I'm far from seeing this as resolved. It turns out there are many other tenants that are having the exact same problem as us - their energy usage is through the roof without an explanation. So, we're not the only ones chasing E.On and demanding answers. We even have a solicitor living here who is apparently outright refusing to pay her bills until the matter is resolved (unsure how true this is, but the thought of having a solicitor on our side is nice at least).
So, the saga continues. Thank you for your suggestions, I'm going to keep at this until it's over. I've had myriad bad experiences with energy companies, but this may well have become the very worst one already.