Electricity usage has jumped

FreeBear

Doozergirl said: We used £125 of electricity in January,

... And there's me thinking £25 was a lot for the same month.

jimjam83

neilmcl said:

jimjam83 said:

Hi ac, thanks for the quick reply
Both houses run on gas heating. The cooker is actually a dual gas/electric cooker and we barely use the electric oven so, if anything, that should have helped lower our electricity usage.
I've been working from home for 2 years so no change there... 

But the other members of your household have surely been spending more time at home over the past year adding to the electricity usage. Also, on of your biggest drawers of elec will be your fridge freezer, might want to check how that's operating.

Nope - my partner is a teacher and has been in school...

jimjam83

Update - I took a picture of the meter reading this morning at 11 am. I just checked (1 pm) and it hasn't changed.......!!!!!! is going on?!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

how does the 'stuck' reading compare to what's on your bill?

jimjam83

[Deleted User] said:

Hi,

how does the 'stuck' reading compare to what's on your bill?

Seems to be in line with what was on the last bill...ie, it’s slightly higher now 🧐

Ectophile

If you have a hot water tank, check that someone hasn't left the immersion heater switched on.

Appliances that get hot, or which make other things hot, are the main culprits.  Some people obsess over mobile phone chargers and TVs on standby, but unless they are ancient, the power they use is tiny.  It's electric heaters, water heaters, cookers and the like that take lots of power.

jimjam83

neilmcl said:

jimjam83 said:

Hi ac, thanks for the quick reply
Both houses run on gas heating. The cooker is actually a dual gas/electric cooker and we barely use the electric oven so, if anything, that should have helped lower our electricity usage.
I've been working from home for 2 years so no change there... 

But the other members of your household have surely been spending more time at home over the past year adding to the electricity usage. Also, on of your biggest drawers of elec will be your fridge freezer, might want to check how that's operating.

I have a feeling you might be right about the fridge....we were using the previous owners smart reader and had electric underfloor heating installed in the utility room so kept a close eye on electricity usage when this was turned on. It took a good week to warm up to temperature and there was an associated small rise but this has now levelled off. I might try plugging the fridge out for a while and see if this helps. 

Problem now is that the meter reading hasn’t changed in 2 hours (see my last post) so I’m at a loss...!

jimjam83

Ectophile said:

If you have a hot water tank, check that someone hasn't left the immersion heater switched on.

Appliances that get hot, or which make other things hot, are the main culprits.  Some people obsess over mobile phone chargers and TVs on standby, but unless they are ancient, the power they use is tiny.  It's electric heaters, water heaters, cookers and the like that take lots of power.

No hot water tank...we had electric underfloor heating installed in the utility last month but it hasn't changed the consumption much at all. 

Niv

I am sure this wouldn't be responsible for the whole jump, but what about the light bulbs? Did you have led in the last place and the new place has halogen / filament bulbs installed? When I moved into my last place one room had 3 light clusters totally 15 bulbs all 75w halogen, they are now 4w led - that's a big difference.

theoretica

How many times have you read the meter since you moved in?  It is worth exploring if there could have been any reading error.  That your meter is hardly moving is good, for now, keep an eye on it for a few days as either it will move sometime, or point more strongly to look to the past for an explanation.  Did you take any heating out when you put the utility room underfloor heating in?