Faulty smart electricity meter

MWT

Presumably the meter is showing an increase in kWh not just the IHD display?

Reed_Richards

10p per day, say that's 670 Wh at (guessing) around 15p per kWh, so divide by 24 that about 28 W average power.  Could your meter be slightly faulty and consuming this power?    

Gerry1

Stop thinking in £p, that only confuses the issue, think kWh.

Presumably it's a credit meter?

Are you saying that you switch everything off at the consumer unit, the kWh reading from the meter on the wall is XXXXX kWh and a week later the reading has increased to (XXXX + YY) kWH?

If you're only looking at the portable shiny toy it's probably adding on the daily charge which won't stop when the circuits are switched off at the consumer unit.

Let's have some actual readings and dates.

Droodle1

Both meter and IHD show the same readings. The IHD only gives the history in pence which is frustrating. Here's the summary of usage so far, in kWh. 
Day 0 - meter installed. I'm living in the house.
Day 3 - 6kWh used. Switch off at the consumer unit and go away for a couple of weeks 
Day 19 - return to house and reading has gone up to 14kWh
Day 33 - been in the house for two weeks. Reading is 34kWh. Switch off. Leave.
Day 47 - return to house and reading is now 43kWh
Day 54 - been in house for 7 days. Reading is 49kWh. Switch off. Leave.
Day 61 - return to house and reading is now 53kWh.
So far, almost 40% of my electricity usage has been when the house is empty and the main switch is off!

QrizB

I hate to ask - how comfortable are you around electricity?

Would you be happy to open up your consumer unit (remove the half of the case with "important" and "caution" written on it) and share a photo of how everything has been wired in?

Please don't do this if you would eg. normally call an electrician to fit a plug.

Droodle1

I'll  have a look at it next week and if it all looks pretty straightforward, I'll post a picture. Although I can't imagine my electrician somehow including a circuit that bypasses the main switch. Last time I was away, I switched all the RCDs off too. Still, I guess it's worth a look, if I can get in there OK..

MWT

So there is about 0.5kWh/day being used that is not being switched off at the consumer unit.

That would be equivalent to a steady drain of about 20W.

Do you have any security system in place, like a wireless alarm or a security camera perhaps?

Reed_Richards

I have a second small consumer unit in my garage.  This is correctly wired as a fused spur from my main consumer unit but potentially it could have been wired to bypass the main consumer unit completely.  So maybe you have a garage or annex where there is something that does not get switched off?

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

I have a second small consumer unit in my garage.  This is correctly wired as a fused spur from my main consumer unit but potentially it could have been wired to bypass the main consumer unit completely.  So maybe you have a garage or annex where there is something that does not get switched off?

That is certainly what we've been looking for, but I'd have expected to see a Henley block in the photo if that was the case as everything is so close together.

Only reason I mentioned the alarm was that I've seen some dodgy work done in the past by alarm installers grabbing power from a convenient point inside the consumer unit.

Should be from one of the existing protected circuits but I wouldn't put it past them to take it from the incoming supply...

Droodle1

There's no alarm and no garage, annex or other consumer unit.  The usage when it's 'off' varies from day to day - sometimes it's more than I use when I'm in the house. I think a look inside the unit could be really useful. I'd hate to fork out to get the meter tested only to find it's the wiring, but I had a chat with the electrician who installed the consumer unit it and he's completely stumped - it's such a simple set-up, there doesn't seem to be any options for weird wiring.  I'll try and get a photo inside the box next week so you can have a look. Thanks again for all your suggestions. It's good to know I'm not just missing something glaringly obvious.