smart meter installed in late 2019. bills just keep going up.

QrizB

jlemaitre said:

I dont understand how a new build coachouse can use so much electricity, No ive not increased anything I dont touch it. Just pay the bills and moan when i get the email that the bill is going up.

It does seem a lot. 6000kWh/yr is the sort of number you would expect for an all-electric flat.

jlemaitre said:

so theyre saying( 10th May my reading was 8500, just shy of 3 months later its actual 9862) so what 1363 kwh in just under 3 months? 

Yes, exactly that.

I assume your smart meter come with an in-home display, a plug-in monitor like this that tells you your energy consumption?

Can you get it to show your use in watts? During the daytime when you're not doing asnything much it should read 100-200 watts, and in the evening it should be closer to 300-400 watts. If you put the kettle on it will shoot up to 2000-3000 watts.

jlemaitre

currently reading 508w on the unit.

some more info.

My partner is a stay at home parent.housewife.

tv on up 14 hours a day
same as sky
same as speakers

2nd TV my daughter uses the PS5 to watch whatever crap kids watch on youtuube. roughly potential 5 hours a day, tv and speakers(shouldnt make any difference as shes usually at school.

laptop plugged in, not in use all day a few hours at most.

all light have been binned from those awful energy saving bulbs to LED in May after the bill shot up.

jlemaitre

right the 2nd tv turned off it has 

TV 
Speakers
PS5

before turning off 499w now reads 376w 

had fan running before TV turned off that uses 11w.

QrizB

jlemaitre said:

currently reading 508w on the unit.

some more info.

My partner is a stay at home parent.housewife.

tv on up 14 hours a day
same as sky
same as speakers

2nd TV my daughter uses the PS5 to watch whatever crap kids watch on youtuube. roughly potential 5 hours a day, tv and speakers(shouldnt make any difference as shes usually at school.

laptop plugged in, not in use all day a few hours at most.

all light have been binned from those awful energy saving bulbs to LED in May after the bill shot up.

Thanks for the info.

My IHD is currently reading 199W. Both teen kids in bed, supposedly going to sleep but more likely watching YouTube on their phones / tablets. Self browsing MSE on laptop, wife doing arts & crafts.

Check your IHD just before you go to bed (assuming you're the last one up), it should be down to 200W or less. If not, walk around the house looking for appliances that are turned on but shouldn't be.

jlemaitre

i had to google 

Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD)

im first in bed usually and first up. currently doing 11 hour shifts.

at least i got it down to under 400w.

Cant believe how much PS5 uses. Ive had it since last year, so even if thats one cause it took them about 4 months to ram the bills up.

jlemaitre

also thanks for everyone for the replies.

I'm off to bed now. will call SSe and update all tomorrow night.

QrizB

Good luck!

100 watts, if running 24hrs a day, will be using 72kWh pm and costing you around £12 on each bill.

jlemaitre

not long got up.

227kwh when i got up. also that reads at 4p an hour.

so marine tank only had running

skimmer
return pump
reactor pump
heater(goes on standby at temp)


everything else is off.

when i get home i'll turn the others on. so will only be 4 hours until bed.

jlemaitre

I managed to log onto the forum at work, at least this website isnt blocked.

So thinking about what is on when i got/get up.


Laptop(my partner hates shutting it down as it take a while to load the login screen up) I shut it down
Fridge/Freezer(obviously on 24/7)
the 4 items mentioned above
Boiler(wonder if it can be turned of during the night)? I turn it on in the morning.
the display(found out via another google what IHD means)
Sky router booster
Sky router
small USB fan for Dart Frog terrarium
x2 Google home things?

Total in use 24/7 is 13

The items that are switched on at the wall, But on standby.

living room TV
living room speaker system uses x2 plugs
Sky box
washing machine
kettle
oven
x3 usb chargers(not changing anything) socket behind furnishing
x2 Marine tank lights
Bedroom TV
Bedroom speaker system
PS5
google chromecast

total on standby is 16.

victor2

Generally speaking, devices left on standby use a pretty insignificant amount of power. Modern TVs use less than 1 watt for example.

Anything that uses heat, even if thermostatically controlled, can cause high usage. Your marine tank could amount to quite a lot, as its heater will cycle on and off. With devices like that, a snapshot of current usage will not tell you anything. You need to look at the usage when the heater is both on and off, and everything else is the same.

You could find an "energy usage monitor" (just google it ) useful as it just plugs into an individual socket and reports on whatever is plugged into it. They're less than £20 and can report the total energy used over a long period of time, like 24 hours. Good to plug something like a fridge/freezer or tank heater into and then see what the device uses over a day. They are not very good with low power devices, but great with anything that draws a significant amount of electricity.

For example my 26 year old "American Style" fridge freezer was using about 3kWh per day before it died a few weeks ago. The replacement, with all the same features, uses about 1kWh. It'll never pay for itself in energy saving, but it was interesting to see the difference in efficiency between old and new appliances.