Unexplained domestic electricity usage

RobLincs

My electric OWL meter shows that I am using a constant 80 watts when everything is turned off and the main isolator is in. When I isolate the system the power consumption goes to zero. I have looked at isolating certain zones and seeing if I can find the fault but as yet the mystery usage eludes me. I have tried using another energy usage meter with the same results.
 I have a modern consumer unit although my wiring is over 40 years old. Is there a meter that I can buy to check and explain this usage?

MWT

You should be able to identify which circuit the load is on just by turning them off one at a time until the load goes away.

If you can turn off all the circuits and the load is still there, but the load goes if you turn off the main isolator then you are looking for some odd wiring in the consumer unit that isn't going via one of the breakers.

Only other thought is where have you put the OWL sensor?

It should be after the meter but before the consumer unit...

coffeehound

Hello.  80 watts continuous would be consistent with a two-foot tubular heater, as are typically used as frost protection in lofts, cellars, sheds, greenhouses, outbuildings, utility cabinets, etc etc

Alter_ego

Antenna booster in loft? Burglar alarm battery charger?

Gerry1

You already have a very accurate meter that's ideal for this - it's fixed to the wall.

Forget the Owl energy monitor, look at the red LED on the meter labelled 1000 Imp/kWh, or count the revolutions if you have a spinning disk.  The number of flashes (Impulses) or revolutions per minute will tell you how much you are using at any moment.  Don't forget items such as the doorbell, central heating programmers, boiler, washing machine, cordless phone etc.  All those standby / quiescent amounts soon add up.

Koolerking

Posting here as i've just joined, and the forum popped up on a search. Apologies for the long post, but thought best to give as much info as possible.

Need help with the usual electricity usages, and or a question on if something could be over using electricity.

My flat:

3 bedroom, 1 bathroom. 1 shower. 2 bedrooms upstairs. Bathrooms have towel rails. Converted approx 5 years ago, so that’s the max age of equipment.

Flat is all electric, so heating is Roinhte wall radiators (not storage heaters, I think they are clay centres). Water heating is a 130L immersion.

The bills:

First bill was with BG Evolve. This was the last owners supplier, which I kept for the 1st month of moving in so its Sept 18th-Oct 18th 2021. I didn’t worry on what I used, I wanted a base line normal month, so immersion was on all the time (wall switch, it doesn’t have a timer).

This bill was pre Nov 2021 price rise, and came to £56, I used 247kwh.

Move to Octopus energy (flexible taffies, I believe at 0.23 per kWh) in Oct 2021. They claimed it would be £43 per month, which I think ties into the BG Evolve pricing. 

Oct - Nov 2021 bill was £113! 

So Nov to Dec I went on a electricity cut down:

Lounge has 2 rads. When it was really cold a few weeks ago at night I had these two on to get it up to temp, then switched down to one, then both off. 

Its only me in the flat, so one bedroom used, but didn’t heat. Both bathrooms I have stopped using the towel rails, as they don’t heat the room at all.

Lounge lights. I only use 2, both are A+ rated, approx 4 watts each.

Immersion. only switched on for one hour at night.

Last bill went down £4 (What! I really thought the cut down of the immersion would help more).

Tests:

When I went out for the day I turned off the mains fuse. I wanted to se if perhaps something from another flat was using my electricity (all flats converted at the same time, so its all modern). Nothing was used on the meter.

Measured a normal hour.

Then measured an hour afterwards with the built in fridge/freezer off. 

Results: Perhaps I need to measure over a longer duration, but over 1 hour:

1 hour fridge on - 52414-52415

1 hour fridge off - 52415-52416

So no change really.

I have a combo washer/dryer, which I have stopped using for a month or so, but checked the indesit page and its annual usage I worked out to be about £25 (one wash a week). Wall rads not used are fully switched off at the wall.

Fridge/freezer, again about £65 per year, so I don’t think its these items.

So, with me on minimal electricity use I’m not sure where to go next with this. My thoughts are:

I feel Octopus energy’s initial guess on sigh up could be a huge con. But I also do think it would be around this, but not £70 per money more. BG evolve at £53, pre increase, so that’s a 100% increase, which it wasn’t in October, so I don’t understand the difference in price. Meter outside seems to be correct, ie when fuse box is off, there’s no increase. The readings seems to be right, but the use is high when im on minimal use of electricity. 

I know it’s tricky, there are many variables, but my parents 1600’s cottage (gas and electric). So just on electricity they use the same as me, and that’s two people not worried about energy saving.

Friends in Bristol. Two people, multiple lights on, old 2 bed, 2 story house. They have an smart meter, and they used approx 35-45kwh a week, at my energy rate of 0.23p per kWh, about £10 per week, which id say is on par with what Octopus energy thought mine would be.

So really, my only thought is could something on the fuse board be sapping electricity? Are there any tests I could do? Im waiting on Octopus to install a smart meter, but nothing as yet. I feel it could at least make testing things easier.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

jbuchanangb

It's normal convention on the forum to start a new thread for your topic, rather than tag onto the end of someone else's. That said you should take meter readings once a day to get your current usage pattern. If you want to to home in on whether any particular appliance is placing a heavy load on the system, then the method is to isolate circuits one by one at the consumer unit (fuse box) and compare over longer periods than just one hour. Likely candidates for high consumption will be the towel rails, the immersion heater, and the panel heaters.

Gerry1

@Koolerking Unfortunately you have the worst possible system, day rate electric room and water heating.  It's cripplingly expensive at present and will soon become even worse.  Sorry for the bad news but that's how it is.

I trust you are on a single rate tariff (nor E7) that's capped, or on an old fixed rate tariff that hasn't yet expired and is below the cap for the time being.

If you're renting, the answer is to move ASAP to a property with GCH or at least genuine storage heaters, preferably the modern High Heat Retention ones.

If you own the property, change to High Heat Retention storage heaters if gas or oil are not possible.  Alternatively, you could consider a heat pump if you're going to be there a long time.  The capital costs are significant but it may make the property less unattractive when it's time to sell.

Whatever you do, make sure the insulation is good.

Forget DD amounts, always compare annual costs derived from actual meter readings (but obviously estimated until you've been there a while).

QrizB

Koolerking said:

Any thoughts would be appreciated

I'm sure you've got some meter reading history but you've not shared any of it with us. If you can post some dates and readings it would be helpful and let us get an idea of your usage.

Your £113 November bill from Octopus works out as around 500kWh for the month. A big increase on the 247kWh for the previous month but 16kWh/day isn't an unreasonable amount, assuming you had the heating on?

As Gerry1 says, single-rate electricity is the most expensive of the common heating options and there's no easy way to get away from that.

MWT

Koolerking said:

Move to Octopus energy (flexible taffies, I believe at 0.23 per kWh) in Oct 2021. They claimed it would be £43 per month, which I think ties into the BG Evolve pricing...

...I feel Octopus energy’s initial guess on sigh up could be a huge con.

All any supplier has to go on when you switch to them, is what you tell them about your use.

They do not claim it will be any particular amount they just use the figures you give them, or if you do not give them actual usage, they use a 'typical' industry standard based on what you tell them about the size of your property etc.

For now, you should at least be taking daily meter readings to get a handle on the amount you are using as your original Sept/Oct usage will be very different now and it will probably go higher again over the next couple of months.

Koolerking

Thanks for you thoughts. I'll re post as a new question. I did list some readings for the 1 hour test of the fridge:

1 hour fridge on - 52414-52415

1 hour fridge off - 52415-52416

My issue atm, is i get heating/water heating will be $$, but in a flat with 6 rads and 2 towel rails, i only run one rad in the lounge (let the room get a bit warmer, then turn off), and the water heater is one from 10pm-11pm before i go to bed. 

Lighting. 2 lights on in the lunge, one is 12watts LED, one is 5watts. Im fine with this lighting, but i know others would say its dark. Thats it. The only thing from there that is always on is the fridge! Im even turning off the old wall phone charger plug once i wake up. 

Im just a bit lost on how this minimum energy switched on is still at £100 plus a month, ie this will be the same in the summer, so i have no rest bite during the year.