Can you solve this mystery?

digannio

I wonder if I've missed something obvious in my electricity readings with Octopus. I've just been away from the house for a couple of days leaving the house unoccupied. I've just looked at the daily usage figures for electricity in the account and they show the first day at 0.2kwh while the second unoccupied day is down as 10.6kwh. I just don't get the difference between two unoccupied dates unless I'm just missing something really obvious.

The house has gas central heating, which didn't come on, no lights were left on, couple of minor things on standby and fridge and freezer on. There is a PIV system which was left on but still I don't understand the difference between the two days.

Can anyone shed light on this?

QrizB

Are you looking online at http://octopus.energy or on the screen of your IHD?

Whichever you're looking at, what does the other one say?

Is your smart meter set for daily readings, or half-hourly? If half-hourly, do the bar charts cast any light on things?

donemedosh

10.6kwh is about a normal days use lights & things on standby. A freezer etc will only use roughly 1kwh a day. Do not know about PIV systems but they are supposed to be cheap to run. Do you know how much electric you use on an average day (smart meter) or maybe there is a fault with one of the appliences outside light for example. Hope this helps

digannio

I've just got the figures from the Explore My Usage section of the online account which invites you to click on each day to show the usage for that day. Is that of no use and usually completely inaccurate? The meters are set for half-hourly readings. There are no problems with the one external light.

QrizB

digannio said:

I've just got the figures from the Explore My Usage section of the online account which invites you to click on each day to show the usage for that day. Is that of no use and usually completely inaccurate? The meters are set for half-hourly readings. There are no problems with the one external light.

On "Explore My Usage" there's the option to see Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Custom usage. Daily will show you usage half-hourly for the most recent day.

If you go right to the bgottom of the page there's a link to the old dashboard which I find more useful and lets you go backwards one day at a time.

digannio

I've gone to the old dashboard and for yesterday, when the house was unoccupied, it shows total consumption for the day of 10.59 with each half-hourly usage of between 0.21 and 0.24 kwh. The button to go back to previous days does not function. But on the main Explore My Usage page it shows the previous day's usage, when it was also unoccupied, was 0.2kwh in total.

markin

Has the PIV got a heater?

Cardew

On my website account - not Octopus -  which also shows 30 min readings, it often gives readings that make no sense. On investigation it appears that these readings are simply estimates based on previous consumption.

I was away for a week, with all gas and most electric off and it still showed avearge consumption - presumably because it couldn't read the meter, or the algorithm rejects 'suspect' readings. However the bill agreed with the meter readings.

digannio

Thanks very much for that Cardew and what you say would make sense. I don't mind if it all comes out in the wash like you say. Mind it would be useful if they said it may be estimated usage in the figures rather than real usage. Thanks again.

digannio

markin said:

Has the PIV got a heater?

It has but not on a very high setting. It also doesn't explain the massive discrepancy between the two unoccupied days in the house.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have you taken 'actual' meter readings and compared usage to your IHD or Explore my usage?