Extremely high electricity usage

Newbie83

We moved into a new build October 2020, the first phase so houses are still being built. Our electricity usage for last year was 7,819 kw. On average in the summer we used 450 kw which has shot up in January to 1188 kw. We have a 4 bed house, 2 adults and 2 children with gas heating. We do use a lot of electricity, I work from home and the kids game. But this is massively over the average high usage household. British Gas advised they can send someone round but if the meter is not faulty we have to pay and they don’t know how much it will cost. We now owe them over £800 and I don’t want an added expense if the meter is not faulty. Does this amount of electricity usage seem excessive? Would you get someone to assess it even if you may have to pay the cost? Thanks for your help. 

jimexbox

You have a smart meter? Turn everything off at night apart from the the fridge and check the usage yourself.

You use about 40% more than my household with a similar set up. There must be large savings to be made. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Electric shower?  Hot tub?  Is your immersion running?  As advised above, you're going to need to do some detective work to find out what's behind it.

QrizB

Newbie83 said:

We moved into a new build October 2021, the first phase so houses are still being built. Our electricity usage for last year was 7,819 kw. On average in the summer we used 450 kw which has shot up in January to 1188 kw.

Could you give a bit more detail?

If you moved into your new house in October 2021, is 7819kWh your total consumption since moving in (5 months)?

When you say "summer", when do you mean - most people would think of June, July and August as being summer months but you haven't had a summer month in your new home yet?

Does this amount of electricity usage seem excessive?

Yes, 1188kWh of electricity in a month is definitely excessive for a property with gas heating, but it's not ludicrously so.

You say:

We do use a lot of electricity, I work from home and the kids game.

Do you have a smart meter? Does your in-home display show you your usage history on an hourly or daily basis?
Can you carry out @Gerry1 's Meter Sanity Test and tell us the results?

Robin9

Time for some detective work - read that meter daily even hourly for a week and track down when you re using the energy. 

450 KWh in summer is high - should be more like  250/300; your winter really is excessive - it should be much more than summer really - 350/400 


 there will be more lighting and use of washing machine / tumble dryer.

Some of the more usual things which have appeared on this forum -  fish tanks, (blocked) pond pumps, underfloor heating in bathroom / kitchen , hot-tubs, kids using portable heating in their bedrooms, any heating over and above gas boiler/rads .............

ProDave

Get an electrician round to check things.  He can tell you what is running in the background, check if the immersion or any other heater is on, run a load for a time measuring the power actually used and check the meter clocks up the right amount etc.

I just did this for a local club who had a monthly bill of nearly £1000  That turned out to be an electric panel heater that had been turned on with the thermostat right down on the frost setting. But the thermostat was broken, so that was a 3kW electric heater on full 24/7 consuming over £15 of electricity every day.

TheMilkmansDad

not sure if this has been asked already, but have you checked that the meter serial number on the bill matches your meter? that's usually one of the 1st things to check with new builds to ensure the utility companies have correctly allocated the property number and not the plot number.

EssexHebridean

You've got smart meters I assume, as this is a recent new build? As suggested above - definitely check the meter numbers match up, but I'd also check the bills to make sure the readings being used are those that the smart meter is sending rathe than there being a failure somewhere that you don't know about and them estimating instead - in which case because you moved in at effectively the start of the "winter" period, that might be the source of the over-estimation. 

Smart meters may also allow you to drill down into the half-hourly data so you can see if it's something that's kicking in from time to time and causing spikes - if so the timings might give you a clue. 

wild666

Do Gerry1's sanity test then if it isn't in use turn it off at the wall socket. Kids on games consoles tell them to turn the console off at the wall socket after they've finished playing, same with the TV they use. Unplug charging leads from the wall when the appliance isn't charging. There are only three appliances that need power 24/7 and they are the fridge, freezer and router everything else can be turned off at the wall socket if it's not in use. 
With the heating turn down the temperatures on the boiler to 50 degrees for water and 55 degrees for heating then lower the temperature on the thermostat to between 18 and 21 degrees, sometimes the temperature can be lower if the home is well insulated. 

Gerry1

TheMilkmansDad said:

not sure if this has been asked already, but have you checked that the meter serial number on the bill matches your meter? that's usually one of the 1st things to check with new builds to ensure the utility companies have correctly allocated the property number and not the plot number.

That's certainly part of the Sanity Check, but on its own it doesn't prove that the meter with the number on your bill isn't supplying the flat next door with the electric shower, the hot tub and the waccy baccy farm...

Newbie83

Thank you all for your tips. I am going to try Turing everything off tonight when the kids are asleep and see if the meter moves. We have no fish tanks, hots tubs, electric shower or immersion heater. I will also check the serial number against our bill although I think I done this a while ago and it was correct. The meter is not very user friendly! Sorry I have updated the date we moved in - it was 2020 not 2021!