My usage is huge between 2am-9am

raemcc

Hi. Just had the smart meter installed on Monday. Was quite shocked to wake up on Tuesday to see we had gone over budget and used almost £3, when it was saying during the day Monday we have been using about a penny an hour. 

Well my boyfriend worked late last night and kept an eye on it. We had assumed it was the hot water heater (which runs 12-3) and if so we were going to shorten it's time an hour. But it really didn't seem to have used much (less than a kwh at 2:40am). But we've woken up to it saying we've used over 6kwh today. What is happening in our house between 3am and 9am?! We have (had?) an economy 7 meter as well. 


I'm going to keep an eye on it today, but it's showing 70W usage right now. How has 6kwh been used in 6 hours when the boiler should be off and we are asleep? Any ideas? 

poppellerant

Who is your provider? My provider, EDF, let you view a usage graph online.  You might be able to use this to try and pinpoint the time, which may narrow things down a little further.

EssexHebridean

OK - E7 electricity usually suggests storage heaters, in which case I was going to ask if one had inadvertently been left on, or the switch knocked back on accidentally, but you talk about a boiler so I assume you have gas for heating? Immersion heaters are often the culprit with this sort of thing - in your position the first thing I'd do is to switch it off completely overnight tonight and see what difference that makes. In the longer term if you already use gas for heating I'd be looking at whether you're on the most economical set up you could be with the E7 or whether a single rate set-up would suit better. 

raemcc

I'm with Scottish Power. I don't see any usage online at all. I just assumed there was a delay. 

I said boiler incorrectly, I'm no good at this stuff. It's a big water heater. House is all electric.  I will go round and check the storage heaters! 

pochase

A immersion heat usually has 3KW, so the 7KWh would not be an unrealistic use.

Some of what you write don't match and make no sense.

1. Are you on an E7 tariff or not? 
2. If you are on an E7 tariff what is your off peak time? You are running the immersion heater 12a to 3a. At least part of this is potentially outside the off peak time.
3. A penny per hour is an average of 35wh, that would be extremely low. Are you not at home during the day and have you switched everything off except for the fridge at the sockets?
4. Have you checked the real use at the smart meter or only the IHD?

Mstty

Time to turn everything off, including immersion switch/timer and to delve into the daily usage graph onto your smart meter. If you can post it here.

Even turn off your hot water for one day maybe Thursday night as it will be 30oC so a luke warm shower will be nice.

Rule everything out and if you have storage heaters switch them off.

k_man

raemcc said:

I'm with Scottish Power. I don't see any usage online at all. I just assumed there was a delay. 

I said boiler incorrectly, I'm no good at this stuff. It's a big water heater. House is all electric.  I will go round and check the storage heaters! 

You could install the Bright app on your mobile.
This should give hourly usage to help pinpoint exactly when the usage is.
The IHD may have a similar option.

EssexHebridean

Yep - check the heaters - and noted on the water heating. 

Our (perfectly standard) immersion heater uses nothing like 7kw overnight - even when heating up right from scratch from a cold tank. My overnight use last night with a load of washing, showers for us both this morning and the water on its usual "tickover" reheat overnight from average use yesterday as well as all the usual background stuff was under 90p of cost according to my monitor, which is generally speaking pretty accurate on our use - it overestimates slightly if anything. 

raemcc

My usage graph just takes me to an "oops" page on their website. 
I have the option to give a night and a day meter reading. Thats the economy 7 right? I am unsure of the hours on that. 

I am at home during the day but I'm charging a laptop for once. Using the kettle 3 times. The lights are off, it's sunny. 

One meter reading is at 10, ones at 14 on my actual box. 10 is before 14, I'm assuming that means 10 is day 14 is night? 

raemcc

Its meant to be taking meter readings every half hour but there's literally 0 data on my account  

Mstty

Your smart meter should have a daily history page with a graph👍