Electricity usage while away

MWT

pmets said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

If you are going away in the summer, you can switch everything off except the fridge. Switch all the other circuits off at the consumer unit. The only exception is if you have any alarms or security lights. The internet router only needs to be on if it's needed to communicate with a smart alarm.

Our usage is about 16kw per day with just two of us. We have no gas, so electric cooker, but central heating is oil fired. I think we really need to see what is using all this power

4kWh is not a reasonable target, but equally 16kWh is high so well worth your effort to narrow down where it is all going.

I'd suggest buying a couple of the 13A WiFi energy monitor plugs you can easily find on line, just make sure they have the energy monitor function and are not just a remote switchable plug.

You can then start to check the use over a day or two on the various devices you have around the house and narrow down where it is going.

 

Evan3020

4kwh is a reasonable target for electricity as long as hot water is heated by gas.

Alnat1

Worth getting one of the plug in energy meters to check what your devices and appliances are using.

I found our 14 year old American FF was using almost 900kWh a year after using a Tapo 110 for 48 hours to check. We now have a new upright FF which has been Tapo'd for a month and will use 153kWh.

The old FF claimed it would use 550kWh/yr, the new one claimed 210kWh/yr

MWT

Evan3020 said:

4kwh is a reasonable target for electricity as long as hot water is heated by gas.

It is 50% of the typical UK usage for a home with gas heating, so not sure that really qualifies as reasonable, aspirational perhaps...

pmets

Alnat1 said:

Worth getting one of the plug in energy meters to check what your devices and appliances are using.

I found our 14 year old American FF was using almost 900kWh a year after using a Tapo 110 for 48 hours to check. We now have a new upright FF which has been Tapo'd for a month and will use 153kWh.

The old FF claimed it would use 550kWh/yr, the new one claimed 210kWh/yr

Our FF is only a year old, so I’m assuming relatively energy efficient, as are all of our kitchen appliances, but I am going to buy one of the plug in energy meters, just to narrow it down

BUFF

I am ~3kWh/day averaged over the year & that's with a lot of laptop/tv (not a 50"+ though) use. Heat by gas.
I am careful though with unnecessary appliances switched off at wall, LED lamps throughout (typically at night <20W on) etc.

matelodave

We were away last week and most stuff was off (at the wall and not on standby) except the A+ upright freezer, router, optical terminal unit, SKY box, three surveillance cameras and several timered  low wattage LED lights.

Our consumption was 3.1kwh a day according to the Bright app which monitors our smart meter.

It rocketed up to 12.6 on Sunday  when we got home and the washing machine & dryer went on. Our normal daily average at this time of the year is between 7-8  (which includes hot water, cooking, TV watching and a couple of laptops on most of the day).

Our annualised daily average is around 20kwh because we are all electric with a heatpump for heating and hot water ( a really cold day in December or January can get it up to 50kwh or more in a day)

Mstty

pmets said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

If you are going away in the summer, you can switch everything off except the fridge. Switch all the other circuits off at the consumer unit. The only exception is if you have any alarms or security lights. The internet router only needs to be on if it's needed to communicate with a smart alarm.

Our usage is about 16kw per day with just two of us. We have no gas, so electric cooker, but central heating is oil fired. I think we really need to see what is using all this power

Backup electric immersion on the hot water tank?

Worth checking then going room by room turning everything off but router and fridge freezers. Then monitor

pmets

Mstty said:

pmets said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

If you are going away in the summer, you can switch everything off except the fridge. Switch all the other circuits off at the consumer unit. The only exception is if you have any alarms or security lights. The internet router only needs to be on if it's needed to communicate with a smart alarm.

Our usage is about 16kw per day with just two of us. We have no gas, so electric cooker, but central heating is oil fired. I think we really need to see what is using all this power

Backup electric immersion on the hot water tank?

Worth checking then going room by room turning everything off but router and fridge freezers. Then monitor

We have immersion heater, but its never turned on. 

jrawle

MWT said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

Your use is under half that of a typical household in the UK, when others are using more it doesn't automatically mean it is being wasted...

I am sure we are all looking at reducing actual waste though, but it isn't going to be possible/practical for everyone to hit your very low level.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that people must automatically be wasting electricity when their daily average usage over the whole year is more than 4 kWh. I was just surprised that people can use that amount while they are away on holiday over the summer! That means they are likely using the same in background "vampire" usage when they are at home, and much of that is a waste.