Oct price cap increase likely to push energy bill to over £10k... for a family of 4...

MariaAH

Krakkkers said:

Have you switched stuff off at the fuse box to see what happens?.My fuse box describes what each switch controls.
Do you have a cellar or attic?

With everything switched off, no wattage. Two circuits using most, labelled kitchen and back of house. Wiring was really weird in house when we moved in…kid’s bedroom were on same ring as kitchen…and sometimes tripped fuse switching kettle on turning off power to kitchen and kid’s bedroom above the kitchen. We did have an electrician sort that out ( not an electrician so cannot explain what or how). So heavy circuits are kitchen and kids bedrooms (but sons PC powered off at the time.

There will be ongoing investigations with the TP monitors…

MariaAH

chris_n said:

MariaAH said:

caveman38 said:

I too have enjoyed reading this thread and learned a lot. Without going back and confirming, I keep popping in to find out if you solved the problem of the unaccounted for 2kW - which someone suggested was maybe a  hidden immersion heater.. Was that solved?

No hidden immersion heater (if only that easy!)…we actually had an electrician out today to help us identify circuits that were using most energy, but no major device identified. 

At the time we had fridge freezer plugged in (we thought is was using 104W (2.5kW a day), but his reading showed more like 160W, gulp. We knew we had TV corner in lounge on standby (64W and subject of further scrutiny), and my iMac was sleeping at under 3W. Son had all stuff turned off (not on standby). 

The total wattage was approx 600W…so where was the other 370W? Could not identify any one thing. Could not easily get to sockets for dishwasher/washing machine to verify their standby consumption. Son’s PC was powered down. 

So basically the unaccounted usage is a  heavy combination of other ‘stuff’ on standby. That’s over 8.88kWh a day, 3241kWh a year, of unidentified use!!! £907 per year at current rate, £1685 at Oct rate. That is a normal persons average use alone. 

After the initial shock, I have gone round the house turning all sockets off at wall. Turning kettle off between use. Turned cooker off. I need a badge that says ‘energy police’ and will be like a sniffer dog turning off sockets when not in use and unplugging stuff. I’m already annoying the kids, but tough! 

Daughter had interview for part time job today and got it! So that is good news on two counts…less energy use as she’ll be out the home, and will be able to contribute to her consumption. 

I'm guessing your electrician used a clamp meter on individual circuits (all of the electricians I worked with in an industrial environment would have done) which could well be prone to errors. Clamp meters show my daughters house overnight at anywhere between 180 to 240W. Her smart meter says about 50 to 60W. Fridge motors normally have poor power factors and switchmode power supplies (TV) are 'noisy', both of which will make a clamp meter over read.

Yes he used a clamp meter… tbh will be very relieved if it was over stating the use!

xeny

I'm wondering if shortly there will be demand for wiring houses with an essential supply (so fridge freezer, router) and everything else lives on a huge smart plug arrangement, so the first person up can say "alexa, house on" and similarly the last person to retire (or a timer) can turn _all_ the odds and ends off as you go to bed.

MariaAH

xeny said:

I'm wondering if shortly there will be demand for wiring houses with an essential supply (so fridge freezer, router) and everything else lives on a huge smart plug arrangement, so the first person up can say "alexa, house on" and similarly the last person to retire (or a timer) can turn _all_ the odds and ends off as you go to bed.

Love the idea…but given my kids can’t remember to turn the lights off when they go to bed (after us) as it is…🤣

TheGardener

MSE should pick up this thread and after a bit of editing, pin it to the top of the board. Its been a great thread - Bit of a cliff-hanger waiting to see if there really is a vampire lurking in the house somewhere - you should turn it into a podcast @MariaAH  'Wattatha Christie' and the Case of the Invisible Vampire!! 

Happy_Sloth

yes its very interesting, we are having similar issues with consumption atm. We currently pay £450 a month which will hit over £700 in October. We've also been struggling to work out where the vampire draining our electric lives. 

We ..sort of can account for most of it... 3 gaming PC's in one house + 3 people working from home... 1 of which is a developer who has additional PC's for various work tasks... 

So it's proving hard to get the bill down to anything resembling a normal household! 

MariaAH

Happy_Sloth said:

yes its very interesting, we are having similar issues with consumption atm. We currently pay £450 a month which will hit over £700 in October. We've also been struggling to work out where the vampire draining our electric lives. 

We ..sort of can account for most of it... 3 gaming PC's in one house + 3 people working from home... 1 of which is a developer who has additional PC's for various work tasks... 

So it's proving hard to get the bill down to anything resembling a normal household! 

I feel your pain!

MariaAH

TheGardener said:

MSE should pick up this thread and after a bit of editing, pin it to the top of the board. Its been a great thread - Bit of a cliff-hanger waiting to see if there really is a vampire lurking in the house somewhere - you should turn it into a podcast @MariaAH  'Wattatha Christie' and the Case of the Invisible Vampire!! 

Your comment made me chuckle. Had no idea what to expect when I started this thread (been a long time fan of Martin Lewis but was a forum newbie). 

You have all kept me going through this journey and if others have been helped along the way that’s great. 

I will continue the updates as and when I have anything useful/interesting to add as my investigations continue.

70sbudgie

Wow this thread is interesting. I had to read to the end!

Things I have discovered on my energy saving journey:
Shower heads with flow limiters - uses vacuum theory and air to make it feel more powerful, but reduces water consumption and heating energy.
My Renault Zoe (new in early 2019) has an eco mode and default of AC on. Turning off AC (but not heating/ air) and using eco mode makes a HUGE difference to its energy consumption.
Targetting baseload makes a big difference because of the cumulative effect over 24hrs. (From a previous post, it sounds like you have a baseload of ~500A @MariaAH . The way to find this is to go round the house after everyone else has gone to bed and see what you can turn off, including things that don't need to be on standby. Though checking the bedrooms of adult children may be an issue) I am a fiend for switching things off at the wall. It drives my husband nuts.
Overloading socket circuits makes them less efficient. Ideally less than ~30A (I think, it is a while since I did this one) per double wall socket. If there are multiple power banks in one room, that circuit could be pretty inefficient - relatively speaking.)
After reducing consumption on lots of things, I realised I could tell when we had a movie night. (The old plasma tv used a lot of energy)
Then there is the 'new classic' of checking the HW and CH temperatures on the boiler. Most modern boilers indicate an eco mode/temp.

[Deleted User]

70sbudgie said:

Overloading socket circuits makes them less efficient. Ideally less than ~30A (I think, it is a while since I did this one) per double wall socket. If there are multiple power banks in one room, that circuit could be pretty inefficient - relatively speaking.

The effect of loading on power circuit efficiency is trivial.  Not even worth considering.  To have any sort of negative impact, the wires would have to be running so hot that your house would be on fire.

Also, 30A from a double socket is dangerous.  Don’t do this.  It will overload the socket, probably overload the wires and probably trip your fuse box.