How much electric does your house use when you are away?

Mstty

Just to let anyone know who is interested we went down to what we would call a liveable use of electricity and have since found our happy point is about 2kWh above that.

Our lowest both working from home, electricity only so this includes hot water (heating off currently) two adults working from home full time 4+ Bedroom detached house. Fridge freezer, outside freezer. Work laptops/screens and normal cooking routine oven/hob on once a day. Roughly 6.5kWh a day. 

As said above though this usage is fine our happy point is 8.5kWh a day as that means more TV less iPad screen/ projector on 3 times a week for a film or the latest LOTR/House of Dragons episode etc

Not having to worry about a few things left in standby and at our current rate that's £213 a year.

Being fixed this is acceptable until that ends April 2024 then we might reduce down again to 6.5kWh base living mode when we have to.

SuzeQStan

Analyst1234 said:

Our phantom load (lowest hour of the day/night with least usage) is 1.32kWh/hr at 4am in the morning. Am I being thick but compared to SuzeQstan saying the they are down to 40w/hr. Are we really 33 times more power hungry when as sleep and all switched off? 

Hi - so sorry @Analyst1234 (and to everyone else for waking this thread back up so late - will teach me to bookmark in future!) - it was just an experiment of mine which involved switching off EVERYTHING electrical within our home. On this singular occasion we could not get below 40w and that’s how we found the 24/7 ventilation system in the loft which we have now replaced with one we can switch off when not in use saving us a bit once the new system pays for itself. 

I’m in the @QrizB school of thought as regards consumption - it’s good to be informed but it’s also good to be as comfortable as you can afford to be energy use wise. 

[Deleted User]

We can all get down to 0W baseload by turning off the big switch in the meter box! 

In my opinion, baseload is best assessed by looking back through actual usage figures when you are away. BRIGHT app is very good at providing 30 minute usage graphs and the total amount of energy consumed. The IHD is just a snapshot of instant power at the time that the IHD is looked at.

It follows that if the house is empty for three days, and the total recorded consumption was 7.2kWh then the AVERAGE baseload is (7200/3)/24 or 100W. BRIGHT shows how this varies as appliances such as fridges and freezers switch on and off.

ariarnia

SuzeQStan said:

Analyst1234 said:

Our phantom load (lowest hour of the day/night with least usage) is 1.32kWh/hr at 4am in the morning. Am I being thick but compared to SuzeQstan saying the they are down to 40w/hr. Are we really 33 times more power hungry when as sleep and all switched off? 

 it was just an experiment of mine which involved switching off EVERYTHING electrical within our home. On this singular occasion we could not get below 40w and that’s how we found the 24/7 ventilation system in the loft which we have now replaced with one we can switch off when not in use saving us a bit once the new system pays for itself. 

great that reminds me on another thread someone found really expensive underfloor heating was on in one room because the switch was confusing about being on or off. they spotted it when the meters were changed and they thought everything in the house was off but there was an unexpected high spike the same as you. sounds like a really good way to spot something if you can't track down that last bit of vampire usage using a smart plug meter. 

SuzeQStan

[Deleted User] said:

We can all get down to 0W baseload by turning off the big switch in the meter box! 

In my opinion, baseload is best assessed by looking back through actual usage figures when you are away. BRIGHT app is very good at providing 30 minute usage graphs and the total amount of energy consumed. The IHD is just a snapshot of instant power at the time that the IHD is looked at.

It follows that if the house is empty for three days, and the total recorded consumption was 7.2kWh then the AVERAGE baseload is (7200/3)/24 or 100W. BRIGHT shows how this varies as appliances such as fridges and freezers switch on and off.

I’m interested in this Bright app @[Deleted User] - blurb mentions you need ‘glowmarkt’ hardware to use it tho. Haven’t looked at what would be required but imagine an associated cost. We have smets2 - would addtl purchase be required to use the app?

ariarnia

SuzeQStan said:

[Deleted User] said:

We can all get down to 0W baseload by turning off the big switch in the meter box! 

In my opinion, baseload is best assessed by looking back through actual usage figures when you are away. BRIGHT app is very good at providing 30 minute usage graphs and the total amount of energy consumed. The IHD is just a snapshot of instant power at the time that the IHD is looked at.

It follows that if the house is empty for three days, and the total recorded consumption was 7.2kWh then the AVERAGE baseload is (7200/3)/24 or 100W. BRIGHT shows how this varies as appliances such as fridges and freezers switch on and off.

I’m interested in this Bright app @[Deleted User] - blurb mentions you need ‘glowmarkt’ hardware to use it tho. Haven’t looked at what would be required but imagine an associated cost. We have smets2 - would addtl purchase be required to use the app?

you shouldn't need anything if you have a smart meter. just the meter id number from the back of the ihd

[Deleted User]

SuzeQStan said:

[Deleted User] said:

We can all get down to 0W baseload by turning off the big switch in the meter box! 

In my opinion, baseload is best assessed by looking back through actual usage figures when you are away. BRIGHT app is very good at providing 30 minute usage graphs and the total amount of energy consumed. The IHD is just a snapshot of instant power at the time that the IHD is looked at.

It follows that if the house is empty for three days, and the total recorded consumption was 7.2kWh then the AVERAGE baseload is (7200/3)/24 or 100W. BRIGHT shows how this varies as appliances such as fridges and freezers switch on and off.

I’m interested in this Bright app @[Deleted User] - blurb mentions you need ‘glowmarkt’ hardware to use it tho. Haven’t looked at what would be required but imagine an associated cost. We have smets2 - would addtl purchase be required to use the app?

Free to any good smart meter home. All Hildebrand needs to set up the app is your approval; your MPAN and the GUID off the bottom of your IHD.

Hildebrand is a Registered DCC Other User so it is subject to the same rules as your energy supplier. Hildebrand will carryout a data pull from your meter once every 24 hours. It also has access to the smart meter tariff information that the supplier has sent to your two meters.

SuzeQStan

I’m on it - getting it now. thanks @[Deleted User] & @ariarnia

badger09

Thanks to those who recommended Bright app. I've just set mine up. There was message about taking up to 24 hours to get data. A few questions:

1) Its showing data for today, Saturday & Friday, but nothing before that. Is that because it takes a while to access previous usage data?
2) Its showing different kWh usage for gas than Octopus app. Is that because Octopus app uses 'Sarah's mode' ie approx conversion?
3) Its showing no gas usage so far today. Boiler was on for 30 mins to heat water this morning & husband fried something on gas hob for breakfast. 

Any clarification gratefully received.

[Deleted User]

badger09 said:

Thanks to those who recommended Bright app. I've just set mine up. There was message about taking up to 24 hours to get data. A few questions:

1) Its showing data for today, Saturday & Friday, but nothing before that. Is that because it takes a while to access previous usage data?
2) Its showing different kWh usage for gas than Octopus app. Is that because Octopus app uses 'Sarah's mode' ie approx conversion?
3) Its showing no gas usage so far today. Boiler was on for 30 mins to heat water this morning & husband fried something on gas hob for breakfast. 

Any clarification gratefully received.

The support email for BRIGHT is support@glowmkt.com

All apps use a fixed calorific value to convert volume to kWh. The same is the case with the gas proxy meter in the smart meter comms hub. There is no convention as to what this should be. Actual Gas billing uses the average calorific value for the billing period truncated to one decimal place.

If you want real-time usage information on BRIGHT then you will need to pay for Hildebrand’s IHD/CAD. The app will refresh if you swipe it manually.

Hildebrand pull data from your meter in the early hours of the morning. Smart meters are not in permanent contact with suppliers or other users. The communications cost would be too high.