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

Malkytheheed

So over summer we went to Florida for 2 weeks. Pretty much "shutdown" the house efore we left. (3 bed bungalow), maybe left a few things on standy, fridge freezer still on. But our smart meter said we were using 4Kw/h per day. Isn't that quite high for a house that noone was in? Or is this normal? Came in at £1.60 on the current price cap. 

millie

I was also shocked after 3 weeks away I checked my none smart meter and had used 71 units. Had the same as you switched on Fridge and large upright freezer. I also had 3 lights on timers but they were low energy bulbs. I have been thinking it was probably the freezer using it as it is 22 years old but maybe not.

Alnat1

Fridge freezers, especially American style can use a fair bit.

Set top/sky boxes/game consoles use more than most other items in standby. Security light (if not LED) that comes on for 5 minutes each time a neighbour's cat walks by. 

Small items not switched off at the plug add up if you have a lots of them, cooker, microwave, washer, dryer, dishwasher, clock radio, touch lamps, basically anything with a plug that isn't "off" at the socket might use a few watts.

Might be worth spending £10 or so on an energy monitor and check out your appliances, starting with the FF for a few days.

JGB1955

We had a week away in late June - our consumption for that week was 2.4kWh per day less than 'normal'.  Normal for that month was 5.3kWh.... so base use was 2.9 kWh per day.  Despite there only being the two of us, we (now) have 1 x FF in the house and 1 x F in the garage.  We've retired the chest freezer (for now) because it was using a ridiculous 2kWh per day......total household use of of 9.8kWh back in the winter!

QrizB

Malkytheheed said:

So over summer we went to Florida for 2 weeks. Pretty much "shutdown" the house efore we left. (3 bed bungalow), maybe left a few things on standy, fridge freezer still on. But our smart meter said we were using 4Kw/h per day. Isn't that quite high for a house that noone was in? Or is this normal? Came in at £1.60 on the current price cap. 

Yes that's relatively high, suggests a background load of around 170 watts.

Many people on this forum try to get theirs down below 100 watts, which is 2.4kWh/day.

Krakkkers

I take about 1.7 kwh from the grid each day but i have solar panels.
Overnight usage when not generating is 0.55 kwh between 12am and 7am so around 78w an hour.

Coffeekup

When I'm away I turn everything off only leaving fridge freezer on. My usage for that 1 appliance that's left on is 700 watts a day.

My fridge freezer company "claim's" the appliance I have uses 236kwh's a year, which is not far off the 700 watt's a day number I get.

I would say your 4kwh usage a day was about right as you left "a few things on standby", but not knowing what appliances you left on standby and if you have and old FF or an American style FF it's hard to gauge. 

It's the little things that all add up, for the last couple of year's I turn everything off at the wall when out the house and/or not using them. My electric usage for this last year is 1,200 kwh's which works out at an average of 3.3 units a day.
Unfortunately I can't bring the usage down anymore without getting a smaller TV, getting rid of my sky box (which I use as freeview) and a more efficient FF. Or cut back on my 3-4 hours TV watching, using the toaster and oven. Come October's price cap that'll be costing me £60 a month which sting's as that was my electric and gas DD for the previous 2 years.

xzibit

My old in house thing display says we tick over at 0.02kWh and 0.07kWh when the fridge freezer kicks in. We usually use about 3.5-4.5kWh per day on average. When we are away far less. 

LittleBill

3 bed semi .. 
Uneconomical SMEG FF
Everything off at the socket

Around 85p per day on the smartie meter including daily fee

LB

DeeQS

I’ve just gone through a similar exercise. On holiday and I turned everything off other than
fridge/freezer
internet router
TV on standby (mother in law calls in and watches TV after feeding the cats)
5 LED lamps on a timer to come on when it’s dark.

3.7kwh a day. Higher than I thought it would be.

what is a bit crazy is that energy is at a price where we’re all trying to save a few hundred watts. Marginal gains territory.

Mstty

Ours is bang on 3kwh or 125 watts background and consists of

Router and nest system (3 repeaters)
Security alarm

Fridge freezer 70/30 split

Separate freezer outside

3 tapo smart switches 
3 lights that come on at sunset

6 Outside security lights on only with motion activation

2 echos on

Oven/hob/dishwasher/washing machine all on standby