Suspect EDF is overcharging me for electric

Robgmun

Sorry if this rambles on, i'll try to make it short

My Electric meter is smart, my gas is not

In Jan of this year after my boiler was serviced, the man told me that I had the gas on 24/7 to heat water and it was unnecessary as the tank can keep the water hot for over 48hrs without more heating after only the bolier was on for 30mins. So I decided to leave it on for 1hr per day. All good

In the last month, because of the rises come 1st Oct, I decided I was going to go through my house with a fine-toothed comb and try to reduce my electric usage as much as possible. Every light bulb and uplighter is now LED. I bought smart plugs to keep my devices that were on standby to be kept off unless I was actually using them. I even found the biggest culprit being the immersion heater in my tank that was using at least 3-4Khw per day. I turned everything off that would be considered a vampire device. 

That was more than a week ago and this hasn't been reflected in the EDF website. Despite the occasional day where it dips to 12-13kwh, most days it floats between 16-20kwh and it's been like this for months and it seems no matter what it i can't get it to go down. I'm almost at my wits end because while right now £5-7 per day is reasonable for us, when the price rises on 1st Oct, 1st Jan and 1st April, it'll absolutely rinse us. So I'm trying to get our energy usage sorted before we get hit by a truck. 

Below has been our usage so far in August, we started making serious changes from the 20th.


I'm starting to think that maybe our smart meter is reading our usage wrongly? Maybe artificially inflating our usage? Something outside of our house feeding off our grid?

MWT

I suspect you have missed a few heavy loads, as you can see a downward trend in your data but still higher than it needs to be.

How about fridge/freezers, outdoor lighting/pond pumps, indoor aquarium /vivarium, games consoles/gaming PC etc.... 

Robgmun

MWT said:

How about fridge/freezers, outdoor lighting/pond pumps, indoor aquarium /vivarium, games consoles/gaming PC etc.... 

Outdoor lighting was switched off a while ago, last month, and we don't have any pond/aquarium/vivarium, games consoles/gaming PC have all been put on "the standby be gone" smart plugs. That was the biggest surprise! The Xbox Series X was pulling 100w even when it looked like it was switched off! In contrast, the PS5 on the other hand was reading 0w, in other words, it was properly turned off!

I don't really game on the PC but the desktop connected to my OLED TV was only pulling 80w and 150w respectively when fully turned on and in use and that's usually only between 6 pm and 12 midnight. 

We have 2 fridge/freezers one is using 80w when turned on but that's only a 3rd of the time and the other is around 100w

The_Fat_Controller

What are your "always on" devices and appliances ?

Robgmun

The_Fat_Controller said:

What are your "always on" devices and appliances ?

At this moment in time, it really is only the 2 fridge/freezers, smoke alarms, electric to the boiler and the internet router

EDIT - Not sure how much the electric t the boiler is using. It seems like all it does is govern when the boiler turns on or off and the timer to it

MWT

Have you still got the IHD that came with your smart meter?

If that is working then take a look at the 'usage now' screen and put it somewhere that it will be seen frequently during the day.

What does it show right now for example?

Robgmun said:

I even found the biggest culprit being the immersion heater in my tank that was using at least 3-4Khw per day.

With a gas boiler the immersion should never have been on in the first place, but just ione quick question, just in case...

... I hope the immersion is not wired to a plug and you haven't actually used a 'smart plug' with it?

The current the immersion will draw is beyond anything you can safely route through a smart plug and it should be wired to a dedicated circuit, not something with a plug on it...

Robgmun

MWT said:

Have you still got the IHD that came with your smart meter?

If that is working then take a look at the 'usage now' screen and put it somewhere that it will be seen frequently during the day.

What does it show right now for example?

We were never given one, I think our meter is a SMETS1 
Looks like this:

Alnat1

You give a set reading for the 2 fridge freezers but they cycle on and off, use more when you open them more often or put in new, not cold enough, food. Did you monitor them over a week or so to get an average or are those figures a snapshot of one moment?

Do you have any kind of set top/sky box or sound system with your TVs? They can use quite a bit on standby. Touch lamps, microwave/cooker with clocks, auto garage door, CCTV/alarm systems, wired doorbell, plug in air fresheners? Hopefully if your heating the tank, no electric showers? Lots of use of hairdryer/straighteners/tongs? Using cooking devices several times a day?

pochase

Nothing outside you house can feed of your grid. What is before your meter is not charged to you and I would expect you would have seen if a neighbour plugged into one of you sockets.

You are not being overcharged, that would be the case if EDF charges you a unit rate that is to high, you believe that the meter counts more KWh than you think is correct.

I can hardly see from your graph that there is the 3-4KWh savings from switching off the immersion heater.

Have you done regular meter readings yourself daily?

Alnat1

The FF using 100w....Is it an American FF?

100w x 24hrs x 365 = 876kWh/yr x (Oct rate) 52p = £455.52

Might be worth looking for a more economical replacement

victor2

Robgmun said:

MWT said:

How about fridge/freezers, outdoor lighting/pond pumps, indoor aquarium /vivarium, games consoles/gaming PC etc.... 

Outdoor lighting was switched off a while ago, last month, and we don't have any pond/aquarium/vivarium, games consoles/gaming PC have all been put on "the standby be gone" smart plugs. That was the biggest surprise! The Xbox Series X was pulling 100w even when it looked like it was switched off! In contrast, the PS5 on the other hand was reading 0w, in other words, it was properly turned off!

I don't really game on the PC but the desktop connected to my OLED TV was only pulling 80w and 150w respectively when fully turned on and in use and that's usually only between 6 pm and 12 midnight. 

We have 2 fridge/freezers one is using 80w when turned on but that's only a 3rd of the time and the other is around 100w

Fridge/freezers can be fairly heavy users. How are you measuring their usage? You'll get a more realistic view if you use a plug-in monitor for at least a day on each one. Anti-frost ones often have a heater in them which runs peridically (eg once a day) and uses a significant amount of power. If the door seal is not working very well, that can increase usage as well.

There are apps you can get which show you what the smart meter is reporting, one is Loop Energy. I tried it, easy to set up so long as you have your IHD, and can show the half hour intervals that the meter reports. Switch as much as you can off overnight, or if going away for a break, and see what it records. Then you can start to home in on specific devices.