11,000 kw pa - Help with Electric Usage Audit

dunstonh

Does anyone know of a company that can come into your home and conduct an Electricty Usage Audit

Can you not do it yourself?  its not difficult.

Even when we went on holiday recently the house was using 10 plus kw per day.

That suggests a lot of devices were left on standby or left running.

Note: I thoroughly expect our electricty usage to be higher than average given the list of appliances that we have (I will spare you the list) however, this feels excessive.

Perhaps the list would be useful because I am a high energy user with 24 hour lighting (stable blocks, paddock lighting and menage flood lighting), office with three PCs running during the day, electric horse walkers and that is before we get into the house.  Yet on a bad day, we use 11kWh.   We are down from 18kWh before we did our own tests.

Lets start with the typical big hitters

1 - tumble drier

2 - dishwasher

3 - fridge freezer

4 - immersion heater

5 - devices being left running or on standby

Each of these can result in 2 to 3 kWh each a day if run inefficiently (old and inefficient or run on energy-intensive settings rather than eco).  For example an old Fridge Freezer can use over 3kWh a day whilst a modern American FF can use around 0.7kWh.  Dishwasher on high temperatures and quick loads can use 3-4 times more energy than the slower eco mode.

However, your background use is extremely high.   That suggests devices on standby eating power and/or FF using too much.

Buy some energy plugs.  2-3 will be fine initially.  Tapo 110s are a good example and very popular.  These plug into the wall socket and you plug the item into that.  An app will then tell you how much energy passes through.   Some items need monitoring over a week (e.g. FF, Washing machine, Tumble).  Others you can check per load (such as dishwasher).

Some devices on standby eat energy.

TVs with an option to turn on with mobile devices (an option that can usually be  disabled)

Sky mini-boxes (you only need to keep the main one on - the mini boxes eat electricity and can be turned off/on when needed)

playstations, dvd players, computers left on at the plug eat electricity.  

If you have multiple routers/mesh systems, each uses between 7-15w when idling.    Only the main one needs to stay on (and even that can go off when you are away).

My BG Forcasted Usage (and consequential bills) is: Estimated annual

What about your actual usage?   Do you read your meter regularly? 

Create a spreadsheet with actual meter readings.   Whilst you are running tests on use, read it daily.

If you have a smart monitor then you can tell your use.  If you don't then you can get meter monitors like geo minim (which I use). 

Dont rely on estimates.

Robin9

Start with accurate meter readings -  go back over the last 12 months and find all those with ACTUAL readings, read your meter NOW and post the info on this forum.


Of recent times -  we've had multiple fridges and freezers in the garage,  multiple pond pumps

brewerdave

Being a suspicious type, I would ask the teenage stepson whether he  has been running a fan heater at night when the central heating has switched off. When my daughter was in a house share whilst at Uni, they had a horrendous electricity bill. When I "investigated" one of the house mates was running a fan heater all night !!

sienew

macman said:

I think it would be better to educate people into the reality that up to 80% of their energy usage is heating and hot water, rather than obsessing about how much their router uses, and whether it's cheaper to boil a kettle with gas or electricity.
The majority of those asking 'why is my usage so high?' tend to list in detail their electrical appliances, but don't even mention how the property is heated and hot watered.

This is very true in general but the OP has said they are using 11,246 kWh of electricity which is almost 4x the "average" that the price cap uses.

Noble1001

Thanks all. I will provide a non comprehensive overview of appliaces whilst working on a more exhuastive list:
1940/50's double fronted Semi (
Insulated loft
Complete refurb of house when we bought it 5 years ago (new windows, heating, rewire etc etc)
Standard BG Tariff for Electric and Gas - we were auto moved over from People's Energ when they went bust in Oct/Nov 21
I have worked out manually our annual projected Kw use is approx 10,800 kw (based on actual daily history for las 10 months)

I noete that the average use of electricity in the early hours of the morning e.g. 2am is averaging @ 0.22 - 0.25 kw per 30 mins

Appliances 
Nest Thermostat
LG American F/Freezer (10 yrs old)
Small (single) Chest Freezer (in Garage)
Electric Range Cooker & Hood
Sony M/wave 
Kitchen spot lights 4 watts x 12 
Dinng area lights 4 watts x 12
Projector (left on standby)/ small amplifier (left on s/by) -actually used 2 per week ish x 2 hours
Tassimo Coffee machine used 2 cups per day
Alexa Plus Speakers x 2 
lamp (occasional use)
Overhead table light (occasional use)

Washing Machine 1 x wash per day (40 degrees)...dont use the dryer function

(all appliances listed left on S/by)
LG 55inch TV
Bose 650 Surround Sound System
Sky Q
CD Player
Alex Echo Dot x 3
Lamps x 2 (night time winter only)
Telephones x 2

HP Injet Printer
IMAC (I work from home using this)
BOSE Speaker (for PC)
SKY Router
LG TV x 2 - 42inch
Sky Q Mini x 2 
Q M3 Soundbar
Various Laptops (plugged in intermittently)
Mini Fridge (in step sons bedroom) about a third of the size of a normal fridge (o.8kw per 24hrs - as per the spec)

Gaming PC (not used very often these days and not left in S/by)
2 x UPS backups
2 x WD data storage (NAS)

Outdoor Pond Pump (details to follow)
Hozelock pond filter 
Fishtanks x 2 (both with pumps/filters)

Variuos lithium power batterties for power tools (recharged at variuos times but not all the time

EV charge point (since March 22 so am well aware of the impact) uses 220 kw per mth (average) 

Blueair Blue 3210 Air Purifier

My step son has more 'stuff' plugged in that I have yet to list!!!!

Noble1001

Meter Readings since being moved to BG:
Also Note: Hot Water is via Combi Boiler

Meter is a smart meter so taken automatically although we do not have a 'smart monitor'.

Date       Reading     Usage

29/08/2022	36577	889 kWh
29/07/2022	35688	831 kWh
30/06/2022	34857	48 kWh
29/06/2022	34809	921 kWh
29/05/2022	33888	740 kWh
29/04/2022	33148	951 kWh
30/03/2022	32197	23 kWh
29/03/2022	32174	448 kWh
16/03/2022	31726	4470 kWh
28/10/2021	27256	0 kWh

[Deleted User]

From that, I'd instantly jump to the following items myself as possible 'guzzlers':

LG American F/Freezer (10 yrs old)
Small (single) Chest Freezer (in Garage)
Outdoor Pond Pump (details to follow)

I'd be ignoring anything (to start with) that runs through a 'power brick' or anything that charges batteries (except the EV of course).

dunstonh

LG American F/Freezer (10 yrs old)

This could be a potential heavy user.   American !!!!!! of that age could easily use 3kWh a day (compared to 0.7kWh a day with the best modern ones.

Small (single) Chest Freezer (in Garage)

That too.

Projector (left on standby)/ small amplifier (left on s/by) -actually used 2 per week ish x 2 hours

Likely to be drawing small amounts in standby.

(all appliances listed left on S/by)
LG 55inch TV
Bose 650 Surround Sound System
Sky Q
CD Player
Alex Echo Dot x 3
Lamps x 2 (night time winter only)
Telephones x 2

All likely to be drawing power on standby.  Some of these can go off at the plug.

HP Injet Printer
IMAC (I work from home using this)
BOSE Speaker (for PC)
SKY Router
LG TV x 2 - 42inch
Sky Q Mini x 2 
Q M3 Soundbar
Various Laptops (plugged in intermittently)
Mini Fridge (in step sons bedroom) about a third of the size of a normal fridge (o.8kw per 24hrs - as per the spec)

Most of these can be turned off at the switch. Sky Q minis use a fair bit in standby.  LG TVs have mobile connectivity that draws power in standby.   Yet most people dont need it.  Can be turned off in settings.

Outdoor Pond Pump (details to follow)
Hozelock pond filter 
Fishtanks x 2 (both with pumps/filters)

Likely to account for a fair bit.

Standby use could be costing you several kWh per day.  Fridge & Freezers (all of them) could be using 6-7 kWh a day.

You need to get some energy monitoring going.

Krakkkers

You can discount the EV charging against what you would have spent on Deisel/Petrol.
Outstanding items on the list are Electric range, Fish pond pump and aquariums.
These are likely to be a continuous drain.
Seems you are someone who would get a quick payback from solar panels?

badmemory

My largest users are in this order - tumbledrier, freezer (over 10 yrs old) fridge (over 20 yrs old).  A long time ago I used to have tropical fish tanks & they were the absolute biggest users then.  Re the fridge & freezer, new ones with a much higher rating would (according to them) use less than half what my current ones do.  I'm still weighing up the costs but suspect it may be a good idea to change them.  If we had been stuck with the Oct cap then it would have been a sensible idea.