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High electricity use of gas boiler
Hi all,
Our gas system boiler seems to be using a lot more electricity than it should (and used to) - around 200 to 300 W, which doesn't change much whether it's running or not. This started a few weeks ago I think, noticed as our smart meter was always showing much higher usage when there was nothing running in the house.
Otherwise it's working fine, any ideas what might be causing this? I worry that it might be a sign of imminent failure (as well as the waste of electricity) 😬
Our gas system boiler seems to be using a lot more electricity than it should (and used to) - around 200 to 300 W, which doesn't change much whether it's running or not. This started a few weeks ago I think, noticed as our smart meter was always showing much higher usage when there was nothing running in the house.
Otherwise it's working fine, any ideas what might be causing this? I worry that it might be a sign of imminent failure (as well as the waste of electricity) 😬
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Have you confirmed that the high background load definitely is the boiler? Either by being able to isolate just that, or by checking room by room that nothing else has been plugged in, left switched on, etc?🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
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Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
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Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
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My Viessmann has averaged around 437 Whrs a day so far this year.0
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Maybe a dodgy microswitch in a done valve, keeping a pump running unnecessarily. Can you tell us more about the system, apart from the boiler what ekse do you have In the way of pumps, valves etc?0
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Nothing else running at all? Fridge, freezer, router, phone charger, standby devices?
Have you tried switching off the boiler power supply and then rechecking what the drop in consumption is?No free lunch, and no free laptop
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Deleted User said:Do you have additional distribution pumps on your system - they consume power.A circulation pump should only use 50-80W. Even a real old one should be less than 100W. Without a pump running, I would expect a boiler to consume no more than 20W.300W is excessive - Might pay to have an engineer take a look at it fairly soon.
Any language construct that forces such insanity in this case should be abandoned without regrets. –
Erik Aronesty, 2014
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.2 -
My Ideal logic combi uses 85W when its supplying the C/H or DHW.
200/300W is way too high for a boiler.0 -
Thanks for the replies, sounds like I'll have to get someone to look at it at some point 😔 it's definitely the boiler (or some part of that system, it's all run off one plug), although checking now it's more like 100-150 W, maybe it varies though.
Qyburn said:
Possibly, I've tried listening to it on and off but can't hear anything obvious. There's only the boiler and two valves that set the circulation (not sure of proper name).Maybe a dodgy microswitch in a done valve, keeping a pump running unnecessarily. Can you tell us more about the system, apart from the boiler what ekse do you have In the way of pumps, valves etc?0 -
The two valves, if beneath the boiler, are probably just the filling loop valves, they don't require a power source.No free lunch, and no free laptop
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More likely to be the motorised valves of a S plan system?0
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Have you bled radiators recently? If not, air in the system could be causing the circulation pump to work a bit harder?4.3kW PV, 3.6kW inverter. Octopus Agile import, gas Tracker. Zoe. Ripple x 3. Cheshire0
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