Phantom Electricity Usage Spikes

mmmmikey

Thanks - so the spike you're seing is an extra 0.5kWh for the 30 minute period every 3 hours or so? So your consumption has gone up by 3 or 4 kWh over the course of a day? That's a lot of extra energy - my fridge uses about 0.3kWh per day and freezer 0.5kWh - admittedly I chose them for their efficiency but it does give you an idea of the scale of the extra usage.

That's certainly got me scratching my head, but I still think the fridge/freezer is the place to start. The Tapo plug will give you a chart showing consumption in 60minute intervals and that should give you some clues.

Also, what kind of property do you have and where is the meter? If it's a flat and the meter's in a communal area might be worth making sure nothing untoward has happened by having a look at the meter itself. Not unknown for people to steal their neighbours electricity.

[Deleted User]

I have noted the spoke pattern in the app and it is about 0.5kwh each time when logged.

Can we be clear what you are talking about? If you are looking at the Octopus graph then the figure of 0.5kWh is total usage over a 30 minute period not a spike. My guess is that you are seeing nothing more than a fridge/freezer compressor kicking in which along with your other house baseload is giving a TOTAL usage figure of 0.5kWh in 30 mins. Clearly, with the hot weather, fridge/freezers are having to work hard at the moment.

born_again

robshak said:

mmmmikey said:

Hi -  a Tapo would be a great investment - as you say you want the P110 which you can get off Amazon and the like for £10 or so. It will give you a much better idea of how much things are using.

Sorry to answer your questions with questions, but it all helps trigger ideas....

1. Which app are you using and where is it getting it's data from?

2. How old are your fridge and/or freezer? (A thought that occurs to me is that a the compressor is on it's way out that could cause a spike and we've had some pretty hot weather so any underlying problem may well manifest itself now)

It is the Octopus smart meter app and it gets data from the smart meter I guess. Updates about mid-day next day for previous day's use.

The fridge/freezer is about 3 yrs old only, suppose new enough not to start these compressor issues.

Yes looking for a Tapo p110 now but only 4 packs! 

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/1488315?clickSR=slp:term:tapo:4:13:1

robshak

[Deleted User] said:

I have noted the spoke pattern in the app and it is about 0.5kwh each time when logged.

Can we be clear what you are talking about? If you are looking at the Octopus graph then the figure of 0.5kWh is total usage over a 30 minute period not a spike. My guess is that you are seeing nothing more than a fridge/freezer compressor kicking in which along with your other house baseload is giving a TOTAL usage figure of 0.5kWh in 30 mins. Clearly, with the hot weather, fridge/freezers are having to work hard at the moment.

Thought  it may be fridge too but now I can tell its not fridge. Tplink smart plug says fridge only used 0.6kwh in 24hrs despite minor spikes when compressor ran occasionally.

How to attach photo here so that I could show what is happening. The .5kwh spike is in addition to normal usage, something that has NEVER happened before 2 Jun, hence the mystery.

Now only suspect is the boiler. Can a faulty boiler do this?  I have seen overflow water occasionally. It is only on heating water for 30mins a day on programme.

mmmmikey

Just a quick thought on this - perhaps you could try swicthing off circuits at the consumer unit in order to narrow the search? i.e. if you switch off a circuit and you still have the issue you know that circuit is OK and you can move on to the next one. May or may not be easy to do depending on other members of your household so not sure if it helps....

robshak

mmmmikey said:

Just a quick thought on this - perhaps you could try swicthing off circuits at the consumer unit in order to narrow the search? i.e. if you switch off a circuit and you still have the issue you know that circuit is OK and you can move on to the next one. May or may not be easy to do depending on other members of your household so not sure if it helps....

I thought of it too but I'd need to switch it off for at least few hours to see if the pattern of spike stops..can't do that with sockets due to fridge and lights are pretty much off these days and can't be them..

victor2

Is your water heater gas or electric? Assumed you were gas, but it hasn't been asked.
It is indeed a pain to switch off all the mains for a period long enough to show if the "spike" disappears, but you could switch off items with a dedicated breaker, such as a cooker. That would eliminate most things you can't check with a plugin monitor.

robshak

Water heater seems electric, now switched off too. May be this one. 

Switched off boiler too yesterday but did not make a difference with spikes, it went up instead.

One thing though, when I press the push to test button, the switch on left comes down. Does it mean a faulty circuit somewhere and this may be the reason for unwanted draw? Any electricians out there who can advice?

robshak

robshak said:

Water heater seems electric, now switched off too. May be this one. 

Switched off boiler too yesterday but did not make a difference with spikes, it went up instead.

One thing though, when I press the push to test button, the switch on left comes down. Does it mean a faulty circuit somewhere and this may be the reason for unwanted draw? Any electricians out there who can advice?

Sorry, just educated myself on test button. Tripping is good, means working. That line of investigation closed too.🙄

Gerry1

The intention of the RCD Residual Current Device (formerly Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker) is to cut off the supply if not all the current from the Live connection returns via the Neutral.  If there's an imbalance then something is wrong such as you touching a live wire or a faulty appliance and a current flowing to earth through your body.  Not good !

The test button similates an earth leakage condition, so yours should trip out exactly as you've experienced.

It's like testing a smoke alerm.  As it says, do it quarterly to help everyone stay safe.