tracking down high electricity usage

anthdci

Like most people since the price hikes I have been a lot more conscious of my energy usage. I now have a spreadsheet and even though I have a smart meter I do manual reading a couple of times a month. So from September last year I have a very accurate read of my usage and we have tried to cut it down. In the house (3 bedroom semi) there are 2 adults and 1 two year old. We work from home 3 days a week each, different days so we don't need to pay to get the dog walked. 

Now we are halfway through the year I have used 4200kw gas and 2600kw of electricity.
So that has me at less than half the average gas usage but I am already nearly at the average electricity amount.

We have gas central heating, dual fuel oven, but tend to use the Ninja as much as possible. We have a tumble dryer and dishwasher. We have each have an office with a computer and multiple monitors on. I have a NAS media server that (allegedly) uses between 8 and 18w and shuts down between midnight at 8am.

So I am trying to figure out why my electricity use is so high in comparison to the average. I've just bought four Kasa KP115 energy monitoring smart plugs. I've put one on the tumble dryer, one on the fridge freezer, one of the TV unit (combining TV, skybox, switch and echo dot), and one on my PC doing the PC and NAS. I'll switch one out to my wife's computer setup after a few weeks and another to the dishwasher.

Has anyone went through this process and what did you find? Am I missing something that I should be testing, obviously there are appliances like kettle, microwave etc but they are on pretty rarely.

Krakkkers

Get yourself some solar panels.

Slinky

Tumble driers eat electricity in my experience.

Gerry1

Look at the base load shown on your IHD.  If it's more than about 150 - 300W then you need to start switching all the standby things off at the sockets, starting with all the TV stuff.

Hope you're not using any electric plug in heaters or panels, ditto an instantaneous electric shower.

theoretica

Look at your smart meter half hour data (there are apps) to see when the use is happening.  Constant use?  Daytime?  Regular peaks?  Irregular peaks?

anthdci

Krakkkers said:

Get yourself some solar panels.

Would love to, but the roof probably has 5 years life left at best. If I fit solar panels I’d have to take them back off pretty soon to do the roof.

anthdci

Gerry1 said:

Look at the base load shown on your IHD.  If it's more than about 150 - 300W then you need to start switching all the standby things off at the sockets, starting with all the TV stuff.

Hope you're not using any electric plug in heaters or panels, ditto an instantaneous electric shower.

Good shout, the ivie app I’ve got is saying 370w every hour of everyday I was away last week. Looks like I need to figure out why that’s so high. Which hopefully these smart plugs will help with.

victor2

Your gas looks reasonable and electricity looks a bit high.

You have monitors, so they could reveal the power hungry devices. Tumble dryers are monster consumers. The computers could account for a fair bit, depends on what they do and for how long each day.

Fridge/freezers can account for a significant amount - not because they use a lot of power but because they are on 24/7. Monitor yours over at least a few days to get a realistic view of what it consumes.

If you have an electric shower, that can account for a fair bit too, and you can't put a monitor on it. People who spend excessive amounts of time in the shower can be costly.

anthdci

victor2 said:

Your gas looks reasonable and electricity looks a bit high.

You have monitors, so they could reveal the power hungry devices. Tumble dryers are monster consumers. The computers could account for a fair bit, depends on what they do and for how long each day.

Fridge/freezers can account for a significant amount - not because they use a lot of power but because they are on 24/7. Monitor yours over at least a few days to get a realistic view of what it consumes.

If you have an electric shower, that can account for a fair bit too, and you can't put a monitor on it. People who spend excessive amounts of time in the shower can be costly.

It’s boiler ran shower so no issue there. I think it’s tech. My TV, skybox and switch are sucking down 40w right now. All in standby. They can be switched off properly for 8 hours a day at least. That’s £10 saved PER MONTH. That’s one plug paid for in 30 days.

I think the scheduled task for my PC shutting down wasn’t working so there is about 100w. Even if it’s shutdown 7pm until 7am that’s £24 that I thought I was saving but it looks like I wasn’t.

Those two things drop my idle usage from 370w to 230w. If I can get that under 200w or closer to 150w I think that’s a very healthy saving.to start with.

I’m on the war path now to find wastage.

Gerry1

victor2 said:

Tumble dryers are monster consumers.

True, but their usage is time limited, a bit like kettles.  Many also have moisture sensing which further limits consumption.

Seemingly innocent fridges and freezers can be the culprits hidden in plain sight, especially if they're old and poorly insulated, or have dodgy seals.

Krakkkers

Are all your bulbs LED.