tracking down high electricity usage

QrizB

anthdci said:

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.

If it's that high when you are away (was the house empty, or were there still family members at home?) it makes me think there's likely to be some sort of rogue appliance.

anthdci

Krakkkers said:

Are all your bulbs LED.

They are, than the living room ones with look like the Edison style because that’s they style my wife wanted. I hate it being too bright so I only put the a side light on instead, obviously at the moment nothing is on with it being light mornings and nights.

anthdci

Gerry1 said:

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.

For the fridge, I’ll need to let it run with the monitor on for a week or so to get an average, it’s going from about 105w to 10w. I presume as it’s running or when it’s idle.

anthdci

QrizB said:

anthdci said:

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.

If it's that high when you are away (was the house empty, or were there still family members at home?) it makes me think there's likely to be some sort of rogue appliance.

Other than my father in law popping by to water the plant there was no one there at all. I’m not sure if it’s one rogue appliance, I’m thinking it’s a lot of smaller bits and pieces than build up. For example I have 3 TVs that were all left plugged in and on in standby. I should have switched them off at the wall. 

I need to figure out the best way for my wife’s PC to be usable for her, she’s a !!!!!! for leaving it on with all her work and browser tabs open (can literally be hundreds). If I set it to schedule shutdown they’ll go and I’ll get it in the neck. But if it can go to a low power sleep mode and fire up at the touch of a keyboard button like a tablet does then I think that’s worth exploring. It’s only an small form factor with an external 130w brick so it’s not sucking down loads, but as I say, it all mounts up.

debitcardmayhem

How often do you use the dishwasher ?

cm4ever

anthdci said:

I need to figure out the best way for my wife’s PC to be usable for her, she’s a !!!!!! for leaving it on with all her work and browser tabs open (can literally be hundreds). If I set it to schedule shutdown they’ll go and I’ll get it in the neck. But if it can go to a low power sleep mode and fire up at the touch of a keyboard button like a tablet does then I think that’s worth exploring. It’s only an small form factor with an external 130w brick so it’s not sucking down loads, but as I say, it all mounts up.

May I suggest you look into using "hibernation", instead of "sleep/standby" mode, there's a big difference

victor2

If your fridge/freezer is "frost free", it probably has a heating element in it that comes on once a day or something like that. My old one had an 800 watt element that did that for around 20 minutes a time. 
It could well be the computers though that are a significant load. Look at the sleep timer setup for them, and make sure the monitors go into standby when the computers do. As mentioned above, look into using hibernation ( if they are Windows based) instead of sleep and switch off things like Wake on LAN if you don't need it. I have my main computer set to sleep after about 30 minutes of inactivity and to hibernate when I tap the power switch, which I have a habit of doing when I leave it. Hibernation doesn't save a huge amount compared to sleep, but every little helps! It does return to exactly what it was doing when woken up from hibernation and it only takes a little bit longer than waking from sleep, certainly much faster than powering up from off 

markin

Is the a garage or shed you could use for a small solar system?

A small 1- 2kwh system would help.

Coffeekup

A couple of years ago when I went on an energy usage purge. I found a few culprits that add up on energy usage over time this costing you money. 

Sky box (including Freeview boxes and others I.e. virgin etc). So got rid of that as I was only using it for freeview anyway, this saved a minimum of 18kwh's a month.

Hi-fi components - cd player/amp/dac/radio/streamer. Now I turn off at the wall when not in use.

Microwave - with led clock (unsure about ones without a clock). Turn it on at wall when needed.

Older TVs - I had an 11 year old 46" that used somewhere around 145w. I got a smaller 40" and it uses 70w.

Washing machine - mine needed to stay in standby apparently for updates and lord knows what else. Turned this off at wall.

Doing the the above I went from 140-170 kwh's per month, to 80-95 kwh's per month.


Other things to look at, other posters have pointed out some.
Fridge freezer (especially older ones or American type ones).
Hot tubs, outside lighting, stuff in garage left plugged in.
Pond lighting, pond pumps.
Soundbars, TV's etc all left on and not in use makes the meter tick.
Internal lighting.

I guess you Nas will be using 200kwh's a year, and your PC will use a up a chunk of energy too. More if it's a higher end PC which sounds like it could be as you run multiple monitors.
Your double oven will be using some too especially if it has a clock.

Then there is the obvious one, the tumble dryer. The house sounds like it's never really empty because of the dog. Maybe plan your washing around warmer or windier days and hang it outside. It'll probably set quicker that a tumble dryer too.

Good luck in finding the culprits that are costing you and post your finds here.. it's always interesting to find out what units use what energy and to see how much someone has cut back.

Scot_39

Curious what you define as idle / standby if you think 150-200+ W is good target.

When I have "nothing" plugged in or switched on at mains by switch that is very easy to reach.

So only house alarm, mains smoke detectors, washing machine (socket behind machine under work top etc), 2 timer switches for lights but lights themselves off, fridge freezer on idle and the in home display - my lowest idle usage is regularly 20-30W.

The very small f/freezer uses another 60W or so when running compressor.  Spec is  c0.75kWh per day - so 30 W average.

In theory empty the house should use 1.6 kWh in summer if empty for a while so and HW/Heating off - allowing say 2x5 hrs of 8w led lights for security on timers.

Taking out hot water from equation - my daily use can easily drop below 4kWh - I tried doing another heat tank one day not the next experiment last week - the lowest day - not showering at home or using washing machine - 3.3kWh - c140W average over 24 hours.

Including several hours of computer and/or TV use, hot evening meal etc. 

Even with everything normal, shower (not every day at home these days), hw immersion on e10/ thermostat reg, my summer usage is highly variable 5-7 normal 8 occassionally etc kWh.  5 is ave 200W , 8 is 330W ave.

You are calling that level standby usage.  Albeit for 2 not one.


Auto Sleep or hibernate will help with wife's pc and even yours - it's annoying having to turn off a shutdown script if want to work or surf over default timing.  It can even save a bit on lunch breaks or long calls / AFK work time etc.  With a network of nas and machines it might be useful to disable wake on lan options.

And although I was less careful in past - I used to regularly leave pcs running 24/7 if processing - in or out - I grew up in a house where parents switched everything they could off at night - for safety - electrical fire risk - not cost.

Years of safety training and both office and site kit overheating some even burning out - everything from large power electronic stack components to power packs to even batteries in laptops in not too distant past has made me more cautious.

And these days things like charging new style devices like e bikes, scooters and the like etc overnight has lead to some house fires, whilst other such risk sources have I hope improved with time.

So adding that even if statistically low safety risk to today's electric costs it's a bit of a no brainer to try and switch off or unplug as much as conveniently possible.