Switch timer

victor2

Gerry1 said:

The flashing red light on the meter is your friend.

As described in the Meter Sanity Test, work out how many kW it says you are using at any given moment and compare it to the kW you expect from the devices that you know are switched on.

If you're using significantly more then power down and unplug sensitive items before turning individual circuits off at the consumer unit until you find the culprit(s).

@inigma, have you done as suggested above?

Even just taking meter readings in the morning and evening for a few days will give you an idea when your 33kWh is being consumed.

Gerry1

What are the results of the Meter Sanity Test?

Newbie_John

inigma said:

Newbie_John said:

What does it say on the EPC rating:
https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

Quite often it indicates what heating systems you have in place and some major issues etc.

Most of my neighbours in the same block of flats, are rated C, a few are rated B, I am rated D...

Cool, and what are the recommendations at the bottom? Something like "upgrade floor heating to heat pump" etc. it also shows what's in your house - if you could copy and paste everything that's there - it could help moving this topic forward.

Right now possible issues are:
-user behaviour - leaving windows open etc.
-something is broken - constantly consuming energy
-broken meter - least likely but there is a chance
-unknown device constantly running - ceiling heating, floor heating

dealyboy

@QrizB said:

You say that you don't have a smart meter. If you can't post a photo of the meter, can you at least tell us the make and model? Do you know how old it is?

Edit:

I guess I should add some explanation here. You say:

inigma said:

Our annual usage for 2023 was 11,144 kWh

...
As mentioned in 2015 in the same flat as a bachelor I was spending £15 a month on leccy

In 2015 I was paying 11p/kWh. £15 a month is £180 a year, which at 11p/kWh is 1600kWh/yr. So you're now pying for about 7x more electricity than you were in 2015.

There are a few possibilities, including:

1. You are really using 7x more electricity. Your hot water tank is unlikely to be responsible, unless you've got a leaking pipe somewhere and you're just losing hot water to a drain, the ground or the flat below.
2. You've been reading the wrong meter for the past eight years. There's another flat in your block that has realised they can run their heating non-stop without their bills going up, because they're paying for your electricity and you're paying for theirs.
3. Your meter is faulty and is over-reading.

Most of the posts on this thread are trying to understand your energy use and address option 1.

Gerry1 has requested a Meter Sanity Test in case the problem is option 2.

I want to know your meters make, model and age so we can draw some sort of inference on option 3.

Excellent analysis QrizB ...  ... inigma ?

inigma

Hi apologies for the tardiness, I am dealing with a 4 year old on christmas holidays!  I do appreciate everyones input, this is my meter.  The red light flashes quite a bit maybe every 1.5 seconds

inigma

I will attempt the switch everything off at the breaker board this weekend to see if the cause of it is something i can pin point.  My wife (the wiser of us) pointed out a couple of years ago we went to brighton for a long weekend and we switched everything off including the water heater and our usage for the weekend with everything off apart from the Fridge Freezer was 5 KWH,  I am tempted to get a leccy out to put a timer on the water heater so it isn't on all the time.  I am at a loss.

Gerry1

inigma said:

The red light flashes quite a bit maybe every 1.5 seconds

You need to be quite a  bit more accurate than that !  Count the number of flashes in 60 seconds: even your four year old could do it, it's really not difficult.

Did you switch everything off first?

victor2

A flash every 1.5 seconds is quite a load.
Switch things off until you see the rate drop significantly, like once every 15 seconds.
1,000 flashes is 1kWh.

QrizB

victor2 said:

A flash every 1.5 seconds is quite a load.

40 flashes a minute is 2400 an hour, a 2.4kW drain. I'd only expect to see that when the immersion heater is active or you've got the kettle on.

inigma

Ok I started with my initial assumption of it being the hot water and I think this is the culprit.  I switched the hot water pod off and the red lights flashed 5 times in 60 seconds.