What next? High electricity usage.

Debdon

Summary of circumstances
3 bed semi
2 persons
gas heating and water
electricity underfloor heating all switched off
fairly new appliances
estimated Annual usage 12000kwh
daily use while away on holiday 7.6kwh with slight variation. 

2 small fairly new pond pumps

Smart meter possibly first generation 4000imp installed by NPower and changed to EDF 2018

How can our bills be so high? This is what we have done so far.
tested appliances with plug in meter. Nothing unusual
EDF after some struggle installed a test meter for 6 weeks. Both logged as 625kwh
bought device Efergy that clips onto supply. Compared to smart meter shows variable but significantly lower reading. 

Over previous years complained to EDF and was told the meter was accurate but busy life so have been just paying.
Tried switching every circuit off and seeing if anything registers. Nothing significant showed.
tried isolating different circuits and nothing made a significant difference. 

EDF are trying to close the complaint now as they say the fault is with us. But how can we be using the equivalent of 4 semi detached properties? I am completed puzzled and don’t know what else to do. 

Any help suggestions welcome. 

Grumpy_chap

Debdon said:

Summary of circumstances
3 bed semi
2 persons
gas heating and water
electricity underfloor heating all switched off
fairly new appliances
estimated Annual usage 12000kwh
daily use while away on holiday 7.6kwh with slight variation. 

2 small fairly new pond pumps

Smart meter possibly first generation 4000imp installed by NPower and changed to EDF 2018

How can our bills be so high? This is what we have done so far.
tested appliances with plug in meter. Nothing unusual
EDF after some struggle installed a test meter for 6 weeks. Both logged as 625kwh
bought device Efergy that clips onto supply. Compared to smart meter shows variable but significantly lower reading. 

Over previous years complained to EDF and was told the meter was accurate but busy life so have been just paying.
Tried switching every circuit off and seeing if anything registers. Nothing significant showed.
tried isolating different circuits and nothing made a significant difference. 

EDF are trying to close the complaint now as they say the fault is with us. But how can we be using the equivalent of 4 semi detached properties? I am completed puzzled and don’t know what else to do. 

Any help suggestions welcome. 

What was the use over the test period with everything switched off?

Do you have an immersion heater in the hot water tank?

Debdon

The reading didn’t change when circuits were switched off.
no immersion heater or hot water tank. It is a gas combi boiler.

Debdon

The test meter install for 6 weeks included 10 days when we were away on holiday. Which means our average usage is over 14 kWh daily

Spoonie_Turtle

625kWh for 6 weeks averages out at ~14.9kWh/day.  Which is 7.3kWh higher than baseline usage.  Without further information that doesn't strike me as unreasonably high.  (Some regular members here get it much lower but that's usually through conscious effort or a minimalist lifestyle, it's not necessarily the norm for the majority of the population.)

Do you have an electric shower?
What appliances do you have?  How much laundry do you do?  How much cooking and using what appliances?

Things that'll be likely to contribute the most are things that heat or cool.  However motors drawing a constant load, even if not a heavy load, do add up too.

You probably need to do an audit of your home, going room by room - and outside, garage if applicable, etc. - noting every electronic item you have and how much use each gets.  (Though phone/tablet chargers do genuinely use negligible amounts if they're working as designed.)

QrizB

Debdon said:

daily use while away on holiday 7.6kwh with slight variation. 

7.6kWh/day when you're away is an average background load of 300 watts. That's quite possible, we've seen people with higher ones.

That's only 2800kWh/yr, though. So whatever is causing your high consumption was not switched on during your holiday.

Debdon said:

EDF after some struggle installed a test meter for 6 weeks. Both logged as 625kwh

So the check meter confirms that your main meter is working properly (or was working properly for the duration of the check). At that time you were using 104kWh a week, 15kWh a day.

Debdon said:

bought device Efergy that clips onto supply. Compared to smart meter shows variable but significantly lower reading. 

How much lower?

I'm assuming that you don't have an IHD for your smart meter. What's the load (in watts) typically displayed by your Efergy?

Debdon said:

estimated Annual usage 12000kwh

What is your actual annual usage, based on two sets of meter readings (eg. from your bills) that are 12 months apart?
Your bills are definitely using actual/smart readings, not estimates?

12000kWh/yr is 33kWh a day, double the amount that you were using when EDF fitted their check meter. What was different? What appliance wasn't being used? It'll be something that gets hot. Any outdoor halogen floodlights, for example?

QrizB

Things that can cause higher electricity bills:

Gaming PCs

Plasma TVs

Halogen floodlights (and incandescent lights in general)

Cryptocurrency mining 

Grow lights

Water heaters

Air conditioning

Dehumidifiers

Sump pumps, pond pumps

UV water purifiers

Tropical fish tanks

Loft lights that get left on

Debdon

@QrizB hi 
we do expect to be slightly higher due to having a Hybrid car. It will charge once per fortnight and we can see it does show a significant increase when charging. However this high usage predates this installation. 

The Efergy meter is showing between 6 and 8.2kwh daily. For example 15th July online usage recorded by EDF for that day was 13.72kwh but the Efergy meter says 8.27kwh. 

Cooker is on and tv and a laptop in use and Efergy shows 0.416kw 

Readings since 2023 have all been smart meter readings since they did a software update. 

No halogen lights

Debdon

Things that can cause higher electricity bills:

Gaming PCs none

Plasma TVs none

Halogen floodlights (and incandescent lights in general) none

Cryptocurrency mining  no idea what this is 🤣

Grow lights none 

Water heaters none

Air conditioning none

Dehumidifiers none

Sump pumps, pond pumps 2 small pumps fairly new

UV water purifiers included with pond pumps I think?

Tropical fish tanks none

Loft lights that get left on no

QrizB

OK, your smart meter is communicating with EDF. Can you see the half-hourly data on your EDF account? It'll let you tell what time of day you're using your electricity.

Debdon said:
we do expect to be slightly higher due to having a Hybrid car. It will charge once per fortnight and we can see it does show a significant increase when charging. However this high usage predates this installation. 

Once a fortnight with a PHEV isn't going to add up to all that much. Maybe 500kWh/yr?

Debdon said:

 The Efergy meter is showing between 6 and 8.2kwh daily. For example 15th July online usage recorded by EDF for that day was 13.72kwh but the Efergy meter says 8.27kwh.

That's a bigger discrepancy than I'd expect. Can you share a photo of your meter, consumer unit (fuse box, any associated electrical gubbins) and exactly where the Efergy is attached?

Scot_39

You logged 625 kWh on both electric meters - for 6 weeks - so thats quite a lot,  but can see why EDF now saying it seems highly unlikely both meters were out of calibration and by the exact same amount.

625/6/7 = 15 kW per day.

Without any heating - are you sure its all off - including any other big loads (like say a backup HW immersion - or old security lighting (upto 500W - we had one triggered by neighbours cats (plural) and the occasional fox - several times a night for 10 mins plus - we saved by swapping to LED)

Half Hourly Data - Smart really useful for diagnositcs like your issue

As you have a smart meter - not sure how good the EDF online tools - or if they do an app giving half hourly access (I tried EOns years ago - it was so bad deleted it - but they say it now does half hourly - so EDF cannot be that far behind ?).

But you could also use a third party app like bright or loop to access the smart meters half hourly data - and look at your base load - say overnight - and any peaks during the day / night - which might give you a clue where to look next.

Try downloading say 7 days worth - and check times days and nights for larger usage - and check your base load - and how it varies too.

Mines gets as low as 20-30W - 100W when FF active - when out of the house or asleep.  Right now - Ive got a PC just typing so no real CPU/GPU power use, monitor and a light on - still sub 100W. My TV would add a little more than the PC.

7.6kWh when on holiday is really quite large - I'd be around 1-1.2 kWh inc 1 small F/F and a couple of LED bulbs - one 24/7 one on a timer - plus my base load alarm, mains smoke detectors etc etc.

So getting to 15 kWh from 7.6 kWh is not as much as a stretch when occupied.  

But even then the extra c 7-8kWh excluding HW / heating is quite a lot.