Where is this all electricity use coming from?

sam1970

We are a family of 4 and our electricity bill estimates our annual usage at 5000 KWhr which is quite high. This was before we bought an EV so the usage will be closer to 9000. 
Iam at a loss to where all this usage is coming from. We are normally careful, dont leave lights on in unused rooms...etc. 
We are currently with Tomato energy and thankfully the bills have not been massive as we shifted white goods usage and EV charging to off peak night rates but as TE is likely to collapse soon Iam dreading to move to another expensive tariff. 

Looking at my Watts app which monitor elec. usage for TE, I noted that our daily usage average is around 20KWhr (can go to 40 when charging the EV). Interestingly, even when we went on holiday in August and the house was empty, the daily usage was constant at around 7KWhr which I think is alot for an empty house. The only things we left on were X2 fridges and chest freezer in the garage. We also have a Quooker kitchen water tap which constantly heats water (but only when hot water is used).

Any ideas please?

Peter999_2

Each fridge and chest freezer will probably use about 3 kWh a day (my fridge freezer uses 1 kWh a day).

Are you sure the CHW water tap only heats the water when used?   Sometimes these things pre-heat and use energy.

I your heating gas or electric - if electric it will make a big difference.    Do you have a water tank?  does it have an immersion heater and is it switched on permanently by mistake?

sam1970

Thanks for the reply. We have gas central heating. We have an immersion heater which is switched off as the water is heated by gas on twice daily schedule.
As for the tap, I looked into that and noted that it will only start heating if someone uses the boiling water. 

Robin9

Time for a little detective work.

Go through all the rooms and note the appliances and lighting. Include the Loft/Attic, Greenhouse, Shed, Garage  - garden ponds.  Any fish tanks ?

Old fridge/freezers particulalry American style are good candidates

debitcardmayhem

Have you got an American style fridge(s). The freezer in the garage may also be constantly starting if it is faulty, or if it is not meant to be kept outside. You need to check you high usage appliances to be sure they are off. Lights are not normally a problem unless they are incandescent, if I left all my lights on for 24 hours they would only use 1 kWh aday 

debitcardmayhem

Do you have ponds/pumps/fish tanks ?

I was too slow Robin beat me, I had to answer the door…..

EssexHebridean

Family of 4 - does that include anyone using power-hungry gaming computers? We've seen heavy use of those contribute to higher than expected bills in the past. 

chapea

EssexHebridean said:

Family of 4 - does that include anyone using power-hungry gaming computers? We've seen heavy use of those contribute to higher than expected bills in the past. 

I was just going to mention this after checking my bills and usage when my 2 young adults who game were away for over 2 weeks.  Checking usage day by day my bill over the month would have been £60 less so even allowing for slightly less washing, showering (not electric showers) etc the bill would have been 250 kw less over a full month. They don’t have any Xbox or ps5 etc so mainly the two computers. 

sam1970

Thank you all. Occasional PS5 use by my 11 yrs old son but not excessive. No ponds or fish tanks. One of the fridges is French style, not American..if that makes difference. The only thing I forgot is CCTV system which is on 24/7. I noted that when I go close to the hard drive I could feel the heat and I wonder if this is contributing to the issue

born_again

Whats your base usage like overnight.
That will give you a idea on what normal consumption is like. Then compare that to daytime & look where the most usage is.
I take it that you can see 30 min blocks of usage.

sam1970

This is a screenshot of our 24 hrs usage when we were away on holiday. Fairly consistent throughout the 24hrs