Help: Massive Energy Usage

hareng

There have been numerous reports of smarty meters reading incorrectly, do a search and be flabbergasted at the amount.

Most EVs clock 3-4 miles per kWh. With 45 kWh a small EV:

• 45 kWh x 3.5 miles = 157.5 miles at 25p kw/hr =£11.25 every time you top up.

First things first switch everything off and see what the meter does.

victor2

It is very unlikely that your smart meter is reading incorrectly.

Does your online account with your supplier (or their app) show past usage? If so, look at the kWh used daily in the past month or so and see what it tells you. Can you spot the days you charged your vehicles?

Do the meter sanity test to be sure your meter is reporting actual usage.

Finally, take a note of your meter readings on a daily basis to get an idea of what your daily usage is with and without car charging.

WiserMiser

Any electric showers? Any underfloor electric heating? Any electric panel heaters? Any immersion heaters left switched on? What's your gas consumption?

QrizB

If we take the 13500kWh a year as a given, what about over smaller time increments?

What does your energy use look like month-to-month? Day-to-day? Hour-to-hour? You should be able to see all this info via your smart meter IHD, supplier's website / app and monthly bills.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6652625/help-massive-energy-usage

We also use around 13,500kWh a year, 2 x EV etc all the energy is accounted for, and 99.6% is at 7p/kWh thanks to IOG tariff and large house batteries. We offset that by exporting 100% of our solar PV with SEG at 15p that covers about half of our annual import cost. That leaves us with our total electricity cost each month being less than we used to pay for one tank of petrol…

It really isn't hard to get up to that sort of level if you have multiple EV/TV/PC/consoles in use. Add in washing, a tumble drier etc.

We cook with electric as well, but aside from that a similar profile to you.

If you want to get that total down take a look at your baseload and see how much stuff you have plugged in that is pulling power 24/7, it might surprise you…

squirrelpie

@MortysHead1938 it would help if you reread the thread and look at all the questions people have asked, and answer them all or explain why you can't/won't? You've answered some of them but being systematic is essential if you want to solve your problem.

MortysHead1938

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859095#Comment_81859095

Sorry, been away from my desk for a while.

We have two electric showers. Use a dishwasher daily. No tumble driers. Gas consumption is slightly less than the electricity level at 12,500 kwh. Let me know if I have missed anything.

I haven't yet studied the consumption details at a daily level, as per recommendations, largely because I didn't know the meter could do that! I've only been using the main screen. I will give it a go over the next couple of days.

Really appreciate all of the thoughts, ideas and recommendations. Thank you.

Grumpy_chap

"Typical household" 3,100 kWh - 4,100 kWh per annum Take the mid-point 3,600 kWh per annum

PLUS 2 EV's, each doing 5k miles per year so that's 10k miles per year. Assume 3.5 miles / kWh so that's 2,800 kWh per annum.

So 6,400 kWh per annum easily explained, but the OP is using double that.

The next step is for the OP to look at the use profile:

• Is there a variance in consumption on a monthly basis over the year (as the weather changes)?
• Is there a variance in days of the week - weekend versus weekday (non-working / working days)?
• What is the baseload demand overnight?
• Did the OP have any holiday period when the property was empty? What baseload was noted then?

MortysHead1938

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859139#Comment_81859139

That's really helpful and helps to clarify the extent to which I am perplexed! I will investigate further after getting to grips with my smart meter functions.

doodling

Hi,

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859135#Comment_81859135

Two electric showers. Those and the electric cars will be the difference between you and "average" (average will assume that all your hot water is gas heated whereas in your case, most of your hot water is electrically heated, probably at peak rate).

Electric showers in a house with gas hot water are quite frankly bonkers from a cost point of view.