Mystery electricity use

creechtide

I had a smart meter fitted a couple of years ago and was given one of those gadgets to monitor use, I did not look at it much to begin with but have it in my lounge now.

I usually wake up 5 or 6 am and notice the cost used so far that day as around 55p.

I have not used my heating in months and I put the immersion heater on about 7am for 15 minutes which costs about 12p.

Had been wondering what is using the electric between Midnight and 5am so last night I stayed up and saw the monitor cost go to zero and Midnight. Stayed up until 12:40 am and had used 2p.

Got up at 6am and had used 55p. This is about 33% of my daily use. I use between £1:55 and £1:65 per 24 hours when at home in the Summer months.

I am on E7 and live alone.

I really cannot think what is using the electricity between Midnight and 5am.

The TV is on standby, FF Router is on, laptop in sleep mode, Refridgerator on, washing machine and cooker off, no tumble dryer.

Any idea what it could be?

zero_cool

Probably the standing charge, added at midnight.

teaselMay

It's not the standing charge being added at 1am is it?

Netexporter

Yes, it is (maonly) the standing charge. If you want to know rhat you've actually used since midnight, press the buttons on the IHD to change what is being displayed.

QrizB

Any idea what it could be?

As others have said, it's the standing charge.

You can adjust your IHD (the gadget) to tell you how much electricity you've used in kilowatt-hours rather than pence. Seeing the number in kilowatt-hours is more useful if you're interested in how much electricity you've used, rather than what it's cost.

If you tell us what model of IHD you have, we can tell you how to switch it to show kilowatt-hours.

subjecttocontract

What about all your passive electrical items e.g. fridge, freezer, chargers, tv etc.

Scot_39

Standing charge most likely - mines is 53p just for electric - but varies greatly by region.

So probably no phantom devices.

As others have said - if want to track energy use - from the phantom device - or device failing - or even just using more of a known device - type perspective - use energy in kWh - not price in £/p.

As when you get big price changes - like the near 28% on average gas unit (hopefully to reduce a bit by winter) - like in the July cap - it throws your tracking off.

And so you suddenly get large changes in £/p - without any change in use at all.

Of course - money is important - so you might find any such price shock forces you to cut back a bit more (when safe to do so).

Meters tend to work in UTC, which is the same as our GMT / winter time - and so I suspect that explains the midnight and 1 am answers above - as right now in summer - the meter day effectively begins and ends at 1am in DST clock time.

So those on say E7 that might be off peak midnight to 7 am GMT, so will be 1am to 8am in DST.

Not so sure that all HH billed TOU follow the same convention - as some like EV tariffs - certainly do quote year round fixed times.

FrugaiMacDugal

How much is your daily standing charge, does that correspond to the jump?

Scot_39

When I got my IHD - smets1 c2018 - it went through several corrections to the amount displayed for costs.

At one stage defintely no SC included, then both it and unit rates were sent to meter ex VAT - so even had to add that.

IT took a couple of years and iterations of EOn sending the correct data in the correct slots - until it came up with the real cost as per bills (annoying - at least for me the EOn app still does it's trending charts for cost that way - ex VAT and no SC - you have to pick a day or a weak etc)

creechtide

Thanks for the replies.

As some of you wrote, it could be the standing charge being added at 1am.

My standing charge is 39.746p a day. + 5% VAT.

The IHD3 model type is 1 CA3080020.

It is displaying cost and KWH usage which I should take note of.

Yesterday before I went to bed at 10pm I had used 3.8 KWH.

7am 0.72 KWH and the cost was showing as 53p.

When the engineer installed my smart meter she told me that the IHD does not display two different rate for day and night, So it does not give me a true breakdown of when the KWH's are used in relation to the cost.

Swipe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059089#Comment_82059089

I'm also on E7 and those usage figures (inc standing charge cost) are very similar to mine overnight with nothing on apart from the fridge and freezer.