My Energy use Diary

cw18

Does your fridge/freezer have a plug you can access? If so, then I'd recommend slotting one of the power monitor things between the plug and the socket. If you then turn everything else off for 8 hours you can see if the useage on the monitor matches the useage on your meter.

If so, then it's your fridge/freezer that has a problem. If not, then it would imply there is something else pulling power......

Out of interest, what sort of heating system do you have for your water?

ktpie

Are you sure there isn't something else in your house that is using electricity all the time that you have overlooked, an immersion heater or something like that?
Testing your fridge/freezer, washing machine and dishwasher with an electricity monitor would help you determine that they are really using that much.
That's all I can think of, sorry not to be of more help!

cw18

Just been digging back to find the info I posted after I changed from a (very old) small chest freezer to a 'A' rated (larger) upright.

I did the swap in November 2008, and the comparison in Feb 2009.

My findings state

The appliance it replaced was showing as 1000kWh a year when I did this on it back in October, so that was the figure I needed to beat.
The new one is looking like it should use just 237kWh a year :T
So that's a saving of

• 763kWh a year, or
• 63.5kWh/month or
• 14.6kWh/week or
• (the one that impressed me) 2kWh a day.

so even my old - and heavy useage appliance - was only using around 2.75kWh per day !!

How old is your appliance? And are you sure the seals are sealing properly when you close it? If not, this would also cause a much higher energy consumption (and more of a risk of food spoilage)

ktpie

Cross posted there cw18, to say pretty much the same thing!

gull5426

interest topic.
last week our electric units used were
7.8 nightime
39.7 daytime

A_fiend_for_life

danjackson999 wrote: »

I have read alot of this thread and other sources on the net and it doesnt seem that anybody else uses 3 units per dishwasher/washing maching cycle

What temperature are you washing at? Most powders will wash adequately at 30C or less. It might be reasonable to expect such usage from a 60C or 90C wash. Does it have a built in dryer?

Same for the dishwasher are you using a low temperature setting for this? (I have never used a dishwasher so 3 units might be reasonable for a high setting.)

danjackson999 wrote: »

I have tested having everything turned off for a few hours at a time and for 8 hours overnight and it uses 4 units in 8 hours.

If you have tested for 4 to 8 hours with everything switched off including the fridge and still getting the same reading I'd expect:

a) a hidden load(s) or faulty device eg immersion / heated or pump assisted garden pond (?) / instant water heater(?) / fire or security alarm or outdoor security light especiallly a 500 watt tungsten halogen lamp set off by passing cars.

or

b) a fault on the kitchen circuit (or another circuit)

or

c) both meters are consistently over reading or draining (unlikely)


If you're not happy doing this I'd suggest an electrician.


Switching off at the main switch should test the meter is not using energy without a load. (0.5 kWh sounds a lot for a meter imho but might be reasonable - it would be quite warm). It would also make sure no one is tapped into your supply at the time of testing.

Switching off all circuits bar the kitchen / fridge circuit should tell you if the fault is on the fridge circuit / fridge or on another circuit all together. Or possibly the meter if the above test hasn't been performed.

If the meter was giving a consistent over reading dependent on the load you would need to test with a known load. eg a 1 kWh heater on full setting for 1 hour (without a thermostat). I'm not sure what margin of error to expect.


I'm not sure what modern consumer boards look like but I suspect any with flashing LEDs on individual circuits would be very useful and quicker to identify hidden loads / faults on individual circuits.

As CW mentions what kind of heating system do you have?

zygurat789

gull5426 wrote: »

interest topic.
last week our electric units used were
7.8 nightime
39.7 daytime

Isn't that rather a lot?

cw18

gull5426 wrote: »

interest topic.
last week our electric units used were
7.8 nightime
39.7 daytime

zygurat789 wrote: »

Isn't that rather a lot?

doesn't sound a lot to me...... only two of us living here, and my weekly electricity consumption rarely falls below 60kWh

Mine's actually going to go through the roof from now on, as I have to put the washer on a lot more often (for work uniforms) which I'm not impressed about at all

zygurat789

cw18 wrote: »

doesn't sound a lot to me...... only two of us living here, and my weekly electricity consumption rarely falls below 60kWh

Mine's actually going to go through the roof from now on, as I have to put the washer on a lot more often (for work uniforms) which I'm not impressed about at all

We use 8.5 - 9 units per 24 hours
For Fridge
Freezer
Washer/Dryer
Dish washer
Microwave
Cooker
Hob
TV
Central heating pump
+ odds & sods

cw18

I took the figures to be weekly rather than daily, so yours is about the same as mine on a good week and leave gull5426's looking pretty low

I have a fridge/freezer, freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer (used much less than it used to be), kettle, toaster, oven and grill, microwave (combi), central heating controls, desktop PC (DS's), laptop (mine), modem/router, TV x 2, freeview box x 2 - plus all the normal odds-and-sods including the iron (which I've used more in the last week since starting work than in the previous 12 months :rolleyes2 )

My hob is gas (only things on that are heating and hob)