mega electric usage at new house... doesn't seem right.

That's as well as the fibreglass-wrapped square tower thing with "No hands. Do not hold on to this. Not safe. Do Not Grab. No hands!" written all over it, that I assume is an immersion heater.
That description is nothing like an immersion heater.
3 or 4 amps is also far too low for a typical immersion heater.
 
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I'll go and have a proper look.
I thought immersion heaters were upright cylinders ? This could be one that's been boxed-in.
 
The tank think in the loft seems to be a disused water storage tank with a float valve.
another video just uploading to youtube now..
 
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It looks to me like it's the PIR floodlights, since they are the only other thing that I can see being fed from the loft circuit, but why they would be consuming 3A when not illuminated is a bit beyond me. From what I can see, there are two PIR halogen floodlights, one on each side of the building, and they somehow power separate halogen-reflector bulbs to come on at the same time (round half-ball style things, suspect between 100 and 300watt).

I've switched off the low-voltage Satellite amplifier that was in the loft.


oh, here's my video of the loft shenanigans... not much to see really, except for me finding out that I don't have an immersion heater up there ;)
 
I'm now wondering if the PIRs are simply coming on all the time and we're not realising. You can't see from inside, and a road does run right past the house. If it's a 500w halogen flood light with a 300w reflector backed onto it, well that would be running up a bit. It still might not explain all of our high usage.
I can see that each set of GU10 downlights is using half an amp, very similar to my 100w incandescent, and we have 3 sets of the GU10 downlights downstairs.
 
If the outside lights are PIR halogens then when you turn the power back on, they will run for 30s maybe a little more while they initialise.

What happens to the current if you wait a while? Does it drop back down?
 
Yes it does drop back down.

It appears that either of the 500w PIR floodlights, will light up both reflector lamps. So if you trigger the PIR on the north side of the house, that floodlight comes on as expected, and so does the reflector lamp alongside it. Also, the reflector lamp on the south side of the house comes on with it, and vice-versa I presume.

All of this could be a red herring now though since I was flicking the breaker that supplies them, and as you say, they will have all come back on for 30s anyway. I don't actually know how often they are coming on normally.
 
Of our GU10s (23 in total), 10 of them are halogen 50w, so we're wasting about 450w there if the equivalent LED was 5w, and these are on quite a lot.
 
have you found the immersion heater
image here
https://www.toolstation.com/long-li...ubQJLDSfTHFT1eq1L5Z4il-vyeCwx9xRoC8PUQAvD_BwE
Added into a water tank
Video of immersion heater in a tank

That could also explain why the main/old bathroom shower is blistering hot, while the newer en-suite shower seems to more closely reflect the heat output that I would expect from the Heatslave oil-combi.

3Kw heater difficult to say how long it will be on, depends on isulation and amount of water used
But at say 20p a KW/Hr depending on you unit cost
couple of hours to heat up = 20*3 * 2 = £1.20 even at £1.20 a day - thats 30day £36
 
have you found the immersion heater
image here
https://www.toolstation.com/long-li...ubQJLDSfTHFT1eq1L5Z4il-vyeCwx9xRoC8PUQAvD_BwE
Added into a water tank
Video of immersion heater in a tank



3Kw heater difficult to say how long it will be on, depends on isulation and amount of water used
But at say 20p a KW/Hr depending on you unit cost
couple of hours to heat up = 20*3 * 2 = £1.20 even at £1.20 a day - thats 30day £36

Thanks for the photo, yes that's what I had in mind - well I was thinking of the tank rather than the heater itself - but we don't seem to have such a tank anywhere. We think we can see where one used to be, in a cupboard on the landing, but it's just capped off pipes now..
 
As you are supposedly looking for loads that you don't know about, why not, when convenient, switch off everything in the house?

Then measure the current in the main lead. If zero - ok, it is not anything you don't know about.

If not zero, then switch off the MCBs one at a time to determine the circuit where the load is.
 
As you are supposedly looking for loads that you don't know about, why not, when convenient, switch off everything in the house?

Then measure the current in the main lead. If zero - ok, it is not anything you don't know about.

If not zero, then switch off the MCBs one at a time to determine the circuit where the load is.

We did do that just before, although my computer and 3 screens, internet router, modem, wifi access point, speakers, and stuff generally on standby was still on. Got down to 1.6A which seemed OK.
 
Firstly, just to check, you have of course compared the bill with the actual meter reading you took when you moved in, and the latest meter reading you took?
did you check the meter reading & the Tariff you are on - per KW/hr
quite straight forward to check the figures
Straight multiplication plus the day rate/standing day charge

What are the meter readings, and tariff you are on?
 

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