Electricity Use

[sh4d0w]

Has anyone got any thoughts on how we can monitor electricity use at home. For over a year now we seem to be using soooooo much electricity, even before the price hike and us being in a fixed contract we ended up in £600 debit on electricity only. We dont have a smart meter, well we do but its not active on with EON, it was installed by First Utility years back and EON wont do anything with it.
EG: see image for meter readings! I have some single smart plugs with energy usage tracker on them but i think we have something else going on thats churning them units and i have no idea how to work it out. Ive looked at smart meter equivalents:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/3-Phase-Em...rt+meter+energy+monitor&qid=1648200882&sr=8-6

can anyone offer any help? Cheers

 

[winston1]

You have all you need to monitor usage. Your electricity meter. Read it whenever you like, hourly, daily, whenever you want.

 

[sh4d0w]

that does not help me a great deal and its not instant, IE i have to turn off my fish tank for maybe an hour or more in order to get a meaningfull reading off the meter, never going to happen mate.

I am looking for an instant or more efficient way. Perhaps even see what draw is being taken from each ring. Or a device i can use to check for leaks if that is even a thing

 

[big-all]

if it heats up and uses electricity [hotwater/cooker/heaters/hot tubs]these are the ones to look at first
then things like downlighters with hallogen bulbs
then normal lighting not using led bulbs

 

[winston1]

that does not help me a great deal and its not instant, IE i have to turn off my fish tank for maybe an hour or more in order to get a meaningfull reading off the meter, never going to happen mate.

I am looking for an instant or more efficient way. Perhaps even see what draw is being taken from each ring. Or a device i can use to check for leaks if that is even a thing

I’m sure a fish tank can be turned off for an hour safely. What you describe as efficiency is not that at all. To check the load on each ring would entail disconnecting that ring and inserting a wattmeter. Not practical. Any ‘leaks’ would be accompanied by local heating.

 

[JohnD]

it will be large appliances, heating or cooling, that run for long periods.

Ignore lights, TV, kettle, toaster, phone chargers

Which of the following do you have:

immersion heater

fan heater

electric heater

electric towel rail

tumble drier

fridge/freezer (how old?)

air con or dehumidifier

frost protection heater in loft

shed or garage circuit

halogen downlighters or spotlamps or floodlights

boiling water tap

 

[JohnD]

I have some single smart plugs with energy usage tracker on them

like this?



so you can use one on your fishtank.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

like this?

View attachment 265212

so you can use one on your fishtank.

I have one and they are well worth while having and using, just so you know what you are paying to run what. Plug your tank into it for a week and see what it is costing you to run it. In time for next autumn, swap every regularly used light for an LED version.

If you have one of the older smart meters, you will have an indoor display, which will still show what your instantaneous consumption is.

However - those consumption figures do not seem excessive.

 

[aptsys]

~20 kWh/day doesn't seem excessive at all.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

~20 kWh/day doesn't seem excessive at all.

I have just looked again at the figures and I make it 26Kwh / per day, which is quite a lot. Mine, on my own at the moment - 3 bed semi, gas heated, gas cooker and hob, electric shower with gas heating available 24/7, but lots of electronic gadgets averaged 5.4Kwh per day.

The OP has failed to provide any details about what sort of loads he has, apart from that he has some sort of fish tank.

 

[big-all]

i doubt iff the fishtank would account for more than 1-2kw a day but off course dependant on size and old fashion lighting could be 3kw but doubt any more
3kw= 125w an hour average

 

[JohnW2]

I have just looked again at the figures and I make it 26Kwh / per day, which is quite a lot.

It's similar to mine, but at least a third of mine is down to an immersion.

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

i doubt iff the fishtank would account for more than 1-2kwh a day but off course dependant on size and old fashion lighting could be 3kwh a day but doubt any more
3kwh a day = 125w an hour continuous average

 

[sh4d0w]

So-
Fish tank is on an energy plug, it consumes 3.45KWH per 24 hour period / 95.2KWH in the last 30 days.
I have a server and high end IT equipment – my comms cab and all of the kit consumes 4.21KWH a day and 127KWH in the last 30 days
I have 5x 4W LED soffit spots on for 5 hours a night
I have a Warmup 2mtr UFH set on 19C for 4 hours a day which is reporting 0.70 KWH A day / 37.37KWH per 30 days

The rest of the house is just usual family of 4 business - 10 year old American fridge freezer, Chest freezer, Samsung high end washer, Hotpoint dishwasher.

NO Immersions or form of electric heating other than aforementioned.

 

[JohnD]

So you haven't got an electric shower or a hairdryer. And no shed or outdoor supplies or lighting. And no frost protection on pipes. No electric cooker.

My washer and d/wr use about 2.5kW each for ten minutes each time they heat water during a cycle.

test the usage on your freezer and FF

old or faulty ones can be quite high users. I was shocked when I replaced mine with new.

I am a bit surprised that your UFH only uses 0.70 kWh/day

It looks like you have only identified about 8kWh/day so far

so where are the other 16 going?

You could get an Owl or similar monitor, and keep an eye on it. You may find there is a continuous load, or something going on and off, suggesting a timer or thermostat. I have an idea that @JohnW2 has one that stores detailed data files that can be graphed. I have an Owl CM160 that can graph by the minute, hour, day or month, but even the basic ones show a constant real-time display.

If continuous you could watch it while you trip individual MCBs, looking for a drop bigger than you'd expect.