Where’s my electricity going!?

[Pete48]

Hi,
We’ve just moved from a 2 bedroomed flat to a 2 bedroomed bungalow. We use exactly the same day-to-day appliances and gadgets, except for an immersion heater that we run for 1 hour per day between 5:00am and 6:00 on Economy 7. We’re currently cooking on a gas cooker, whereas we used to use an induction hob and electric double oven. We have gas central heating, which we obviously don’t use at the moment.
Last week I noticed that the electricity consumption seemed to be a bit high. I did a comparison of our usage for June 2025 (old property) and June 2026 (new property) and found that despite no longer having an electric hob and oven the actual kWh usage had gone up by 55%!!!
I did a creep test (10 minutes) as requested by the supplier and it seems that the meter stopped working (is 10 minutes long enough?)
So, I’m a bit confused! Does anybody have any idea why, when it should have gone down, has my usage shot up so dramatically?
At this rate we’ll have to sell the bungalow to pay the electric bill!
Any comments would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[flameport]

What the actual consumption figures?
Percentages on their own mean very little.

 

[Rodders53]

Lighting? LED old vs Halogens in bungalow? Outside lights on/stuck on (halogen floods)? Lights left on in a loft?

Electric underfloor or towel rail heaters in bathrooms?

Pond pumps?

Fridges, Freezers - esp if 'inherited' with the new home.

Get a smart meter or a clamp energy monitor... Isolate all circuits and measure the individual ones as when you switch them on...
________________________

Doh!!!!

ECONOMY 7 !!! and gas CH
Peak energy rates cf SVT on an E7 tariff is likely the wrong tariff if the only use is for a 1hr immersion: even the off peak ain't that cheap often enough.

kWh consumed and not £££s is the comparable... if £s have gone up and kWh down... it's the unit rates that will be the reason.

 

[SUNRAY]

Hi,
We’ve just moved from a 2 bedroomed flat to a 2 bedroomed bungalow. We use exactly the same day-to-day appliances and gadgets, except for an immersion heater that we run for 1 hour per day between 5:00am and 6:00 on Economy 7. We’re currently cooking on a gas cooker, whereas we used to use an induction hob and electric double oven. We have gas central heating, which we obviously don’t use at the moment.
Last week I noticed that the electricity consumption seemed to be a bit high. I did a comparison of our usage for June 2025 (old property) and June 2026 (new property) and found that despite no longer having an electric hob and oven the actual kWh usage had gone up by 55%!!!
I did a creep test (10 minutes) as requested by the supplier and it seems that the meter stopped working (is 10 minutes long enough?)
So, I’m a bit confused! Does anybody have any idea why, when it should have gone down, has my usage shot up so dramatically?
At this rate we’ll have to sell the bungalow to pay the electric bill!
Any comments would be much appreciated. Thanks.

If the only thing running on 'off peak' times is the immersion heater you are wasting money as the 'peak rate' will be higher than a 'standard rate'.

Your kWh figures for both properties is more meaningful than percentages.

It appears somethig you are doing/using is different, of course it could be a faulty meter or it could have been the previous meter was faulty.

EDIT: I started writing this before the other replies but got involved with arranging travel insurance (not easy for >70's with health issues and adding technically unrelated <18's to the policy) then posted without seeing them.

 

[ericmark]

I am lucky, I do have two ways to measure use,

They have never lined up spot on, but near enough to show all as it should be. 25.675 is close to 25.1 and 5.293 is close to 5.4 the smart meter reading is always slightly better for me to the solar inverter reading, but I am reasonably sure the smart meter is more accurate to the solar inverter.

A spot check with a meter can also help, what I did was turn off all RCBOs in the consumer unit, then turn on one at a time, and see power being used. I have the meters to hand, so easy enough. But even without the meters, you should see on the electric meter or in home display some indication of what is being used.

@Rodders53 has given some items to look at, I would add fridge/freezer, they will use something like 60 watts for a 1/3 of the day, without using an energy meter, near impossible to work out what they use, so looking on a website for a random fridge/freezer I get Annual energy consumption (kWh/a) 232 so 636 watt/hours per day,

these cost under £10, I prefer my energenie

as only a monitor, it can't switch anything off/on, and there are whole house versions

but the first pair shown are likely the best option, as cheap, and you can move socket to socket. Knowing you are using 5 amp does not help you find out what is using 5 amp.

The freezer if it has a faulty thermostat or has lost gas, could run 24/7 instead of 1/3 of the time, and likely you would not realise.

@Rodders53 has also pointed out split tariffs do charge more for peak supply, AI tells me the average price of electricity in the UK under the ⁠Ofgem Energy Price Cap active from 1 July to 30 September 2026 is 26.11 pence per kWh for the unit rate (mine 8.625p off-peak and 32.277p peak) and 57.19 pence per day for the standing charge (mine 69.699p). For me, with a battery I charge every night, and solar panels it works out well. But without the battery and solar I would be paying more.

I found the immersion not as bad as I expected, since I have an iboost+ I can see how much I use it says saved, as it only turns one when I have excess solar, but the solar shows me also I can see in the morning how once battery is fully charged how it follows solar production for around an hour, but not 3 kW starts at around 1 kW and finishes at around 2 kW, so around 1.5 kWh per day so 1.24 kWh shown on the iboost+ does seem about correct or 33p per day.

I know why my base use is high, 4 freezers, I do nag my wife, but to turn one off, I need to stop her buying food.

My cylinder for DHW has the spray foam they come with, and a jacket, but the jacket made little change, however no insulation, and it would use a lot more, reading a days use, then turning it off for a day would give you an idea.

I have seen where a thermo-syphon has started with an immersion heater, and it has been heating a radiator as well. Same with bathroom towel rails. For this 5-bedroom house with 2 people, you can see I use 12.4 kWh, we are not very careful, as our annual bill is around £200 because of the solar, so what do you use per day?

​

 

[Murdochcat]

Too many variables and not enough detail to make constructive comments

 

[StephenStephen]

I think some useful info from the OP would be a comparison of the different TOU times and rates between old and new.

If the immersion heater runs at 3kW for an hour a day, that's an extra 3kWh a day

 

[ericmark]

If the immersion heater runs at 3kW for an hour a day, that's an extra 3kWh a day

So £0.78 as single rate (26.11p), for off-peak 13p to 15p per kWh depending on your supplier and region. Then 39p to 45p, hardly worth worrying about. In real terms looking at my own use, although switched on, it is unlikely it is taking power for the full hour, as likely the thermostat will have switched off.

The peak rate if however higher roughly 27p to 34p per kWh.

However, since @Pete48 says kWh we are not worried about the cost so much as how much has been used.

So June 2026 my energy use was 459.8 kWh, and June 2025 my energy use was 413.4 kWh, and June 2024 it was 390.5 kWh, before that did not have solar, so no records, as to why my energy use has gone up, will guess down to running my air conditioning unit. It is no good my looking at power imported, as the solar will mess up results.

 

[morqthana]

looking on a website for a random fridge/freezer I get Annual energy consumption (kWh/a) 232 so 636 watt/hours per day,

Which is probably as accurate as mpg figures for ICE cars, and range figures for EVs.

 

[ericmark]

Which is probably as accurate as mpg figures for ICE cars, and range figures for EVs.

OK more realistic around 300 kWh/a, but if using 500 kWh/a likely faulty. Since @Pete48 has not returned, seems likely we will never know what the problem was.

Theory is OK, but in practice, the only items which run from my consumer unit is one fridge/freezer (others run on EPS supply so not consumer unit) and items on stand-by. So I tested, all RCBOs on, 1.8 amps and a bit, either front or rear sockets off, 1.3 amps and a bit, so ½ amp approx both front and rear of house, problem is when I turn power off and on again some smart devices auto switch on, and a lot of lights are smart. But 0.8 amp on the other 12 RCBOs the solar does not quite give same reading

this is around 1.5 amps, but at 1.8 amps all day that's 9.9 kWh or £2.60 that is not enough to want to sell my house, could not even be bothered to find exactly where it goes.

Until we get a reply, so we know what we are talking about, I would say this thread is dead.

 

[Collectors]

1st look at you old bill & new to see what your tariff is. I'm with this company Goodenergy & pay 24p peak & 6.6p off peak from 12 to 5am. I have a large 2200lt hot water tank & i have that on a timer for 3 hours a night & it takes 3-4kw in total to heat up. So at 4kw it runs about 1h:20m at 3kw = 4kw x 6.6p = £00:27p per day for hot water for 4 of us, & often less. Has the property got a smart meter? with a remote reader. to help. If not it worth getting one. But beachful as some need a smart meter to work.

 

[Lower]

Smart meter or conventional meter?

The scientific way to work out what you're using is to turn everything off for 1hr and make sure the meter doesn't move. The start turning on the lights and appliances you do use, one by one, and monitor by the meter how much power they consume.

Immersion heaters can use quite a bit of electricity to heat stored water. How did you heat water in your old property?

 

[Munroast]

Smart meter or conventional meter?

The scientific way to work out what you're using is to turn everything off for 1hr and make sure the meter doesn't move. The start turning on the lights and appliances you do use, one by one, and monitor by the meter how much power they consume.

Immersion heaters can use quite a bit of electricity to heat stored water. How did you heat water in your old property?

yes, and do this when all your neighbours are in ....

how many kwh are you using per week ?

 

[ericmark]

The start turning on the lights and appliances you do use, one by one, and monitor by the meter how much power they consume.

I went down to measure my own use, and looking at the smart meter, does not do a thing, it's not like the old meter where you could see the wheel spinning, you need to press buttons to read it, and there are so many windows to scroll through, it is next to useless.

Now the IHD (In home display) shows all the time, so that may help, and the app that does show in ½ hour slots what has been used. Same for the week I can see what I have used each day, same applies for export I can see what I have used each ½ hour, day, month or year. Do remember I also export so it is not as bad as it looks, I get this back, so my bill only £50.24 so far this year. But once we have some idea of what your bill is, then we can have a guess at what is going on.