[Mailman]

Originally Posted by MAW

The day we moved into the property, a fairly large but still normal sized, and thermostatically controlled CH at 21 deg, the bill reading for that day on the IHD was £54. The vast majority of it was electricity.

We didn't even arrive with everything until mid-evening.

Nothing was switched on except, as I mentioned, for the CH.

We have one 250 litre maxi-flo with a single immersion which was on that day. But no hot water was used, so the immersion would have cut out the moment the programmed temp was reached. But even if there were several immersions on all day long, it wouldn't come to £54.

The meter readings concur with the £54 read out for that day.

Previous 6 or 7 days were also very high but not quite as much. But nobody was living at the property. Nothing was on.

All our previous bills for a similar sized property were about £300/350 per month with the heating on full tilt whenever we wanted it and with everything plugged in an on.

Any ideas?

Is your CH water flow provided by the same boiler? And am I also right in assuming that both your DHW and CH are provided by this same boiler? Do you have a link for the specifications of said boiler? I could not find maxi-flow but could find Megaflow listed. Just thinking that 21C for CH running off an electric boiler might be running up more kWh per day (and more £) than you might be anticipating.

Please ignore if assumptions in the above para are incorrect. EDIT: Looks as though the OP has a gas boiler as they mentioned it in an earlier post

[meldrewreborn]

@MAW

this is a long thread. I scanned back through it but I don’t think you’ve posted actual consumption data rather than costs. If the costs come from the IHD then they could be completely misleading. Can you post actual consumption in kWh for a representative period, together with you tariff details. Otherwise we’re not really getting to the nub of the problem. And for both gas and electricity!

[MissD]

@MAW I've just had the same experience as you.
I typically use 80-90 kW/month electricity (2.95 kW/day), including in the winter.
However, I checked my meter and found that I used 146 kW/month (4.79 kW/day) from 16 Dec to 13 Jan.
I don't know how this could be, especially since I was away from 3-13 Jan and didn't have anything plugged in except the fridge.
Funnily enough, when I looked at my meter readings on my account, the 'smart' meter (I don't know where this is, but I have one, according to EON) accurately predicted the increased usage, saying I had used 114 kW between 16 and 31 Dec. If this is correct, the fridge alone burnt 32 kW in 13 days, which doesn't add up.
I will watch the meter over the next few days.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by MissD

I typically use 80-90 kW/month electricity (2.95 kW/day), including in the winter.
However, I checked my meter and found that I used 146 kW/month (4.79 kW/day) from 16 Dec to 13 Jan.
I don't know how this could be, especially since I was away from 3-13 Jan and didn't have anything plugged in except the fridge.
Funnily enough, when I looked at my meter readings on my account, the 'smart' meter (I don't know where this is, but I have one, according to EON) accurately predicted the increased usage, saying I had used 114 kW between 16 and 31 Dec. If this is correct, the fridge alone burnt 32 kW in 13 days, which doesn't add up.
I will watch the meter over the next few days.

Can I assume you have a functioning IHD (in home device) otherwise how could you watch your meter readings unless you have something like the Bright app?

If you do could I also ask you to check the 'Usage Now' function on your IHD with minimum appliances turned on. What is the KW reading when you do this? Also is your Fridge's compressor working (low hum coming from Fridge) when you check this Usage Now as it makes quite a difference to the power draw. To give some comparison, my 24/7 appliances (router, clock and Virgin 360 box) have a draw of 38W (with FF compressor off) but over a 100W when the compressor is on.

In your account (under meter readings) the Smart Meter should record readings as Smart if it is working as it should, so it is not predicting what your consumption is - it is measuring what your consumption is since the last reading. Can I assume that all your recent readings are marked as Smart with no Estimated readings

Most people would be envious of your usage.😀

[meldrewreborn]

@MissD

the meters do not predict usage they record consumption as it happens.
average usage is 2,900 kWh per annum, but that covers a wide range of properties and is for dual fuel households. Yours is very low, but that means any variations will be more noticeable.
only by monitoring your consumption regularly can you identify what is causing your excess usage. Most people though would be delighted to have your level of usage.

[MissD]

@Mailman, @meldrewreborn, thanks for your replies.
I live alone in a 1-bed flat, which explains my low usage 😊
To clarify, the meter is just outside the flat and I take monthly readings; I don't have an IHD. I can only look at smart readings via my account.
The 'Usage Now' function would be handy to have, but I don't unfortunately, and I don't want to potentially mess up the fridge compressor by switching it off and on again. However, I am monitoring the meter closely; I used 4 kW in 2 days, which is about normal.
I think an electric oil heater may explain the higher readings in the last 2 weeks of December, but not in the first 2 weeks in January, as it was off.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by MissD

I don't want to potentially mess up the fridge compressor by switching it off and on again. However, I am monitoring the meter closely; I used 4 kW in 2 days, which is about normal.
I think an electric oil heater may explain the higher readings in the last 2 weeks of December, but not in the first 2 weeks in January, as it was off.

Absolutely no need for you to turn the fridge on or off - just notice (if you can) how long the compressor cycle is. If there was a hum all the time that might indicate an issue.

An electric oil heater might use 1-1.5 kW/per hour (mine did) but with such a low consumption maybe something else had been inadvertently left on - we will never know for sure.

TBH though I don't think you have any issues but you are right to monitor your consumption regularly and can than spot issues arising faster.

[retrotecchie]

@Mailman

A fridge can tolerate being turned off and on perfectly happily if there is nothing wrong with it. If, switching it off for a while and then back on again causes it to die, then it was on it's way out anyway and likely to have been drawing far more energy than it should have.

[meldrewreborn]

The fridge is designed to go off - power cuts cleaning etc. in homes on prepayment it probably happens a lot. I think you had a temporary issue now resolved.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@Mailman

A fridge can tolerate being turned off and on perfectly happily if there is nothing wrong with it. If, switching it off for a while and then back on again causes it to die, then it was on it's way out anyway and likely to have been drawing far more energy than it should have.

Indeed - had a couple of power cuts last week which was interesting to say the least. Cold enough here in the NE ATM - fridge is warmer than the rest of the house (well not quite) although the CH came on yesterday an hour earlier as the thermostat was below the overnight fallback setting.

I reckon than my 24/7 electricity usage might be as much as 1.5kWh but no way I can get to as low as @MissD is able to as there are 2 of us inside the house most days. Only been below 5kWh/day once in January but average quite good at 6.87kWh/day so far this month (for comparison 2022's average was 8.29kWh/day so a decent improvement)