I think the first port of call is to speak to the supplier and make them aware this sort of usage isn't normal nor expected. If it's a problem with the meter they'll be liable but you need to rule out human error or a fault with his flat's heating first (although you'd think you'd soon realise if your heating was on full blast all night), and unfortunately the only way to do that is to check what the energy usage is over night on the meter itself.
Huge electricity usage all of a sudden? eg: 9 fold increase?
- Thread starter NeilF
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Caporegime
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Maybe hes got a new crypto crunching neighbour who has somehow tapped into the supply
did anyone get any work done recently?
i remember the guy upstairs from us was tapped into our electricity for his outside lights and also into our water what is metered in one of our commercial buildings.
Look at the post above #8 - They are all actualy readings (not estimated).
Using those actual readings we end up with:-
Sep18->Sep19 he used about 4000kwh
Sep19->Dec19 he used nearly 13000kwh! <-- three times the amount in a quarter of the time!
And this is only happening with the night (rate 2) readings. The day (rate 1) readings seem to be consistent the whole time...
Currently talking to them, and they've booked for someone to come in THREE weeks :/
As for human error Sep19->Dec19 he used nearly 13000kwh! A 2kwh bar heater left on 24/7 every day would only use about 4300kwh! ie: That would be some immense human error to cause that!
That's excellent thanks!
From Sep 18->Sep 19 I calculated his average monthly usage as 331khw per month! He doesn't do any washing machines or tumble dryers as we do all his laundry etc!
Caporegime
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Okay then I would watch the meter overnight.
I'd also if it did suddenly spike turn everything off one by one whilst watching the meter.
If something causes the usage to stop you have found your issue if it doesn't then something is still drawing power and you need to find it. Or it's a faulty meter.
However I wouldn't be complacent and assume it's faulty.
I agree, but something like an immersion heater can have 3kW elements, and mine has two of them. Hopefully it's a meter fault but it's definitely worth ruling out everything else in the meantime in case it's something else, or a fault elsewhere which could potentially be quite dangerous.
If it's a more modern meter it should be easy to see if the energy usage is spiking overnight as the LED on the front will flash far more quickly.
Understood, but two issues here:-
1) I believe it's not easy to watch the meter. ie: There's not just a value going up. You need to press button to get to the "rate 2" (night) value.
2) It's seemingly only affecting the "rate 2" (night) value, which means monitoring at those times? From my understanding, that like 1am to 8am territory? Again, not easy to do :/
Caporegime
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if you have to press a button then sure not ideal.
it would be for 1 night - not ideal but neither is paying £10K for leccy. up to you though.
you could set up a cctv cam overnight to "watch" it. they cost buttons for a wifi/sd version from YI. like £20.
but i have no idea how this 2 rate system works. i have 1 meter on all the time. it's also outside the house which isn't ideal but that's how the house was built i suppose to make it easier for the companies to read.
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You could also get one of them cheap clip on energy meters. You connect to the incoming tails, and whilst not 100% perfect you can watch in real time the usage.
Like this, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Energenie-...88&hvtargid=pla-445130919794&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
If its spiking thats a different issue to a very high base load. If its high baseload you can turn things off and watch the impact. Starting with immersion and heating (these would be my bet for the usage in that order)
Obviously the immersion will to some extent spike, but it should be fairly obvious
If its spiking frequently thats a bit harder, but not impossible, just means you need to turn things off for a bit longer to see if the spikes stop or diminish a lot more.
EDIT, just noticed that model requires a gateway, you probably want an evern simpler one that has its own screen or something, they exist just need a little more googling. Plenty of people had them, EON gave me one some years ago at the start of the "smart" metering
Like this, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Energenie-...88&hvtargid=pla-445130919794&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
If its spiking thats a different issue to a very high base load. If its high baseload you can turn things off and watch the impact. Starting with immersion and heating (these would be my bet for the usage in that order)
Obviously the immersion will to some extent spike, but it should be fairly obvious
If its spiking frequently thats a bit harder, but not impossible, just means you need to turn things off for a bit longer to see if the spikes stop or diminish a lot more.
EDIT, just noticed that model requires a gateway, you probably want an evern simpler one that has its own screen or something, they exist just need a little more googling. Plenty of people had them, EON gave me one some years ago at the start of the "smart" metering
I've got an old energy monitor like that. I'll dig it out.
ps: There's not even an immersion heater on the property BTW. So very few options to be eating up significant energy.
Storage heaters, and as far as I know heat as you go water (ie: not immersion)?
Keep in mind nothing has changed in the past three months, compared to the twelve before that. ie: Nothing to account for something like a 13x increase electricity use!
If the heat as you use water heater has a boost switch or instant heat switch it could be turned on, otherwise the storage heaters could be using the non off peak electric. Also has his tariff changed? If his tariff is different or move to the standard base tariff it would be significantly different to past costs.
Well, energy usage during rate 1 (day) seemingly hasn't changed from the norm. It's the last three months rate 2 (night) usage that's gone mental. So it's not like something has been left on... ie:-
Sep18->Sep19 he used about 4000kwh
Sep19->Dec19 he used nearly 13000kwh! <-- three times the amount in a quarter of the time!
And I'm only looking at kwh, not cost per unit.
Does he have a smart meter? They're known for giving false readings:
https://community.scottishpower.co....Meter-showing-incredibly-high-usage/td-p/1530
https://forum.ovoenergy.com/underst...-65/new-smart-meter-reading-way-too-high-6190
In particular:
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...s-bad-installations-customers-in-debt-in-dark
https://community.scottishpower.co....Meter-showing-incredibly-high-usage/td-p/1530
https://forum.ovoenergy.com/underst...-65/new-smart-meter-reading-way-too-high-6190
In particular:
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...s-bad-installations-customers-in-debt-in-dark
Don't believe so... I suspect it's quite an old one as it has the rate 1 (day) and rate 2 (night) totals...
Understood, but let's assume a 3kw storage heater is now malfunctioning:-
1) It is not affecting the rate 1 (day) energy usage.
2) If it was only running 12hrs a day (or less) so as to only hammer rate 2 (night) energy usage. 3kw x 12hr x 90days = 3240khw. His rate 2 (night) energy usage for the past 90 days 12252kwh! So 3-4 storage heaters would need to be on like this!
Bizarre isn't it!
