[Mystery] £400-600 monthly home electricity bill with Octopus

But those two main breakers are just a single switches, and I don't know exactly what it supplies since it's down in the basement.
The cabling is a bit confusing, I can't make head or tails of what goes where.
You're going to have to get labelling. You might want to grab a magic pen to go quicker but they aren't fool proof. My sparky carries a handful of night lights to plug into various sockets to try and map rooms out.
 
All this for the sake of ~400-600W which is like £0.12/hr.

Meanwhile others in the household are cooking atm, and with an oven, an air fryer, and a diswasher running, we're currently using 7kW at a cost of like £1.80/hr. I think this is the type of stuff that really gets me to the 60-70kW daily usage rather than whatever this small leak is.
 
Last edited:
All this for the sake of ~400-600W which is like £0.12/hr.

Meanwhile others in the household are cooking atm, and with an oven, an air fryer, and a diswasher running, we're currently using 7kW at a cost of like £1.80/hr. I think this is the type of stuff that really gets me to the 60-70kW daily usage rather than whatever this small leak is.
Did you read the thread? Their total baseload is 1.2kw 24/7/365 of which 50% appears to be unaccounted for. That is nearly 30kwh a day before any appliance like an oven is switched on.
 
Last edited:
All this for the sake of ~400-600W which is like £0.12/hr.

Meanwhile others in the household are cooking atm, and with an oven, an air fryer, and a diswasher running, we're currently using 7kW at a cost of like £1.80/hr. I think this is the type of stuff that really gets me to the 60-70kW daily usage rather than whatever this small leak is.
Those draws won't be constant whilst appliances are running, just for certain stages and warm up.

that 600w when you thought you turned something off
ls2ELRV.png
 
Last edited:
Did you read the thread? Their total baseload is 1.2kw 24/7/365 of which 50% appears to be unaccounted for. That is nearly 30kwh a day before any appliance like an oven is switched on.
I'm the OP mate haha :D

I just meant the hunting for the unaccounted for 'unknown baseline' is for the 400-600W I was able to eliminate today. When all the internal breakers were off, that dropped it from 1.1kW to 660W as in the first post. So basically all our stuff that's plugged in like TVs on standby, kitchen appliances like fridges/freezers, pumps in the boiler room, etc is using ~400-500W which seems like a normal number?

So 24hrs of say that 600W is 14.4kwh which yes is a good bit, but still a fraction of a 60kwh day (low end) or a 120kwh day (high end if a car is charged).
 
I'm the OP mate haha :D

I just meant the hunting for the unaccounted for 'unknown baseline' is for the 400-600W I was able to eliminate today. When all the internal breakers were off, that dropped it from 1.1kW to 660W as in the first post. So basically all our stuff that's plugged in like TVs on standby, kitchen appliances like fridges/freezers, pumps in the boiler room, etc is using ~400-500W which seems like a normal number?

So 24hrs of say that 600W is 14.4kwh which yes is a good bit, but still a fraction of a 60kwh day (low end) or a 120kwh day (high end if a car is charged).
It isn't too mad to be fair -- I am sitting at ~400w with PC, Server, Router/Switches, CCTV, monitor, internal baby cams, fridge/freezer and chest freezer. Your average daily cost just seems mad though.

Are you on a proper tariff for your EVs? Octopus Intelligent or EON Drive or w/e it is?
 
It isn't too mad to be fair -- I am sitting at ~400w with PC, Server, Router/Switches, CCTV, monitor, internal baby cams, fridge/freezer and chest freezer. Your average daily cost just seems mad though.

Are you on a proper tariff for your EVs? Octopus Intelligent or EON Drive or w/e it is?

Right so that's reassuring. A list of electric appliances off the top of my head:

  • Main oven electric
  • Fridge x2
  • Freezer x3
  • Dishwasher x2
  • Air Fryers x3
  • Chopper
  • Blender
  • Microwave x2
  • Underfloor heating upstairs bathroom - electric, turned off
  • Exhaust fans in bathrooms
  • Pumps in boiler room x2 large, x3 small
  • Circulating manifolds for water underfloor heating x3 small
  • Hair Dryers
  • Washing Machine x1
  • Dryer x1
  • Iron x1
  • Cooker and Hob
  • Area lighting outside
  • Flood lighting
  • Desktop computers x3
  • Drinks fridge
  • Room lights, mostly all LEDs
  • Synology DS920 NAS
  • Mesh Wifi Routers, ASUS x4
  • Ring Elite Doorbell, wired
  • 2x small 8 port switches
  • CCTV
  • TVs x4 (48" OLED, 100" Hisense, 50" Samsung, 75" Sony)
  • Samsung Soundbar and 2x Rear Speakers
  • Brother colour laser printer
  • Zappi charger
  • 4x Fujitsu AC units.
So even when none of that is in 'use', just the draw alone being even 500,600,700 or even 800W seems ok. That would be 19.2kW a day and cost a fiver.

It's how we get from there to a 60kW average day before any car charging that is costing me significantly.

Re Tarriff: no, we're on Octopus Tracker because it's been much cheaper than Eco 7 over the course of the year.

We used to have to do all of our expensive stuff like washing/dryers/dishwashers between 23:30 and 05:00 to save money since the tarriff was like 7p/kwh at night. But it was a bit exhausting and having the same price for all hours of the day is quite nice. We were saving a lot vs the standard cap price over the course of the year, seems only recently the prices have sort of equalised.

The EVs don't bother me so much as considering a tank of petrol is like £100 for that size car, £12 a charge is fine in comparison. And as you've seen from my charts in the OP, even when I exclude the car charging days the average daily use is still very high.
 
Last edited:
645w power draw with 3 pc's on, 2 monitors, 1 tv, pond pump (which is around 70) two sky boxes and network switches and lights as well as a Denon X2600H
 
Last edited:
Right so that's reassuring. A list of electric appliances off the top of my head:

  • Main oven electric
  • Fridge x2
  • Freezer x3
  • Dishwasher x2
  • Air Fryers x3
  • Chopper
  • Blender
  • Microwave x2
  • Underfloor heating upstairs bathroom - electric, turned off
  • Exhaust fans in bathrooms
  • Pumps in boiler room x2 large, x3 small
  • Circulating manifolds for water underfloor heating x3 small
  • Hair Dryers
  • Washing Machine x1
  • Dryer x1
  • Iron x1
  • Cooker and Hob
  • Area lighting outside
  • Flood lighting
  • Desktop computers x3
  • Drinks fridge
  • Room lights, mostly all LEDs
  • Synology DS920 NAS
  • Mesh Wifi Routers, ASUS x4
  • Ring Elite Doorbell, wired
  • 2x small 8 port switches
  • CCTV
  • TVs x4 (48" OLED, 100" Hisense, 50" Samsung, 75" Sony)
  • Samsung Soundbar and 2x Rear Speakers
  • Brother colour laser printer
  • Zappi charger
  • 4x Fujitsu AC units.
So even when none of that is in 'use', just the draw alone being even 500,600,700 or even 800W seems ok. That would be 19.2kW a day and cost a fiver.

It's how we get from there to a 60kW average day before any car charging that is costing me significantly.

Re Tarriff: no, we're on Octopus Tracker because it's been much cheaper than Eco 7 over the course of the year.

We used to have to do all of our expensive stuff like washing/dryers/dishwashers between 23:30 and 05:00 to save money since the tarriff was like 7p/kwh at night. But it was a bit exhausting and having the same price for all hours of the day is quite nice. We were saving a lot vs the standard cap price over the course of the year, seems only recently the prices have sort of equalised.

The EVs don't bother me so much as considering a tank of petrol is like £100 for that size car, £12 a charge is fine in comparison. And as you've seen from my charts in the OP, even when I exclude the car charging days the average daily use is still very high.
You have enough load to get the tracker price without messing around - just charge the EVs at night; and with a 600 base load, you'll cut your overnight costs a bit too.
 
Just back on the topic of the unaccounted for 400-600W baseline - I just remembered we've got 4x Fujitsu AC units installed last year as a multi split system. There's 2 external units, 4 internal wall units. Those are basically air source heat pumps but in reverse right? I've not used them at all since it's winter, more so in preparation for hotter summers etc. The external units are powered via 1x 20 Amp and 1x 32 Amp connections, and then those supply power to the internal units (when turned on - which they aren't). Would those external units still be drawing power even if the AC isn't in use?
 
I assume you don't already have a solar and battery setup? not looked at why you posted in the solar thread - there have been instances before where the solar + battery setup is feeding into the grid with the meter advancing the amount incorrectly rather than it being offset.
 
I assume you don't already have a solar and battery setup? not looked at why you posted in the solar thread - there have been instances before where the solar + battery setup is feeding into the grid with the meter advancing the amount incorrectly rather than it being offset.
I do not, I looked at it to see how much people were generating and if maybe I should invest in a system to cut my bills down. But given that in winter people are generating like 1-3kW a day it wouldn't really touch even my 'low use' (60kW) days.
 
Just back on the topic of the unaccounted for 400-600W baseline - I just remembered we've got 4x Fujitsu AC units installed last year as a multi split system. There's 2 external units, 4 internal wall units. Those are basically air source heat pumps but in reverse right? I've not used them at all since it's winter, more so in preparation for hotter summers etc. The external units are powered via 1x 20 Amp and 1x 32 Amp connections, and then those supply power to the internal units (when turned on - which they aren't). Would those external units still be drawing power even if the AC isn't in use?
My split AC is currently drawing 1watt switched off
 
StartEndDAYSDAY kWhNIGHT kWhAverage kWh/DayAverage kWh/NightNight:Day RatioDay RateNight Rate
04-Sep-2030-Sep-20261785656.8521.733.17£0.243£0.048
01-Oct-2031-Mar-211811866590510.3132.623.16£0.232£0.048
01-Apr-2113-Jul-2110371622666.9522.003.16£0.236£0.083
14-Jul-2130-Sep-217864029748.2138.134.65£0.236£0.083
01-Oct-2105-Dec-2165796370012.2556.924.65£0.257£0.098
06-Dec-2131-Mar-221153212633527.9355.091.97£0.257£0.098
01-Apr-2230-Sep-221822226551312.2330.292.48£0.354£0.135
01-Oct-2202-Oct-221276727.0067.002.48£0.474£0.075
03-Oct-2207-Dec-2265822373512.6557.464.54£0.474£0.075

So I was trying to see how my usage compares to before I switched to Octopus in April last year. Managed to find an old spreadsheet I made a couple of years ago, when I was trying to make sure we were using as much power at night as possible rather than in the daytime to minimise costs.

Looks like even back then the usage was similar of 60-80kW a day, this was before we had any EVs and a bit less usage overall in terms of appliances and activity in the house.

My split AC is currently drawing 1watt switched off

That's good to know, thank you.
 
Last edited:
I read something about a certain clamp on the cable being installed the wrong way round giving false readings, turns out to be more common than you would expect.
CT Clamp possibly? struggling to find where I read it now.
 
installing a CT clamp the wrong way doesn’t impact your meter readings.

It just impact the readings received by 3rd party devices like an EV charger or battery storage system.
 
Back
Top Bottom