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

Now that I finally had a few days off work, I arranged for an electrician to come around and visit. He inspected everything in the property, all usage, and the meter etc itself.

The conclusion was:
- no faulty appliances or dodgy circuits
- Just significant number of appliances plugged in and constantly drawing power, including fridges, freezers, microwaves, washer/dryer, anything with an LED display or lights that's constantly on, TVs, computers and monitors on standby/sleep mode.
- I was advised to try and turn anything that's not actively being used off from the socket at the wall.
- The biggest draw and probably reason for increase in baseline since October is our new plumbing/plant room with pumps, boilers, water tanks, etc constantly circulating hot water for usage throughout the house. When boiler room all turned off, drop from 1.2 -> 0.6kW. Obviously nothing we can do about this as we need hot water.
- Just by going around the house and turning some things off from the sockets e.g. dryers and cookers we decreased baseline from 1.2kW to 1.0kW. That seems like a tiny difference because it's only 7p per hour, but £0.07 x 24 x 365 = £613 saving annually which is a huge amount.

I also notice that Octopus Tracker is going consistently up in price due to what seems to be poor electricity generation? I'm thinking of shifting to a different tarriff, like Intelligent Octopus Go, although I can't work out if that cheap night time rate is only for car charging or for all usage between 23:30 and 05:30.

So the thread has climaxed with a realisation that you do indeed just have a load of stuff using leccy in your house. I'm not sure how I feel about my time investment into this thread now. ;)
 
So the thread has climaxed with a realisation that you do indeed just have a load of stuff using leccy in your house. I'm not sure how I feel about my time investment into this thread now. ;)

Think of poor me, I was just plugging along and accepting it. Then people here were telling me something is absolutely wrong in the house, someone is stealing my leccy or there's a fault somewhere as there's no possible way I could actually be using this much! Now I'm £80 lighter, although at least I have some peace of mind haha.
 
Now that I finally had a few days off work, I arranged for an electrician to come around and visit. He inspected everything in the property, all usage, and the meter etc itself.

The conclusion was:
- no faulty appliances or dodgy circuits
- Just significant number of appliances plugged in and constantly drawing power, including fridges, freezers, microwaves, washer/dryer, anything with an LED display or lights that's constantly on, TVs, computers and monitors on standby/sleep mode.
- I was advised to try and turn anything that's not actively being used off from the socket at the wall.
- The biggest draw and probably reason for increase in baseline since October is our new plumbing/plant room with pumps, boilers, water tanks, etc constantly circulating hot water for usage throughout the house. When boiler room all turned off, drop from 1.2 -> 0.6kW. Obviously nothing we can do about this as we need hot water.
- Just by going around the house and turning some things off from the sockets e.g. dryers and cookers we decreased baseline from 1.2kW to 1.0kW. That seems like a tiny difference because it's only 7p per hour, but £0.07 x 24 x 365 = £613 saving annually which is a huge amount.

I also notice that Octopus Tracker is going consistently up in price due to what seems to be poor electricity generation? I'm thinking of shifting to a different tarriff, like Intelligent Octopus Go, although I can't work out if that cheap night time rate is only for car charging or for all usage between 23:30 and 05:30.
hot water recirculation pump could be costing more money in electricity than it is saving in wasted water.
Its definitely a nice convenience to have though
 
Think of poor me, I was just plugging along and accepting it. Then people here were telling me something is absolutely wrong in the house, someone is stealing my leccy or there's a fault somewhere as there's no possible way I could actually be using this much! Now I'm £80 lighter, although at least I have some peace of mind haha.
but aren't you £600 a year better off also ?
 
Think of poor me, I was just plugging along and accepting it. Then people here were telling me something is absolutely wrong in the house, someone is stealing my leccy or there's a fault somewhere as there's no possible way I could actually be using this much! Now I'm £80 lighter, although at least I have some peace of mind haha.

How many hours was the electric guy at your property to charge £80?
 
How many hours was the electric guy at your property to charge £80?
Going rate these days, call out/first hour charge.

Plus those tuts, sucking air through teeth and head scratches require considerable training.

All jokes aside, maybe I've been lucky but electricians seem to be the nicest of the trades to deal with.
 
Going rate these days, call out/first hour charge.

Plus those tuts, sucking air through teeth and head scratches require considerable training.

All jokes aside, maybe I've been lucky but electricians seem to be the nicest of the trades to deal with.
I'll be as nice as you like if you are paying me £80 an hour ;)
 
and this is why I don't even leave a usb cable plugged into a power strip.

even the resistance of the cable is probably drawing something.
 
I'll be as nice as you like if you are paying me £80 an hour ;)
They aren’t being ‘paid’ £80 an hour, I’d be gobsmacked if they even earned anything like that amount after everything.

Huge chunks of time is non-chargeable (quotes, travel, lead generation, getting materials, holidays(!)) VAT, general overheads, tools, van, professional subscriptions, ongoing learning/courses etc etc.

I find it hard that trades like electricians could operate without being VAT registered these days.

£90k is nothing in terms of the turnover of a business. At £80/ hour, that’s only 93 chargeable hours per month without factoring in the supply of any materials.
 
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Think of poor me, I was just plugging along and accepting it. Then people here were telling me something is absolutely wrong in the house, someone is stealing my leccy or there's a fault somewhere as there's no possible way I could actually be using this much! Now I'm £80 lighter, although at least I have some peace of mind haha.

That electrician has done well! £80 out of you plus the money from your neighbor to convince you they aren't stealing your leccy! :D
 
They aren’t being ‘paid’ £80 an hour, I’d be gobsmacked if they even earned anything like that amount after everything.

Huge chunks of time is non-chargeable (quotes, travel, lead generation, getting materials, holidays(!)) VAT, general overheads, tools, van, professional subscriptions, ongoing learning/courses etc etc.

I find it hard that trades like electricians could operate without being VAT registered these days.

£90k is nothing in terms of the turnover of a business. At £80/ hour, that’s only 93 chargeable hours per month without factoring in the supply of any materials.
Materiels are paid by the customer though? I guess you mean tools and vehicles etc?
 
If they are supplied by the trader, which they will be most of the time for a sparky, they will count towards your VAT threshold calculation.
But they add a % margin on the purchase price so I can't feel sorry for them
 
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so how were you drawing 600w with everything off? Was the tracker not updating in real time?
So of our fairly constant 1.2kW load
about 600W is just the boiler/plant room with all the pumps etc.
And ~600W is just the stuff plugged into sockets, namely fridges, freezers, dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, TVs etc.

I switched over to Intelligent Octopus Go yesterday, and we'll try and shift as much usage as we can to night time hours.

And other than that, just time to start saving for solar I guess.

I figure if we get 3x Tesla Powerwall 3s that would allow me to store ~40kW of power. I could generate this myself with panels in summar, or via cheap overnight charging in winter. 40kW isn't enough to supply our full daily use, but it'll do the majority. And I've heard the panels themselves are really cheap now, so it's going to be, what, 25k for a system? If I save ~3-4k a year it'll pay for itself decently quickly.
 
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Right now you still charge in the summer overnight. You pull in at go rate, lets say 6p and you can export to the grid later when its being generated at 15p.
Subject to change of course, but no point not charging when you can export later, if you generate an excess, for a higher amount.

Risk that your grid limited but it doesn't apply to that many people in reality

As you have a plant room I would think that maybe Tesla isn't the best solution.
Drop into the solar and battery thread and ask about fogstar.

Eg 2x these would be 60kwh for £12k, but you need the space which it sounds like you may well have

Are you on three phase already or just normal domestic?

Anyway, best in the proper thread.
 
Think of poor me, I was just plugging along and accepting it. Then people here were telling me something is absolutely wrong in the house, someone is stealing my leccy or there's a fault somewhere as there's no possible way I could actually be using this much! Now I'm £80 lighter, although at least I have some peace of mind haha.
But at least you now have a thorough understanding of your electrical system, and what uses watts. It has been known for neighbours to steal electric, so was a valid possibility.
And other than that, just time to start saving for solar I guess.
If your with Nationwide for your mortgage you can get the installation cost added to your mortgage interest free, other lenders will give £2k cash back, so check your options.
 
and this is why I don't even leave a usb cable plugged into a power strip.

even the resistance of the cable is probably drawing something.
There shouldn't be any resistance if there's nothing plugged in at the other end. Even a phone charger left plugged in won't use any energy if there's no device connected to it.
 
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