Insane electricity bills for a house we only use part-time

Dagon

The electricity bills with in my country house have gone through the roof. We only stay in the house about 2 or 3 days a week, and we are getting mad bills from electric ireland.

For example, for this billing period -
21 February to 29 March
Cost was 266 euro

There is no way it could be right, even though I've been submitting meter readings online to try and ensure accuracy. - I've been checking the meter and we are burning a serious amount of units each day. We don't even have TV, or washing machine, dryer, etc. Just laptops, radio, a cooker, a kettle, an electric shower (which we use sparingly).

a two day example:

Meter starts at 3888
9 hours with music and laptops and some lights =
3897 (9 units)

Use cooker + extractor fan for 30 mins=
3907 (9 units)

1 hour with light on, and boiling kettle a few times =
3909 ~( 2 units)

.14298 x 20 = 2.85
=≠====+++++++++++============

Next morning 9.30 :
3909

Use cooker for porridge (2 units) :
3911

4 hours with music ,laptops, kettle (6 units) - 1.41pm
3917

Use cooker for 30 minutes (8 units)
3925

... and so on.


When I say cooker above, it's a Neff induction hob which is supposed to be energy efficient.

Is something up with our meter?

The hob is this one:
http://www.currys.ie/product/neff-t10k40x2-ceramic-hob-black/321859/395.4.3

Dagon

By the way, I've called electric ireland and they say they'd charge nearly 200 euro to call out. So we need to solve this ourselves and figure out what's going wrong.

I don't think the meter is moving when nothing is on. We left the house for nearly 2 weeks and meter hadn't budged.

So it seems to be that our applicances are using a lot of energy.

According to this site, an electric induction hob should only use <1kw per "use":

https://www.confusedaboutenergy.co.uk/index.php/buying-household-appliances/cookers

foxy farmer

Do you have a private well? If so is it switched off whenthe property is idle? Any mention of a low usage charge on the bill?

Dagon

A private well, for water? No we don't have one.
No mention of low usage charges on the new bill.

Is 9 kw normal for using an induction hob (2x rings) for just 40 minutes or so?

foxy farmer

Most elements on cookers are in the region of 2kw. Same with oven & grill. Shower roughly 8.5. Immersion 2. Kettle 2+. Fridge freezer varies on size quantities of food present frequency of door opening etc. Laptops tvs etc very small not a problem.
2kw ring on hob used at full heat for 30 min would consume 1 kwh ( unit).
Shower on high for 15 mins would consume 2 units roughly.
Immersion on for 1 hr = 2 units

Yourmama

Get one of those kwh meters on amazon. You plug it it to power and then your appliance to it. This way i found out my tv adds €10 to bill just on standby. This yoke was €10 so it paid for itself immediately.

Dagon

Yourmama wrote: »

Get one of those kwh meters on amazon. You plug it it to power and then your appliance to it. This way i found out my tv adds €10 to bill just on standby. This yoke was €10 so it paid for itself immediately.

Sounds like a good idea alright. It can't be used with stuff such as cookers and lights though.

But have you heard about the clamp on meter readers? My electrician told me I should try one in order to cross check the meter readings.

Dagon

foxy farmer wrote: »

Most elements on cookers are in the region of 2kw. Same with oven & grill. Shower roughly 8.5. Immersion 2. Kettle 2+. Fridge freezer varies on size quantities of food present frequency of door opening etc. Laptops tvs etc very small not a problem.
2kw ring on hob used at full heat for 30 min would consume 1 kwh ( unit).
Shower on high for 15 mins would consume 2 units roughly.
Immersion on for 1 hr = 2 units

So last night we were using:

2 x 2kw rings on the hob = 4kw
For 45 min = 3kw approx (1 hour would be 4kw)

So there is no way in hell it could come to 9kw used? Obviously something is up with the way the hob is using electricity (or the whole house)?

Alun

The induction hob rings will only use in the order of 2 kW if they're on full power, or boost mode, once you've got something up to the the boil, and put it on a lower setting to simmer it'll use a lot less, maybe only 0.5 kW or less. Induction hob rings don't have thermostats in them like conventional electric rings so that is continuous usage, but as you say there's no way the meter should register anywhere near 9 kWh for 45 mins of use, even if you were boiling the bejaysus out of two saucepans for 45 mins !!!

I'm afraid you may have to pay for the ESB to come out and take a look at the meter, but given what you say it should be fairly easy to demonstrate to them what the problem is.

AlanG

You should probably do checks on a few devices to make sure it is the meter and not the cooker. Get a cheap 1 or 2KW fan heater and plug it in on full for an hour with everything else switched off. See what the meter says.
Do the same in your other house and see if it is the same usage, leave a window open if necessary to make sure it doesn't cut out via a thermostat.

Laptops and TVs are more variable in their power use so they are more difficult to be sure of.
Also, make sure both meters are giving readings in KW hours.

Sleeper12

I replaced an electric shower yesterday. It was made in 1993. It was warm to the touch. The copper heating can was very hot. I had to drag the homeowner out of bed when I arrived so I knew he hadn't been using it. I mentioned it to him before I left. He said it's always warm. Basically the element had been heating the water without the shower being on. Personally I believe electric showers over 15 years old can be very dangerous. Anyway it could be something like this in your home.

Alun

AlanG wrote: »

You should probably do checks on a few devices to make sure it is the meter and not the cooker. Get a cheap 1 or 2KW fan heater and plug it in on full for an hour with everything else switched off. See what the meter says.

I was going to suggest that too, a really simple purely resistive load like an old fashioned 2 bar electric fire.

I suppose the induction hob could be doing something screwy with the power factor, but I think that if that was the case, any PF effects would be in your favour rather than the other way around.

Alun

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I replaced an electric shower yesterday. It was made in 1993. It was warm to the touch. The copper heating can was very hot. I had to drag the homeowner out of bed when I arrived so I knew he hadn't been using it. I mentioned it to him before I left. He said it's always warm. Basically the element had been heating the water without the shower being on. Personally I believe electric showers over 15 years old can be very dangerous. Anyway it could be something like this in your home.

The OP said that there is virtually no usage when the house isn't occupied, and that they didn't think the meter was moving at all when nothing was being used.

K.Flyer

I would also suggest checking your immersion heater. I have seen some older time clocks that do not have lights on them not switching OFF and running continuously.
Buy and set up a household power consumption meter and it will help you determine what is costing you the most money.

OWL Electricity Monitor

Elemonator

Have a Neff induction hob set myself, they use very little power. I know in my own experience that gaming devices and spotlights were a huge consumer of power. My father replaced all the downstairs spotlight with LED's and we light the whole downstairs (the house is about 3090-3100 sq ft) for the same amount of usage as a few of the previous bulbs.

Risteard81

Dagon wrote: »

2 x 2kw rings on the hob = 4kw
For 45 min = 3kw approx (1 hour would be 4kw)

Consumption is measured in kWh (kilowatt hours), NOT kilowatts. Not trying to be pedantic but something using 3kW is a meaningless statement outside of what it might be consuming at any given time.

Dagon

K.Flyer wrote: »

I would also suggest checking your immersion heater. I have seen some older time clocks that do not have lights on them not switching OFF and running continuously.
Buy and set up a household power consumption replieseter and it will help you determine what is costing you the most money.

OWL Electricity Monitor

Thanks for the replies ppl.

We don't have an immersion heater, and we've already turned everything off - the meter does not move.

I'm at the end of my tether, so I'm going to fork out for the fan and see how the test goes!

Dagon

Alun wrote: »

I was going to suggest that too, a really simple purely resistive load like an old fashioned 2 bar electric fire.

I suppose the induction hob could be doing something screwy with the power factor, but I think that if that was the case, any PF effects would be in your favour rather than the other way around.

I would also mention that it's probably not just the induction job - we're using one kw per hour with very few devices running in the house, so something weird is going on.

K.Flyer

Dagon wrote: »

Thanks for the replies ppl.

We don't have an immersion heater, and we've already turned everything off - the meter does not move.

I'm at the end of my tether, so I'm going to fork out for the fan and see how the test goes!

I don't see the benefit in buying a fan as you are not going to really get an accurate assessment.
Buy a meter as I have mentioned and unplug everything, every single thing including fridges etc.
Then start to use one item at a time only. The meter will read the usage in Kw / hr and you will very easily work out what is costing you money.
Believe me, I've been through all of this myself when I got landed with a bill for over 2,000 euro!!!!

dingding

Do you have any halogen lights in your ceiling.

These can be 35W or 50W and some rooms can have 10 of them in it.

Might be something to do with the type of bulbs you have fitted.

Also have you any outdoor halogen bulbs which may be on more than normal on a sensor.

nick 56

Would you not get a electrician out to test the house. if not buy one of the meters suggested.

Dagon

Hey guys, I opted to go for this simple plug in meter in the end:

http://www.adverts.ie/cables/weekly-deal-was-34-95-the-ecosaver-energy-meter-gorillaspoke-saving-you-power-money/1909886#comment_83839937

I've heard mixed things about the clamp in ones, where it's hard to know where the energy draw is coming from.

I'm going to plug everything out, and cross check the readings on the plug-in meter with what we get on the main house meter.

dingding

Also check your electric hob, sometimes a faulty switch can mean that the hob is on low all the time.