Massive power usage, no one home

colm_c

I got a solar install recently (this week), which comes with a power meter -- so I can see almost realtime household power usage.

I had been seeing a daily spikes during the middle of the, which I put down to cooking/people being home, induction oven etc.

However today, no one at home and saw similar spike.

Is there a logical way to determine the cause of these middle of the day pikes?

We have gas heating and hot water from the gas.

Spikes are between 5-8 Kw.

Breezy_

Septic tank pump?

colm_c

No septic tank, live in a house in a suburbs.

ECO_Mental

Did you leave the immersion on!!! Seriously😬

colm_c

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645471#Comment_121645471

I don't think we've ever used the immersion to be honest.

Triple checked, it's firmly in the off position.

listermint

Looped Supply to meter with neighbour?

graememk

Are the spikes regular?

colm_c

Don't seem to be.

I only have a few days of data.

Screenshot of today and yesterday.

Overnight spike is the car charger.

Screenshot_20240120_201208_SOLARMAN Smart.jpg

Screenshot_20240120_201151_SOLARMAN Smart.jpg

ECO_Mental

Of you don't have a heat pump or an EV there can only be a few things that will draw that power in your house.

Electric shower

Immersion

Electric over/hob

If you are sure these aren't on then I don't know....

Can I ask what size is your PV system? It might just be the CT clamps are turned the wrong way around and instead of showing export its showing as import. We had really bright sunny spells this week and would show big spikes in Export especially if no one was at home.

Can you take a screenshot of the day in question

colm_c

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645550#Comment_121645550

Screenshots above.

PV system is ~5Kw

graememk

CT the wrong way would pickup the car charging at night as export.

I suppose going around and seeing what draws what. But it's a big load like shower, EV ..

To see a more immediate response you'll have to look at the screen if the inverter

ECO_Mental

I'm thinking it might be the car charger is kicking in once you start exporting as the spikes start just about when you start generating... but it's pushing full power to the EV (7KW) not adjusting as per what you are exporting. Was you EV plugged in the days you weren't there

Breezy_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645550#Comment_121645550

Messed up installs causing this are a thing. It's making the news in the UK

GreeBo

Someone else using your EV charger?

colm_c

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645660#Comment_121645660

No, we only plug in the car at night, once a week max.

Today for example, we were out for almost the whole day 11am - 7pm.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645671#Comment_121645671

Front camera suggests not.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645633#Comment_121645633

Might have to experiment tmr.

DC999

Turn stuff off on trip switches on fuseboard. Note what you change. Do a few a day until you narrow down the culprit.

Would there be a crypto miner that starts up and then powers down?

Very little in a house that draws that load bar stuff people mentioned here

Alkers

I wouldn't even call that spikes, that's sustained usage of high power. I'd get the installers back out.

Do you have a smart meter? Does it tally?

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058332395/massive-power-usage-no-one-home

Did they install a hot water diverter?

Something like that is being triggered when you have Solar excess

colm_c

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121646499#Comment_121646499

Gonna call them on Monday. No smart meter yet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121646501#Comment_121646501

No hot water diverter.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Do you have a smart meter? You can monitor usage in great detail now through the esb network site, you'll just need your mprn to create an account.

You should then see similar data if you truely are pulling those numbers.

https://www.esbnetworks.ie/existing-connections/meters-and-readings/my-smart-data

Mine for example

SteelyDanJalapeno

There's something buggy in your screenshots, the total consumed doesn't really match the red graph data

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121646861#Comment_121646861

It does match, it's power(kW) not energy.(kWh)

Can the opmore data, like grid import or something?

SteelyDanJalapeno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121646881#Comment_121646881

I can read, but I assumed the summary tiles in his screenshots were totals for the period, they actually look more likely instantaneous for the time highlighted.

What app is this OP?

Paul Kiernan

It looks like someone is stealing your electricity! You can see the PV on the graphs in blue so it's nothing to do with that being reversed. Dying to see where this thread is going .....

KCross

You’ve ruled out all the high energy devices and these spikes go as high as 10kW so I’d be more inclined to think that they have the Solar system/clamp/app configured wrong somehow and it’s giving bogus data while Solar energy is being produced as your 2 graphs show the issue happens around that time only.

One worthwhile experiment to confirm that is to simply check the app and your meter at the same time and see if they tally. If the app is showing high during Solar timeframe then it’s likely an installer issue. Ultimately what the meter says is all that counts.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121648083#Comment_121648083

Simplest solution is download the esb data and graph it in excel. Job done

Paul Kiernan

Yeah, I'd agree it's probably an app error. Just cross check it with your meter. On the days in question your background usage was probably less than 10kwh, the car pulled in about 30kwh in one charge and the big daytime peaks were average of maybe 5kw over 6 hours so a huge 30kwh per day. So it's easy to see if those big 30kwh usages are being correlated by the meter.

If it is correct there is a huge amount of heat going somewhere.

graememk

Solarman (smart), by the looks of it.

Could you change the parameter to purchasing power (I have no idea why it is showing as negative here but... )

Negative is importing.

colm_c

Solarman smart.

Screenshot attached of purchasing power.

Lines up with the high consumption.

What does this mean? Installer needs to come back?

Screenshot_20240121_145627_SOLARMAN Smart.jpg

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121648676#Comment_121648676

Download from source. ESB.

https://www.esbnetworks.ie/existing-connections/meters-and-readings/my-smart-data

SteelyDanJalapeno

He doesn't have a smart meter