Cause of massive night time usage?

Dammo6 · Dec 18, 2022

HI Guys,

Hopefully someone here might be able to offer a plausible answer to my question because my electricity provider certainly can't.

I had a smart meter installed last March. Analysis of the data shows that we are using, on average, virtually the same number of units between 00:00 and 08:00 are we are between 16:00 and 24:00. The 8-hour period in between is roughly half.

The meter appears to be fine. I turn off the supply and checked the reading before and after a 40 minute period. It was exactly the same.

The company suggests that it is a faulty appliance but I've tried to explain that there is no appliance that is only on during the night that wouldn't also be on in the evening. So surely all the other appliances that would be on in the evening should see a significantly greater reading in total? I hope this is clear.

Can anyone offer an explanation? Is there something glaring obvious that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance

James · Dec 18, 2022

Sounds like a thermal storage electric boiler.
how is the house heated?

littlespark · Dec 18, 2022

Any storage heaters? Off peak immersion water heater?

They can take as much electricity overnight as a normal days usage, but at a lesser rate price

DefyG · Dec 18, 2022

Try turning off circuits individually to see when the usage falls.

James · Dec 18, 2022

A picture of the distribution boards and or boiler / radiator would be helpful

Dammo6 · Dec 19, 2022

Thanks for all the replies. I thought I’d answered last night but I wasn’t sign in on the other device

.
We have ofch and two solid fuel stoves heating the house. No storage heaters.
I’ve started checking individual circuits but no joy so far.

baldelectrician · Dec 19, 2022

You can have your own meter installed after their meter.
You can get a meter for around £50 and have a compotent electrician install it

Dammo6 · Dec 19, 2022

Does this sound like a meter issue? Nobody I've spoken to has ever come across a similar situation. I'd get as much satisfaction from the company 'customer service' dept as I would if I asked them to cut my hair over the phone.

baldelectrician · Dec 19, 2022

Dammo6 said:
Does this sound like a meter issue? Nobody I've spoken to has ever come across a similar situation. I'd get as much satisfaction from the company 'customer service' dept as I would if I asked them to cut my hair over the phone.

Getting this done will rule out or rule in their meter

snowhead · Dec 19, 2022

How does the overall total of units used compare from the old meter to the "Smart" Meter?

Vortigern · Dec 19, 2022

The only appliance is heating that might go up at night but as you say heating is not electric. Maybe radiator pump? What temperature is your thermostat set to at night? Pics please

MJPD29 · Dec 19, 2022

It doesn't sound like a meter issue if it is the same thing every day at the same time, it's almost certainly something in your property

James · Dec 19, 2022

any pictures of the installation, or screenshots of the data that seems incorrect?

brianmoooore · Dec 19, 2022

There's another thread on here at the moment, concerning a faulty meter that's racking up units on it's own.

Julie. · Dec 19, 2022

It's just a matter of working through it logically.

Mainswitch off overnight - ensure meter reading doesn't increase.

Mainswitch on, but all circuits off overnight - ensure meter reading doesn't increase.

Mainswitch on, but all circuits other than one (say the cooker) off overnight - ensure meter reading doesn't increase.

Mainswitch on, but all circuits other than a different one (say the downstairs sockets) off overnight - ensure meter reading doesn't increase.

.... sleep - repeat....

Until you find one circuit which does increase significantly (most will have a small load such as unused chargers etc).

Once you find out which circuit has the load, repeat the same methodology on that circuit.

It's a long drawn out process, but if you post a list of the circuits you have, we could take a (un)educated guess.

Often unlabelled radial circuits, ring finals etc

SJD · Dec 19, 2022

What sort of a house is this? Detached, terraced, flat in block, etc?

I only ask because the night time use looks to be coming from something that only powers up with substantial usage overnight, and that tends to be off-peak stuff like storage heaters and off-peak immersions. And e.g. if an older terrace, it is not impossible someone has connected them to one of your circuits e.g. via a party wall.

davesparks · Dec 19, 2022

How many units are being used in each time period?

DefyG · Dec 19, 2022

Dammo6 said:
I'd get as much satisfaction from the company 'customer service' dept as I would if I asked them to cut my hair over the phone.

We too would like to get some satisfaction knowing that the posts (replies) made to try and help the OP are acknowledged and answered.

davesparks · Dec 19, 2022

Dammo6 said:
Analysis of the data shows that we are using, on average, virtually the same number of units between 00:00 and 08:00 are we are between 16:00 and 24:00. The 8-hour period in between is roughly half.

Can anyone offer an explanation? Is there something glaring obvious that I'm missing?

How many units are we actually talking about here?

What appliances are you using during those time periods?

If you're getting up and going to work or whatever before 8am then, depending on your routine, it's entirely possible that you may be using as much electricity between 0:00 and 08:00 as you are between 16:00 and 0:00

Personally my highest usage in a day is usually in the hour or so after I get up. I'll boil the kettle a couple of times, put the washing machine on and maybe the dishwasher before going out to work.

freddo · Dec 19, 2022

davesparks said:
Personally my highest usage in a day is usually in the hour or so after I get up. I'll boil the kettle a couple of times, put the washing machine on and maybe the dishwasher before going out to work.

Bloody hell I wish I was that organised!

DefyG · Dec 19, 2022

davesparks said:
How many units are we actually talking about here?

Figures really would help as what the OP perceives as a 'massive' amount might be perfectly normal?

davesparks · Dec 20, 2022

DefyG said:
Figures really would help as what the OP perceives as a 'massive' amount might be perfectly normal?

That's exactly where I'm going with this, I can't imagine it being too unusual for the least amount of electricity to be used between 8am and 4pm, most people are out at work/school etc for most of that time.

Dammo6 · Dec 20, 2022

Hi All,

Firstly, thank you for all the replies and apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

[ElectriciansForums.net] Cause of massive night time usage?

Here's a screenshot of usage from last March. I accept that the word 'massive' may be an overstatement. What I really mean is that I'm amazed that it's the same as 1600 to 2400. As you can see from above, it's pretty consistent throughout the night, rather than concentrated between, say, 0700 and 0800 when people are up for school/work.

The house is a dormer on it's own site.
For comparison, here's 0800 to 1600 for the same period.

And 1600 to 2400

Julie. · Dec 20, 2022

I assume the readings are kWhr, so 0.35 would be a 350watt item running through the night. (Or summation)

A couple of outside halogen lamps on through the night would give this, but I am afraid the only way if you can't find anything obvious, is to switch circuits - given hourly readings you could switch various circuits on through one night a couple of hours apart and find out which circuit is the issue.

One very disturbed night of sleep could get to the bottom of this.

Dammo6 · Dec 20, 2022

Yeah, that looks like the best option alright.

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