We appear to use a lot of electricity

[bernhund]

I know 'average' yearly consumption of electricity per household must be seriously varied, but I was told this week by Scottish Power that the average is 3000 units per year. Well we shifted 16600 in the last year and I'm concerned! We heat our water electrically, run a tumble drier, dishwasher and washing machine. We sometimes run a fan heater occasionally too. But the cooker is a gas Aga so no power at all and the kettle is heated on it. Other than that, the house is fairly normal with lights etc.
The concern is the meter, which is a Seeboard Multirate. Scottish Power don't seem to recognise it. There's also a radio teleswitch series 3. How do I know these things are working properly/accurately?
I've asked for a smart meter and they've told me they'll fit one for me by 2020!

[miniman]

http://www.theowl.com/index.php?cID=185

[SS2.]

As above, wireless electricity monitors are pretty cheap these days - £20-£30.

By turning each appliance on in turn, a monitor should tell you what is using the most juice and whether your existing meter is accurate.

[mybrainhurts]

Your neighbour's tapped into your supply to heat his cannabis plants.

[JulianHJ]

bernhund said:

I've asked for a smart meter and they've told me they'll fit one for me by 2020!

The government are about to rescind that policy, but your provider will likely still supply one, as it's in their interests.

[Slushbox]

"but I was told this week by Scottish Power that the average is 3000 units per year."

We run about 10KWh a day with no tumble dryer, a dishwasher and gas heating/hot water, occasional fan heater, electric cooker, de-humidifier. So if you have electric water heating and a tumble dryer running you're going to be above that.

16600 KWh p.a. is 45KWh a day, so, yep, rigging up an Owl monitor or something will give you a comparison with the meter.

Immersion heater in last place really put the bills up, added an immersion timer which helped slightly.

I have a plug-in electric meter which gave me running costs for each device, and an Owl meter thing on the meter tails to double check the meter at my last place, which was all electric. Figured it was the electric bath water (?) which was eating money after buying an Owl meter.

Now use a de-humidifier/ airer rack instead of tumble dryer as it seems to save a lot of elec. costs as waste heat isn't being pumped out of the house.

Edited by Slushbox on Thursday 25th May 20:07

[bernhund]

Thank you for this, I'll order an Owl.

[fat80b]

mybrainhurts said:

Your neighbour's tapped into your supply to heat his swimming pool

Fixed that for you

[mybrainhurts]

oh