I'm thinking about turning my electricity OFF over night

[LaurieFairyCake]

So last night before bed I took a meter reading and right now another

I've used 6 units of electricity over night (only me and Dh, pretty sure the dogs aren't boiling kettles over night)

That works out at £0.85 a night, £25.33 A MONTH

The things that are running every night is fridge freezer, phone chargers, laptop chargers, the clock on the cooker

I've read it's fine to turn off the fridge freezer (no meat in it) as it won't spoil in 8 hours

I can't believe I would save £25 a month doing this !

Anything I've overlooked?

Is that a Smart Meter above the older analogue meter?

No, that's the businesses meter

LaurieFairyCake hopefully this is your problem and you can get it sorted with energy company.

Either way, something is eating those units, and I suspect increasing your daily units! Most of the time now there's only two of us and we use 5-6 units a day (DH sometimes WFH and has two phones, computer and laptop on the go at the same time). If DD is with us, it's more like 6-7 units.

Intriguing!

I think you should start practising your Daily Mail sad face because they would love this story, if you have been paying someone else's electricity for years.

@toomuchlaundry my iPhone is put on charge overnight. It tells me that is a trickle charge that takes several hours and what time it is due to finish charging. I doubt that it is a fire hazard. It does this trickle charge to protect the battery as if batteries are left charging for long periods they can be damaged and won't last as long .
With previous phones that I've had without this feature the batteries have had diminished capacity to hold their charge after about 2 years . My present phone is a lot older than that and the battery is as good as new .

Sounds like a cannabis farm is tapping into your electricity supply!

What happened @LaurieFairyCake?

Well it turns out I am NOT paying someone else's electricity (at least not last night)

Turned off all the electricity and dial didn't move from 11pm - 7am

So I probably need another explanation inside the house

I've had a couple of thoughts - I'm wondering if it's the combi boiler as it cycles, makes grumbly noises - DEFINITELY NOT drawing hot water or having heating on during night as we've no thermostat so have to turn heating on manually at the boiler or turn tap on for hot water

The other choices are the fridge, 2 laptops charging, multiple things plugged in all over the house....

But nothing so far to explain the 6 KW

So tonight's experiment is to turn off the boiler at the socket and see if that impacts the usage overnight

The good news is I can see normal running during the day - watching tv/having lights on/charging phones/running the dishwasher and the washing machine yesterday/running all plugs used 7 KW during the day yesterday

So I'm getting a much better idea of usage

Seems strange that you only used 7KW during the day as you would assume the thing causing the 6KW at night would also be running during the day

Turned off all the electricity and dial didn't move from 11pm - 7am

Have you had any complaints from the business about them not having any power last night?

I would get an electrician round.

I think 6KW is about what it takes to charge an electric car.
Any new ones in the vicinity?

cakeorwine

No, I turned it off inside the house so only mine was off

Polyanthus2

That's really interesting what you say about an electric car - the business behind us has cars in it. If they charged it 3 nights ago (and not since) when I took the first reading showing the 6 KW that might explain it

It depends where the business's electricity is coming from. You switched it off I. Your house, but that may have switched off theirs as well - which would explain why it's showing g in your meter - because it's your electric they're using!

@inappropriateraspberry

It depends where the business's electricity is coming from. You switched it off I. Your house, but that may have switched off theirs as well - which would explain why it's showing g in your meter - because it's your electric they're using!

That's what I was thinking

I would get an electrician to look at the meters, the cables and see what's what.

TBH you need to get that meter updated and checked. It's ancient.

Could you arrange for a smart meter to be fitted?

I'm not sure whether they'd change the meter out for being a bit old ?

I don't want a smart meter - my neighbour has one and couldn't change providers because it wasn't compatible and the delay to get the new provider to install one was six months

We turn the heating and hot water off overnight. Not sure if it makes any discernible difference though? Although, I've just compared our last year's first quarter usage with this year's which is markedly lower. However, I think that's because we didn't start doing monthly meter readings ourselves until last summer (so the ones for the first few months of 2021 were estimates.

@LaurieFairyCake

I'm not sure whether they'd change the meter out for being a bit old ?

I don't want a smart meter - my neighbour has one and couldn't change providers because it wasn't compatible and the delay to get the new provider to install one was six months

I don't understand this fear of smart meters that people have mentioned on MN.

@LaurieFairyCake old smart meters couldn't change companies- the new ones you can.

I had to wait about 2 months after asking.

@LaurieFairyCake

I'm not sure whether they'd change the meter out for being a bit old ?

I don't want a smart meter - my neighbour has one and couldn't change providers because it wasn't compatible and the delay to get the new provider to install one was six months

Your neighbour likely had one of the original ones. They use different ones now.

www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/smart-meters-explained/

We have a newer smart meter, and have changed supplier no problem, it is easily doable now.