Electricity use over night (yes! Smart meter just installed)

[mckenzie]

I’m coming down in the morning to a reading of about £1.30, the majority of which is showing as electricity. Obviously we have the usual fridge freezer on overnight, phones on charge, DD’s school laptop on charge etc
But that seems very high.
Any tips please for what I might be forgetting about?
TIA

Daily charge that goes on overnight perhaps?

The standing charge goes on overnight, but that's high. I think the standing charge on mine is 25p per day.

People often have allsorts plugged in that they don't think about. Oven (mine uses electric all the time to power the LED clock and the switch is behind a cabinet). Microwave if socket left on, anything that has a clock on like that (ie my coffee maker has a clock/timer so draws power if the plug isn't off) will be using a tiny amount of power though it's probably negligible. Also cordless landline handsets use power, some extension sockets that have a little light on them will be using power, your internet router uses power, your boiler... Though the amounts used should be fairly tiny for all those things it does add up eventually.

Can you tell I am skint so go round switching every single thing off that I can to save money? . But yes, your standing charge will go on overnight too. And my meter doesn't update second by second, it's every 90 minutes or so, I think. So when you checked before bed it may not have included some of your evening usage?

Yes, when are electrical appliance manufacturers going to do their bit. A cooker doesn't need a clock. With just a timer you could switch off from the supply without the damn clock blinking when turned on ... mine never says the correct time anyway as we seem to have multiple tiny power cuts

It doesn’t sound that high to me given the things you have charging/on standby.

That does sound a lot to me. I have a smart meter and I think the standing charge for gas and electric together is 56p per day.

I was on holiday a few weeks ago and left the fridge, large chest freezer, tv box, house phone and broadband plugged in. All of these cost me an additional 30p per day to run. So each day whilst on hol cost me 83p in total.

Thanks for all the replies.
I’ll look into the standing charge and other things that you’ve suggested.

Also consider any outside security lights you may have we have 5 and we're surprised how often they went off at night - discovered post smart meter fitting but we have also become lunatics in making sure all sockets are switched off where possible.

things that generate heat are the main culprits, then cooling things. Gadgetry does all add up of course, plus lighting.

and yes, standing charge. What tariff are you on? You can't save by switching unless you are on a standard tariff, but you can reduce the increase.

Anecdotely - an older sky box can use lots!

Just had a smart meter installed, Was left a small book by fitters that had a space for meter readings. and a place where I was to sign, needless to say, I didn't notice this until they were away I had not kept a record of readings from old meter, is this likely to cause me problems down the line?

I know this is an old thread but it answered my question. However, .86p a day for standing charges. That’s £309.60 a year. Annoying.