Smart meter shows £5 electricity used by 6.30am?

[ENoeuf]

I’m really stressed since having it fitted out bills have gone through the roof. I checked at 6.20am and it was already showing £4.43 used! Gone up .66p in an hour and display showed between 0.03 and 0.09p per hour in that time. What is going on?

Fridge is using electricity all the time.

Do you have any electrical heating? Or an immersion heater? They can use a lot.

Phone your energy company. If there's nothing being used before 6:30 there's clearly an issue somewhere!

Hmm, that's a lot. I now my meter always shows about 70p at about 6am, that can only be the fridge/freezer.

I have looked up costs and we have two fridges but according to internet pages this would cost about £70 annually. Immersion never switched on (or rarely as in once every two months). Gas heating - set to come on at 6.30am.
So there would have been one kettle, one blender (son on nights) and anything on standby. But that shouldn’t add up to almost £5.
It’s just gone up 66p in an hour although the display said between 0.03p and 0.09p.

energy eating:

night storage heating
immersion water heating
power shower
hair dryer

less so but usually on for along time
tv
dehumidifyer
heated airer
phone chargers
electric car charger

The smart meter doesn't increase your electric usage just shows you your usage.

Things plugged in over night, usually, fridge freezer, phone charging, laptop/tablet charging, any alarm clocks in bedrooms even the clock on your oven and microwave albeit teeny amounts. Basically consider how many things are plugged in in every room, can you switch them off when not using them.

Or if you have children one of them is on a games console in the middle of the night. My friend copped her child doing this. She never has to leave her bedroom as they have an en-suite but she had a headache and needed paracetamol, opened her bedroom door to see light coming from her primary school son's room at 3am!

In that hour there was one shower one kettle and one blast of hairdryer - display always between 0.03 and 0.09 current usage but increase of .66p

I would phone and explain the discrepancy between what it is telling you is the hourly rate and the amount shown as used that day. To me that suggests an installation error. You don't have underfloor heating though do you? That's what caused our absurdly high bills.

I don’t think anything on charge would cost almost £5 in Six hours? Especially with the display saying usage.

energy eating:

night storage heating No
immersion water heating Not used
power shower used once after 6.20
hair dryer used once after 6.20

less so but usually on for along time
tv no (standby)
dehumidifyer no
heated airer no
phone chargers yes
electric car charger no

No underfloor heating.

This is also weird - every day last week shows £16.16 including yesterday.

If you press the electric sign it shows £5.37 so far and 0.00kWh

I'd phone your energy company or the people who installed the meter and ask

I don’t think they open till 9 and they already have a - we are so busy post on the app. I can’t afford this though. £270 so far this month apparently.

If practical, at some point in the day unplug everything and see what the meter shows over a couple of mins.

Start to plug things in, starting with the fridge, look at the smart meter.
Go around plugging things in, switching on anything that needs to be on, like boiler ( even if it’s not firing up ).

It’s possible something has a fault or is set incorrectly.

Here’s a really daft thought ( because I can’t remember how they are set up ) but is your smart meter connected to some else’s supply?

I think something is wrong with the meter. That 16.16 every day is very odd. Good you have photos.

If power shower is electric that might use a big chunk.

But the same use every day is very weird! Definitely call them to query it

I would do the plugging unplugging if the cost per hour was high, but that is always 0.03 - 0.09 from memory. So it doesn’t make sense that in one hour we’ve spent 66p if the display says 0.03-0.09p and in that hour the additional stuff was boiling a kettle , a shower (restricted to 4 mins) and a blast of a hairdryer.

10 minutes. Nothing was used.

Trying again

Do you know I have wondered if the WiFi is picking up someone else’s. Our smart meter uses its own WiFi apparently.

Is the meter set to the wrong tariff?
I thought with smart meters ( ones that talk to the outside meters ) , the tariff is ‘loaded’ on to the outside meters which your smart meter shows.

Perhaps the energy company put the wrong tariff on?

Smart meter matches the tariff in the app

I think essentially how can we have spent almost £5 by 6.20am even with background stuff like fridges and things on standby.

Is your heating set to come on over night if it drops below a certain temp?