Topic: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off?

My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hi guys,

I'm sick of our power bills, for a small house with 3 people living there (2 of which are working) no TV etc.
bill is $325 a month.

Other day I turned everything off except HWC, fridge and our modem and it was using 4300 KW/H on the digital readout on side of house. Is this normal? we are renting the house in west Auckland

Who can help me to fix it? company?

Any help appreciated.

-Rod

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hi Rod - what are the kWh readings on the power bills themselves, previous month and this month? (4300kWh on the meter itself just shows how many kWh has been data logged in total since the meter was installed, and doesn't tell us anything that we can work with.)

How big is your cylinder, how old is it (is it well insulated), what is the thermostat setting on the cylinder, and how long are your showers? Water heating is a biggie for chewing up power - no easy way to measure this without an electrician involved (a cheap, LEGAL power meter is wired into the hot water power supply circuit - needs an electrician).

How old is your fridge - ours doubled its usage when it started dying, from 0.9kWh a day to 1.8kWh a day - I know because I was measuring it over an extended period while doing an energy audit for my own house. I use a gadget called a power usage meter - either google this or look on trade me - there are several models for sale. (I bought mine from www.powerusagemeter.co.nz). These gadgets allow you to measure any appliance in a house with a 3-pin plug so that you can see what each appliance is using.

You can estimate mostly everything else in a house but it takes some doing - read nameplate power ratings, guess how long they run for etc, for lights: wattage of each bulb, estimate how long they are on for each day/month, etc.

Post again if you want to go further with this here.

Seeker

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hi
The hot water could well have a 3 kw element. So 1.3 kwh the other things.
1.3 sounds like alot for a fridge and modem.
Heating at the moment would account for allot of the power bill.
Maybe check that the hot water over flow isn't continually slightly dripping.

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hi,

We all take one shower a day for around 10 minutes,

Here is a sum up of our usage:


2 Heaters are going for around 3 hours a night.
2 Lap tops will be on charge for 1-2 hours a night.
1-2 Phones on charge for 1 hour each
1 washing machine running for 1 3 hours once a week

1 Brand new fridge on constant
1 Hot water cylinder on constant (doesn't boil)
1 Modem on constant

I pay $150 which lasts 1 week and 5 days for the above usage $330 does a month roughly.


I am being honest with our usage, we turn off lights and switches when we are not using them.

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

**and some cooking each night for 20 minutes on electric stove top.

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Check and record the meter reading with
- only the hwc switched on.
- only the fridge switched on.
- only one heater switched on full.
with everything switched off.

This will tell you where your power is being used.
And the heater reading will allow you to check calibration (accuracy) of your meter. ie: A 2kw heater will read approximately 2 kw on the meter if the meter is operating correctly.

Report results here if you have any questions.

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hello rodney007,

Your will gain a continuous saving by turning the HW Cylinder element down to 50 oC.
It is cheaper to boil an electric jug for 95oC tea making or topping up the sink washing water to the recommended maximum temperature of 55oC.

The rational is that every time you use the hot water, you leave 'dead water' in the supply pipe, that was heated to say 60oC and this energy is lost as you rarely turn the tap on again within 5 minuites. Now if that water was heated only to 50oC then the energy saved is the difference.

It is also strongly recommended as a safety control for running a bath, so that a child cannot be accidentally scolded.

Rex

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hi Rod

Still need your actual kWh usage - dollars don't really tell us anything because there are too many different tariffs out there.

Given what you have identified above, the heaters would be where I would start. What are their ratings? (e.g. say 2000W on solid for 3 hours = 6 kWh every day, for one heater).

I would also look at the water heating side of things: use 8 kWh a day as a first guess.

The rest of the equipment you mentioned don't use much: presume you don't have any heated towel rails.

How much of your power bill is left after these 3 things are deducted (2 heaters plus cylinder)?

Seeker

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

I'm going to regret asking this but isn't 60C the lowest recommended temp for HWC due to legionella? Lower at the tap but that occurs naturally or via a tempering valve.

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

I am with Glow bug pre-pay, they have assured me the cost is very close to normal billing minus early pay bonuses.

The counter on the digital readout goes up and down so how can this be a total count?

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Hello Lastmanever,

Whoops - you are correct. Just because I have a Rinnai instant hot water system that does not suffer this potential problem, I should not extrapolate that advantage to a conventional water storage cylinder. 60oC should be the setting. Thanks for the advice.

Rex

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

Rod - do you have an actual power meter at your place - outside, on a wall in a cabinet - can you post a picture of the meter (or just post the reading from it)? Can you post a picture of the Glo Bug readout?

I am struggling with your post heading: 4300 kW/H is either 4300kWh total, 4.3kW, or something else - 4300kW/H is not right - somehow (you cannot have a measurement of kW per hour).

I am keen to help - and learn something at the same time.

Seeker

Re: My house is using 4300 KW/H with everything off? 

As someone noted before it was a total kw reading since the unit was installed. however it goes down and up so can't be a total reading?

BAH !?!? I am not sure, will post pics tonight.

Thanks for the help thus far you guys are great