Sudden increase in usage after electrical work

[blueskies]

Hi I am posting on behalf of my parents who are retired. In September they had a new consumer unit fitted, a new cable for the power supply to the garage installed and a new gas boiler installed. Since the work was completed their electricity usage has increased by about 500-600kWh per month. They were low users before so this is a shock. There are no immersion heaters or anything like that on the property. We have bought a whole house energy monitor which is showing quite high usage through the day with a peak during the evenings. They are just using a lamp and a tv in the evenings plus a fridge and freezer. It is causing a huge amount of stress. We are even considering if the new neighbours (it is a semi detached property) could be stealing the electricity. There are also new neighbours on the other side. I doubt this is the reason but we're going mad trying to figure it out. I don't know how to check if anyone else is stealing their supply. Could it be a faulty wire somewhere? The evening peak suggests its related to heating as they tend to put the heating on during the evening. But its a gas boiler so that idea may be daft. Can anyone suggest any possible reasons why this has happened or things that we can try please? Thank you.

 

[binky]

Only thing you can really do is switch things on and off and check the monitor.

 

[blueskies]

Only thing you can really do is switch things on and off and check the monitor.

Ok thank you. We have tried that but we will do it again.

 

[Fleeting]

Try and establish which circuit or circuits are causing it by switching off the mcbs one at a time to narrow it down.

 

[Murdoch]

what was their usage per month before the CU change ? and after ?

Does the property have any electrical heating at all? Underfloor?

500 extra per month is a lot

and as above turn the circuits off 1 by 1 to see if anything changes much - this should gibe you an idea which circuit is using the most.

Is the garage on its own or attached to anything?

 

[ProDave]

So how is the house heated?

And how many kWh are you using per day?

 

[Badger]

What's been plugged in the garage after the new supply has been installed

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi I am posting on behalf of my parents who are retired. In September they had a new consumer unit fitted, a new cable for the power supply to the garage installed and a new gas boiler installed. Since the work was completed their electricity usage has increased by about 500-600kWh per month.

What type of meter do they have... traditional manually read meter or a smart meter?

Do they have any Solar / Battery systems they were supplying some of their consumption..
and has this been disconnected / turned off during the CU replacement?

How have you arrived at this 500-600kWh Increase figure...?
Actual readings from the meter?
Actual readings from an electricity bill?
Estimated values from an electric bill or home smart-meter display..?

Were ALL of their previous bills since the start of the year based on accurate consumption readings?
Or were some based on estimates?

If our electric bill had increased by 500kWh per month we would have been consuming negative values of electricity previously!!!

It could be a faulty meter??

Are your parents local to you? If yes, I would be tempted to do a non-scientific check of the consumption each day over a 7 or 14 day period, by simply photographing the meter readings each day a the same time...
e.g. 8:00pm every day record what the actual readings are..
See if there is any pattern of increased consumption on specific days?
e.g. is the increase equally averaged over each day.. or some days are much higher?

Changing a consumer unit will not increase the electricity consumed...
Unless some major heating device has accidentally been left turned on!!
(Or it was previously by-passing the meter, and now it is wired correctly!)

I had a customer a few years ago with electric heating under part of his drive to stop ice and snow causing problems..
It had an initial steepish bit then a bend to get up in front of the house and off the road, with little or no run-up options from the road itself...
So if that was left accidentally switched on.. the next month it was just beans on toast for dinner every day!!!

If you had a 500watt & 300watt halogen floodlight left on for a month... 31days x 24hours x 800watts = 595kWh

 

[binky]

Check it's not an estimated bill,

 

[michael8554]

1. Have you become aware of the increase due to bills ? As mentioned check they are not estimated readings.

2. When the high consumption is seen on the monitor, switch off and back on again each breaker in the consumer unit until the one that is causing the high consumption is found.

3. If it's one of the ring circuits, go around the ring unplugging and replugging until the culprit is found.

4. Has the electrician left the immersion heater in the hot water cylinder on ?

 

[blueskies]

Try and establish which circuit or circuits are causing it by switching off the mcbs one at a time to narrow it down.

Ok thank you. I am going there in a couple of days and I will do this for them.

 

[blueskies]

1. Have you become aware of the increase due to bills ? As mentioned check they are not estimated readings.

2. When the high consumption is seen on the monitor, switch off and back on again each breaker in the consumer unit until the one that is causing the high consumption is found.

3. If it's one of the ring circuits, go around the ring unplugging and replugging until the culprit is found.

4. Has the electrician left the immersion heater in the hot water cylinder on ?

Thanks for your suggestions. The bills are accurate as they take photographs. The usage peaks at certain times and mostly in the evenings. I am starting to suspect the boiler which was installed around the same time as the new consumer unit even though its gas powered. I know this is a stupid question but would a gas boiler have an immersion heater within it to heat their water? Its a new combi boiler. I am going back on Monday and I will switch off each breaker and try to figure it out.

 

[Murdoch]

Thanks for your suggestions. The bills are accurate as they take photographs. The usage peaks at certain times and mostly in the evenings. I am starting to suspect the boiler which was installed around the same time as the new consumer unit even though its gas powered. I know this is a stupid question but would a gas boiler have an immersion heater within it to heat their water? Its a new combi boiler. I am going back on Monday and I will switch off each breaker and try to figure it out.

It would be unusual for a gas boiler combi to have an immersion

Your plan to switch off circuits to try and narrow down should help a lot

You mention electrics to the garage - what’s in there ?

 

[ProDave]

Stupid question time, but are you SURE it is a gas boiler not electric? Replacing a gas boiler with an electric one would easily account for that much additional use.

 

[mainline]

4. Has the electrician left the immersion heater in the hot water cylinder on ?

Op said : There are no immersion heaters or anything like that on the property.

 

[mainline]

Hi I am posting on behalf of my parents who are retired. In September they had a new consumer unit fitted, a new cable for the power supply to the garage installed and a new gas boiler installed. Since the work was completed their electricity usage has increased by about 500-600kWh per month. They were low users before so this is a shock. There are no immersion heaters or anything like that on the property. We have bought a whole house energy monitor which is showing quite high usage through the day with a peak during the evenings. They are just using a lamp and a tv in the evenings plus a fridge and freezer. It is causing a huge amount of stress. We are even considering if the new neighbours (it is a semi detached property) could be stealing the electricity. There are also new neighbours on the other side. I doubt this is the reason but we're going mad trying to figure it out. I don't know how to check if anyone else is stealing their supply. Could it be a faulty wire somewhere? The evening peak suggests its related to heating as they tend to put the heating on during the evening. But its a gas boiler so that idea may be daft. Can anyone suggest any possible reasons why this has happened or things that we can try please? Thank you.

Has there been a change in the way the house was heated, such as storage heaters previously ?
Has there been a change of meter ?
Is there an immersion tank at all ?

A picture of the consumer unit and meter, including showing the mcbs/rcbo circuits, maybe of help

 

[truffle pig]

You mention a “whole house mounting system”. I take it this shows real time usage? When it is peaking in the evenings - what is the consumption then (KWhs)? An extra 600 units a month is around a constant 0.75 kw 24/7. That must be traceable via turning off circuits at the CSU to see when it drops out . As someone else suggested, worth taking daily actual meter readings to confirm usage.

 

[michael8554]

"There are no immersion heaters or anything like that on the property."

Are you sure, it used to be quite common for a gas central heating system to have an immersion heater in the water cylinder as a backup for failure of the gas boiler ?

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

it used to be quite common for a gas central heating system to have an immersion heater in the water cylinder as a backup for failure of the gas boiler ?

Its a new combi boiler

The 2nd thing that is removed when a combi is installed is the hot water cylinder.
Our combi is where the hot water cylinder was.