On Mon, 22 Sep 2014 18:32:59 +0100, News
wrote:

In message , Johny B Good
writes

If I were you, I'd certainly be making some fairly basic tests to
look for either a metering error or a hidden 'phantom load' (Bill
Wright can recount a story or two relating to 'mystery phantom loads'
if ask him nicely :-).

Yes please :-) That is another possibility. When we moved in 12 years
ago, I climbed into the loft and found minimal insulation and a tube
heater beside the CW tank. There are three lofts here, due to the
construction of the house, one of which I have never been in.

Anyway, I am sort of reassured, particularly by Mark's comments, that
the usage is us being careless, or carefree.

Three plans. Firstly, tomorrow, turn off everything, and make sure the
meter actually stops.

Secondly, use a usage meter as first mentioned by Andrew.

Finally, run a test with just one known item running, to check the
accuracy of the meter.

Oh, and cut out the obvious excesses. Two desktops on 24/7. TV and box
on standby, but rarely used. Thinking back, we watched a few Harry
Potter films last Christmas, a few World Cup matches earlier this year
and the England match a couple of weeks ago, yet the TV and box are
always on standby. Ridiculous.

The TV set is unlikely to take more than a couple of watts when
"Switched off using the remote control" (we still run an old Panasonic
CRT telly which draws only a couple of watts in that state). The
'standby' consumption of a lot of STBs can be virtually unchanged from
its active state and you could be taliking of a figure of from 10 to
25 watt standby with perhaps just another 2 to 5 watts when active.

If your wallwart phone chargers are of the lightweight smpsu type,
You can forget about them. Their standby not charging consumption is
typically a 1/4 watt or less for any such chargers sold during the
past half decade or so.

If you buy a plug in 'energy monitor' you can test this for yourself
anyway (although most digital monitors struggle to show a valid
reading for loads less than half a watt - you can plug a whole bunch
into an extension lead and test them four or 6 at a time (if you have
that many!) to get a more accurate assessment).

A plug in energy monitor will give you a chance to check the weekly
total consumption of things like fridges / freezers (any white goods
items that are run on an intermittent weekly basis). That should give
you a good idea of which items are true 'energy hogs' worthy of
replacement with more efficient models and which ones to leave well
alone on account of their very low consumption (i.e. don't waste your
own energy and wear and tear on the socket switch for things like
permanently plugged in phone chargers if, at best, it's only going to
shave 25 pence off the annual electricity bill per such charger.

Prioritise: make sure there isn't a 'phantom load', make sure the
meter's not over-reading, then deal with your energy hogs (remember to
'fry the biggest fish first before considering the tiddlers :-)

HTH & HAND
--
J B Good