After a high electricity bill I've been trying to find out why. I've been
checking my meter readings each day and so far (after 3 days) the usage is
around 23kwh / day peak rate and 8kwh / day low rate (Economy 7). This seems
very high to me.
My house is a 3 bed semi, heated by gas (water also). Washing machine &
dishwasher are always run at night in the E7 period. The only form of
electrical heating is a 500w "frost watcher" in the [insulated] garage - I
will fit my plug-in power watt / usage meter on this tonight to see how much
it's on, but seems very little this time of year.
No immersion heater. Most lights are compact flourescents, apart from ones
which are on dimmers and a few low voltage fittings. (CFL's are in all the
regulally used lights left on for long periods though). No electric shower
or cooker. Oven *is* electric but used rarely, and only about 2kw IIRC.

There are 3 computers running 24/7, when I last checked the power used by
these was about 60w each - will re-check. Will reduce this to 2 computers
soon.
Other stuff on 24/7 is a fish tank, again when I last checked total wattage
was pretty low, and the heater doesn't come on much due to being in a warm
room etc. Lights on for about 6 hours/day (fluroescents and Metal Halides).
Will fit watt meter here after it's stint in the garage.

My equipment / power usuage hasn't really changed in the last few years, but
looking at an electricity bill from 2001 the used units were way below what
it is now.

I have an ammeter connected to a current transformer on the incomming mains
supply, and even on a typical evening with lights on etc it reads about 4
amps, and during the day the meter is usually resting on it's end stop
(0-80A scale).

So, I'm wondering of the accuracy of the electricity meter which was
replaced about a year ago. Any tests I can do to confirm?
I will have a better idea in about a week of power usage of equipment but to
me I just can't see where a total of around 31 kwh per day is going!

Thanks in advance,

Alan.