What does a house base load look like?

[Rolfe]

Thanks for that. You seem very economical! My heating is oil, but I have been using electricity for water heating over the summer.

 

[chowbenter]

We're a retired couple & seem to be using a lot of electricity. Our average electric usage in Summer months is between 7-8 kWh/day & we put our charging & washing/drying on British Gas half price peak save days, usually Sundays which is around 25kWh, We've been getting eight hours half price electric on Saturdays over the last month or so too.

 

[paulIoW]

I'm interested in seeing what other people's houses are consuming when there's no extra malarkey going on like kettles and vacuum cleaners. Fridge, freezer, the odd appliance in standby, everybody out.

I have some suspicion I'm using more electricity than would be usual for a single person living alone, and I don't know where it's going.

When my installer first came round he expressed surprise at the size of my electricity usage, but I put this down to my incandescent light bulb habit, and vowed to reform. I bought a bunch of LED bulbs, and have installed them (so far) in all the lights that are on for any significant time. (I've still to go round the rooms that aren't used very often.) I'm sure that has made an enormous difference. But I'm still using 8-9 kwh in a day even in summer, excluding car charging obviously, and even on days when I've not been home the house on its own is using around 4.5 kwh. This is basically fridge and freezer as far as I can see. And the computer printer, which stays on.

I read that the average usage for a home is around 8 kwh per day, so this doesn't seem that unreasonable, even more so when you consider that my house is quite large. However, there's only one of me, and I'm only occupying about half of it. I don't cook a lot, I only run the dishwasher and washing machine every week or two, and the tumble dryer almost never. I gave up my fan heater habit even before I gave up the incandescent light bulbs. I don't spend half the day vacuuming.

I'm not exactly worried, the new home energy system is making me money (from solar export) at this time of year, and my grid usage is almost all at 7p/unit, so it's not a matter of cost. I'm just wondering why my usage seems so high compared to what one might expect from a single person.

Mine is jumping from 01kw to 0.2kw when the f/freezer switches on.

 

[Coulomb]

Ours is around 500W, varying 100-900W. We have 2 fridges (one a small "bar" fridge) and a freezer, 3 computers (3 occupants), some computer routing gear. There are plenty of small always-on loads. We're not concerned about those as we have solar and a battery.

 

[GaryMG4]

Just back from a week in Austria and with everything unnecessary switched off we averaged 2.4kWh per day (costing about £1 per day inc. standing charge), but we have a large pond with 2x80W pumps that run 15 minutes on/15 off for 24 hours a day. Looking at Octo-aid most days between around 9:00 and 18:00 we used (paid for) zero electricity with the load covered by the solar.

 

[Rolfe]

If my consumption is excessive for a single person it certainly doesn't seem to be the base load that's at fault. (Although switching off that hifi at the mains has had some effect.) Well, there's nothing else I'm prepared not to switch on, and at least it's cheap now. It will be interesting to see how everything works out in winter with a 9.5 kWh battery to last for 18 hours.

 

[Everest]

Bit late to this party as only just joined here. Your quiescent usage doesn't sound that high to me - ours is around 300W. We have solar and batteries too, so monitor our usage very closely. One of those energy meters like @gus suggested is good to have and sometimes an eye opener - we had an old PC monitor that drew 160W on its own - suffice to say, that has long gone! Only other thought is whether you have a waste management system - the pumps on those draw a lot of power and if not setup correctly could be coming on more often than it should.

 

[Rolfe]

The hifi system takes a noticeable load but there's not much otherwise. I don't have a waste disposal system.

 

[Tread Softly Terran]

If your annual consumption, excluding car charging, is thought of as high at approx. 6000kWh, but you find the actual usage you're monitoring is much lower, perhaps there's a problem with your smart meter over-reading?
Just a thought?

 

[Bam Bam]

If your annual consumption, excluding car charging, is thought of as high at approx. 6000kw, but you find the actual usage your monitoring is much lower, perhaps there's a problem with your smart meter over-reading?
Just a thought?

The Givenergy system calculates consumption.

Might differ from the Octopus calculations slightly, so perhaps Rolfe is going with the former. But I wouldn't expect it would differ a lot if the Givenergy is set up properly.

 

[gus]

I sit and read this, then I wonder what it looked like ten/twenty years ago before led lights and other low energy devices became so common?

 

[Everest]

I sit and read this, then I wonder what it looked like ten/twenty years ago before led lights and other low energy devices became so common?

And don't forget the air-fryers and heat-pump tumble dryers So energy efficient.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm still feeling my way, because I switched away from incandescent bulbs when I got the new system. I was easily 8,000 units before that. So long as I'm not running the house battery empty before the next cheap-rate period, I'm cool, and that doesn't seem to be happening.

The house base load goes up, maybe doubles, when I settle down with the hifi on and all the lights in the living room (LED now). I dread to think what it was with the incandescent bulbs, especially before I had my cataracts fixed and really needed a lot of light. I just didn't look! Now, it's all fairly OK. I might even find, over the year, that I export enough to pay for what I import.

 

[Everest]

So long as I'm not running the house battery empty before the next cheap-rate period, I'm cool, and that doesn't seem to be happening.

that's my measure too.... though looking forward to having the V2L capability when I do get an MG4

 

[Rolfe]

I gather that it's possible to use a battery charger to charge the house battery using the VtL. I haven't investigated further though.

 

[Everest]

Yes, exactly. I am looking into that right now. A few members on here have done that already

 

[Rolfe]

There hasn't been an extended power cut here for literally 20 years, since they upgraded the supply. But it could still be useful to have.