Why is my overnight usage shown on my smart meter In Home Display (IHD) so high?

Hi @Alibongo

I think i would start by downloading one of the regulated 3rd party apps and see what you see via them in terms of usage to see if it is the same

https://www.glowmarkt.com/

Let us know if it looks the same or different 

I have just checked my account and despite my economy seven being switched off for the summer, (heating), I notice my night readings increasing by exactly one unit every night, despite me not using any appliance on my economy seven since June this year.

I was wondering if anybody can clarify this for me before I contact OVO about this. If I am going to be charged for electricity that I’m not using I want to know. Many thanks in advance of any replies.

Hi @KenCristy ,

This sounds like normal and expected behaviour to me. It’s worth bearing in mind that Economy 7 makes it so that ALL your usage during the Night hours gets attributed to the Night rate, not just Economy 7 stuff like storage heaters.

It’s actually a good time to use appliances as well, because the Night rate will always be a lot cheaper than the Day rate.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, that’s clarified things for me. Thank you

I’d like to step in to say that blastoise is correct for the most part, usually everything in an economy 7 set up is connected to a meter that has an off peak and a peak register. So fridges, freezers, anything on standby, and in the winter, your heating, will make the off peak register clock over night. 

However there are examples where some appliances have their own circuit and they will only make the meter register clock if they are using electricity. If you have any doubts, a meter photo including the main fuse and all the area around it should help us work out the situation on the ground. 

I have one tv on stand by I have a small under counter fridge and freezer and yet every single morning 730am my monitor reads 80p 

What’s your standing charge @Ray Sis ? Are you on duel fuels ?

Hi,

Hope you can help.

I had SMART meters fitted in late 2020 and I’m trying to understand my overnight electricity consumption.

I’ve attached photos of the IHD for the last few nights.

I import all electricity used i.e. no solar panels or other generators.
I have one fridge/freezer in the kitchen and two freezers in the garage.  The garage freezers are N & ST-N rated however the temperature has not dipped below 20C recently so I don’t think either is operating out-of-spec (presently).
I have security lights on overnight: 20W lights on a timer (9pm to 5am) and 25W on a dusk to dawn sensor (typ. 7pm to 7am in Sept.). No steps are evident in the IHD graphs to reflect them switching off (?).
I have a number of other ‘permanent’ devices in use: Router, 3x cordless phones on charging stands, a number of small low consumption devices like clocks, 5v chargers etc.
There is no CH or hot water usage until 8am and none used on the days of the graphs.

What I don’t understand is:

1. Why the usage appears to be perfectly constant (at ~200w) from midnight to approx. 8am each day (the fridge/freezers are the only significant appliances operating and I’d expect them to create infrequent demands).
2. Why the overnight usage exceeds usage of many of the hours after approx. 8am (I’d expect the fridge/freezers to be working harder during the day).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Steve

This is @nealmurphy ‘s kind of thing !

Not sure how useful this will be to you but this shows my fridge freezer over a single day last November when it was the only thing on other than a single low watt light during the evening, plus router etc like you have.

For comparison, what does your daily usage graph look like for the days you’ve shown? That should be half hour data.

Hi Julimc,

That’s a very detailed graph, which clearly isn’t from the IHD.   You have me thinking now….is that level of detail available on my Ovo account?...I need to go look …...