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

Hello!

Please note that this comment was posted using the Blastoise AutoPost Macro, the latest in Robo-Blastoise innovations from BlastoiseLabs. I am a cog that is part of a bot called BlastAssist running under the supervision of my owner Blastoise186. Feedback is welcomed.

The level of detail provided by « User:juliamc » can be made available in MyOVO if you have Smart Meters. Please ensure that your Smart Meters are in « Mode:Half-Hourly Readings » and allow « Time:Days=5 » for your Smart Meters to update the Read Schedule configs.

Insert polite sign off here

Hi @Oakthorpe 

Agree that it would be useful to see the 30min graph as suggested by @juliamc 

The IHD’s hourly bars may be hiding the detail of your fluctuations, but I agree with you that it does look very uniform. However, I’ve no reason not to believe what your smart meter is registering as it’s very rare that the data is incorrect. There are also third party apps such as Bright or Hugo that can display 30minute usage and costs which you may like to compare.

I’m hoping to get my hands on a smart meter CAD at some point which would be capable of recording usage every 10 seconds to really delve into my usage profile. 

Morning all,

Many thanks for the inputs received.  I’ve learned something before you even look seriously at my data - that a detailed usage record exists on my OVO account !

As a result I’m a lot higher up the learning curve than yesterday. 

So below is a 30 min graph of usage together with the IHD graph of 11 Sep.  A notable difference especially in the lack of smoothness across the overnight period. Clearly the IHD does fail to reflect the detail despite seemingly being able to reflect it….unsure why!

Having three freezers (stupid I know - and will reduce that) will create spikes in usage as all three operate at the same time, similar ‘large dips’ as they all go quiet.

I think I’m broadly comfortable in what I see in the 30 min data as it was the constancy of the overnight usage in the IHD that was most odd to me.  The lower usage during the day (at times) equally doesn’t seem as pronounced in the 30 min data as it was on the IHD.

My conclusion is that the IHD is a bit of a simplification (which is okay) and invariably the cause of my concerns.  If you agree, and you’re not seeing an oddities, I’m quite happy to let my issue drop. 

Thank you again for your responsiveness and more importantly to juliamc for that very important snippet of info re. the data available to me online.  Thanks.

Nb. I was not on a 30 min data collection until I raised a query with OVO earlier this year (March), they then moved me from the default 28 day data collection.  In my opinion, having a default 28 day data collection seems a bit pointless given the capabilities of the SMART meter system.

That’s a pretty low baseload @Oakthorpe considering what you have running.

I must tell my children not to use the laptop / games console quite as much and see if I can get mine lower!

I can’t quite beat that sadly, but then again I am running crazy overpowered kit!

Well, I’m stunned….the reason I started looking at this was because I considered our daily electricity usage, around 8kW, to be high…..  typically 2,900kWh pa.  Clearly I can get it lower by getting rid of the N rated freezer in the garage which probably does struggle to perform to spec in the winter months (garage dips to ~5C).

I have an average that’s actually really low. It literally never costs more than £1 a day in electricity for me to run my flat. :)

And this is with an overpowered gaming laptop and way too much Ubiquiti UniFi kit!

As I went to bed last night 12 midnight, I turned everything off except my small under bench fridge and freezer , my smart metre read £42.36 when I got up at 630am it reads £43.37 that’s one pound and a penny that seems an awful lot for 6 hours I don’t use that throughout the day , what’s going on EDF

Hi @Ray Sis 

Most of the overnight cost is likely to be down to the standing charge. Did you confirm what your standing charges were for your tariff and also the amount of kWh usage being shown for the overnight period? If you can post these here then we should be able to work out what's going on. I assume your smart meter is set to send 30 minute readings? If it's not then it would be worth changing the setting as it gives a much better insight.

Yes I’m with EDF gas and Electric today as I’m writing this I noticed my readings last night at 12.15am was £42.36 when I woke this morning 530am it read £43.37 that’s £1.01 I know we pay a standard charge but a pound and a penny in 5 hours seems quite a lot I only have my under bench fridge and freezer on and nothing else apart from my wi- fi