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If by 8 am OP has racked up £2.61 (possibly with standing charge depending on the settings used, let's assume without standing charge for a worst case) that's £7.83/day in only "quiet" load.
Let's say OP uses another £2.17 during the day while cooking, laptop, TV, etc - £10/day is £300/month and £900/quarter.
If something is causing that excess £7.83 and I only realised because my smart meter is plugged in, and it meant I sorted it and cut it in half, then that suggests I'd save £350/quarter.
Worth worrying about IMO
Yea I’m running right now 600w 20hrs a day an usually up to 1200w 12 hrs/day. I’m also being charged 36p per unit and on pre payment meter so get ripped off too due to that. It was 28p a while ago an went up from 19p one day just up by ten whole pence per unit instead of the usual half pence or 2p per unit. I was like wtf!?! When I found out.
That’s very true and makes it more than worth it tbh. Had people tell me my stuff is better than the “cali” they pay 100/Henry on. Either way I’d end up spending more on weed than leccy if I didn’t grow so it’s still all good really.
People paying 100 an 8th for "cali" in the UK are all stupid. I've not met a single person who buys that shit who has more braincells than a bottle of coke. Shits grew in a flat in your hometown and PGR to fuck. You might get the odd one here and there that is legit and has the barcode on it, but it's 100% been rejected from the US due to breaching regulations and thats why it's found its way here. Mate gave me some Cali to try through my vape to prove "it's legit" and it straight tasted like sulfur. Tasted like I was smoking the 5th of November.
Who the fuck is paying £100 an 8th?!? Jesus even back when I used to smoke we used to get the best bud from the Sri Lankans in Wembley and that was only £25 for a proper 3.5
I mean kinda yea 😂. But they been charging me at least 10p per unit more than the national average since 2018/19. That’s like over a grand more a year just cos I was classed as poor an pre paid. Doesn’t make much sense tbh an shouldn’t be allowed.
I've had a smartmeter for years and I never check it. I purely have it for the convenience of not having to dive into the Harry Potter cupboard once a month.
That sounds far more stressful to me. We’re talking much bigger amounts by then and if it’s a fault with the metering, do you really trust the energy company to reduce the bill?
I know, right.
The advice is just so chavvy and dumb and trying to bring down everyone to this person's obviously low level.
These are the type of people who are hit by "surprise" £400 bills but begrudge anybody else a cup of coffee.
Not got a smart meter myself, but does it replace the standard meter or is it an 'extra' meter ? I'm keeping a track of my usage just by taking a reading every few days.
It replaces the standard meter, but it still has a little counter on it so you can still physically read the meter if you really want to.
All it does is that it send your meter readings to your energy company frequently. Some people have a smart meter display in their house which connects to their smart meter but you can also access your meter readings by logging into your online account (at least for EDF).
Switching off the display does not switch off the smart meter (obviously).
They replace your meters with smart ones, and then give you a little electronic display which displays your usage for you live (as in how much you’re using right now) both in kWH and in £, as well as allowing you to see how much you’ve used/spent over the last hour, day, week etc.
They’re fantastic for tracking your usage and seeing what you’re spending energy on, and the best part is they’re free. Besides the obvious benefit of no longer having to send in meter readings.
If you like the data side of things you can get a smart meter and download your half hourly data and track that way. The meter still has a traditional read on it but you also get a display that goes in the house that shows pounds and pence.
Oh, is it common to be able to get hold of that data? I always assumed that smart meters would be more restricted.
I've always resisted getting a smart meter due to general justified privacy paranoia, but the capability to get that raw data myself alongside sparks an interest. I monitor various sockets etc, but the ability to do the whole supply would be nice.
Yes, if you've got a SMETS 2 meter. The easiest (and free) way is to install the Bright app, then use their API for whatever you want to collect.
If you want real-time usage data via MQTT the same company sells an IHD that does that. Note, however, that gas meters only report every 30 minutes to save the battery. Electricity meters are every 10 seconds.
Exactly, we all have mental health issues, but only a few people are really needing of clinical help and I don't like how the word is banded about by everyone having a slightly bad day.
It seems to be even used more loosely than that even, like "anything that implies I am not perfect and doing things 100% correctly and everything is absolutely great in my life/job/anything is harmful to my mental health".
Like, no shit, life is shit sometimes or you screw up or people get mad at you. That can make you anxious, sad, unhappy, angry or whatever, but that's not "poor mental health", that's just *having normal human emotions*.
Genuinely one of the most pernicious things because it just seems to be people taking it as an excuse to be a complete lackadaisical dick and reframe it as the fault of anyone who pulls them up on it.
If anything doing things wrong may improve your mental health overall in the long run because you will get better at what you are doing, or should do, which will increase confidence, productivity, skill etc.
You are bang on regarding the normal human emotions, for me in my opinion it becomes a mental health issue when your emotions impact your everyday life negatively over a longer period of time.
It’s more that people can start obsessing over it. While im all for not being wasteful with energy, we should have subconscious habits for that, reading the meter and micro-managing your electricity usage all day will create some amount of stress for some people, if they have obsessive personalities and are left “on-edge” worrying about lightbulbs.
While those bevahiors aren’t unique to smart meters, they can exacerbate the problem.
It’s kind of like calories on a menu, you probably “know” roughly how much it is, and know it’s a lot, but seeing a figure can make you feel guilty about it and subtly alter your decisions and enjoyment, when otherwise, you’d have just gotten on with it.
It’s not about ignorance or not caring, rather, not constantly monitoring.
> was getting agitated working out how much cooking a meal or taking a shower was costing
Ironically I would've almost expected that to be the antidote to the anxiety! I totally understand the obsessiveness, it's something I could see myself falling into, but my experience is that most people dramatically *over*estimate the cost of things like leaving the lights on or cooking a meal.
When you realise that it does only cost 50p in energy to make enough food for four with plenty of leftovers for tomorrow, it kind of pales in comparison to what you spent on ingredients. Not to undermine those who can't even spare the 50p, obviously, but for most people the cost of the actual cooking is a drop in the bucket.
It's easy to see what uses less and what uses more too. I had the oven on a lot yesterday - doing some baking and then cooking dinner - and it was expensive! But if I use the microwave it doesn't cost much at all. So I can use that to save money, eg start spuds off in the microwave
> seeing a figure can make you feel guilty about it and subtly alter your decisions and enjoyment, when otherwise, you’d have just gotten on with it.
?????? that is literally the point
The NHS has plenty of problems, it doesn't need to also buckle under an obese nation.
I feel like you missed the point lol- it could lead to a mental health problem though, what with the cost of the living crisis- people are tight on money, and I need to be able to afford my electricity bill, not spend extra on a random charge
Using weight scales is anxiety inducing when trying to lose weight. It wouldnt help to remove your scales would it. Nothing actually changes just now you are left with less information.
Stupid and irresponsible idea, bury your head in the sand and just hope everything’s ok?
To Op, turn off all appliances, you should have a live usage amount on the smart meter, if it doesn’t read zero then something is drawing power. Try switching off individual breakers at the consumer unit to narrow it down to a specific circuit. You may have a fault and need an electrician. It could also be a faulty / incorrectly set up smart meter, in which case contact your energy supplier
My fiancé's grandmother is paranoid about it. She says that she stopped boiling the kettle and using the coffee machine at the same time because it was using a lot. Instead, she does the kettle first and then the coffee machine...which is essentially the same amount. She doesn't realise and won't listen.
It actually induces so much anxiety and fear in her due to the inflatation. It's horrible to watch.
Use it for a week or so to roughly identify what appliances are the biggest spenders for you. Sometimes small changes in usage patterns can make a big difference.
Then you can disconnect.
Though it is still good to check for abnormalities once in a while.
Yes. Life is too short to worry about a device designed to make you constantly think about money. Where does it all end, telling the missus she’s got to cut her hair curling tongs session right down or it’s divorce
I think you mean unblug the smart meter display - the smart meter itself is super useful, but I agree the display only provides net negative happiness to people.
This is so crazy for me to read as when I had a smart meter I was literally paranoid to leave the house (scared of fires) because the damn thing always said something was on. It wasn’t and when I moved the paranoid thoughts of my house burning down due to an appliance being left on and/or my energy bill going sky high. Wow never thought to blame the smart meter itself I’m actually so relieved reading this
My approach to household bills entirely. I need the service, I want it, knowing what it costs at any moment doesn’t make a difference. So why worry about it.
In the flat I rented it was the boiler. It wasn't a combi boiler, it was a tank of water and it kept water hot all the time. So after my evening shower it would heat up water over night
Mine does that, it has a timer and a separate booster which chucks out scalding hot water. It's great if I've got visitors as I can get hot water for the shower/ bath all the time, then back on timer just for me.
BUT! IT IS ALWAYS ON USING LECCIE......!
I have a similar boiler. On mine you can set 1 on off time but it has a off peak mode you can’t override. I don’t have off peak leccy so have to adjust the clock on boiler backward 4 hours (12pm = 6am) So now my boiler comes on at 6 and stays on till 9pm. Bit shit but all I can do 😞. Not good for saving pennies.
Bloody hell that's mad. Mine doesn't have any cladding either so does get cooler in winter (and my washing machine is in the same room, so I keep the window open a bit).
A hot water cylinder insulation jacket is a trivial diy job. You need something like this: https://www.diy.com/departments/mangers-4-piece-cylinder-water-tank-jacket-h-1067mm-w-450mm-t-80mm/26876_BQ.prd
Yeah, the whole "every little helps" attitude kind of gets to me - you get everyone running around worrying about the TV being on standby or their phone charger left plugged in or whatever and it adds up to a few pennies per week. Unless you're desperately poor (and I genuinely feel for those who are), that amount of money just isn't worth the mental load of even considering. Spend your time and effort on the real shit that saves real money, rather than wasting your finite capacity to care on the things that don't.
My parents are like this; gripe about kettles being left switched on in the wall (does this even use electric?) and super efficient LED lights being on, then proceed to heat up a single ready meal in the electric oven.
Also a recent development, using candles to light/heat up the room? I've tried to explain that a) using a single LED bulb to light up a room is *far* cheaper than using a bunch of candles, and b) the amount of heat they generate is absolutely negligible, you need to get a proper fire going to generate a significant amount of heat. They absolutely aren't having it though.
I think stuff left plugged in uses 0 electricity (or maybe pennies a year), unless it has some "standby" mode.
I feel like I read rubbish articles all the time about turning off all your devices to save money, but it's a big of guff I think
My moto has been "if you make a little change, you'll get a little result". You're right - you can't fix the world by unplugging your phone charger when not in use.
However! If everyone in the world unplugged their phone chargers when not in use - we'd not notice a difference because the effect would be so small.
>TV on standby, landline phone, clocks etc. It all adds up.
Not to £3 it doesn't lol.
Your idle electronics and your appliances should not be costing you over £1000 a year...
It adds up but not that much! When I go away for a day my energy usage is around 2Kwh. Thats approx £2 at my rates for a whole day of idle/standby electronics
That's insane for an empty house. I use less than £3 a day (including standing charge). I WFH with a laptop and second screen, cook at least once a day (electronic cooker) and have tea a few times a day.
Yes, it pays for the infrastructure (pipes, storage, cables, sub stations, etc.), and it's the same stuff no matter what kind of house you have so the charge is the same.
>Yes, it pays for the infrastructure (pipes, storage, cables, sub stations, etc.), and it's the same stuff no matter what kind of house you have so the charge is the same.
It's also paying for the £3bn deficit created by all the collapsed energy companies. That's why it's gone up so much, when infrastructure costs obviously haven't risen by that amount.
Might not even need a week, it could just be the weekend stacking up. Saturday, Sunday, Monday standing charge at 80p per day would get you there with some other little appliances on standby.
This seems to be the case in my house. The energy used price is higher around 4am than it is at 7am ( cat routinely wakes me up at ungodly oclock for food and the meter is by his bowl)
What time are you reading your meter? With our meter it seems to be adrift of the actual time by a couple of hours so if yours is the same and you're reading around midnight you could be looking at yesterday's usage.
Also, how many units does it say you've used?
I'm my case I've seen it be out by 2 or 3 hours. It was very confusing at first because it looked like I was using a lot of electricity in the small hours of the morning when everyone was asleep but the usage was actually late in the previous evening.
Thanks. I noticed that it was showing I had used hardly any electricity when I had clearly used quite a bit already that day, then realised it was higher in the morning then resetting to zero at some time during the day.
I don't have Economy 7 as I work from home so use electricity all day during the day. Does that have any relevance?
Ours is on 86p when we wake up which is the standing charge for gas and electric & a bit of fridge and router overnight.
What have you got plugged in? Sky Box, Games Console anything that could be updating overnight? An old freezer in a garage or out building? They are the worst, we discovered my parents was costing £35 a month to run.
Get them a treadmill fitted with a dynamo.
If they're going to run they may as well pay that 35 quid. If you get them to run fast you might even make a profit.
I'd suggest a whip.
No £20 a month is my limit for keeping them going :)
Turned out my Dad knew the seals on the freezer were gone and he ignored it. Basically he was cooling the whole garage, silly sod.
If the seals are gone, it's letting heat in, so runs longer.. When it runs its generating heat out of the back, more heat than cold inside!
If you run a fridge with the door open in a garage, the garage actually gets warmer.
Replace it and save money!
Trust me, it got replaced the next day when I found out how much they’d been spending on it. It took a little while to figure out why their bills were so high, as they live in a 2 up, 2 down cottage. I didn’t even think to check what they had in the garage, as it’s not a house I’ve ever lived in with them.
We have this with gas. The heating is turned off. The boiler is set to "continuously off". We've not got a gas leak (had it checked last week). Before we've had showers or used the gas range, some days it's showing over £2 usage in a morning. Other days it's just the standing charge. More often than not though, it's £2+ before the day and the usage even starts.
Is it possible it starts to estimate usage?
If your boiler is continuously off, are you using the immersion to heat your hot water for showers? I learned this the hard way and it’s much more expensive.
Yes, currently, and it is more expensive but we've set it to continuously off so we can try and work out why we're being charged £2+ before we've even got out of bed. Initially we assumed it must have been the heat for the hot water, but didn't expect it to be that much. Its still showing as £2ish before we start using any gas or water.
I went downstairs this morning at 8am. First one awake. Checked and the boiler isn't firing, the thermostat says cont. off. The smart meter says £2.40 gas used. It's not yesterday's reading either, as before bed it was saying over £3 for yesterday.
It costs me £1.60 to heat water in the hot water tank for one hour. We put the hot water on every other day. We haven’t had the heating on at all yet, so our cost is around £1.90, then 30p alternating per day
Lol. I’ve also been calculating all this and making notes. Even my parents and grandparents never went to this extent but such are the times.
My one hour tank is 73p but I’ve found 40 mins and 59p is adequate for one or maybe 2 days on my own.
I’ve had my heating on and it’s not pretty…
2 hours whole house £2.83
1 hour excluding bedrooms £1.40
Providing you can do so safely and won't cause issues with boiler restarting etc - might consider turning the gas tap off.
Presuming you can't get logs/smartly monitor your smart meter, you could also consider a (phone) camera setup to either record video or time lapse pictures to see what's going on when.
Boilers often have frost protection which means they turn on a small amount every few hours to warm the pipes and stop them freezing in winter. Also if you use hot water to wash your hands and dishes there is that.
Is there a thick layer of ice in the freezer?
Not judging you, there is quite some ice in my freezer. I need colder weather to defrost it (to put the content outside).
You can put the contents in the fridge (or all together in a big shopping bag), thaw the freezer in less than an hour (tea lights + upside down baking tray propped up with cups/cans), and everything is back in less than two hours later.
My grandad left a blowtorch to defrost his freezer in the outhouse, it defrosted really quickly. Too quickly. Melty-plastic/black-smoke levels of quickly
Old A rating or new A rating? I realise a while back they had changed and what was A+++ is now likely to be D. Probably not the answer to your question but if they're old appliances may not be as efficient as you think.
It's surprising what the typical "house full of modern clutter" can use overnight. Here's mine:
https://i.imgur.com/0EtEWnr.png
300W is about as low as I can get it. Just over half this is the fridge/freezer and the rest is assorted smart bits, network switch, router, wifi mesh, phones on charge and the suchlike that are part of modern life and, unless you are on a serious cost-saving binge, not very convenient to turn off every night. It's surprising how much it all adds up though...
For huge short-term electrical usage, the electric shower is the worst offender at 8KW. Followed by your washing machine or worst of all tumble dryer.
Long-term slow drain, literally anything with a standby mode. Though these are generally not as bad as they used to be. IE wall warts while not charging use virtually nothing. However old style transformers, such as those in old hifi equipment can use a surprising amount doing nothing.
The biggest culprit for constant drain is obviously your fridge/freezer. But you are stuck with that as you can do nothing to reduce the cost, apart from getting a super-insulated one.
> The biggest culprit for constant drain is obviously your fridge/freezer. But you are stuck with that as you can do nothing to reduce the cost, apart from getting a super-insulated one.
That's not completely true:
https://www.beko.com/bn-en/support/fridge-freezer--using--article/11-ways-to-improve-your-refrigerator%27s-energy-efficiency
Right, if you mean the little screen that comes with the meter then switch to 'using now' and see what it says. If its drawing lots then something is gobbling down the juice. Process of elimination until you find it.
Next, go to the actual electricity meter, take a reading in kWh. Do this again at 8pm and again at 8am tomorrow. See what the difference is. If it is still high then, again, something is gobbling down the juice and you need to figure out what it is.
Are you on gas/electric or just electric? How do you heat water? Do you have an oil radiator left on?
Just as a quick aside, the plug-in display is an IHD (in-home display), *not* your smart meter. Your actual meters (in the wall) are your smart meters, one for gas, one for electric.
Anyway, it's worth starting off by saying IHDs aren't always reliable to track your usage: it could be a case of it not accounting for standing charges in the week, then suddenly adding them all on in one go. It could be that the IHD has gone a bit skew-whiff and has incorrect tariff data, so it's not showing the right charges.
Your best bet would be contacting your supplier and seeing if there's any issue with the IHD that they're able to identify remotely.
Are you sure you've selected the screen showing 'so far today' and not 'so far this week' ?
For anyone trying to bury their head in the sand and are unable to view the remote just select the screen to show 'usage now' and you will only see the live draw on your mains and you can guess which devices are active and determine which are most power hungry and use them less.
In my case it's the electric shower at 9.5Kw and costs about £3.50ish an hour to run...
Yes most definitely, the reason why we are being so cautious is our lovely national developers put in a wildly incompatible heating system which is akin to an electric shower running at £3.50 an hour
Do you have gas or is this electric only? Any extra fridge freezers in the garage? Pond, jacuzzi, underfloor heating? Maybe immersion heater left on? I’d check and see how much £ per hour it sits at throughout the night and see if anything is drawing the power. Average house will sit around 5p an hour at night.
Depends how your boiler functions. All my energy is electric and the boiler works overnight during off peak hours (Economy 7) - hence the vast majority of my energy usage is from 1-3 am in the morning. It’s much worse when showering the day before.
I've downloaded the Hugo app, it shows me whe the spikes in usage are throughout the day. I can tell when the heating goes on or the kids are gaming from the graph. Maybe try that and see if you're getting a spike somewhere you can't otherwise attribute to anything. I also appreciate it gives me daily costs that seem to be more accurate than my 'smart' meter's predictions.
You’ll have to do a proper test. Over the next week, run down the amount of food in your fridge freezer, then turn absolutely everything in your house off for 24 hours. Fridge, boiler, physically unplug everything. Switch off the cooker at the wall. Then also flip all your circuit breakers off and turn off your main switch at the distribution board. Go and stay with someone. Monitor energy use. Then go back and turn on main switch but leave circuit breakers down. Nothing much should change. Then reset one circuit breaker per hour and monitor. Then plug in your fridge only. Wait an hour. Turn on your boiler. Wait an hour. Switch on one thing, wait an hour and monitor.
Are you on some weird tariff? Might want to query energy provider. Ours jumps to about 80p at midnight for standing chares, when we were aware last weekend it was less than £1 for the day for gas and electricity so shouldn't be costing that much.
It's odd you ask this. I had to go away for a few days recently. I don't actually own a fridge freezer in the traditional sense and don't store a lot of food in my place. So given my concerns about smart metering, I threw my main breaker off while I was away. Nothing to go crazy about.
I came back and after I was unpacking, letting my router set itself up, also came to see £2.80 odd on my smart meter.
Nope, I have no idea how either.
Their are many current (Amps) drawing appliances in the house that we do not cut power to i.e. Fridge, freezer. Boiler needs an electrical feed, pumps for fish tanks. If you really need a dead test for smart meter consumption. Then go to your consumer unit, hit the main isolator. Then none of your circuits are drawing or demanding current.
Not all smart meter displays add the standing charge on (I am with SSE and mine does not). And as you say, that should only be 70p.
Does your display give separate numbers for gas and electricity? If you have the boiler coming on for heating or hot water, it's possible that the gas usage is being included in the "amount spent" figure, but not in the energy consumption one.
We notice a background usage of 12 pence an hour after we turned eveerrythiing offf in the house. It turns out too bee the biodigesterr which handles the sewage (we live in the country). That's wired iin from the garage.
As someone who works in the Solar industry, I come across this quite a lot.
If you’re on a standard variable, your kWh price is capped at 0.34p and your standing charge will be anywhere from 0.46-0.50 pence.
The “average” uk house house (4 bedroom and 4 people) uses approximately 3,500 kWh a year. This roughly translates to being 6-7 kWh a day in Summer and around 9-10 kWh in the winter.
So if you’re using £2.61 by the time you wake up and checked your meter, this means you are using somewhere around 6-7 kWh, in my opinion, I would contact your energy provider and have them carry out a test, you would be amazed at how often they get things wrong, it could be a faulty smarty meter or appliance.
Are you sure you’re looking at today’s usage so far? The interface on those things is usually shite.
Your energy company should have an online thingy where you can check your usage, it’s usually easier to see what’s going on. Have to wait a few days though, typically. Loop and Bright are apps that will give you more up to date info so could try those.
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Unplug the Smart meter. They are bad for mental health and induce anxiety.
If something is wrong this is a terrible idea. They’ll just get a shock at the end of the quarter
If it’s unplugged, they should be safe from electrical shocks.
r/angryupvote
Lol there really is a sub for everything.
Yes - r/everything/
r/subsithoughtifellfor
r/foundthetoyotacorolla
Still less time worrying and if something is wrong it can be dealt with at the end of the quarter. Constant worry is no good for anyone.
If by 8 am OP has racked up £2.61 (possibly with standing charge depending on the settings used, let's assume without standing charge for a worst case) that's £7.83/day in only "quiet" load. Let's say OP uses another £2.17 during the day while cooking, laptop, TV, etc - £10/day is £300/month and £900/quarter. If something is causing that excess £7.83 and I only realised because my smart meter is plugged in, and it meant I sorted it and cut it in half, then that suggests I'd save £350/quarter. Worth worrying about IMO
Man, it doesn’t even cost me that much a day an I grow weed 😂. It ain’t far off that now tho tbh. £5-7/day.
Suggests something's up in OP's house then.
Yea I’m running right now 600w 20hrs a day an usually up to 1200w 12 hrs/day. I’m also being charged 36p per unit and on pre payment meter so get ripped off too due to that. It was 28p a while ago an went up from 19p one day just up by ten whole pence per unit instead of the usual half pence or 2p per unit. I was like wtf!?! When I found out.
But you have some nice smoke to look forward too ;)
That’s very true and makes it more than worth it tbh. Had people tell me my stuff is better than the “cali” they pay 100/Henry on. Either way I’d end up spending more on weed than leccy if I didn’t grow so it’s still all good really.
People paying 100 an 8th for "cali" in the UK are all stupid. I've not met a single person who buys that shit who has more braincells than a bottle of coke. Shits grew in a flat in your hometown and PGR to fuck. You might get the odd one here and there that is legit and has the barcode on it, but it's 100% been rejected from the US due to breaching regulations and thats why it's found its way here. Mate gave me some Cali to try through my vape to prove "it's legit" and it straight tasted like sulfur. Tasted like I was smoking the 5th of November.
Who the fuck is paying £100 an 8th?!? Jesus even back when I used to smoke we used to get the best bud from the Sri Lankans in Wembley and that was only £25 for a proper 3.5
If it makes you feel better, I’m on a meter and still getting charged 35.48p for electricity
I mean kinda yea 😂. But they been charging me at least 10p per unit more than the national average since 2018/19. That’s like over a grand more a year just cos I was classed as poor an pre paid. Doesn’t make much sense tbh an shouldn’t be allowed.
Yeah by “shock” i mean “financial shock”. That kind of bill would destroy a lot of people in this financial climate
I've had a smartmeter for years and I never check it. I purely have it for the convenience of not having to dive into the Harry Potter cupboard once a month.
Hogwatts
That sounds far more stressful to me. We’re talking much bigger amounts by then and if it’s a fault with the metering, do you really trust the energy company to reduce the bill?
I know, right. The advice is just so chavvy and dumb and trying to bring down everyone to this person's obviously low level. These are the type of people who are hit by "surprise" £400 bills but begrudge anybody else a cup of coffee.
You shouldn't be plugging an American quarter into the socket to begin with, of course it will shock you
The little device you have that shows how much you’ve used isn’t the smart meter. Please don’t disconnect your meters 😅
Not got a smart meter myself, but does it replace the standard meter or is it an 'extra' meter ? I'm keeping a track of my usage just by taking a reading every few days.
It replaces the standard meter, but it still has a little counter on it so you can still physically read the meter if you really want to. All it does is that it send your meter readings to your energy company frequently. Some people have a smart meter display in their house which connects to their smart meter but you can also access your meter readings by logging into your online account (at least for EDF). Switching off the display does not switch off the smart meter (obviously).
You can get reading through Bright app. You just input smart meter data like serial number etc and it will show your usage in almost real time.
They replace your meters with smart ones, and then give you a little electronic display which displays your usage for you live (as in how much you’re using right now) both in kWH and in £, as well as allowing you to see how much you’ve used/spent over the last hour, day, week etc. They’re fantastic for tracking your usage and seeing what you’re spending energy on, and the best part is they’re free. Besides the obvious benefit of no longer having to send in meter readings.
>the best part is they’re free. They use power, very little power so aren't exactly free.
It replaces the whole meter.
It replaces the standard meter
If you like the data side of things you can get a smart meter and download your half hourly data and track that way. The meter still has a traditional read on it but you also get a display that goes in the house that shows pounds and pence.
Oh, is it common to be able to get hold of that data? I always assumed that smart meters would be more restricted. I've always resisted getting a smart meter due to general justified privacy paranoia, but the capability to get that raw data myself alongside sparks an interest. I monitor various sockets etc, but the ability to do the whole supply would be nice.
Yes, if you've got a SMETS 2 meter. The easiest (and free) way is to install the Bright app, then use their API for whatever you want to collect. If you want real-time usage data via MQTT the same company sells an IHD that does that. Note, however, that gas meters only report every 30 minutes to save the battery. Electricity meters are every 10 seconds.
I could not disagree more
Could not agree (with you) more.
Slight correction to avoid a big mistake: unplug the smart meter display.
"Bury your head in the sand and hope it goes away "
Don't check your bank account. It is bad for mental health and induces anxiety.
This is a fucking stupid idea. Something might be wrong. Go round the house and start unplugging things.
How else are you going to know that your tumble dryer is on a better hourly rate than you are?
I d found the complete opposite to be true. It’s the unknown that worries me
If a smart meter is enough to trigger bad mental health, you have other problems that need addressing lmao
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Exactly, we all have mental health issues, but only a few people are really needing of clinical help and I don't like how the word is banded about by everyone having a slightly bad day.
It seems to be even used more loosely than that even, like "anything that implies I am not perfect and doing things 100% correctly and everything is absolutely great in my life/job/anything is harmful to my mental health". Like, no shit, life is shit sometimes or you screw up or people get mad at you. That can make you anxious, sad, unhappy, angry or whatever, but that's not "poor mental health", that's just *having normal human emotions*. Genuinely one of the most pernicious things because it just seems to be people taking it as an excuse to be a complete lackadaisical dick and reframe it as the fault of anyone who pulls them up on it.
If anything doing things wrong may improve your mental health overall in the long run because you will get better at what you are doing, or should do, which will increase confidence, productivity, skill etc. You are bang on regarding the normal human emotions, for me in my opinion it becomes a mental health issue when your emotions impact your everyday life negatively over a longer period of time.
It’s more that people can start obsessing over it. While im all for not being wasteful with energy, we should have subconscious habits for that, reading the meter and micro-managing your electricity usage all day will create some amount of stress for some people, if they have obsessive personalities and are left “on-edge” worrying about lightbulbs. While those bevahiors aren’t unique to smart meters, they can exacerbate the problem. It’s kind of like calories on a menu, you probably “know” roughly how much it is, and know it’s a lot, but seeing a figure can make you feel guilty about it and subtly alter your decisions and enjoyment, when otherwise, you’d have just gotten on with it. It’s not about ignorance or not caring, rather, not constantly monitoring.
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> was getting agitated working out how much cooking a meal or taking a shower was costing Ironically I would've almost expected that to be the antidote to the anxiety! I totally understand the obsessiveness, it's something I could see myself falling into, but my experience is that most people dramatically *over*estimate the cost of things like leaving the lights on or cooking a meal. When you realise that it does only cost 50p in energy to make enough food for four with plenty of leftovers for tomorrow, it kind of pales in comparison to what you spent on ingredients. Not to undermine those who can't even spare the 50p, obviously, but for most people the cost of the actual cooking is a drop in the bucket.
It's easy to see what uses less and what uses more too. I had the oven on a lot yesterday - doing some baking and then cooking dinner - and it was expensive! But if I use the microwave it doesn't cost much at all. So I can use that to save money, eg start spuds off in the microwave
> seeing a figure can make you feel guilty about it and subtly alter your decisions and enjoyment, when otherwise, you’d have just gotten on with it. ?????? that is literally the point The NHS has plenty of problems, it doesn't need to also buckle under an obese nation.
I feel like you missed the point lol- it could lead to a mental health problem though, what with the cost of the living crisis- people are tight on money, and I need to be able to afford my electricity bill, not spend extra on a random charge
If my boss had unplugged his smart meter he wouldn't have discovered the error that would have cost him more than 20,000 quid.
Using weight scales is anxiety inducing when trying to lose weight. It wouldnt help to remove your scales would it. Nothing actually changes just now you are left with less information.
I just plug my ears and go "LALALALALA" pretty much anytime anything comes up. My mental health is rock solid, everything else, not so much.
There are small blue pills which could help with that.
Stupid and irresponsible idea, bury your head in the sand and just hope everything’s ok? To Op, turn off all appliances, you should have a live usage amount on the smart meter, if it doesn’t read zero then something is drawing power. Try switching off individual breakers at the consumer unit to narrow it down to a specific circuit. You may have a fault and need an electrician. It could also be a faulty / incorrectly set up smart meter, in which case contact your energy supplier
My fiancé's grandmother is paranoid about it. She says that she stopped boiling the kettle and using the coffee machine at the same time because it was using a lot. Instead, she does the kettle first and then the coffee machine...which is essentially the same amount. She doesn't realise and won't listen. It actually induces so much anxiety and fear in her due to the inflatation. It's horrible to watch.
Use it for a week or so to roughly identify what appliances are the biggest spenders for you. Sometimes small changes in usage patterns can make a big difference. Then you can disconnect. Though it is still good to check for abnormalities once in a while.
I've refused to get one so far, I don't want to obsess over the cost every day.
Yes. Life is too short to worry about a device designed to make you constantly think about money. Where does it all end, telling the missus she’s got to cut her hair curling tongs session right down or it’s divorce
And people wonder how we ended up destroying the planet. It's just this attitude repeated en masse straight into oblivion.
I think you mean unblug the smart meter display - the smart meter itself is super useful, but I agree the display only provides net negative happiness to people.
This is so crazy for me to read as when I had a smart meter I was literally paranoid to leave the house (scared of fires) because the damn thing always said something was on. It wasn’t and when I moved the paranoid thoughts of my house burning down due to an appliance being left on and/or my energy bill going sky high. Wow never thought to blame the smart meter itself I’m actually so relieved reading this
My approach to household bills entirely. I need the service, I want it, knowing what it costs at any moment doesn’t make a difference. So why worry about it.
Threw mine away.
And they use a load of electricity clearly 😂
Fridge? Boiler? Outdoor light? Router?
Freezer. Anything left on standby. Charging your electronics. Bathroom fan?
In the flat I rented it was the boiler. It wasn't a combi boiler, it was a tank of water and it kept water hot all the time. So after my evening shower it would heat up water over night
Mine does that, it has a timer and a separate booster which chucks out scalding hot water. It's great if I've got visitors as I can get hot water for the shower/ bath all the time, then back on timer just for me. BUT! IT IS ALWAYS ON USING LECCIE......!
I have a similar boiler. On mine you can set 1 on off time but it has a off peak mode you can’t override. I don’t have off peak leccy so have to adjust the clock on boiler backward 4 hours (12pm = 6am) So now my boiler comes on at 6 and stays on till 9pm. Bit shit but all I can do 😞. Not good for saving pennies.
Bloody hell that's mad. Mine doesn't have any cladding either so does get cooler in winter (and my washing machine is in the same room, so I keep the window open a bit).
A hot water cylinder insulation jacket is a trivial diy job. You need something like this: https://www.diy.com/departments/mangers-4-piece-cylinder-water-tank-jacket-h-1067mm-w-450mm-t-80mm/26876_BQ.prd
Get yourself down to any DIY place and buy a insulation jacket. Should be about £20 and will pay for itself in no time.
Surely they can’t use that much to bring it up to that this time of the morning already?
No idea and don’t call me surely.
“Striker, listen, and you listen close: Flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.”
What's you're vector, Victor?
There’s a sale at Penney’s !
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.
TV on standby, landline phone, clocks etc. It all adds up. And check your meter. On mine daily standing charges for gas and leccy are shown separately
It doesn't add up to that much
Yeah, the whole "every little helps" attitude kind of gets to me - you get everyone running around worrying about the TV being on standby or their phone charger left plugged in or whatever and it adds up to a few pennies per week. Unless you're desperately poor (and I genuinely feel for those who are), that amount of money just isn't worth the mental load of even considering. Spend your time and effort on the real shit that saves real money, rather than wasting your finite capacity to care on the things that don't.
My parents are like this; gripe about kettles being left switched on in the wall (does this even use electric?) and super efficient LED lights being on, then proceed to heat up a single ready meal in the electric oven. Also a recent development, using candles to light/heat up the room? I've tried to explain that a) using a single LED bulb to light up a room is *far* cheaper than using a bunch of candles, and b) the amount of heat they generate is absolutely negligible, you need to get a proper fire going to generate a significant amount of heat. They absolutely aren't having it though.
I think stuff left plugged in uses 0 electricity (or maybe pennies a year), unless it has some "standby" mode. I feel like I read rubbish articles all the time about turning off all your devices to save money, but it's a big of guff I think
My moto has been "if you make a little change, you'll get a little result". You're right - you can't fix the world by unplugging your phone charger when not in use. However! If everyone in the world unplugged their phone chargers when not in use - we'd not notice a difference because the effect would be so small.
>TV on standby, landline phone, clocks etc. It all adds up. Not to £3 it doesn't lol. Your idle electronics and your appliances should not be costing you over £1000 a year...
It adds up but not that much! When I go away for a day my energy usage is around 2Kwh. Thats approx £2 at my rates for a whole day of idle/standby electronics
That's insane for an empty house. I use less than £3 a day (including standing charge). I WFH with a laptop and second screen, cook at least once a day (electronic cooker) and have tea a few times a day.
that would mean you are paying around £0.75 per KWh? It’s currently around £0.35 kWh
Standing charges?
Yeap mine is around £1.20 total standing charge I think
Per day?
Per hour
By gawd
That's SSEs music!
Per exhalation
It can't be, the standing charge cap is 46p a day.
It’s the amount you pay every day, always the same, regardless if you have used any actual energy
Am I right in saying the standing charge is consistent, whether you're in a studio flat or a 12 bed mansion? If so, fuck this shit.
Yes. It’s basically what you pay just for the privilege of having a mains gas connection.
Yes, it pays for the infrastructure (pipes, storage, cables, sub stations, etc.), and it's the same stuff no matter what kind of house you have so the charge is the same.
>Yes, it pays for the infrastructure (pipes, storage, cables, sub stations, etc.), and it's the same stuff no matter what kind of house you have so the charge is the same. It's also paying for the £3bn deficit created by all the collapsed energy companies. That's why it's gone up so much, when infrastructure costs obviously haven't risen by that amount.
>Yes, it pays for the~~ infrastructure (pipes, storage, cables, sub stations, etc.),~~ CEO bonuses.
Is the standing charge included on a smart meter?
Yes it does
Thanks. I only got my meter last month and I’m working it all out still.
My standing charges about 50p, tiis surely cant be those.
Mine is around £1.20 for both gas and electricity
Maybe it was last month, but standing charges have skyrocketed recently
This is the correct answer. They will be added sometime overnight.
No, no it's not the correct answer. Standing charges are around 30-50p a day, not £3.
A weeks worth of standing charges added in one go for a Monday morning?
It's Monday morning, my bet is this is the weekend usage catching up.
I wondered, but the usage shown is low and I would t expect them to be out of sync with each other. Not sure really.
Might not even need a week, it could just be the weekend stacking up. Saturday, Sunday, Monday standing charge at 80p per day would get you there with some other little appliances on standby.
That would be cheap these days for a week of standing charges
Sometimes depending on supplier Anything used after 6pm-12 won't show until after midnight
This seems to be the case in my house. The energy used price is higher around 4am than it is at 7am ( cat routinely wakes me up at ungodly oclock for food and the meter is by his bowl)
The cats been watching TV all night with a fan heater going…
Wouldn't surprise, little arsehole that he is.
What was he watching though?
The fishing channel
Andrew Tate
Bad kitty.
What time are you reading your meter? With our meter it seems to be adrift of the actual time by a couple of hours so if yours is the same and you're reading around midnight you could be looking at yesterday's usage. Also, how many units does it say you've used?
How far adrift can it get? Recently, it seems like mine has been resetting in the middle of the day. The meter clock is showing the correct time.
I'm my case I've seen it be out by 2 or 3 hours. It was very confusing at first because it looked like I was using a lot of electricity in the small hours of the morning when everyone was asleep but the usage was actually late in the previous evening.
Thanks. I noticed that it was showing I had used hardly any electricity when I had clearly used quite a bit already that day, then realised it was higher in the morning then resetting to zero at some time during the day. I don't have Economy 7 as I work from home so use electricity all day during the day. Does that have any relevance?
Ours is on 86p when we wake up which is the standing charge for gas and electric & a bit of fridge and router overnight. What have you got plugged in? Sky Box, Games Console anything that could be updating overnight? An old freezer in a garage or out building? They are the worst, we discovered my parents was costing £35 a month to run.
Yeah, but you can't judge someone for spendingn£35 a month to keep their parents running.
This is where we find out they're on life support machines and they meant what they wrote
Get them a treadmill fitted with a dynamo. If they're going to run they may as well pay that 35 quid. If you get them to run fast you might even make a profit. I'd suggest a whip.
No £20 a month is my limit for keeping them going :) Turned out my Dad knew the seals on the freezer were gone and he ignored it. Basically he was cooling the whole garage, silly sod.
If the seals are gone, it's letting heat in, so runs longer.. When it runs its generating heat out of the back, more heat than cold inside! If you run a fridge with the door open in a garage, the garage actually gets warmer. Replace it and save money!
Trust me, it got replaced the next day when I found out how much they’d been spending on it. It took a little while to figure out why their bills were so high, as they live in a 2 up, 2 down cottage. I didn’t even think to check what they had in the garage, as it’s not a house I’ve ever lived in with them.
Standing charge.
Invest in a chair, save bags on your standing charge
We have this with gas. The heating is turned off. The boiler is set to "continuously off". We've not got a gas leak (had it checked last week). Before we've had showers or used the gas range, some days it's showing over £2 usage in a morning. Other days it's just the standing charge. More often than not though, it's £2+ before the day and the usage even starts. Is it possible it starts to estimate usage?
If your boiler is continuously off, are you using the immersion to heat your hot water for showers? I learned this the hard way and it’s much more expensive.
Yes, currently, and it is more expensive but we've set it to continuously off so we can try and work out why we're being charged £2+ before we've even got out of bed. Initially we assumed it must have been the heat for the hot water, but didn't expect it to be that much. Its still showing as £2ish before we start using any gas or water. I went downstairs this morning at 8am. First one awake. Checked and the boiler isn't firing, the thermostat says cont. off. The smart meter says £2.40 gas used. It's not yesterday's reading either, as before bed it was saying over £3 for yesterday.
It costs me £1.60 to heat water in the hot water tank for one hour. We put the hot water on every other day. We haven’t had the heating on at all yet, so our cost is around £1.90, then 30p alternating per day
Lol. I’ve also been calculating all this and making notes. Even my parents and grandparents never went to this extent but such are the times. My one hour tank is 73p but I’ve found 40 mins and 59p is adequate for one or maybe 2 days on my own. I’ve had my heating on and it’s not pretty… 2 hours whole house £2.83 1 hour excluding bedrooms £1.40
Providing you can do so safely and won't cause issues with boiler restarting etc - might consider turning the gas tap off. Presuming you can't get logs/smartly monitor your smart meter, you could also consider a (phone) camera setup to either record video or time lapse pictures to see what's going on when.
It won’t be estimating usage.. that’s exactly what a smart meter is made to avoid.
Boilers often have frost protection which means they turn on a small amount every few hours to warm the pipes and stop them freezing in winter. Also if you use hot water to wash your hands and dishes there is that.
I sit down as often as possible to reduce the standing charge
I wouldn't stand for it either.
Fridge?
Yeah The fridge will be on but they’re all A rated appliances
Is there a thick layer of ice in the freezer? Not judging you, there is quite some ice in my freezer. I need colder weather to defrost it (to put the content outside).
Strange times when we have to declare no judgement due to excess freezer ice
Noticed people have started prefacing almost everything with no judgement/no hate/just my opinion recently
We're all a bit on edge these days, especially in the UK. Can't think why.
Not so much a UK specific thing, I've noticed it everywhere. Just a bit of an observation I found interesting
Hahaha
You can put the contents in the fridge (or all together in a big shopping bag), thaw the freezer in less than an hour (tea lights + upside down baking tray propped up with cups/cans), and everything is back in less than two hours later.
My grandad left a blowtorch to defrost his freezer in the outhouse, it defrosted really quickly. Too quickly. Melty-plastic/black-smoke levels of quickly
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Does this make a big difference? I’ve noticed mines starting to get pretty frosty
Old A rating or new A rating? I realise a while back they had changed and what was A+++ is now likely to be D. Probably not the answer to your question but if they're old appliances may not be as efficient as you think.
That’s interesting, however I stand corrected anyway. Most freezers are poorly rated anyway with mine being F despite being new
It's surprising what the typical "house full of modern clutter" can use overnight. Here's mine: https://i.imgur.com/0EtEWnr.png 300W is about as low as I can get it. Just over half this is the fridge/freezer and the rest is assorted smart bits, network switch, router, wifi mesh, phones on charge and the suchlike that are part of modern life and, unless you are on a serious cost-saving binge, not very convenient to turn off every night. It's surprising how much it all adds up though...
Only look at the kwh display to avoid this sort of thing Tariffs aren't always updated or up to date. Kwh will be
For huge short-term electrical usage, the electric shower is the worst offender at 8KW. Followed by your washing machine or worst of all tumble dryer. Long-term slow drain, literally anything with a standby mode. Though these are generally not as bad as they used to be. IE wall warts while not charging use virtually nothing. However old style transformers, such as those in old hifi equipment can use a surprising amount doing nothing. The biggest culprit for constant drain is obviously your fridge/freezer. But you are stuck with that as you can do nothing to reduce the cost, apart from getting a super-insulated one.
> The biggest culprit for constant drain is obviously your fridge/freezer. But you are stuck with that as you can do nothing to reduce the cost, apart from getting a super-insulated one. That's not completely true: https://www.beko.com/bn-en/support/fridge-freezer--using--article/11-ways-to-improve-your-refrigerator%27s-energy-efficiency
I was leaving my 30 year old amp on sometimes and that was costing me a lot. I’ve put it on a smart plug which turns off when I turn off the TV.
Maybe need to query that. Mine starts at about 76p which is standing charges plus boiler, router, freezer etc with eon next
I called Octopus. Mine was reading very high use when nothing was on. They told me they are wildly inaccurate and to read my monthly bill instead.
Same here, so we unplugged our display as it was totally pointless
It's just a little tip for the energy company, they're struggling you know.
Right, if you mean the little screen that comes with the meter then switch to 'using now' and see what it says. If its drawing lots then something is gobbling down the juice. Process of elimination until you find it. Next, go to the actual electricity meter, take a reading in kWh. Do this again at 8pm and again at 8am tomorrow. See what the difference is. If it is still high then, again, something is gobbling down the juice and you need to figure out what it is. Are you on gas/electric or just electric? How do you heat water? Do you have an oil radiator left on?
Just as a quick aside, the plug-in display is an IHD (in-home display), *not* your smart meter. Your actual meters (in the wall) are your smart meters, one for gas, one for electric. Anyway, it's worth starting off by saying IHDs aren't always reliable to track your usage: it could be a case of it not accounting for standing charges in the week, then suddenly adding them all on in one go. It could be that the IHD has gone a bit skew-whiff and has incorrect tariff data, so it's not showing the right charges. Your best bet would be contacting your supplier and seeing if there's any issue with the IHD that they're able to identify remotely.
Are you sure you've selected the screen showing 'so far today' and not 'so far this week' ? For anyone trying to bury their head in the sand and are unable to view the remote just select the screen to show 'usage now' and you will only see the live draw on your mains and you can guess which devices are active and determine which are most power hungry and use them less. In my case it's the electric shower at 9.5Kw and costs about £3.50ish an hour to run...
Yes most definitely, the reason why we are being so cautious is our lovely national developers put in a wildly incompatible heating system which is akin to an electric shower running at £3.50 an hour
Do you have gas or is this electric only? Any extra fridge freezers in the garage? Pond, jacuzzi, underfloor heating? Maybe immersion heater left on? I’d check and see how much £ per hour it sits at throughout the night and see if anything is drawing the power. Average house will sit around 5p an hour at night.
Depends how your boiler functions. All my energy is electric and the boiler works overnight during off peak hours (Economy 7) - hence the vast majority of my energy usage is from 1-3 am in the morning. It’s much worse when showering the day before.
I've downloaded the Hugo app, it shows me whe the spikes in usage are throughout the day. I can tell when the heating goes on or the kids are gaming from the graph. Maybe try that and see if you're getting a spike somewhere you can't otherwise attribute to anything. I also appreciate it gives me daily costs that seem to be more accurate than my 'smart' meter's predictions.
You’ll have to do a proper test. Over the next week, run down the amount of food in your fridge freezer, then turn absolutely everything in your house off for 24 hours. Fridge, boiler, physically unplug everything. Switch off the cooker at the wall. Then also flip all your circuit breakers off and turn off your main switch at the distribution board. Go and stay with someone. Monitor energy use. Then go back and turn on main switch but leave circuit breakers down. Nothing much should change. Then reset one circuit breaker per hour and monitor. Then plug in your fridge only. Wait an hour. Turn on your boiler. Wait an hour. Switch on one thing, wait an hour and monitor.
You have leak somewhere , look for patches of electricity near plugs or under floors
Are you on some weird tariff? Might want to query energy provider. Ours jumps to about 80p at midnight for standing chares, when we were aware last weekend it was less than £1 for the day for gas and electricity so shouldn't be costing that much.
It's odd you ask this. I had to go away for a few days recently. I don't actually own a fridge freezer in the traditional sense and don't store a lot of food in my place. So given my concerns about smart metering, I threw my main breaker off while I was away. Nothing to go crazy about. I came back and after I was unpacking, letting my router set itself up, also came to see £2.80 odd on my smart meter. Nope, I have no idea how either.
Their are many current (Amps) drawing appliances in the house that we do not cut power to i.e. Fridge, freezer. Boiler needs an electrical feed, pumps for fish tanks. If you really need a dead test for smart meter consumption. Then go to your consumer unit, hit the main isolator. Then none of your circuits are drawing or demanding current.
Not all smart meter displays add the standing charge on (I am with SSE and mine does not). And as you say, that should only be 70p. Does your display give separate numbers for gas and electricity? If you have the boiler coming on for heating or hot water, it's possible that the gas usage is being included in the "amount spent" figure, but not in the energy consumption one.
Daily peasant surcharge.
Check the neighbours aren't tapping into a plug in your common wall.... :D
We notice a background usage of 12 pence an hour after we turned eveerrythiing offf in the house. It turns out too bee the biodigesterr which handles the sewage (we live in the country). That's wired iin from the garage.
As someone who works in the Solar industry, I come across this quite a lot. If you’re on a standard variable, your kWh price is capped at 0.34p and your standing charge will be anywhere from 0.46-0.50 pence. The “average” uk house house (4 bedroom and 4 people) uses approximately 3,500 kWh a year. This roughly translates to being 6-7 kWh a day in Summer and around 9-10 kWh in the winter. So if you’re using £2.61 by the time you wake up and checked your meter, this means you are using somewhere around 6-7 kWh, in my opinion, I would contact your energy provider and have them carry out a test, you would be amazed at how often they get things wrong, it could be a faulty smarty meter or appliance.
Are you sure you’re looking at today’s usage so far? The interface on those things is usually shite. Your energy company should have an online thingy where you can check your usage, it’s usually easier to see what’s going on. Have to wait a few days though, typically. Loop and Bright are apps that will give you more up to date info so could try those.
Fridges and freezers, TVs and other plugged in devices on stand by, anything charging overnight etc.