Cause of massive night time usage?

[Dammo6]

HI Guys,

Hopefully someone here might be able to offer a plausible answer to my question because my electricity provider certainly can't.

I had a smart meter installed last March. Analysis of the data shows that we are using, on average, virtually the same number of units between 00:00 and 08:00 are we are between 16:00 and 24:00. The 8-hour period in between is roughly half.

The meter appears to be fine. I turn off the supply and checked the reading before and after a 40 minute period. It was exactly the same.

The company suggests that it is a faulty appliance but I've tried to explain that there is no appliance that is only on during the night that wouldn't also be on in the evening. So surely all the other appliances that would be on in the evening should see a significantly greater reading in total? I hope this is clear.

Can anyone offer an explanation? Is there something glaring obvious that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance

 

[Zerax]

Is 7kw/h overnight normal usage? I thought I read somewhere that 11kw/h per day was around what the average household uses. Maybe I’m way off.

No such thing as the "average" household... they are all different. Similarly, my water rates bill tells me that the "average" single occupancy house uses 181 litres per day !! Wow... how does anyone use that much ???

 

[Midwest]

The cess pit we have at work, has two large pumps that alternate. They are designed to 'chew up' anything, but get jammed by what people flush down the toilets. Doesn't like dry wipes, underwear, plastic bottles etc. Perhaps your pump has come across these objects?

 

[Dammo6]

I’ll get it checked out. Thanks all.

 

[Dammo6]

Hi All,

An update on the septic tank issue. Hopefully this will make sense.

As I understand it, the outlet pipe broke causing the pump to become permanently submerged and therefore pumping constantly. Hence, the huge (by my standards) electricity bills. It should only come on maybe twice a day for a short period, as per one of the replies above. Thankfully the pump itself isn't burned out and is still working fine. I think he said it's a 1 kw pump (does that sound right?).

 

[brianmoooore]

Without looking back at the previous page and doing some smoke packet calculations, I think it's safe to say you've found the source of your problems.
Any idea how long it's been like this?

 

[Dammo6]

Not sure but I'd guess a couple of months.

Many thanks to you all again for your input. It's really appreciated.

 

[brianmoooore]

doing some smoke packet calculations,

"smoke packet" Something wrong with f a g as I wrote?????

 

[DefyG]

Good that you have discovered that although doesn't explain night time usage as it would be pumping 24/7 in that situation.
The pump would be sized for the system but for a domestic 1kw doesn't sound like an overkill.

 

[Dammo6]

I probably wasn’t clear in the beginning. The usage was extremely high all day for me but it was the fact that it was going up throughout the night that caught my attention because I couldn’t figure out why.

 

[DPG]

Glad you sorted it. May be a good idea to have an indicator lamp somewhere that shows when the pump is receiving power.

 

[brianmoooore]

Glad you sorted it. May be a good idea to have an indicator lamp somewhere that shows when the pump is receiving power.

There's also the point that the environmental agency can get very excited about sewage flowing where it shouldn't, and can hand out some very substantial penalties.

 

[Dammo6]

Yes, that’s certainly a consideration