Hi All,
I saw an increase in per kWh consumption of Electricity, about twice that of the usual use at this time of year. Please see the consumption here
The hot water system was replaced in May (immediately before this billing cycle), is that the culprit? The Flat/Unit is a 2 bedroom, 2 person living with convection heater being used in both rooms as it was the case for the last 4 years.
But this sudden surge in consumption is beyond belief, please help find me a solution.
You are barking up the wrong tree. If the water heater is constantly on, then it would literally blow up.
Look for other causes.
Not so. We had one in an investment property.. tenants were getting crazy elec bills. Turned out that the thermostat cut outs in the hws had corroded and were no longer working. It was running 24/7.
OP may mean constantly on, as in always heating up as required, rather than just heating up overnight and then staying off rest of time.
I sent my electric bill up high years ago, when I first moved into a unit such as this. I do use lots of hot water (I choose to clean dishes with hot water running, rather than using detergents and filling sink etc) . Wasn't an issue in previous unit because it still only heated overnight, and I guess throughout the days, water slowly diluted with cold to be hot, but not at 100% heated water. The new unit always heated hot water to 100% all of the time. Turned out there was a switch inside, so I could used this to turn hot water heater on and off (as suggested by others at unit block) but a bit of hassle, to have to remember to turn on half an hour or so before shower.
They have pressure relief valves to prevent them blowing up.
Can you check water usage? Small possibility of hot water leak somewhere?
We once had a slow leak in the wall of the bathroom shower for the hot water, which meant the hot water was constantly "on". Equalled higher electricity bill and water usage.
Now that you say it, a tap in bathroom is on 24/7, one drop per second. Can this cause the hot water system to be on all the time??
Nah, wouldn't be that I don't think
It would use a little more, but would probably need to be more like a dribble to make a significant difference.
When you say it was replaced, was it replaced with a new or used hws?
If it is a used one the contacts could be dirty or corroded and not allowing it to turn off.
Also check the thermostat setting… as well as checking for leaks.
Replace with new, it is inaccessible for me since it's hidden behind the cooktop, no way to access.
Just a few guess/ideas …
Perhaps the heaters were used a bit more this year ?
Maybe it was colder than last year (so heaters had to work harder) .
Maybe your old heater had something built in so as to only heat at a certain time (such as overnight) and new hot water heater either may not have this (or maybe it has to be 'set' so as to heat up only in off peak time overnight) .
Maybe there is a leak or something open in the hot water heater, which is dripping out the hot water, cold water fills heater again (and extra energy used to reheat).
There could be fault in 1 of the room heaters, causing excess electricity to be used.
what was there previously? what did you replace it with? What was the energy consumption of both?
you havent given us any info, so your guess is as good as ours
oh, and go read the meter, obviously
What about the size of new hot water system? Is it much bigger then the older system? Being in a unit is it a heat as you go system (continuous) or does it have a tank?
It's a Rinai or something similar sounding.
Was the HWS wired into an off peak circuit before and is now on a different tariff?
Obviously first thing to check is the HWS, it is what has changed.
We got a bigger bill, used 3x as much, when our hot water service was leaking. Luckily it was on off peak rates, so only using the cheapest power and only overnight. The HWS was constantly trying to top up the hot water all night to replace the heat that was leaking out the overflow. Went from 30kwh to 90kwh for that bill cycle.
As some others have said, check the Temperature Setting on the unit. I can't remember exactly, but I think my underbench unit was set to 85, and costing a fortune. Turned it down to 65ish, for a huge saving.
Check your fridge and or freezer. I'm not joking. I've seen a huge bill for an empty house, owners on holidays O/S. The only power used was an empty fridge. Being empty made it worse as it had no contents to hold the temperature so it ran and ran and ran and no, we couldn't catch it, it ran too fast. (That's for the dad-jokers out there)
can you adjust the thermostat? If you want to figure out if it is the culprit then see how much you use in a regular 24 hour period then turn it off and see how much you use with it off.