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Is mine bigger than yours? Ambient level of consumption.

 
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Illustrious Member Contributor
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2009
Topic starter 14/09/2024 4:26 pm  

I have been wondering about this for some time; am I a heavy consumer of electricity ‘in the background’? We may have rather more ‘drains on the main’ than some because we have a number of Amazon smart speakers, cordless telephones, many Zigbee and Alexa controlled lights and switches. etc. Not to mention a NAS, then there is a freezer and a fridge freezer, domestic devices that are never truly off - even if only to display a clock, then there is the network with a MESH system - the list seems endless!

What I am taking a long time to get to is with us drawing ~200-300 watts all round the clock is our background consumption of those little electrons abnormally high at approx. 7.2 kW/h per day? Some of it could be reduced a little I suppose but only inconveniencing ourselves and waiting for boot-up and resets when firing devices up to use them. (I don’t think designers and manufacturers do us any favours here as ‘standby’ to them is their idea of ‘off’.) I’ve also heard of smart devices to plug in in-line with fridges and freezers but how much they save, I have no idea.

So come on ‘Is my demand BIGGER than yours’? I suppose in the overall scheme of things, with a total annual consumption of ~10MWhs in an all-electric home, the 25% spent on convenience and ‘must haves’ is not the end of the world, after all, we want fresh food to eat whilst we listen to the radio, and that food has been cooked on the induction hob or the microwave oven, we like to see our way around the house and don’t much fancy using a bicycle dynamo to charge the iPhones, iPads and having 24/7 access to the internet and our friends (not to mention wasting everyone’s time on the renewableheatinghub!) Curiously, Toodles.

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
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Mars
 Mars
(@editor)
Illustrious Member Admin
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 3360
14/09/2024 5:19 pm  

Our baseline consumption, the house running and doing its thing (WiFi, chargers, home sewage treatment plant pump (100w), fridges, security cameras, smart plugs, HomePods, all the other stuff I can’t think of that’s connect to WiFi, etc.), is between 600-800 watts, so ours is bigger than yours @toodles 🤣 😓 

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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2009
Topic starter 14/09/2024 5:36 pm  

@editor >5.000 kWh’s per annum! Yikes, I thought ours was big enough! Amazed, Toodles.

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
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 Derek M
(@derek-m)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 4427
14/09/2024 6:17 pm  

@toodles

During a 24 hour period our baseload is in the 100W to 300W range with occasional dips below and surges above. Assuming a 200W / hr average would give 4.8kW per day.


   
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 Anonymous 5011
(@Anonymous 5011)
Noble Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 563
14/09/2024 8:53 pm  

We out this afternoon and drawing between 320 and 390W. Basically MVHR,  dMEV fan in summer house, sewage plant fan, ASHP standby/pump consumption and general stuff. So about 8.5kWh without lifting a finger.


   
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 robl
(@robl)
Honorable Member Member
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 203
15/09/2024 8:22 am  

150W average overnight - in order that’ll be:  fridgefreezer, mvhr, ftth router, water softener, loads of standby stuff.  There’s no standby stuff that runs at >1W - I remember looking at a dab radio that was hot in standby at the shop, didn’t buy it.  Telly usb power switches on/off other stuff - wii u, buttkicker (it does what it sounds like!) etc.


   
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Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 881
15/09/2024 9:34 am  

We’re at about 250-300W average overnight. Give that, on top of the fridge freezer, we’ve got a PoE switch, wireless access points, a CCTV camera, the Home Assistant server (on a PC), a DVR and a router all necessarily running, I’m not unhappy with that.

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

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 IanMK13
(@ianmk13)
Reputable Member Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 194
15/09/2024 12:13 pm  

@majordennisbloodnok My base load is perhaps a little lower than that with, I imagine, similar ‘tech’, but no ASHP. 5.5kWh/day when we’re away. Something like 12-13kWh normal daily use this time of year. I’d originally thought that 13.5kWh of battery would be sufficient (assuming overnight ToU tariff) but now I’m not so sure - I’ll see how winter goes…


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Illustrious Member Contributor
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2009
Topic starter 15/09/2024 12:28 pm  

@ianmk13 Our average total daily consumption without the heat pump in use but including DHW needs is approximately 14-15 kWh - so that means our baseload is some 50% of the total (just to have some convenience here and there!)

I suppose we ought to increase our daily consumption somewhat, then our base load would not look so significant! 😉

Thoughtfully, Toodles.

This post was modified 10 months ago by Toodles

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
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 IanMK13
(@ianmk13)
Reputable Member Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 194
15/09/2024 12:50 pm  

@toodles I should probably clarify that, not having an ASHP, DHW is via a gas boiler.


   
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TechnoGeek
 TechnoGeek
(@technogeek)
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Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 119
16/09/2024 11:31 am  

@toodles discounting the ASHP and EV our baseline consumption (fridge freezer, lights, gadgets and cooking) averages about the same at 7Kwh / day, so mine is the same size as yours! 🤣 🤣 

The fridge freezer is, as you would expect, the biggest consumer, especially during the summer

This post was modified 10 months ago by TechnoGeek

5 Bedroom House in Cambridgeshire, double glazing, 300mm loft insulation and cavity wall insulation
Design temperature 21C @ OAT -2C = 10.2Kw heat loss
Bivalent system containing:
12Kw Samsung High Temperature Quiet (Gen 6) heat pump
26Kw Grant Blue Flame Oil Boiler
All controlled with Honeywell Home smart thermostat


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Illustrious Member Contributor
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 2009
Topic starter 16/09/2024 11:56 am  

@technogeek 😉

Toodles, he heats his home with cold draughts and cooks his food with magnets.


   
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