We recently had a Smart Meter installed, and as such with any novelty, we have been watching our usage to see where our money is most being spent (with the hope that maybe we can cut down if possible). Our usage is typically high on a day-to-day basis, around Ā£3 per day. We live in a 1 bedroom house, fully electric and have our Heaters run only during the Economy-7 hours of 01:30 - 07:30. Our water is also only heated during Economy-7 hours, so Iām not massively surprised when I wake up to see around Ā£2 usage. However, every Sunday we see excessive usage, always in excess of Ā£5, and weāll typically wake up to see it more than our normal daily-spend.
As a test, when we went on holiday, we turned everything off except the fridge and freezer and monitored our usage remotely. Whilst we saw an immediate drop in our typical daily usage to around Ā£1.50, the āSunday Phenomenonā continues to happen, despite us not being there and nothing running except the Fridge and Freezer, we continued to spend in excess of Ā£5.
Is Bulb doing something on a Sunday that would be causing this? Is perhaps a correction being made somewhere that weāre not being notified about? We have no Smart Routines running at all, so nothing extra is being triggered on a Sunday. If not Bulb, can anyone offer any suggestions as to what I might do to find out exactly what is causing the Sunday Phenomenon?
Iāve just reached out to our smart team to have a look into this for you. My current thought is that maybe the IHD is updating with standing charges/ usage on a Sunday.
In the meantime, do you know if you are looking at your daily or weekly usage on the IHD?
Additionally, it looks like there is a billing issue on your account. This seems to have been caused by an incorrect changeover reading from your smart installation. Iāve dropped you an email asking for some information from you so we can look to get it sorted.
I just created a post myself because when I was looking at my IHD yesterday evening, I saw that my IHD charged me 0.25p at midnight. So I started the Sunday with a charge coming out of nowhere.
With every switch killed in my flat, I woke up being charged 0.60p when my daily usage is 0.90p so I think something is going on Sunday, waiting for a reply myself.
Mine does the same thing but itās either 26p or 72p. The idiot I corresponded with at Bulb hasnāt got a clue whatās happening and says āthe graph is just a guide and the monthly meter reading is whatās used to calculate my bill.ā
Good luck with your enquiries, mine went nowhere.
I am sure you can see my dash board. It used to be alternate days of one amount then another, always the same figures. Now it appears to be two days one figure then two days another. To be honest, it doesnāt bother me to much as long as I am being billed correctly, but why have a dashboard if it is not reading correctly?
Iāve just spoken to a colleague who had experienced something similar.
The usage graphs only report whole units, meaning that if one day you used under, that usage would be reported the following day when the unit amount used was over one.
This means that some days your usage would seem to spike but really it was just from the day prior.
If the figures werenāt identical I might go along wit it, I do not have identical usages, if you donāt have an answer to this phenomenon donāt be afraid to say so but please donāt make it up
Just found this thread and the same has been happening with my IHD.
Cant say if itās happening all the time as I donāt always check the IHD at 12am when getting ready for bed but have noticed like as others have posted it can say 25p at 12am.
No, my heating is not on a timer. The dashboard is just constantly wrong
. It would be impossible to achieve the exact same readings over such a period of time.
Hi @phil2990 Iāve seen programmable thermostats cause that kind of consistent but changing usage which is why I asked. Although youāre right it is odd they are so specific. I can see the numbers on your BA dashboard. Do you have an IHD? If so, do you see the same pattern on there?
Hi Phil. Iāve got good news - one of my colleagues has gotten to the bottom of this. (Thanks Reuben!)
The reason for the strange usage on your usage chart is the way the system shows only whole units, and carries these over if usage is under one whole unit. Your gas meter itself is isnāt in kWh, and reports only whole units used.
You can see that because the gas meter only reports whole units used the consumption each day is either 0, 1 or 2, which when converted to kWh (we took the volumetric conversion numbers from your latest bill) which gives the Ā£ values you can see on the graph. The meter only reports whole units so some days it reports 0 usage, so the graph only shows the standing charge, then that days usage gets reported in the next days reading once youāve used over 1 unit in total.
At the moment, as youāre using more gas, youāre between 1 and 2 units each day. The IHD on the other hand is more specific and breaks down the usage as it gets readings more frequently.
I hope this provides the resolution you were hoping for, but let me know if you have any further concerns. - Miriam
cheers
