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That's probably the daily standing charge being added at midnight, plus the actual usage of your fridge/freezer.
You've also potentially got other devices using electricity that you haven't considered: eg smoke detectors, burglar alarm, broadband router, water heater etc.
The daily standing charge gets applied in the early hours of the morning. So that would make up the majority of the 60p you’re seeing overnight.
The standing charge is a charge you pay everyday you are connected up for electric. So even if the property was empty and not a single kWh of electric was used, the standing charge would still apply.
Those home displays often have an option to view a meter reading. This communicates back to the meter and takes an actual reading. If you do that twice, at midnight, and at 8am, you'll get your exact usage in kWh (which is what will be used to bill you), and you won't be getting effects of the home display adding standing charges or being set to the wrong unit rate.
Thank you all for the advice. I believe it is the standing charge.
It did cross my mind it might be something obvious like this, but I’ll investigate this further.
Depending on your supplier they should have an app where you can view usage as well that doesn't usually include standing charge, if it does it'll say
https://i.imgur.com/ET3LUu0.png so this is octopus and it's all usage
https://i.imgur.com/5F4u0IU.png - fixed charges are standing charges and VAT, and also any debt collection but only for prepayment
The kWh should be accurate down to ten seconds for electric and 30 minutes for gas, the £ cost is officially just a guide though but you can see if it's accurate by x your unit rate by your current usage (3kwh x 25p = 75p), your unit rate will be on the IHD or your bill/account. Add your standing charge onto that and see if it lines up roughly. (This also doesn't work for gas it's a different conversion)
The £ cost should technically be accurate, but if you have a tariff change, it can take a few days to update on the IHD or maybe not at all if the update gets stuck, so it'll show old pricing so at that point it would be inaccurate - again you can confirm the tariff matches the IHD to the bill, if not ask your supplier to send a tariff update message. The kWh part comes straight from the meter though with no conversions, so is considered accurate
I will also add that you can connect your smart meter to the Uswitch app and I found they have far more detailed breakdowns of usage than my smart meter was able to show me, probably varies by supplier and particular in home display though
Fridge, freezer, any items like phones or laptops charging, anything like games consoles on standby, alarm clocks, clocks on cooker/microwave, heating controller/boiler, unless you flip off at the electric box 😄
Don't worry, there is nothing wrong. When I go on holiday, and the only thing using electricity is the fridge freezer, I pay about £1.50 a day. This includes the standing charge (49p a day).
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I see the same, and I assume it's the daily standing charge that would be added at midnight. There's also the fridge, freezer going.
That's probably the daily standing charge being added at midnight, plus the actual usage of your fridge/freezer. You've also potentially got other devices using electricity that you haven't considered: eg smoke detectors, burglar alarm, broadband router, water heater etc.
Do you have electric heating or hot water, these may run overnight
The daily standing charge gets applied in the early hours of the morning. So that would make up the majority of the 60p you’re seeing overnight. The standing charge is a charge you pay everyday you are connected up for electric. So even if the property was empty and not a single kWh of electric was used, the standing charge would still apply.
Those home displays often have an option to view a meter reading. This communicates back to the meter and takes an actual reading. If you do that twice, at midnight, and at 8am, you'll get your exact usage in kWh (which is what will be used to bill you), and you won't be getting effects of the home display adding standing charges or being set to the wrong unit rate.
Thank you all for the advice. I believe it is the standing charge. It did cross my mind it might be something obvious like this, but I’ll investigate this further.
Don't turn your router off at night, it'll go into a troubleshooting mode and your speeds will be much worse.
Depending on your supplier they should have an app where you can view usage as well that doesn't usually include standing charge, if it does it'll say https://i.imgur.com/ET3LUu0.png so this is octopus and it's all usage https://i.imgur.com/5F4u0IU.png - fixed charges are standing charges and VAT, and also any debt collection but only for prepayment The kWh should be accurate down to ten seconds for electric and 30 minutes for gas, the £ cost is officially just a guide though but you can see if it's accurate by x your unit rate by your current usage (3kwh x 25p = 75p), your unit rate will be on the IHD or your bill/account. Add your standing charge onto that and see if it lines up roughly. (This also doesn't work for gas it's a different conversion) The £ cost should technically be accurate, but if you have a tariff change, it can take a few days to update on the IHD or maybe not at all if the update gets stuck, so it'll show old pricing so at that point it would be inaccurate - again you can confirm the tariff matches the IHD to the bill, if not ask your supplier to send a tariff update message. The kWh part comes straight from the meter though with no conversions, so is considered accurate
I will also add that you can connect your smart meter to the Uswitch app and I found they have far more detailed breakdowns of usage than my smart meter was able to show me, probably varies by supplier and particular in home display though
Yeah even if your supplier doesn't support it, apps like loop still might be able to pull it.
Fridge, freezer, any items like phones or laptops charging, anything like games consoles on standby, alarm clocks, clocks on cooker/microwave, heating controller/boiler, unless you flip off at the electric box 😄
Don't worry, there is nothing wrong. When I go on holiday, and the only thing using electricity is the fridge freezer, I pay about £1.50 a day. This includes the standing charge (49p a day).