Nightime electricity consumption

[RenewableCandy]

Going back to the little dials and graphs, what on earth are a nation of 65M sleeping people (e.g. at 4 a.m.) doing using 20 GW of electric power in the summer?? I could say 1 GW for streetlighting, another 1 for domestic fridges, perhaps 1 or 2 more for wholesale/etc food storage...then what? Even 65M computers on standby doesn't make up the numbers. Is somebody nicking it or what?

[PS_RalphW]

Hmm. My family uses 5KWh a day, or about 250W average.

Overnight, we have
fridge ? 15w average
freezer 20w
2 kids nightlights about 15 w
wireless router 15 w
2 digital radios about 10 w (we both sleep to world service )
central heating timer ? 2 w
various items on standby about 10 w
(phones, laptops, tv, digital box, anything the kids left plugged in).
total 87W or about 25% of total consumption.

We could cut that by half, but sometimes life is too short...

[RenewableCandy]

We're probably about the same. We use a lot more than you during the day, but for that we actually have to be awake.

I think France is nicking it

[emordnilap]

We're probably about the same. We use a lot more than you during the day, but for that we actually have to be awake.

I think France is nicking it

It leaks out of open sockets - a bit like drilling a deep hole and letting gravity out...

[adam2]

Nightime loads
Domestic standby and refrigeration.
Office lighting, some are occupied at night, many are lit needlessly.
Emergency light fittings in public buildings, several watts each and there are lots of them.
Mains smoke detectors, typicly 2 watts each, millions of them.
Active RCDs, 1 or 2 watts each and there millions of them, and growing daily.
Retail stores, many are open all or most of the night, many others are lit and possibly heated or cooled for cleaning and stocking.
Leisure industry, many bars, restaurants, and public houses are open for longer hours than in years gone by, and many have substantial 24/7 refrigeration loads.
24/7 businesess, postal, transport, logistics, mail order suppliers, chilled and frozen food stockists, data centers, telephone exchanges, radio and TV studios, control rooms and transmitters, cellphone base stations.
Charging of EVs, small but growing.
Domestic water heating, doing the laundry off peak.
Iron losses in utility transformers are greatest (in percentage terms) off peak.
Outdoor lighting, not just street lighting but the ever growing number of lit street signs, traffic signals, bollards, and advertising hoardings.

[adam2]

. Is somebody nicking it or what?

Yes, significant amounts are stolen.
Deliberate and determined theft by cannabis farmers, dishonest domestic users, and dodgy businesess.
This probably adds significantly to actual consumption since much of the load would simply cease to exist if the energy had to be paid for.

Also inadvertant or accidental theft not for personal gain. Often undocumented added load to unmetered supplies. This represents loss of revenue, but probably does not add much to the actual consumption, since most of the load would still exist even if correctly billed for.

[Paul]

And some water being pumped up hill eg Dinorwig.

[frank_begbie]

Must be quite a few freezers in all the supermarkets.

[RenewableCandy]

Well yes but Dinorwig's less than 2 GW, and I'd already counted the supermarket freezers...it must be all that extraneous shop lighting. I suppose there are storage heaters: I wonder how many households still have them?

[adam2]

Storage heating remains very popular, especialy with the elderly and with landlords of let properties.
Storage heating though often more costly per KWH than gas, oil or coal has the great advantages of simplicity and reliability and relative safety.

I know of storage heaters 50 years old and more that still work perfectly without having received any maintenance or repair in that time.
Modern gas central heating, would in 50 years, probably have needed at least 5 new boilers, 3 new controllers, a dozen new radiators, a few new pumps, and yearly servicing at say £100 a year.
A vast amount of off peak electricity can be purchased for the anualised costs of service/repair/ eventual replacement of gas central heating.

[Snail]

My parent's house still use storage heaters. Installed pre-owned ones nearly 15 years ago, and never a problem.