Every reduction technology costs money. Switching off what does not need to run costs nothing, and on most sites there is more of it than anyone expects. The half-hourly data is where it shows.
Verification
- Verified as at:
- Source:
- Omnium method; findings are derived from half-hourly consumption data
- Last reviewed by:
- Omnium
Figures in this sheet were current at the verification date above. Regulated charges reset each April. If you are relying on a figure, check the source or ask us.
Designed A4 fact sheet, ready to print or circulate.
Overnight is where to start
A site that closes at night should draw very little at three in the morning. Many draw a substantial share of their daytime demand instead.
That overnight floor runs every night of the year. A reduction in baseload repeats 365 times, which is why it is worth more than a larger reduction that happens occasionally.
It is also the finding that most often surprises the operator, because nobody is on site to see it.
What is usually running
- Plant on a timer set for an operating pattern the site no longer has, or never had.
- Heating and cooling fighting each other in the same space, which shows as a flat, high overnight draw in both.
- Kitchen and back of house equipment left energised out of habit rather than need.
- Lighting on circuits with no control, in areas nobody occupies after hours.
Why it goes unnoticed
Waste does not announce itself. The site works, the bill arrives, and nothing looks wrong because there is nothing to compare it to.
On a non-half-hourly meter it is genuinely invisible: a quarterly total cannot show what happens at three in the morning. That is one of the more useful consequences of half-hourly settlement reaching smaller sites.
How we find it
We take the half-hourly data and look at the shape rather than the total. Overnight floor, weekend behaviour, the gap between a closed day and an open one, and consumption set against occupancy where the site records it.
The findings come with the data behind them, so the site can check them rather than take them on trust. Where we cannot see something because the data is not there, we say so rather than estimating around it.
Related sheets
- Meter types explained
Half-hourly, non-half-hourly, AMR, smart and unmetered supplies, what each means for billing and data, and why the meter type decides what you can see.
- Market-wide half-hourly settlement
Every electricity meter is moving to half-hourly settlement. What changes, when, and why it makes consumption data available where it was not before.
- LED lighting
Why LED is usually the most straightforward project on a site, and why the specification matters more than the headline.
Take this sheet into a meeting
Energy waste, and where it hides is available as a designed A4 fact sheet, dated and set for printing or circulation.
If this sheet raises a question about your own sites, speak to us.