I had a rather nasty shock which I thought at first, might be down to leaving amps and everything on standby and playing them quite loud.
We had recently moved house and as usual with electricity companies, didn't receive an electricity bill for months! When it finally came through it was for about £800 for 5 months! So we had someone round to check the meter and advise us on what could be causing the problem (faulty electronics, wiring etc.).
I'd recently upgraded my system and my wife was convinced this was the cause. So, testing the system in standby and fully powered it still consumed very little power. Even when heavily loaded it doesn't draw a huge amount. Boiling a kettle takes far more than running a stereo at high volumes for a day!
Neither myself, nor the electrician could figure it out. Every so often the meter would run like crazy!
My wife then happened to mention she keeps and breeds tropical fish and would that have anything to do with it? The penny then dropped!
Feeling rather stupid by this time and realising that the 6 300W heaters might have some bearing on the high usage. I apologised for wasting the electricians time and promptly informed my wife that stereos may cost a lot to buy but the maintenance cost and running costs are minimal, unlike someone else's hobby!
If your worried about using electricity just reduce the amount of coffee you drink or eat take away food......
Do not, under any circumstances take up tropical fish breeding!!!!