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wobblymike

I am hoping that someone can help me get to the bottom of a perplexing problem that is affecting my daughters home. I monitor her energy consumption and have done so since july 2011. In the period july 11 to oct 12 her electricity consumption has averaged 9.64kwh per day. In the period Oct 12 to jun 13 her consumption was 10.58 per day. At the end of july her consumption had jumped to 19.4kwh per day; i flagged this up to her but between us we were unable to explain it. We decided to see what transpired in august - when we took the reading on 31 aug it had jumped again to 22.97 per day. This is very alarming. I would point out that the house is empty mon-fri 0730 to 1600 with my daughter at work and the children at school. She has no extra appliances and is not doing anything different to what she has done over the previous few years. Over the last 9 days i have myself read her meter every day at the same time - she has used 144kwh at 16 per day. Also for each 24 hour period we plugged each of her major appliances except the cooker (which she uses very infrequently) into a power monitor. All the figures recorded are in accord with the power rating of the appliance. I am of course very aware that in july and august the children and my daughter were at home (school holidays) however they spent most of july out and about in the good weather and were away for a full week in august on holiday. My first thought was a faulty meter however her energy supplier has said that the chance of a digital meter being faulty is "minimal" and that if they check it and find it ok that they will charge for it. We have therefore carried out the checks described with no obvious cause coming to light yet her consumption remains alarmingly high. I have run out of ideas, the next step i feel being to request a meter check. Before committing to that I would invite anyone with any thoughts on what i may have missed or any ideas on what may be the cause to offer their thoughts. Many thanks.
 
Hum.....Could it be that her children were opening and closing the fridge and freezer more during the holidays?

We have old units and I know that during hot spells that these use a lot more power as they are both on much more.

Getting a supplier to agree their meter is inaccurate could be difficul.
 
Its impossible to answer this question over the internet.
But to have that kind of jump there is a serious drain somewhere.
I would suggest getting a third party with power monitoring equipment to come and monitor the CU for a day or 2 and find out exactly how much is being pulled at any one time.
This will tell you if you are using what you think you should be using and if not it will tell you the times that its being used.

It has been known for shady individuals to "tap off" peoples supply's so you could be powering next door for all you know!
 
I agree with Murdoch, it's exceptionally difficult to get your network supplier to agree that their meter is inaccurate you need to convince them to install a power monitor.
 
Why not install your own meter inline? Then you can compare. Would cost around around ÂŁ40 for the meter + half a days labour, but in the long run you might be able to prove that the suppliers meter is faulty and claim back.
 
you need to get an electrician in....there may be a fault here causing the `consumption` to rise...

you need an electrician in to carry out a few basic tests..Ze, IR etc...
 
Why not install your own meter inline? Then you can compare. Would cost around around ÂŁ40 for the meter + half a days labour, but in the long run you might be able to prove that the suppliers meter is faulty and claim back.

that is a very interesting idea which i will explore thank you for the suggestion.
 
I would call a electrician in first as Glenn says and then maybe suggest this idea to them. Don't take it as gospel that this could be done as I have not seen the set up of the house wiring. But the idea is there.
 
Why not install your own meter inline? Then you can compare. Would cost around around ÂŁ40 for the meter + half a days labour, but in the long run you might be able to prove that the suppliers meter is faulty and claim back.

Which is NOT a DIY activity!
 
you need to get an electrician in....there may be a fault here causing the `consumption` to rise...

you need an electrician in to carry out a few basic tests..Ze etc...

yes that is also something i had not thought about (although i should have done?) thanks i will do that first i think before exploring spinks suggesttion. thank you
 
Somebody switched the immersion heater on by mistake?

Edit: Or an unnoticed heater in an outbuilding or garage?
 
caus we were at a place...just the other week and the wheel was going round like chuff....

no earth & the cables on about 2/3rds of the install were as flat as a fart...
 
yes that is also something i had not thought about (although i should have done?) thanks i will do that first i think before exploring spinks suggesttion. thank you
yes...you do that...
i am sure there are members in here near you...
 
no not an immersion heater problem she does not have one - combi boiler installed
 
You dont need to install a additional meter,
As I said above you can get stand alone temporary power monitoring equipment.
We use it regular at work for finding odd problems.
It will monitor power, voltage, current etc every second (or few seconds over longer time frames) and give you a excel spread sheet of all the data with dates and times.
This will allow you to narrow down the problem to smaller avenues of time periods and if indeed there is any problem at all or just your meter going mad!
 
I take it you've switched off ALL the appliances and check that the meter isn't registering consumption?
 
thanks anyone in the wakefield area willing to help out a single mum
 
The cooker most likely culprit ....kids not getting school dinners and either cooker or microwave gets used alot more and also kettle usage will rocket up all heavy electric users.

Kids are back at school now whats the bets it reverts back to the previous values.... if not then as above get an Electrician in to see if they can identify any probable causes.
 
She hasn't left the immersion heater on has she?

If you don't want to call an electricial (I'd recommend that too.....) then how about an energy monitor for about ÂŁ30, that will allow her to see what is being taken when and compare it to the meter. Easy enough then to turn things off to find the culprit.

EDIT: maybe I need to type faster.... ;)
 

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