are my freezers really using this much electric

mrs_angry

hi all, i went away for 3 days and when i came home i had used £2 of electricity. the only things i had on were a fridge freezer and a chest freezer. they are full and not empty.

I ask this question because for a while i have been using a very large amount of electric and had a suspicion that my next door neighbors were somehow using my supply, so i contacted southern electric and they told me that i would have to hire an electrician to see if next door had wired into the fuse box.

last month my next door neighbors went away for 2 weeks and in that time my usage went down alot, which was what gave me the suspicion in the first place

i think £2 for 3 days on only these 2 appliances is excessive but I'm no expert, so id like some views please, on what i should do, or how i can work out whether next door may be using my supply, without paying out for an electrician.

kind regards

Zazen999

Can't you unplug them and all other appliances for say 2 hours and see if the meter is still running?

Barneysmom

It does seem very excessive, yes. I've got a new fridge frezer which uses 286 kwh per year, about £60. is yours old as they do use a lot more, and you'd save over a year ot 2 by buying new.
Try turning everything off in the house, including you fridges, see if any electricity is still being used, see if the wheel spins?

mrs_angry

yes i may well have to do that as a final resort, but my husband works from home and so the house needs the supply of electric for the phone, computer etc.... most of the day, suppose i could do it one evening, thanks for that though;)

fridge freezer is only a year old and aaa rated. chest freezer is older but still that means im using approx £5 to run these for a week

maninthestreet

Switch off your electricity, wait about half and hour, then go next door and ask if they are having problems as your electrics are all off. See how they react. If they say their electrics are off as well, you know they've tapped into your electric supply.

mrs_angry

will have ago tonight i think because im really bugged by this

i have a key meter so will wait and watch to see if i get any readings when all is off.;)

will keep you posted:D

Barneysmom

Thanks, I'll look forward to hearing from you.
Thinking about it, you used
£2 for 3 days, 2 appliances. So 1 appliance would be roughly £1 for 3 days, about 34p a day? = £124 a year roughly. Then it depends on the age of the machines.

andrew-b

Alot of pre-payment key meters are programmed to take a daily amount of credit or if you have debt to the electric company sometimes they collect them via the meter (though i would have thought they would tell you!). If you put the key in and keep clicking the button on the front it should tell you that information Are you sure nobody with a key came round to water the plants or something? Anything like outside lights turned on by PIR? Items on standby? Loft light left on by mistake? Burglar alarms? Central heating boiler heating your hot water, or if set in holiday mode running the pump to ensure it doesnt get stuck?

I wouldn't start accusing your neighbour until you can prove they are using your electric...what gives you reason to suspect they might?

Andy

mrs_angry

andrew-b wrote: »

How do you know you used £2 of electric. Alot of pre-payment key meters are programmed to take a daily amount of credit or if you have debt to the electric company sometimes they collect them via the meter (though i would have thought they would tell you!). If you put the key in and keep clicking the button on the front it should tell you that information Are you sure nobody with a key came round to water the plants or something? Anything like outside lights turned on by PIR? Items on standby? Loft light left on by mistake? Burglar alarms? Central heating boiler heating your hot water or if set in holiday mode running the pump to ensure it doesnt get stuck?

I wouldn't start accusing your neighbour until you can prove they are using your electric...what gives you reason to suspect they might?

Andy

the only reason i first thought they may be using my electric was that when they went away for 2 weeks my usage dropped alot(I'm talking by nearly half)

yes i do have a pre payment meter and its 20 pence a day that that takes as a standing charge and i accounted for that.

nothing else was left on not even a standby light, I'm not accusing them just yet, it is only a suspicion at the moment, and even southern electric said it was a possibility. i was just keen to find out what other people thought;)

nickj_2

if you turn everything off even just for a couple of minute you would be albe to see if any electric was being used

Primrose

What is the profession of your next door neighbour. Is he an electrician by any chance?
If you do switch off everything, try doing it at a time when your neighbours are likely to be using a heavy supply, i.e. cooking a roast Sunday lunch using an electric cooker. Flex your own mealtime so that you don't cause yourself any inconvenience. Keep us updated because I suspect that with rising electricity costs, this is a possible occurrence that will be on the increase.