Huge Gas & Elec Usage

Wig

Initial tests for your electric meter

*before doing this make sure all the lights in the house are switched to off.

1. turn off the switch *after* the meter usuallly theres a main switch on the fuse box.....if the meter is still turning there is a problem.

2. Pull out (remember where they go) all the fuses or trip all the trips to off individually.

3. unplug everything that can be unplugged, turn off anything remaining which can't be unplugged (such as water tank heating element, central heating control panel etc)

4. Turn switch in No1. back on meter should still not be moving

5. put fuses back in one by one, or reset each trip one by one. Watch meter, should not be moving, when all is back on or fuses in, the meter should not move....if it is, it's possible one of your trips is using power, won't be very much but it's not impossible. If so determine which one then take out all others to determine that it is just the one and not a combination of two. Determine how much power the trips are using...see below.

6. At this point you can measure the amount of power an individual item is using by turning it on....e.g. fridge. You can then compare that to the turning rate of the meter to see if the meter is accurate.

To measure power you can either look at it's technical spec usually written somewhere on the item e.g. kettle 1KW and compare that with the turning of the meter or you can buy one of these........
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=38343&doy=6m5
and compare that with the turning of the meter.

How to interpret the turning of the meter????
I will be investigating this at some time in the near future, but it will be based on timing the time it takes the disc to turn. So you can do the timing now and I'll cover the calculations later.

The disc has a mark on it, what I would do is switch on a light until the mark comes to the front, turn the light off and stick a bit of tape where the mark is.

Now switch on a high power item, with the power consumption module from Maplin in the plug. Like a toaster or a kettle.

Time how long in seconds it takes the meter disc to return one revolution back to its starting position, if it is quick, then time for ten revolutions.

Record this time and record what the maplin meter was reading for the duration of the test, you can also press the yellow button and record what the kwh usage was for the duration.

I'll come back later and give a formula to work out the kwh for the turning meter results.

hobo28

Its likely to be the old boiler and your new gas fire.

I've just moved to a new house with a new boiler and can't believe how fast this house warms up. My old boiler used to take hours to heat the house up and was always going. Here, I turn the heating on and 20 mins later, I have to turn the thermostat down again.

Plus, don't forget about the computers. If you have 2 computers left on regularly, this is about 800watts alone. Set up power saving on the computers so it goes into standby or better still hibernate.

I've also found that on my dishwasher, the quick wash setting works a treat 95% of the time but completes its cycle in less than half the time, so thats less water and less electricity. Check if yours has a quick wash setting.

Ken68

.....also the microwave, if left on just showing the clock, this is on standby 24/7.

crossleydd42

Very sound advice, Wig. I knew a friend who could not understand the excesive metered usage compared with what he was usuing. He did the sort of test you suggest and found out (in the end with a lot of hassle) that an adjacent streetlight was wired into his house circuitry somehow. After four years of living there, he did get quite a refund, but God knows what the previous and deceased owner had overpaid over many, many years!

Cardew

hobo28 wrote:

Its likely to be the old boiler and your new gas fire.

I've just moved to a new house with a new boiler and can't believe how fast this house warms up. My old boiler used to take hours to heat the house up and was always going. Here, I turn the heating on and 20 mins later, I have to turn the thermostat down again.

Plus, don't forget about the computers. If you have 2 computers left on regularly, this is about 800watts alone. Set up power saving on the computers so it goes into standby or better still hibernate.

Why do you need to turn the thermostat down? Or rather have it initially set higher than the temperature you require the room to be at.

If you wish your room temperature to be, say, 20C it should reach this temperature in the same time regardless of the thermostat being set at 20C or 30C. Surely that is the whole point of a thermostat?

Whilst I would agree with you about setting up power saving on PCs as you suggest, I would dispute your figures on power consumption.

Most computers are rated at 350 - 400 watts max. However even in normal useage they consume far less than this. Microsoft estimated some years ago that the average consumption of a PC was 60 watts when in use and a CRT monitor similar. Modern PCs - especially lap tops - use much less than that and LCD screens have very low consumption.

If you do a search on the internet you will see many sites with experiments on PC power consumption and even on the most demanding applications it is rare for the consumption to exceed 100 watts.

miaxmia

Watched a programme not so long ago about people with huge bills - one thing I remember was that they found a lot of people were leaving items in the "standby" mode, which was a big culprit. Make sure TVs are turned off, rather than left on standby. Also I am sure your gas fire won't be cheap to run.

Cardew

Ken68 wrote:

.....also the microwave, if left on just showing the clock, this is on standby 24/7.

They are designed to be left with the clock on. The consumption of a led/lcd display is negligble - a penny or two a year if left on 24/7.

You are surely not suggesting they should be switched off at the mains after each use?

Cardew

miaxmia wrote:

Watched a programme not so long ago about people with huge bills - one think I remember was that they found a lot of people were leaving items in the "standby" mode, which was a big culprit. Make sure TVs are turned off, rather than left on standby.

Hi welcome.

There is a lot of mis-information given out about standby consumption.

Many years ago TVs could have a standby consumption of 3 watts or so. However modern TVs have a tiny power consumption on standby.

I have a 28 inch Panasonic and 32 inch Sony - both about 5 years old - and the Panasonic has a standby consumption of 0.9watts and the Sony 0.6watts.

That means if they were both left on 24 hours a day 365 days a year they would use approx £1 in a year(60p and 40p respectively)
Newer TVs have even lower consumption, so you are talking about a very few pence per year for standby.

Switch them off by all means, but a "big culprit" it ain't.

Jays

Thanks for that explanation Cardew, I've always worried about the amount of things we leave on stand-by in our house; including alarm clocks, stereos, sky monitors, phones, computers, tvs, etc. You have put it all in perspective.

I will continue to turn off tvs at the plug, though, as six weeks ago, I watched the switched off tv in my bedroom start to makea strange noise, and smoke began coming out the back. I had to call the fire brigade, luckily it didn't catch fire, but the fireman and woman, picked it up and abandoned it in the middle of my lawn, just in case! New tv time...

Jays

Cardew

Jays wrote:

Thanks for that explanation Cardew, I've always worried about the amount of things we leave on stand-by in our house; including alarm clocks, stereos, sky monitors, phones, computers, tvs, etc. You have put it all in perspective.

I will continue to turn off tvs at the plug, though, as six weeks ago, I watched the switched off tv in my bedroom start to makea strange noise, and smoke began coming out the back. I had to call the fire brigade, luckily it didn't catch fire, but the fireman and woman, picked it up and abandoned it in the middle of my lawn, just in case! New tv time...

Jays

I can understand your concern if you have an experience like that, however if fire hazards are our concern think of the items just as ‘dangerous’ as a TV we have in our houses.

For a start we have 240v going to every switch and socket and fusebox. Much of the wiring is out of sight and a short could cause smouldering and a fire.

Nearly all of us leave on(i.e. mains power connected to) fridge, freezer, alarm clocks, radios, VCRs, cooker, microwave, CH timer, CH boiler, Immersion Heater, Phone, burglar alarm etc etc.

Many people run their appliances at night to take advantage of E7 – this means them left on a timer.

That’s just electricity, some of us even have that explosive fuel called gas and others oil!

So if we want to be totally safe I suppose we should get rid of electricity and gas in our homes and go back to the nice safe days of open fires and candles!!

We really must get things in perspective!