High electricity usage?

Wig

Cardew wrote:

Incidentally I was surprised that your Evesham 37” LCD TV used 7 watts on standby, especially as I understood from some earlier research that most manufacturers buy in power supplies. So I checked with Evesham who told me(in writing) that their later model 37 inch LCD TVs are 3 watts – the old models could be as high as 5 watts. Still for those with a “minimalist lifestyle” and a 37” LCD;) , the consumption is far too high at £2+ a year for 24/7 on standby. Is that worth taking up with Evesham? Or checking your power meter?

It says 7w in the manual - oh - and I see your and I see what you are alluding and smiling at, I may say for the sake of convienince "me" "my" & "I" at various times on these forums, some of the time I am talking about someone else as though it were me. If you look at my history, I often give the impression I don't have a TV at all, and no TV licence, this is infact the truth, someone else has the LCD 37".....just so you know and so you don't feel the need to wink at me anymore

For example a recent post about me was that I found organic pasta had gone up a pound in Tesco, in reality it wasn't me it was OH.

dvds2000

ok, done that, the meter reading and the tester reading were almost the same, meter added 2.88kw whilst the test meter added 2.86kw, which is so small I doubt it matters.

So as I've pretty much ruled out a power drain in the wiring, it comes back to appliances, but as I've tested almost all of these (especially the ones that could use that much extra electricity) I'm pretty stuck. All I know is there's no way my power consumption should be around £30 a week!

Cardew

dvds2000 wrote:

ok, done that, the meter reading and the tester reading were almost the same, meter added 2.88kw whilst the test meter added 2.86kw, which is so small I doubt it matters.

So as I've pretty much ruled out a power drain in the wiring, it comes back to appliances, but as I've tested almost all of these (especially the ones that could use that much extra electricity) I'm pretty stuck. All I know is there's no way my power consumption should be around £30 a week!

The difference is probably accounted for by the tester itself as it draws a little power..

You will have to check your meter regularly during a 24 hour period.

I agree your consumption should not be that high. The Freezers would be my No1 suspect.

Wig

I still think you should run a 24 hour test like I said above.

And if no joy, do 24 hour tests for everything in your house, over the course of 10 days or so. Just so you know how much power each thing is using.


stop using your 2nd freezer
stop using kettle, use gas cooker instead

dvds2000

the problem with doing a 24 hour test, logging the meter every hour, is obviously it means staying up all night . I can probably do an 18 hour test but thats about it.

Anyway before I do that I'm going to retest the 2 freezers, am going to leave the tester in for a few days each to see if they were wrong the first time.

The fridge freezer is old (about 9 years old) and I've had to replace the thermostat a couple of times, so I do keep getting drawn back to that as being the culprit, but when I tested it before, it did seem ok!

Wig

I meant this 24 hour test

"unplug everything in the house except the fridge and the chest freezer, try to plug both those items into the same extension lead by using multiple extension leads if necessary (always unravel an extension lead in use i.e. don't use one coiled up) then feed the two through your power monitor.... measure for 24 hours see if the monitor reads the same as the meter has consumed....you can run other essential items through the same extension lead (within reason you don't want to overload it) I assume you have gas cooker, for the 24 hours use the cooker for hot water."

Bullshine_2

dvds2000 wrote:

We have a British gas pre-payment meter. At the time we were putting around £20-25 a week on (and using it all). I knew .....

Have you recently had your meter replaced? or recently had it updated? do you know how to view the rates on your meter?

I know BG have had a problem updating their meters with new tariff charges after price increases (they didn't bother to visit customers). The results being, when you get a new meter, customers have several price increases whacked on their meters in one go!

allycat999

Paying by prepaid meter means that you are paying more for your electric/gas than if you paid by any other means. Personally I would get rid of the prepaid meter and pay by other means this will reduce your bill.
You should NEVER use the standby on tv's overnight this is a huge fire risk.

dvds2000

Hiya

no - meter has been in for 9 years that I know of, and as students were in for 4 years before that I assume for about that period too. Its set at 11.92 (i think - definately 11.something) per kw.

I'll try that 24 hour test on Monday, at work quite a bit over the weekend and need things like alarm clock, house alarm etc working

I intend getting rid of the meter, but would prefer to do it after I find out why the bills are so high, for the reasons above. I know it costs more, but I wasn't bothered due to the conviance of not getting bills. It shouldn't add £20 a week on though!

Thanks for all the suggestions - as I'm out a lot over the weekend i'm testing the fridge freezer again over the next few days, if its not the meter, then the FF is what I keep coming back to, 3 or 4 days on test should really give a better indication of the power its using!

Wig

Can you give us a meter reading right now so we can all see the usage over the next few days?

mine is 30,913