Problems with E-on & huge bills

Madascanb

Hi Cardew

I am getting the OWL, this weekend...also have called EDF to come and check that another house is not connected here...EDF did come last year, but only checked electricity at the meter in the house...said it was fairly normal...quoted 12 1/2 amps....(do not know what this means) however took their word for it...They actually said that they could not understand either why the useage was so high ..but they never checked the pole outside....,This past week we are averaging 40 units a day, and we are only at home at night & it's just the two of us. I have had the drier on once (yesterday) and that was 40 minutes. Have used the washing machine twice. So nothing major...

Cardew

Madascanb wrote: »

Hi Cardew

EDF did come last year, but only checked electricity at the meter in the house...said it was fairly normal...quoted 12 1/2 amps....(do not know what this means) however took their word for it....

I assume you mean 12.5 amps?

That is a meaningless figure when measuring consumption. 12.5 amps means, at the time of testing, the house was using 3kW which indicates that something in the house was using a lot of power(a heating device, or every light plus TV etc)

40kWh a day without heating is just a unbelievable amount of electricity, more than 4 times the average.

dogshome

Hi madascanb - As you said in your earlier posts, you and the L/lord have had the individual appliances checked for power leakage and they have all been OK

However, this effort does not check the wiring circuits in the house - Get a local sparks in to check them - The way this is done is turn unplug/turn off everything - The sparks then meters each fuse in the distribution box to see if any circuit is still drawing power, if one or more are he can identify the circuit and find the problem
All the best

Cardew

dogshome wrote: »

Hi madascanb - As you said in your earlier posts, you and the L/lord have had the individual appliances checked for power leakage and they have all been OK

However, this effort does not check the wiring circuits in the house - Get a local sparks in to check them - The way this is done is turn unplug/turn off everything - The sparks then meters each fuse in the distribution box to see if any circuit is still drawing power, if one or more are he can identify the circuit and find the problem
All the best

Sorry don't understand your post.

If they fit a monitor(Owl) this will be a consumption check independent of the meter.

If 'any circuit is still drawing power' then the meter will be turning. Switching off all breakers and turning them on one at a time will show if a circuit is drawing power - as the meter will start spinning(and the Owl show the increase)

In any case when we are talking about 40kWh a day(about 30kWh more than normal) so something is drawing over on average over 1kW 24/7 - a lot of power. You cannot have a 'hidden' power consumption of that magnitude, it must manifest itself as heat(you cannot destroy energy)

dogshome

Hi Cardew - Yes, your method of checking each circuit for power leakage with an Owl monitor will work, but the reason for using a local Sparks is that his meter will not only detect the leak, but also show at what rate the power is leaking, and that will help him find where the problem is.

I rented a small 2 storey office building and within a month was worried at the power use the meter was recording for strip lights and computers.
Enter the Sparks who within 20 min had diagnosed, that not one but 2 lighting circuits and a power circuit were faulty. He spent over day finding and fixing the problems, but as the power consumption halved from that point forward, it the best money I've ever spent.

Madascanb

Hi Cardew

Yes when the EDF man came it was Friday night at 7 o'clock...We were cooking, (electric oven, but Lpg gas hob..) the lights were on in kitchen and hallway...and the timer for the emersion had kicked in...What he did was put a clamp lookalike on the main cable into the meter. This is where he got the reading of 12 1/2 amps. I agree the usage is extraordinary...Will keep you all informed and I do appreciate all your comments...as I'm really stuck with this...

Cardew

Madascanb wrote: »

Hi Cardew

Yes when the EDF man came it was Friday night at 7 o'clock...We were cooking, (electric oven, but Lpg gas hob..) the lights were on in kitchen and hallway...and the timer for the emersion had kicked in...What he did was put a clamp lookalike on the main cable into the meter. This is where he got the reading of 12 1/2 amps. I agree the usage is extraordinary...Will keep you all informed and I do appreciate all your comments...as I'm really stuck with this...

An immersion heater alone(if actually heating) will draw 12 amps or so(3 kW) let alone cooking, lights etc.

If you have oil fired CH, why do you use an immersion heater for heating water? Does the boiler not work?

If you do use electricity for heating as well as hot water then it is perfectly possible that you have used all the electricity EON have billed you for.

Madascanb

Hi Cardew...

As already stated this house is rented. We have oil fired central heating, which does not cover the water. There is no boiler for the water....I wish there were....When we moved in 8 years or so ago the immersion was not on a timer, the timer was installed when this new meter was put in December 2008. Even with the timer on the immersion our bills are 5-6 times higher than they were in 2007, when there was no timer.....

We do not use electric heaters, and I cannot understand why you would even state that, .... as all our heat as previously stated is from the oil fired radiators. (The oil is delivered every two months...) I have kept a record of the meter readings and last week it averaged out that we were using 41 units per day....Now we do not even have our oil heating on and the lights at night are coming on later....so you tell me where this usage is coming from.

PeterDuckett

Just a stupid question as I did this when I get a new Digital Meter are you reading it correctly while 12,000 sounds high for 4 months 1200 sounds possible.

My two sense worth is the last digit separated by a point making it actually a tenth of a unit? and some one has submitted it as a whole unit