Electricity meter help :/

Owain_Moneysaver

It might be worth checking if there's an immersion heater on a timer. That would run about 3 kW. Have a look around the hot water tank.

Look at the circuits in your consumer unit, you might have a water heater one. If you have MCBs then turn off the little switches while watching the meter.

(If you have a fusebox don't pull the fuses out with the box switched on, as a faceful of molten copper arc may cause discomfort.

chris1973

t0rt0ise wrote: »

If you have gas central heating on, it will likely have an electric pump. Mine uses tons of electricity. Far more than I thought it would but it's an old boiler.

Well there is something wrong with it then. Pumps have a rating plate on them the same as everything else, if you can get to it in order to read it, i'd be surprised if the Pump is rated more than 90 - 100 Watts.

It should also be switched from the room thermostat also, so that it doesn't run continuously.

Some rented accomodation may have underfloor heating, and this isn't always obvious as the wall termostats for these can easily be confused with the ones used by Central Heating. Sometimes the main part of the house can be heated by Gas, but an extension or Bathroom has been fitted with an Underfloor system.

Your estimation of 1kw/h per 17 mins certainly ties in closely to a 3kw load, which would suggest an heater of some kind or an immersion

Gettingcross

I cant see a timer anywhere on the tank. Just a big orange switch, which I guess is on/off I might try turning that off during the day. How long should an immersion heater be on each day?

Gettingcross

Thanks for all your help I think it was the immersion heater in the end!

macman

A couple of hours morning and evening should be enough. Get a timer fitted to it.

spiro

Gettingcross wrote: »

I cant see a timer anywhere on the tank. Just a big orange switch, which I guess is on/off I might try turning that off during the day. How long should an immersion heater be on each day?

If you have GSH that will also heat your water, the immersion is only a standby so you shouldn't need to use it. If you find your central heating timer which shows the on and off times it will normally have a switch that says off/water/heating, when its in the heating mode it will also heat the water.