v high electricity bill - anyway to get someone to check usage independently?

macman

The consumer unit is where your fuses are, yes.
Look at your hot water tank-if there is a cable leading to a housing around the top of it, then that's probably an immersion heater.
Something like this:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rightheating.co.uk/rh_images/alloy%2520immersion%2520heater.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rightheating.co.uk/items.php%3Fid%3D2357%26group%3D5&usg=__YTGIZH24MnH-cpQvOGOai3tlyno=&h=303&w=363&sz=48&hl=en&start=0&zoom=0&tbnid=WRpB_APK4Gr6RM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=121&ei=c3FnTafUBNGyhAfv7MW-DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimmersion%2Bheater%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1568%26bih%3D888%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:11,0&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=352&oei=c3FnTafUBNGyhAfv7MW-DQ&page=1&ndsp=44&ved=1t:429,r:33,s:0&tx=111&ty=33&biw=1568&bih=888
Also look at the labeling on the CU, if there is an immersion, it may be marked as such.

ukphd

macman wrote: »

The consumer unit is where your fuses are, yes.
Look at your hot water tank-if there is a cable leading to a housing around the top of it, then that's probably an immersion heater.
Something like this:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rightheating.co.uk/rh_images/alloy%2520immersion%2520heater.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rightheating.co.uk/items.php%3Fid%3D2357%26group%3D5&usg=__YTGIZH24MnH-cpQvOGOai3tlyno=&h=303&w=363&sz=48&hl=en&start=0&zoom=0&tbnid=WRpB_APK4Gr6RM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=121&ei=c3FnTafUBNGyhAfv7MW-DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimmersion%2Bheater%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1568%26bih%3D888%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:11,0&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=352&oei=c3FnTafUBNGyhAfv7MW-DQ&page=1&ndsp=44&ved=1t:429,r:33,s:0&tx=111&ty=33&biw=1568&bih=888
Also look at the labeling on the CU, if there is an immersion, it may be marked as such.

Thanks very much. No we definitely don't have an immersion heater then. We did, but it was removed when we installed the new CH system.

penrhyn

So have you figured out where your base load of 800 watts is coming from yet?

ukphd

penrhyn wrote: »

So have you figured out where your base load of 800 watts is coming from yet?

Not yet - been at work all day so not had the chance. Am going to have a go tomorrow. I've figured out about 50 - 60% of it so far but will try the suggestion of cutting off each circuit breaker in turn tomorrow and see how I get on.

ukphd

Right well I had a go at isolating each circuit but it was fairly confusing.

What I think I've established is that there is about a 600 watt (I think I mean watt) per hour usage which seems to be coming from the kitchen and tortoise. I've already established the tortoise is half of that. Now the weird thing is the only appliance still plugged in and with power at the time was the fridge. Could the fridge be taking that much?

The rest of it seems to be things like tv's on standby etc. There is still a circuit breaker labelled immersion heater (but we have definitely had it removed so it isn't there!). I don't know what that is powering at the moment. Nothing seemed to go off when I turned that circuit breaker off but the usage did drop (only by 100 watts).

victor2

ukphd wrote: »

What I think I've established is that there is about a 600 watt (I think I mean watt) per hour usage which seems to be coming from the kitchen and tortoise. I've already established the tortoise is half of that. Now the weird thing is the only appliance still plugged in and with power at the time was the fridge. Could the fridge be taking that much?

The fridge could be taking 300 watts, but only when the compressor is running, which shouldn't be all the time, more like half the time or less.

ukphd wrote: »

The rest of it seems to be things like tv's on standby etc. There is still a circuit breaker labelled immersion heater (but we have definitely had it removed so it isn't there!). I don't know what that is powering at the moment. Nothing seemed to go off when I turned that circuit breaker off but the usage did drop (only by 100 watts).

Leave the breaker off for the old immersion heater. There shouldn't be anything else on that circuit and if you don't find your missing something, then don't worry about it. 100 watts of unexplained usage is quite significant actually, more than could be explained away by a bit of faulty wiring left over.

Don't forget those monitors are not terribly accurate, they usually just give you an indication of when something is using electricity and roughly how much. Just make sure your fridge is switched back on and still running after all the testing, don't want your next post to say you've reduced your usage, but all you food has gone off!:)

ukphd

victor2 wrote: »

The fridge could be taking 300 watts, but only when the compressor is running, which shouldn't be all the time, more like half the time or less.



Leave the breaker off for the old immersion heater. There shouldn't be anything else on that circuit and if you don't find your missing something, then don't worry about it. 100 watts of unexplained usage is quite significant actually, more than could be explained away by a bit of faulty wiring left over.

Don't forget those monitors are not terribly accurate, they usually just give you an indication of when something is using electricity and roughly how much. Just make sure your fridge is switched back on and still running after all the testing, don't want your next post to say you've reduced your usage, but all you food has gone off!:)

Thanks

yes good point actually - I'd better make sure I have turned the fridge back on!

macman

That 100 watts is still costing you around £90pa if it's on 24/7.

ukphd

macman wrote: »

That 100 watts is still costing you around £90pa if it's on 24/7.

yes - I want to know what it is and if it's just some obsolete circuit then I'll definitely switch it off.

macman

But if the circuit is 'obsolete' (nothing connected to it), then it cannot be draining 100W. If nothing else is running on that circuit then whoever removed the immersion should have isolated it properly.
What is the circuit rating shown on the CU? Is there still a circuit cable from the old immersion switch (if still in place near the tank) back to the CU?