Mystery Fuse?

jc8

After being hit with a £450/quarter bill for a small 3 bed flat, I looked into our usage.

I've hired a real-time monitor from a library, and it seems we have a drain on the electric. The electric monitor was reading an average of 2.8kW.

We tried flicking the fuses one by one to eliminate major usage areas. We've identified one single fuse which is responsible for just over 2400W of usage. Switching this fuse off affects NOTHING, we can still use all our equipment/plugs. We are now using around 300W, and have noticed no ill-effects.

Anyone else ever had a similar problem? Did you ever figure out what the fuse did that was such a huge drain?

stewie_griffin

My money would be on an immersion heater although 2.4kW is a lot if it's been left on 24/7.

WhiteHorse

If removing the fuse makes no difference at all in your flat, then it's likely that there's some sort of shared circuit somewhere. Bet that another flat finds that something has stopped working and they can't figure out why.

jc8

Thanks for the help folks. The heater was my first guess too. I just tested it by running all the taps and the shower until the water was cold, then left it an for hour with the fuse off.

I've just turned on the water, and it's as hot as it ever has been, so it doesn't seem to be connected to the heater in anyway.

The shared-circuit thing sounds worrying. It definitely doesn't connect to anything in our flat, have you ever heard of a confirmed case of one flats' electric meter powering a neighbouring property?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

jc8 wrote: »

We've identified one single fuse which is responsible for just over 2400W of usage. Switching this fuse off affects NOTHING, we can still use all our equipment/plugs.

jc8 wrote: »

I just tested it by running all the taps and the shower until the water was cold, then left it an for hour with the fuse off.

I've just turned on the water, and it's as hot as it ever has been, so it doesn't seem to be connected to the heater in anyway.

but you said that switching it off didn't make any difference, so what heats the water?

Owain_Moneysaver

jc8 wrote: »

The shared-circuit thing sounds worrying. It definitely doesn't connect to anything in our flat, have you ever heard of a confirmed case of one flats' electric meter powering a neighbouring property?

Used to be rampant in council blocks with shared attics :eek::eek:

jc8

Well, the heat of the water isn't affected by us switching the fuse, it gets heated either way. So, the fuse isn't for the heater. The heater is on a different circuit. I'm still bamboozled as to what circuit this fuse is actually connected to...

[Deleted User]

Hi,

so if you drop the 2400w when you switch off that particular fuse, and you don't lose any appliances, why not just leave it switched off?

If it's one of your neighbours they'll soon have someone in to check it out.

jc8

Yeah, that's what we've done. It's frustrating that we've been paying for this drain on our meter for some time now. I'm now assuming this problem has been present since we moved in 2 years ago.

zagfles

jc8 wrote: »

Thanks for the help folks. The heater was my first guess too. I just tested it by running all the taps and the shower until the water was cold, then left it an for hour with the fuse off.

I've just turned on the water, and it's as hot as it ever has been, so it doesn't seem to be connected to the heater in anyway.

Yes but you probably have some other method of heating the water as well eg gas bolier, like we have. The water in our cylinder can get heated either the usual way, by the boiler, or by the immersion heater. Or both.

So just because you still got hot water with the fuse disconnected doesn't mean that the fuse wasn't the immersion heater, it could just mean your boiler was doing it instead.

What rating is the fuse? Do you have an immersion heater - is there an electricity cable running to a device in the top of your hot water cylinder? Does the cable run to a switch? Is the switch on?

jc8

Hmm, I didn't know it was this complex, I'm pretty oblivious to the plumbing system. I think its a 16amp fuse. I've done some reading on immersion vs gas heating, and I think we might plough on with the fuse off. It seems from a purely cost effective point of view, its the better option.