What is using 300 watts all the time? -Mystery solved (see post #36)!

moonrakerz

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

I don't think those meters are anywhere near accurate and pretty much worthless.

Quite correct. The less power that is being used, the more inaccurate these stupid things become !!!!!

victor2

As previously said, switch everything of then see when the power used increases as you switch them back on.
According to my (inaccurate) eon monitor, my house sits at between 100 and 200 watts when idle, jumping up to around 500 when the fridge/freezer cuts in.
Things I've found using power as they are on 24/7 include:
House alarm system
Garage door opener (about 7W in standby)
Broadband cable modem and wireless router (12W)
Surge suppressing extension cables (about 3W each)
Quite a few smaller items, but they do add up.

When I went on holiday and had just about everything switched off except the alarm, fridge and a timed energy saving bulb in the evenings, I used about 3.5kWh per day, according to my actual meter readings. That equates to a steady use of around 146 Watts.
300 Watts does sound a little high, but confirm it by looking at your meter and noting the reported readings over a short period of time, like a few minutes, then convert that to average watts used. You'll need to look at fractions of kWh or time a rotation of the disc if you have a meter with one of those.

Mistral001

John_Gray wrote: »

Could next door have tapped into your electricity supply?!

Unlikely, but it actually happened to me once. I was renting a flat above a hairdressers. I found out that the hairdresser's kitchen included a tumble drier and washing machine was connected to my supply and I had been paying for their electricity for two years.

hc25036

Wow! Didn't expect to get to 2 pages! My OP perhaps could have been clearer - baseline with lights/computers/tvs etc off and me ready to go to bed is around 500watts and it's about 300 that I can't work out.

I'm going to do the 'switch everything off' routine tomorrow or Tuesday and also compare to the meter itself which I hope will throw some light on what's happening.

Thanks to everyone for the replies - we obviously all like a mystery!

spud17

hc25036 wrote: »

Wow! Didn't expect to get to 2 pages! My OP perhaps could have been clearer - baseline with lights/computers/tvs etc off and me ready to go to bed is around 500watts and it's about 300 that I can't work out.

I'm going to do the 'switch everything off' routine tomorrow or Tuesday and also compare to the meter itself which I hope will throw some light on what's happening.

Thanks to everyone for the replies - we obviously all like a mystery!

Don't forget to switch off sockets or remove plugs, a PC will still draw around 6 watts when turned off but still plugged in (socket on).

@ A.Penny.Saved

Exactly the same here.

asbokid

My dad bought one of those meters from Lidl. He has been going around their house like Ebenezer Scrooge, measuring the consumption of the clock radio (7w) and such like!! It will take him years to recoup the cost of the damn thing!

victor2

I got one off fleabay for around a tenner. There's still quite a few available - just search for something like "electricity usage meter" on the site.
They are good for individual sockets, although obviously can't tell you the usage of something without a plug on it. They can be a bit of an eye opener, even if you do risk turning into an electricity miser!:)

hc25036

asbokid wrote: »

My dad bought one of those meters from Lidl. He has been going around their house like Ebenezer Scrooge, measuring the consumption of the clock radio (7w) and such like!! It will take him years to recoup the cost of the damn thing!

Scrooge I am not (just ask Mrs HC!). I do like a mystery though and our last electricity bill was 3 times what we normally get - only partially explained by having builders in and using an electric heater most of the day.

I do have previous too. At work a few years back my desk was moved for a while and every hour or so my (CRT) screen would flicker and distort. The IT guys couldn't find anything wrong (mind you it rarely happened when they were there) and a replacement screen was just the same. I persuaded a senior manager that there was magnetic interference from something (I am a scientist) and we found a firm that came in with some wonderful kit that looked like something out of Ghosbusters.

He got really excited and was seen following something down the corridor by my desk (closely followed by maintenance guys who were falling about!), out of the rear door and into the car park. Long story short, he discovered that the emergency generators in the car park were wired into the building using the wrong cables and that when they drew power to test the supply (roughly every hour) it generated a magnetic field strong enough to require compulsory warnings for people with pacemakers! It was also melting the cable, of course.

So once something unexplained happens I am like a dog with a bone!

spud17

I don't want to hijack the thread, but... hopefully this may be of use.

I've just spent an hour or so investigating this. I'm the only one in and went around and unplugged everything a room at a time. Not forgetting the cooker hood fan and pond pump etc.

The npower smartpower monitor in the kitchen was still showing 45 watts.

I then went down to the garage, I rewired it when I moved in, so I am 100% certain where everything goes.
I went through the full set-up again plugged into the separate garage power circuit, with all the other circuits 'off' on the consumer unit.

It still showed 45 watts, I couldn't believe the device itself draws that amount. To eliminate this possibility, I plugged it in through my 'plug in' meter, went through the set-up procedure, and it read 3w, flipped on the compressor and it shot up to 900watts, off with the compressor, back to 3w.

I tried the garage lights (different circuit), one fluorescent on gave 70 w.

I then went back to the original set-up without the plug-in meter, it went back to reading 45w with everything off.

I repeated all the above back in the kitchen, in the meters usual position, exactly the same, 45w min, but plug in through the other meter and back to 3w. I turned on the kettle, 2200w as expected.

I'm baffled, is there noise on the mains affecting it? Why does it give accurate (at least in line with what I'd expect) readings when plugged in through the plug-in monitor.

buglawton

The spinning dial is the best suggestion for cross-checking your Watson. You can count the rotations/minute and they should be proportional to the Watson's reading. I did the same test as OP a while back and got a baseline of around 30W. 300w is something to be concerned about but could be the sum of many gadgets etc if not all rings have been switched off for the test.