test a meter

dibs1975

i want to test my parents elec and gas meters, as i think they are faulty. but if we call a engineer out and nothing is wrong they will be charged for the visit. they are in debt on both at about £400-£500 each. the energy company say they are using around £25 each a week on both. its a 3 bedroom house with 3 people. i have heard that i need to switch everything off and boil a kettle to test the electric meter, but dont know how. is it a full kettle or certain amount of water and how many units on the the meter dose it use. the gas meter i cant thing of anyway to test that. any help grateful recievied and thank you.

ColinFishwick

A kettle will use around 3kWh and will probably only be on for 60-90 secs depending on the amount of water, the amount wont alter the amount of energy it uses in a given small time frame ie 30-60 secs or so all it will do is take longer to boil

dibs1975

all i can remember is when i lived in a flat with a old electric meter and i got the electric company out to test it for accuracy, the engineer asked me to switch everything off and boil a kettle while he watched the meter. or is there any other way to check it. because i dont want to get my parents charged for calling them out and nothings wrong. but ive got 4 kids and a partner, so theres 6 in my house and we dont even use £25 on elec and £25 on gas. so if i half fill the kettle and boil it, on the meter it should only use around 3kw

ColinFishwick

I should have made my post clearly it will only use 3kWh if it was on for one whole hour as its only on for a minute or two it will use a lot less it would depend on about of water usually kettles use 3kWh

If you had one electric fire say it uses 1kw that would costs 1x whatever it costs per unit of electric they supplier charges them

dibs1975

think ive got it. if i boil kettle and watch meter for 1 min see how many units it uses then times it by 60, or am i barking up wrong tree so to speak. if not is there anything else i can try.

rogerblack

Exactly!
However - it may be tricky to measure such a small amount.
What sort of meter is it - a dial or an electronic one?
It may say - for example - 166 turns per kWh on a dial meter, an modern meter may have a light that flashes.
This means that if you time the disks revolution, and multiply by 166, you get the time it would take to do 1kWh.

Many kettles might be around the 2200W mark - look on the bottom.

In this example, with _everything_ else unplugged, the meter should be stopped.
If it's not, you need to find out what is still connected.

You turn on the kettle, and you see the disk rotating, and it rotates every 13.5 seconds.
This means it's using 1/166th of a unit in 13.5 seconds.

So, 13.5*166 = 2202W
If it's within about 10%, it's probably not the meter.
Kettles are not however precision loads, and may vary a bit.

Gas is more tricky to measure.

A clip-on energy meter like http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ENVI-R-Household-Energy-Meter-/150630775144?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item23124b3968 may be of use to help visualise moment-moment use, though this is not particularly accurate.

25 a week on electricity does not sound completely unreasonable for a house of three people, but may be reducable.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ENVI-R-Household-Energy-Meter-/150630775144?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item23124b3968 will also be useful, for measuring individual appliances for a day, to narrow down what may be using unexpected amoutns of power.
A meter similar to

macman

More relevant is-why do you think that both your meters are faulty? Meter faults are very rare-for both to be faulty would be extraordinarily long odds.

C_Mababejive

Meters are rarely faulty..

dibs1975

the electric meter is a digital single ohase watt hour meter with a red flashing light. but all it says 1000 imp/kwh. it was certified in may 2000. the 3 people who live there are my parents both over 60 and my nephew who is never in. most of the electric items are a or a+ rated. tvs are led ones which use less electric than normal ones. for what they use i think something is wrong somewhere. but dont want to take chance on calling someone out to check and getting them charged for it. the gas heating is only used for a few hours aday, as they have had they house insulated to the max.

rogerblack

dibs1975 wrote: »

the electric meter is a digital single ohase watt hour meter with a red flashing light. but all it says 1000 imp/kwh. .

In other words - each flash is one watt-hour. A kilowatt hour (kWh) is 1000 of these - this is a unit, which will likely cost 10-15p.


Turn _EVERYTHING_ off.
Does the meter stop flashing. If not, you need to find out what's not off, and if it is significant.

With a 1000W load, the meter will flash 1000 times an hour - 3600 seconds.

So, time 10 flashes.
If they take 12 seconds, for example, the flashes happen at a spacing of 12/10 = 1.2 seconds.

There are 3600 seconds in an hour, so 3600/1.2 = 3000W.
As others have said - this is a first step, and it's unlikely the meter is inaccurate. See the above posts for advice for how to save energy.

macman

No one can tell you if they're using too much unless you post their actual annual kWh usage.
What matters is the type and usage of heating and hot water, not the model of TV installed.