Covert Money Making

hawkahead

Just had a new Elec Meter fixed ( Not Smart) on this meter is a red light.

Talking to my Elec company this light is to tell me the meter is working ok.

So to boiler a Kettle I us the Elec which they charge me for and I pay for a Red flashing light to tell me I am doing this.

So comany tell us to turn off Lights ect to save on Power but then they give you a meter which I have no control over and will charge me.

The company say it is a small amount of elec it use but all the small amounts in the uk added up Covert Money Maker.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Calculate how much it is and invoice them for it.

Or get a sparky to take out the bulb?

lstar337

hawkahead wrote: »

Just had a new Elec Meter fixed ( Not Smart) on this meter is a red light.

Talking to my Elec company this light is to tell me the meter is working ok.

So to boiler a Kettle I us the Elec which they charge me for and I pay for a Red flashing light to tell me I am doing this.

So comany tell us to turn off Lights ect to save on Power but then they give you a meter which I have no control over and will charge me.

The company say it is a small amount of elec it use but all the small amounts in the uk added up Covert Money Maker.

Is this to be taken seriously?

You are talking about the red LED that flashes to tell you how many kWh you are using?

The amount of power that is using is minuscule!

societys_child

Ask them to put an old meter in without a flashing led. You know, the ones with a spinning wheel - oh hang on a minute . . .
I wonder what powers the wheel? Maybe it's just magic . . .

Robin9

That red might cost 1p a year

If you want to save money on red lights sitch off your tv standy, phone chargers- then you're talking £'s

Axled

Wow I never thought about this before. I'm going to put some tape over my red light just in case they are using it to spy.

GingerBob_3

Depends which side of the meter the LED is powered from - maybe it's from the supplier side in which case no issue. However, if it's powered from the consumer side ... various calculations are available online, but a reasonable assumption is the LED has a power of 100 mW and that would cost about ... 10p per year, perhaps more? So, how many customers does your average leccy company have with these LEDs on the meter, i.e. how many 10p are they collecting per year.... Em... could be a nice little earner for them.

matelodave

I guess that your 10p a year assumes that the light is on continuously and will consume about 1kwh/year. They generally flash at a rate of 1000 per kwh so, for a consumer of 3500kwh per year, it would flash about 400 times an hour = about once every 9 seconds on average. I doubt that the power it takes is measureable let alone chargeable

lstar337

matelodave wrote: »

I guess that your 10p a year assumes that the light is on continuously and will consume about 1kwh/year. They generally flash at a rate of 1000 per kwh so, for a consumer of 3500kwh per year, it would flash about 400 times an hour = about once every 9 seconds on average. I doubt that the power it takes is measureable let alone chargeable

True, and 100mW is a bit of an over estimation for a simple indicator LED. 10-20mW would be closer to the mark.

10p a year is way off. 1p a year maybe.

If you can prove the cost of the LED is included in your bill, ask them for your 1p back annually.

hawkahead

Thank you for all your replys Bye