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dave_dph

Thanks Mick

I don't think the connection will be a problem.

Reading the instructions, as far as I can see, the energyfit only displays total kwh used in a 24 hour period, not split between night and day units. That won't help me, being on economy 7 I need both day and night reads.

[Deleted User]

The OWL has a constant display of kWh being consumed and a cumulative kWh.

It can be set to cater for different tariffs at different times of the day or days.

Used ones go for under £10 on EBYGUMBAY....

I can email you a userguide (pdf) if you wish...

dave_dph

I can set the tariff for day and night, just unsure as to how it will show the usage. I'll see what happens after 24 hours.

I've now connected the the monitor to one of the live cables from the meter. Not sure why there are two? Maybe it's to do with economy 7? If so, then as I'm only connected to one cable it makes me believe this won't work if night usage isn't being monitored. The display shows 'Energy Now' as 207 watts, switching on the kettle zooms it up to 3.2kwh. Nice!

Anyway, I'll give it a day to 'bed in'.

[Deleted User]

I believe they all have two "tails" between the meter and the distribution unit.

dave_dph

Mick,a big thank you to you!!!!

After installing the Energyfit Monitor I got quite a shock on Saturday evening! The display was showing around 200 watts for most of the day, but just before 9pm it went up to around 790 watts with very little change on my part. After a few minutes trying to figure out what was causing the sudden increase it hit me..........

THE COMMUNAL LIGHTING HAD COME ON OUTSIDE!!!!!

Further investigation proved that the builders / electricians had wired the outside communal security lights directly into the back of my fuse board when the flats were built. There is an old style mini electric meter (which is never read) and circuit breaker between my meter and my fuse board, the lighting is connected to this breaker. The mini meter read is currently 31246kwh. This covers the last 24.5 years which I have paid for in my own electric bill without even knowing!

I have now tripped the lights at the circuit breaker and reported the wiring issue to the managing agents. It won't take long for the other residents to start complaining that the security lights have failed!!!

Again, thanks for planting the OWL seed in my mind, without which I may never have found out that I'm being robbed!! :beer:

[Deleted User]

Wonderful!
I wonder how many other people have the same problem?

dave_dph

Here it's just me!

I've been paying for the communal lighting for all 24 flats for 24.5 years!! 31246kwh's obviously goes into thousands of £'s :mad:

[Deleted User]

Its 31246 now, how many times has it passed 99999?

1,31246, 2,31246...... 9,31246....... 99,31246?

Sounds like you have an interesting maths challenge to calculate 24.5 years consumption....

Are the lights triggered by a light sensitive switch or a clock timer?

dave_dph

As far as I can tell the lights are controlled by sensor, it can't be a timer switch as it would never get adjusted!!!!

I don't think the meter has ever passed zero. It registered roughly 2.5kwh last night which would equate to 22356 over the time; the bulbs have been updated in the past, obviously for those which are more efficient.

[Deleted User]

Gosh!
Just over £3,000 at 0.13p per kWh!