Elster Smart Meter help needed please

Candice-Marie

I'd like to work out what might be the cause of excessive electricity consumption and to follow the advice in this forum to look at the red light on the meter with the electricity switched off.  My first stumbling block is there doesn't seem to be a red light anywhere! Does anyone know how I can test the meter in this way?  (Google has found data sheets for this make/model but they don't help).  We don't have an IHD.  A possible complication is that the meter has been silent since Oct 20 although the reading is going up.  I'm struggling to get any help/info from SSE. I have tried a plug-in energy monitor on a few appliances and they all seem to be in line with expectations.  So any clues/advice would be most welcome, thank you.

Gerry1

It's above the square buttons, labelled 4000 Imp/kWh.

4000 flashes and you've burned 1 kilowatt hour costing 15p or whatever you're paying.

With everything switched off at the consumer unit, it should never flash.

Candice-Marie

Gerry1 said:

It's above the square buttons, labelled 4000 Imp/kWh.

Thank you - there's nothing that flashes there.  Do you know if it's a function that needs switching on somehow?

[Deleted User]

The energy pulse LED should show in the window adjacent to the ‘4000 imp/kWh’ at the bottom right of your photo. You count, say, 400 flashes and the meter reading should have increased by 0.1kWhs. Clearly, the faster that the LED is flashing, the more energy you are using. I am not sure that I understand your use of the word ‘silent’. When I had the same meter it was blissfully silent and the meter reading was easy to see with no button pressing.

To put your concerns into context, how many kWhs are you using per day and what high energy devices do you have in your home; eg, storage heaters; underfloor heating; electric showers etc?

Candice-Marie

[Deleted User] said:

The energy pulse LED should show in the window adjacent to the ‘4000 imp/kWh’ at the bottom right of your photo. You count, say, 400 flashes and the meter reading should have increased by 0.1kWhs. Clearly, the faster that the LED is flashing, the more energy you are using. I am not sure that I understand your use of the word ‘silent’. When I had the same meter it was blissfully silent and the meter reading was easy to see with no button pressing.

To put your concerns into context, how many kWhs are you using per day and what high energy devices do you have in your home; eg, storage heaters; underfloor heating; electric showers etc?

I mean that it's not communicating with SSE - they haven't got a reading from it since September.
Last week we used 218 kWh. All hot water, including UFH is oil-fired. It's a small 2-bed, single storey house.  No tumble dryer, slim dishwasher used most days on 35 deg cycle. The main non-standard things I can think of are a pond pump and a boiling water tap.  I've tested both of those with a plug in monitor and they are not excessive.  We have separate electric UFH in a garden room which is hard-wired so I can't use the monitor.  That's my prime suspect although it's not used every day, and when it is used, it's on in the evening.  The spec says it's 150w per sqm and there are approx 20 sqm

[Deleted User]

I think that you have your answer. The floor is using up to 3kWs per hour. My total usage per day is c.7kWhs.

matelodave

Why has the seal been removed from the terminal block at the bottom of the meter. Not that is should makea lot of difference to the operation of the meter.
On mine, its the top light that flashes (its not ever so bright but it does flash) - 4000 = 1kwh, 400 = 100wh, 40 = 10 wh and 4 = 1 wh.

Candice-Marie

[Deleted User] said:

I think that you have your answer. The floor is using up to 3kWs per hour. My total usage per day is c.7kWhs.

So (excuse my ignorance) if it was on 5 hours/day (which it isn't, but for the sake of the maths) that's 3 x 5 x 7 = 105 for a week.  Last week we used 218, so say 105 of that is the floor.  Is 113 kWh still quite high for the size of the house/appliances would you say?  I'm not sure whether your daily 7 kWh is fairly average or very MSE!

Robin9

[Deleted User] said:

I think that you have your answer. The floor is using up to 3kWs per hour. 

For 4 hours that's 12kWh ie about £2 every evening

Gerry1

Candice-Marie said:

Dolor said:

The energy pulse LED should show in the window adjacent to the ‘4000 imp/kWh’ at the bottom right of your photo. You count, say, 400 flashes and the meter reading should have increased by 0.1kWhs. Clearly, the faster that the LED is flashing, the more energy you are using. I am not sure that I understand your use of the word ‘silent’. When I had the same meter it was blissfully silent and the meter reading was easy to see with no button pressing.

To put your concerns into context, how many kWhs are you using per day and what high energy devices do you have in your home; eg, storage heaters; underfloor heating; electric showers etc?

The main non-standard things I can think of are a pond pump and a boiling water tap.

Talking of pond pumps...

Candice-Marie

matelodave said:

Why has the seal been removed from the terminal block at the bottom of the meter. Not that is should makea lot of difference to the operation of the meter.
On mine, its the top light that flashes (its not ever so bright but it does flash) - 4000 = 1kwh, 400 = 100wh, 40 = 10 wh and 4 = 1 wh.

I have absolutely no idea.  My husband had the meter installed when he lived here on his own and has totally ignored it since!  Now I've moved in with my MSE ways  and I've seen the electricity bill it's getting more attention!