Suspected energy theft

matelodave

How accurate is this magic device of yours - have you checked it with the incoming meter (I assume that you do have your own supply provided by an energy company and not a secondary meter provided by the landlord. Does your supply meter also show a draw of 50 watts. Some of these wrap round the cable monitors aren't ever so accurate as the have trouble measuring inductive and capacitive loads (like motors, pumps, fridges and fluorescent lights)

If you are really upset about it then shut that feed off when you aren't using anything in the kitchen and see what happens or who complains. At present you are just assuming that its a sump pump that's using all that power where it could quite easily be something like the central heating boiler (if that's under your control) - where are you switching it off - at the isolator or just by turning it down.

As others have said 50watts continuously = roughly 450kWh a year = about £112.5 if leccy was 25p/kwh.

Electricity costs wasn't anywhere near close to that eight years ago, so the most you could possible have used (assuming that the 50watts is continuous) is probably going to be less than £400 over eight years. If it is a sump pump, then it will be intermittent, unless you have a real damp/flooding problem, so you could easily halve that as well.

So please check your sums to see where you get £2000 from as you'll not have a lot of credibility if you confront the landlord with a random guess.

If you want to try having a discussion with the landlord then you really should get your facts straight, and do some proper investigation just in case there is other stuff on the "kitchen" circuit breaker like an extractor fan, cooker hood or even the heating boiler if it's on standby and not actually disconnected

gurudave

Robin9 said:

Do you really mean "continuous"  ?     

If you switch off the kitchen circuit at the distribution board -  does the 50W drop to zero?

As others have said sump pumps cycle, rather like a fridge

Yes, it does drop to zero when I switch the kitchen circuit off.

matt_drummer

What would happen to your flat without the sump pump?

It's of no benefit to you?

gurudave

matt_drummer said:

What would happen to your flat without the sump pump?

It's of no benefit to you?

That's not the point though. If I'm responsible for paying for it then it should be mentioned in the contract, I think.

gurudave

matelodave said:

How accurate is this magic device of yours - have you checked it with the incoming meter (I assume that you do have your own supply provided by an energy company and not a secondary meter provided by the landlord. Does your supply meter also show a draw of 50 watts. Some of these wrap round the cable monitors aren't ever so accurate as the have trouble measuring inductive and capacitive loads (like motors, pumps, fridges and fluorescent lights)

If you are really upset about it then shut that feed off when you aren't using anything in the kitchen and see what happens or who complains. At present you are just assuming that its a sump pump that's using all that power where it could quite easily be something like the central heating boiler (if that's under your control) - where are you switching it off - at the isolator or just by turning it down.

As others have said 50watts continuously = roughly 450kWh a year = about £112.5 if leccy was 25p/kwh.

Electricity costs wasn't anywhere near close to that eight years ago, so the most you could possible have used (assuming that the 50watts is continuous) is probably going to be less than £400 over eight years. If it is a sump pump, then it will be intermittent, unless you have a real damp/flooding problem, so you could easily halve that as well.

So please check your sums to see where you get £2000 from as you'll not have a lot of credibility if you confront the landlord with a random guess.

If you want to try having a discussion with the landlord then you really should get your facts straight, and do some proper investigation just in case there is other stuff on the "kitchen" circuit breaker like an extractor fan, cooker hood or even the heating boiler if it's on standby and not actually disconnected

I believe all of your points are answered elsewhere. But thanks for your response.

gurudave

Thank you everyone who has responded. My maths was correct, but I had the cost of 1kWh down as 60p, not 20p. Mea culpa.

I've also done further tests with the wrap-around device and yes, as others have said, it is not particularly reliable.

I do however believe that if there is some (hidden) device that consumes power then the tenancy agreement should mention it and who is responsible for paying for it.

Netexporter

A TV aerial booster, or similar?

matt_drummer

gurudave said:

matt_drummer said:

What would happen to your flat without the sump pump?

It's of no benefit to you?

That's not the point though. If I'm responsible for paying for it then it should be mentioned in the contract, I think.

You could turn it off then.

Presumably, your contract does mention your responsibility for ensuring that the flat is maintained in a certain condition?

That probably makes the cost of running the pump then tenant's responsibility.

Even though not mentioned specifically in the contract, it is an implied term as without the pump the flat would be damaged.

If so, ensuring that it is not flooded is down to the tenant (you) and any damaged caused by flooding is for the tenant to repair at their cost.

If you knowingly turned the pump off and caused damage to the flat, you would be responsible for the repair costs.

I would have thought that the small cost of running a pump, if that it was this is, is a cost well worth suffering.

However, as others have said, this pump is unlikely to be running continuously, that is not how they work normally.

Do you have access to the pump?

Can you tell when it is running?

gurudave

Netexporter said:

A TV aerial booster, or similar?

There isn't one that I know of. And that certainly wouldn't be hanging off the kitchen circuit - wrong end of the flat.

gurudave

matt_drummer said:

gurudave said:

matt_drummer said:

What would happen to your flat without the sump pump?

It's of no benefit to you?

That's not the point though. If I'm responsible for paying for it then it should be mentioned in the contract, I think.

You could turn it off then.

Presumably, your contract does mention your responsibility for ensuring that the flat is maintained in a certain condition?

If so, ensuring that it is not flooded is down to the tenant (you) and any damaged caused by flooding is for the tenant to repair at their cost.

I would have thought that the small cost of running a pump, if that it was this is, is a cost well worth suffering.

However, as others have said, this pump is unlikely to be running continuously, that is not how they work normally.

Do you have access to the pump?

Can you tell when it is running?

I can't turn it off as it's (probably) wired in to the kitchen circuit. It's under the kitchen floor and is inaccessible.