excessive electricity usage

[John]

A meter would not rotate unless current was passing. Fact!

[Owain]

I have lots of modern appliances in my not-quite-so-north-Britain flat and use 1600 kWh per annum.

Admittedly I don't have a freezer, dryer, dishwasher, the washer is used only on full loads, and everything is unplugged at night.

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

Always assuming that the meter is in an external cupboard of some sort.

[The Wanderer]

Yes. Your point being?

[nightjar]

ISTR that was the title of the Seeboard staff magazine. The relevance, such as it was, being that headquarters were on the seafront at Hove.

Colin Bignell

[nightjar]

I'm afraid it is, as that wasn't me :-)

Colin Bignell

[Brian Sharrock]

Golly, it's years since I was posted to Scotland and my more recent visits have been fleeting shuttle visits to Glasgow with a clear intention of catching the flight back to Heathrow preferably before dark ... but I hadn't realised how hard your life was across the border! unplug _everything_ at night! No freezer? You probably have to go to the fleshers each day for your fresh haggis. Not having a dryer must be tough .... what do they say in Helensburgh? ... If you can see across the loch, it's going to rain; if you can't see across the loch ... it's raining! And you must love winding up your clock each day not having a timer/clock on an oven, nor a microwave oven. Do you still have the old fashioned 'phone? Connected to the wall by a fixed cord? It's not the old cotton covered plaited cord connected to a bakelite (any colour as long as it's black) receiver is it? Hmmm .... you haven't mentioned 'fridge' .... do you have one? Is it unplugged at night? Modem, computer etc ... all unplugged?

But this 'My friend has a problem' meter saga has gone for too long.

[Owain]

Not /quite/ everything, but...

Tesco is three minutes' walk away and they have perfectly good freezers.

It is so mild here that I was in Edinburgh yesterday wearing only a sweatshirt (on my upper half).

Oven switched off at the wall when not in use. Battery clock.

Switched off at the wall when not in use.

Yes. Lots of them.

One of them is black bakelite, yes.

No, the fridge isn't, but I don't expect it uses much electricity at night. The door isn't open and the light isn't on.

Yes.

What is plugged in at night is:

1 small clock-radio 1 fridge 1 telephone speed-dialler 1 answering machine 1 central heating timer 1 emergency lighting unit

I wouldn't say my parents were mean, but when I was a child we were only allowed to have the christmas tree lights on if we were actually looking at the tree.

Owain

[Brian Sharrock]

Drying ... in the pollution ridden 'outside' with all the birds flitting past require wind and low humidity ... doesn't it? Mild could be poor drying!

But ... you don't know; you just expect .... just as I suspected you were being 'economical with the truth' when you you claimed _everything unplugged_!

As you say ... 'not quite everything' when challenged .... why say _everything unplugged_?

You had _electric lights_ on your Christmas tree? I'd guess your parents weren't/aren't 'Wee Frees' then. When I were knee-high to a grasshopper; we had _candles_ on the tree ... we _had_ to be actually looking at them to light the blasted little things!

[Andrew Sinclair]

In message , The Wanderer writes

Now sadly merged with a civil service union and known by the trendy name of Prospect. I still pay my subs (I work for a generator rather than a REC although in HQ engineering rather than at the business end of the job) but often wonder why...

Andy

[The Wanderer]

I gave up after I retired, when I realised that the *only* thing I was getting out of the EMA was a mag that listed the obits.

[dorothy.bradbury]

Googling for something else, I stumbled across...

Meter is miss-reading... o Have a calibrated test meter fitted to validate the existing meter o Meter replaced if invalidated, bills monitored & back-adjusted

Appliance is drawing current... o Freezer

---- freezer has a failed thermostat = compressor not cycling

-------- adds 5-7 units/day for small 120x60cm larder freezer

---- freezer has frozen insulation = compressor not cycling

-------- 15-25yr freezer insulation fails between the metal surfaces

-------- thermal path bypasses insulation as ice builds up

-------- adds 4-6 units/day for small 120x60cm larder freezer

---- freezer in an outbuilding outside thermal environment rating

-------- not so much defrosted fridge-freezer, but stuck thermostat o Immersion

---- thermostat has failed = heating element not cycling

---- heating left on = wastes plenty

---- excessive duration boost control = wastes plenty

Cable leakage is too large... o You don't leak 250-350W on a circuit without knowing it

You have baselined the existing usage as 8 units overnight. o Repeat for all appliances physically unplugged - except for freezers o Repeat for all fixed appliances powered off - except for freezers o Repeat for all circuits powered off - except for freezers

You may want to do the last one first to disprove freezer as cause, simply whilst the weather is warm overnight (re no heating/lighting).

Extremely rarely the neighbour has tapped into your ring main :-)) My vote is an appliance, most likely freezers or appliance left on.