WTF.. Strange leccy meter issue

[Bob Dung]

Not sure what to try first. i have monthly DD with power company, one of these capped / pay £40 per month type deals. Been fine for a year. .Take meter readings every 3 months.. Took the reading 10 days ago, got bill saying DD is going up to £110 per month. Same unit cost, something is wierd with meter or something.. On advice from the power co, i've taken daily readings starting last Thurs.. Now the strange bit, we used 35 units between Thurs-Fri last week, around 5 units each day until..Yes 32 between yesterday and today..?!

I'm sure i don't have a room full of leccy fires that only come on when it's thursday night..! Old dial type meter we have, two people, two b/rooms, work all day etc.. What could it be :-/

./BD

[mrcheerful]

faulty meter

[ben]

Any discos next door on a thursday? :-)

[ben]

You have ommitted a lot of info...is it a house,flat,do you share acommodation,have you given keys to someone in the past, ect. I remember a story like this happening quite some time ago where the people where working 9to5 and this house was bought by them from a private landlord, anyway 14 months on they started getting high electricity/gas bills and couldn't fathom it out, to cut the story short it seemed the previous occupant had been having a stay in the local nuthouse and was going back and forth to his old house thinking he still lived there. :-)

The moral of the story is change your locks straight away if you buy a house/flat.

[dennis]

Baths, kettle, cooker, washing machine, dish washer, air conditioning, heater.

[The Wanderer]

You have a disk meter so it should be relatively easy to check out.

Step one: turn *everything* off at the consumer unit. Does the meter still turn? If it does, contact the local electricity company, tell them the meter is turning when you switch everything off.

Step two: If the meter stops when you turn everything off at the consumer unit, go round the house and turn everything off, immersion, lights, fridge, freezer, tv, computer using local switches. Turn the consumer unit on and see if the meter starts turning. If it does, take a look around to see if you've forgotten anything, been in the loft recently? Left a heater on up there? Have you got an extension lead plugged in somewhere with something you've overlooked?

If it doesn't start turning with everything switched off, go round the house and turn things on one by one, back to 'normal' arrangements, IYSWIM. Look for whatever gets the meter spinning like the clappers!

What's your water temperature like? You might have a faulty thermostat on the immersion heater, assuming that's what you use for hot water.

I'm assuming you live in a normal house; if it's a flat, is it a modern 'new' build or a conversion?

Disc meters are very reliable and aren't prone to going wrong. When I dealt with disputed accounts, it was invariably something with the installation, equipment being overlooked.

[The Wanderer]

Possible but not very likely. Disc meters are normally very reliable.

[PC Paul]

A relative asked me to investigate a similar problem a while back.

Turned out the previous owners and next door had joined together to have a rear extension built on both houses (to save money). The builders had mixed up the wires and the sockets along the joining wall were *all* on my relatives meter.

And next door had a 3KW fan heater plugged in out there...

[Bob Dung]

Your relatives maybe live in my street then..! (Harpenden) I do indeed share an extension..well the roof part. I only rent so hadn't properly examined everything, i have had a poke around and can't see anything traversing from one side to other but wouldn't surprise me, our water can be turned off from inside neighbours house and theirs from their neighbour and so on..like it's in series..

./BD

[PC Paul]

Hope you don't spring a leak while they're all out at work then!

Not the same place, they were in Cannock Chase.

Sounds like you need to turn the main switch off and see if it still moves then... although from your figures it looks like it's an intermittent thing...

[Bob Dung]

Just before trying this, i took mental note of disc speed and went and turned everything off at the sockets..except a vcr (socket behind a book case) but even freezer and 'puters etc. I don't think it slowed the disc any. Now, turned off consumer unit using it's own main switch, the disc indeed still moves.. By moves i mean not much but enough for me to see it's moving albeit considerably slower than before. Will call power co now.!

The other info i missed, it's an end terrace cottage style, two b/rooms, up stairs everything else downstairs, kitchen in extension which doesn't seem much newer than the main house. Think main house built 1902, according to stone inlay thing in the wall outside. Self and burd only live here, heating and hot water are gas

Generally the wiring is 'quirky' .. switches that don't operate the light you'd expect it to operate or the stair lights, not wired with two way switching, ie switch at top of stairs operates top light only same at bottom.. And just noticed in the consumer unit, we only have two 5 amp and one 30 amp circuit.. In fact i'll just take pic : dikerwood.com/meter

Thanks for comments so far, will see what the power co say now.

./BD

[Chip]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:54:07 +0100,it is alleged that Bob Dung spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

[snip]

Looking at that pic, I *wonder* if the timer is turning on a load once a week? Those olde sangamo timers (which are still available by the way) have a 'day of the week' dial. I wonder if it's turning on some forgotten circuit or appliance? Maybe even just turning on an old outside circuit which is then causing several amps of leakage?

Try twisting the knob on the timer (or pressing the 'advance' red pushbutton on the side) to see if that starts/stops the meter jumping.

[The Wanderer]

OK, so it looks like there's something connected that you don't know about! :-(

Ah, these meters do have a tendency to creep. When you say move, do you mean making complete revolutions or just turning ever, ever so slowly ('creep' and something that tends to settle out over a few minutes)?

Not having looked in detail at your installation, I'd say almost certainly you've got some probs with your installation. You need to get that checked out SAP! Do any of your neighbours have anything unusual going on? Something like an above-ground pool just installed?

[fred]

In article , Bob Dung writes

Requires automatic redirection, one of my peves . . .

[Ed Sirett]

Immersion heater inadvertently left on?

[Dave Liquorice]

They maybe 3kW but unless the stat is stuck on will shut 'emselves off once up to temperature. With a lagged HW cylinder they spend much longer off than on. I found the immersion in my flat had been left on for weeks when I rented it out for a while. Power bill wasn't noticeably higher.

Looking at the OPs image where does that time switch and outside light wiring go? A couple fo 500W halogens on for a few hours will knock up the consumption, they won't be switching themselves off...

[Bob Dung]

Possible something is connected, again the quirks of this house, there actually are front/side/back lights but they each have a local switch. Using the pictured switches has no effect on the lights, nor does the timer. Timer works, it's actually not normally plugged in, cause i didn't know what it was timing. I'd say there nothing connected to the switches, they don't arc at all when switched - scientific test.

I'd say it was actually turning, very very slowly but turning. I had CU off for 10-15 mins, was still movin. definately not like a 'tick' or vibration movement, just a really slow turn.

I have it raised with power co to come check their stuff, i'll get landlady to get somebody in too. I have to keep telling myself not to jump in and 'play' with these things, cause it's a rented place but more because i should know this stuff. I sort of was an electrician before, sort of meaning i served my time and passed the final test etc (AM2 test i think it was called - in scotland) but company went bust same week i got my tradesman card thing.!

15 years in IT later i can just watch the little wheel going round in the meter :)

./BD

[Lobster]

Why can you (and others) see a picture whereas I (and others) can't? I just get (> In fact i'll just take pic : dikerwood.com/meter

My newsreader does normally pick up attachments posted to newsgroups so I'm just curious (although they shouldn't be posted anyway of course!)

David

[Dave Liquorice]

It's not an attachment, it's a link to a web site...

[Rob Morley]

That's a URL that could more correctly have been written as