Hi all,
I wonder if anyone of you can shed a little light on this.
Out of boredom, I turned all the RCD's off on the CU and then noticed that the electricity meter was still turning. Admittedly not alot, but enough to make me wonder why it was still turning when there was no load.
Are they designed to rotate under no-load? Natural leakage?
The only thing attached directly to the meter is the CU and that was switched off.
Any ideas?
TIA
Steve
If you are perfectly sure that there was nothing at all connected, and that the meter was not supplying anything with even the smallest amount of juice, which includes the light in the cupboard where the meter is sited, then get the whole thing checked soon as possible. You're being charged money for electricity that is doing nothing, mate.
you have a leak, obv
RT
If you feel competent to open your consumer unit (Be very careful if you do, as there may be live bits exposed in there, even if you main isolator or RCD is off!)
If you do open it, check to see if the wires that come from the meter (the "Meter Tails") go into your main isolator switch or RCD, and are alone in there. Do you have a split load consumer unit, where one side is typically for lighting, and the other is for other stuff? - If you do, then there will be some wires exiting where the meter tails enter the isolator/RCD, going off to the RCD or isolator on the second side. If this is the case, are there any other wires going to this second isolator/RCD?
Sparks...
No, although meter "creep" can occur - per the other poster, you`re being charged for this irrespective - get it sorted out !
from as far as I can tell, wires go from 100A fuse to meter, then from meter to main switch in CU.
No other wires go from the meter.
Hence, when I turned off the main switch in CU, I expected the meter to stop. It didn't.
I suspect the meter is knackered.
Steve
But inside the consumer unit, at the main switch, there may be something else connected to the continually live side of the switch, not the consumer side. So you really need to look inside the consumer unit (fuse box) to see if any other wires come from the main switch itself.
Also mentioned by another poster. Is the main consumer unit (fuse box) a split load version, were the box itself might have two separate mains switches to control the two different sections? These are normally wired by one pair of tails from the meter, and have internal links between the two mains switches. So you don't see any other wiring enter the box, but the separate sections are both wired to continually to the mains supply.
Like this:
From the mains supply unit (100 A Fuse) on the head end out to the meter. From the meter out to the first mains switch inside the consumer unit. From the constantly live side of the first mains switch in the consumer unit out to the second mains switch inside the consumer unit.
Get it?
And if some eejit has been in there, maybe something else on this, feeding another CU in the garage or such!
It does happen!
Sparks...
If that's the case, it might be worth trying to put a number on how fast the meter is spinning when 'off', before you contact the supplier, in order to get a handle on how much they might have been over-charging you over how ever many years?
David
ROFL You better believe it happens. A few of years ago, I was sent to a job where the meter tails were 10 mm csa' double insulated, which was OK really, because they were, originally, only feeding a two way consumer unit for a small lighting circuit and a two gang socket. If it had been left that way, it would all have been fine. When I arrived on site, I nearly fell over with fright at what I found.
From the two way box, a 5 way box had been added, connected to the two way unit by a short piece of 6 mm csa' T&E. This unit, with all ways used, was supplying double sockets on radial wiring to each. The socket wiring was, I'm glad to say, run in 2.5 mm csa', so it wasn't so bad.
But then it only got worse. From the 5 way box, another two way unit had been connected by another short piece of 6 mm csa' T&E, and this was to supply another two double radial sockets for machinery outside the workshop in the yard. All these sockets, and I mean all of them, where running things like heaters, PC's and all the rest of it. With the outside sockets mainly running welders, heavy metal cutting gear, angle grinders etc. etc.
The owner wondered why the insulation on the two poor little 10 mm csa' meter tails was turning a strange colour, resembling a brownie black. Of course, all this was done by the guy he met in bar who knew how to do this type work, and, I have to admit, the wiring routes were tidy and well secured, not covered, but well secured.
So it does happen. :-)
A joiner friend of mine tells the story of how he went on a job to fit a wardrobe, and had to move a 13A socket which was in the way. Went downstairs and turned off the main switch to the whole house (just to be safe, he thought), came back upstairs and set to... next thing he remembers is coming to on the far side of the room: it turned out that the socket concerned had been wired in on the wrong side of the CU and switch.
David
Ouch!!! That would be a nasty shock (no pun intended). :-)
With the benefit of hindsight this may have been less than wise, but 10 or so years ago when we replaced storage heaters in our rented flats with gas ch the storage heater feeds were replaced with single sockets - i.e each a separately fused 15A radial (off-peak CU feed moved to 24 hour side of course).
It only shows that the only safe rule is never to assume anything.
I know of a case where the upstairs lights were wired up to the adjacent properties supply. They were paying for it as well.
I've seen a job where some of the sockets in a flat were connected to the lighting circuit of the shop below it. Weird looks were given, as you can imagine, when I asked the shop manager if I could turn the lights off at their box to rectify the wiring. :-)
That doesn't seem too uncommon - possibly due to folk living over their shops.
We used to run a shop. When the upstairs tenant moved out, we moved in and discovered that they had been running their fridge and washing machine (and possibly their air conditioner) on our shop's power. We were paying for the gas to heat their hot water, too.
Sheila
But this flat had nothing to do with the shops. It was a tenement block with commercial properties at street level and houses above them. :-) It took a little while to explain to the shop manager what was going on. She said that they hadn't noticed anything, and so wasn't going to take it any further, thank goodness. That's the joys of living above a large franchise outlet I suppose. :-)
Ours was in a block of five shops on the ground floor, and 6 flats above. Correcting the wiring made a noticeable difference to the electric bill for the shop.
Sheila
ROFL!!! I bet it did. :-)
Very true. Thankfully I found that out quite early, after getting a shock off the earth wire. Turned out the whole property earth system was doubly faulty, and unfamiliar with any real earth. Due to disconnection of earth, the ELCB wasnt doing anything about it either.
NT
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