excessive electricity usage

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Does he know the prices have gone up? what this means it will almost double his bill.

[Jackie]

We are talking about units of electricity used. It does not matter what the price of the electricity is he will still use the same units However this is what he and I are paying for our electricity

Units Rate 1 (first 900 units) 0.11350 Units Rate 2 0.07650

and it is a lot less than anyone else

Jackie

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 13:05:24 GMT someone who may be "Jackie" wrote this:-

The person at EDF was talking round objects. There is negligible inertia in a spinning disc meter. If you and your friends have ruled out things like freezers then take it up with the Energywatch.

However, before doing so, do turn off the electricity at the main switch and see what the meter does. Use a torch to see what it is doing.

[Dave Liquorice]

Are you sure, it's easy to forget things that you never switch on/off in the nromal course of events. Best to pull all the fuses or trip the MCBs then power just one circuit up and put your test load on that.

If his meter has not been chnaged it is twenty years overdue for routine replacement. ISTR that there is a statutary(?) requirement for electricity meters to be replaced every 10 years. They tend to be replaced by refurbished and recalibrated units so the reading almost certainly wouldn't be zero.

Is EDF the company he pays for power or the company that owns/maintains the wires that feed it to him? It is the latter that needs to be contacted about a possible meter fault.

One word: Bollocks. If the meter doesn't stop when you switch of the main switch it definately *is* faulty.

ctl-alt-del should bring up a dialogue asking what you want to do. I think the current user name is shown there but as I rarely use windows I could be well wrong.

[Andy Wade]

My point was that is would be most unusual for someone to have the same meter for 30 years. They are normally changed every 10 - 20 years and re-certified. So the 77,700 units could have been used over a shorter period.

That's absolute rubbish, as David has said. They stop (and speed up) almost instantly - see for yourself using something like a kettle. Watch the meter stop (or slow down) when the kettle clicks off.

[Bob Mannix]

very true but you did start out by saying he only noticed this when his payments wouldn't cover the bill IIRC.

[Jackie]

Correct but that was the reason for him starting to record and take notice of the readings. As long as his direct debit paid the bill he never bothered what the readings were. He changed his supplier because the new tariff was less than his previous tariff however paying the same amount by direct debit did not cover the cost of the electricity. His previous supplier was the same they upped the direct debit but he thought it was because of the price increases, not that he was apparently using a significant amount more electricity. It would seem that his meter has been gradually running faster, if that is possible, until the excess amount has been noticed. Jackie

[tinnews]

I suspect that it's much more likely that he has simply slowly been increasing his electricity consumption.

You say "His previous supplier was the same they upped the direct debit but he thought it was because of the price increases" so it seems possible that he was using more electricity even *before* he changed supplier.

As many others have suggested, does the meter stop turning if you turn the main switch off?

[Codswallop]

I wish that someone would just test this bloody meter.

[Dave Fawthrop]

| wrote: |> I suspect that it's much more likely that he has simply slowly been |> increasing his electricity consumption. |>

|> You say "His previous supplier was the same they upped the direct |> debit but he thought it was because of the price increases" so it |> seems possible that he was using more electricity even *before* he |> changed supplier. |>

|> As many others have suggested, does the meter stop turning if you turn |> the main switch off? |>

|> -- |> Chris Green | |I wish that someone would just test this bloody meter.

We are telling you how to test this bloody meter *roughly* for a proper test you have to get your supplier to do it.

[nightjar]

Seeboard, next door. We had a Tony Bignell too, but no relation.

Colin Bignell

[Jackie]

If his meter had not started at zero his average would have been less than

2590 KW

[Guy King]

The message from "Jackie" contains these words:

It can be quite hard to turn /everything/ off. The boiler draws some current, as does its timer, then there's things like the timer on the toilet extractor fan, the answerphone, the bedside clock radio, the clock on the microwave, the transformer in the radio which may not be on but may still draw power when plugged in. And the hifi may still be on when it's off. And so on.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Or Seaboard. :-)

[Guy King]

The message from "Jackie" contains these words:

If it's Windows, Ctrl-Alt-Del will tell you who you're logged on as (depending on version) and then just cancel (or Alt+F4) to get out of it.

[Guy King]

The message from "Jackie" contains these words:

Then he really needs to find out to whom he was talking and ask EDF to train them better - perhaps with a brick. It's simply untrue.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Just slam a crowbar through it using insulated gloves and tell then it certainly is faulty now, the neighborhood kids have been giving him hell lately, and can he have a new one please?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its easy. Just sling the main switch on the consumer unit, and all the other little switches, or if an old fuse board, switch off and pull the fuses.

Then using afore mentioned torch, star replacing them one by one till you can ID what circuit is drawing power.

[The Wanderer]

Depends (or I should say it depended) on the type of meter. A normal domestic 'quarterly' meter was 20 years. Not 100% certain on two-rate (E7) meters, I think they were also 20 years, but they might just have been 15.

There should be a little sticker on the front of the meter which indicates when it was certified.

Scottish and Southern, head office in Perth.

I doubt it, and I've had *far* more experience than you in dealing with meter complaints. On average we'd get perhaps 2 or 3 substantiated cases per year, of *all* meter types - including commercial/industrial.

I gave you advice previously how to go about reliably checking to be certain if it is the meter or an installation problem. Is it just that you've made up your mind and it doesn't matter what anybody else says.

Then do yourself a favour and first look back through the thread and tackle it logically. Convince yourseelf and your mate that the meter's faulty when perhaps it isn't and S&S will almost certainly charge him when they come to investigate and find that the meter's OK.

Don't piss about with a power monitor. You're wasting your time, and you'll lead yourselves well and truly up the garden path. All you need to do a meter accuracy check is a known load and a decent stop watch.

When you've isolated *every* bit of load from the installation switch on a known load of say 2kw - typically a fire. Remember also that many modern 3 bar fires may not have 1kw elements.

The disc in the meter has a black mark on the edge, specifically for timing. When the marks passes centre front, start the stop watch and run it for, say, 2 minutes, counting the number of revolutions. The meter will be marked with a specimen number of revs per kwh, so use a bit of simple maths and you'll be able to fairly accurately check the accuracy of the meter.

First you stop convincing yourself that it is the meter that's faulty when it appears you haven't carried out the checks that I and others have outlined to you.

You get him to carry out those checks, and actually make a few brief notes of what he's actually done. You mentioned that it was a semi - has he actually checked in the loft? Others have also suggested an immersion heater on 24/7. Is the immersion controlled by a timeswitch? Is that stuck on? There are lots of things to check *before* going to S&S to complain about the meter. If, after carrying out those tests, he can then satisfy himself that it actually is the meter that's at fault, then give S&S a bell and tell them that he has a faulty meter. Making a note of what he's done will strengthen his case to get them to come and check.

Of course, if he ain't prepared to carry out those tests, then tell him to 'phone them straight away, but be prepared for a bill if they find it ain't the meter.

[The Wanderer]

I seem to recollect we had a Colin (I thought it was Bignell) on the EMA(EPEA) negotiating committee, of which I was also a member, but that just shows how my memory's fading...... :-(