How likely is it to have a faulty house electrical meter?

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268 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1357699 3-Aug-2015 12:13

I'd class our household of mostly "normal" and during July we averaged 35.5KwH per day.

Swanny

107 posts

Master Geek

#1357716 3-Aug-2015 12:38

Our average for July was about 25kWh, June was ~20kWh. Pretty sure it's our bill+meter because when we aren't there the bill drops to about $80/month.

fortydayweekend

35 posts

Geek

#1357746 3-Aug-2015 13:13

kiwikiwi:
For the past 3 or 4 months our bill has been increasing by the hundreds for no apparent reason. At the moment we're at $1700 overdue. Now they claim that we're using 35.2KwH PER DAY.

Now that seems a bit absurd for a normal house hold right? There is no way in heck that we're using 35.2KwH.

35 kWh / day isn't unusual, especially at this time of year - our place has steadily risen from 14 kWh / day in summer to 47 kWh / day last bill. It's all heating - heat pump and a couple of oil ones, often left on during the night.

kiwikiwi:
We do however use 2 heaters but only for no more then 30 minutes. They're 2400W respectively.

Both heaters running for half an hour should come to about 2.4 kWh. If you're only running them for half an hour a day there must be other things. If they were on overnight they could be more like 20 kWh.

kiwikiwi:
The house layout is split into two. We have the bigger end and our next door neighbor has the smaller front end.

Are you sure your neighbour isn't running a heater overnight?

dylanp

840 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1357782 3-Aug-2015 13:55

lapimate:
Swanny: ... smart meter doo-hickey on the 17th July we used 38.196 kWh ...

Is the report quoting the same serial number as is actually on your physical meter?

We had a situation where a family member was paying the bill for someone else's account (after moving) because a manual data entry process had apparently had two forms where the data entry operator had read/copied details from the top of one customer's form to another!

I was going to suggest this exactly too - make sure your bill matches the meter. :)

wellygary

8315 posts

Uber Geek

#1357792 3-Aug-2015 14:13

kiwikiwi: That's the plan tonight. Everything goes off. Check on it on the morning

What was the result of that?.....

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1357875 3-Aug-2015 15:24

Two adults in an older but moderately well insulated house, 30 - 38 units per weekday, 40 - 65 per weekend. We keep the rooms we're using around 21-22 degrees.

dylanp

840 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1357912 3-Aug-2015 15:53

timmmay: Two adults in an older but moderately well insulated house, 30 - 38 units per weekday, 40 - 65 per weekend. We keep the rooms we're using around 21-22 degrees.

Interesting.. we're two adults in a small house from 1990, 22.9 units a day average. Can definitely see when we've done baking in the daily usage graphs - 28 units on Saturday with home made pizza. :)

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kiwikiwi

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1357917 3-Aug-2015 15:58

wellygary:
kiwikiwi: That's the plan tonight. Everything goes off. Check on it on the morning
What was the result of that?.....

The result was that we used 2 units over night with only a fridge running. We'll be checking up on it today before 5PM. We still don't think it's us we still think it's something wrong outside of our usage.

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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fortydayweekend

35 posts

Geek

#1357959 3-Aug-2015 16:28

kiwikiwi:
The result was that we used 2 units over night with only a fridge running. We'll be checking up on it today before 5PM. We still don't think it's us we still think it's something wrong outside of our usage.

That sounds about right.

Do you get half-hourly use graphs from your retailer? That could help narrow down the time of day the extra power was being used, and maybe make it easy to be sure that it wasn't anything in your house (e.g. if it was while you were all out).

wellygary

8315 posts

Uber Geek

#1357968 3-Aug-2015 16:36

kiwikiwi:
wellygary:
kiwikiwi: That's the plan tonight. Everything goes off. Check on it on the morning
What was the result of that?.....

The result was that we used 2 units over night with only a fridge running. We'll be checking up on it today before 5PM. We still don't think it's us we still think it's something wrong outside of our usage.

Whats the brand and model of the fridge freezer, 2 KWh is a little high for 12 hrs, but not totally
impossible, But there is probably some other "vampire" loads in that figure....

kiwikiwi

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1357969 3-Aug-2015 16:36

fortydayweekend:
kiwikiwi:
The result was that we used 2 units over night with only a fridge running. We'll be checking up on it today before 5PM. We still don't think it's us we still think it's something wrong outside of our usage.

That sounds about right.

Do you get half-hourly use graphs from your retailer? That could help narrow down the time of day the extra power was being used, and maybe make it easy to be sure that it wasn't anything in your house (e.g. if it was while you were all out).

Nope and for arguments sake.

April was right but March, May, June and July have been dead wrong. That's the main concern.

Even worse March was an estimate and then April happens which was an actual reading. May was another estimate and June and July have been actual ones.

My main theory was that the meter was still ticking over night is out the window. I'm down to my other two theories which are yes the meter is way off when measuring load, or the tube lighting that we do have is drawing so much(but we only allow 2 sets of them on, one in the living room and one in my bedroom).

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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kiwikiwi

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1357972 3-Aug-2015 16:36

wellygary:
kiwikiwi:
wellygary:
kiwikiwi: That's the plan tonight. Everything goes off. Check on it on the morning
What was the result of that?.....

The result was that we used 2 units over night with only a fridge running. We'll be checking up on it today before 5PM. We still don't think it's us we still think it's something wrong outside of our usage.

Whats the brand and model of the fridge freezer, 2 KWh is a little high for 12 hrs, but not totally
impossible, But there is probably some other "vampire" loads in that figure....

It's an old F&P. Maybe 1990 model.

You can also follow me on twitter here @kiwifortw I do twitch streams every now and then at twitch.tv/kiwiforthewin :)

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Spyware

3761 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1357973 3-Aug-2015 16:36

If you leave just the fridge (250W) and your server (90W) on you'll find you'll reach your old usage of 312 kWh with just the addition of one 100W light bulb. I think you'll find that you owe the power provider a lot of money.

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trig42

5810 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1357977 3-Aug-2015 16:44

Spyware: If you leave just the fridge (250W) and your server (90W) on you'll find you'll reach your old usage of 312 kWh with just the addition of one 100W light bulb. I think you'll find that you owe the power provider a lot of money.

huh?

312 kWh over how long?

fortydayweekend

35 posts

Geek

#1357979 3-Aug-2015 16:45

Spyware: If you leave just the fridge (250W) and your server (90W) on you'll find you'll reach your old usage of 312 kWh with just the addition of one 100W light bulb. I think you'll find that you owe the power provider a lot of money.

Fridges don't use power all the time - it only draws the 250W in short bursts :)

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