Current Eon Next customer, ex EDF, Zog and Symbio. Don't think dual fuel saves money and don't like smart meters. Chronologically Gifted. If I offend let me know by private message, but I’ll continue to express my opinions nonetheless.
Smart Meter - Excessively High Usage
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Level 9113-10-22
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Level 6013-10-22
That sir is the $64K question - I don't know. But the links I mentioned in my post implies NOT...(NECESSARILY)? -
Level 1013-10-22Just tried another test and switches 1 and 6 made no difference to the impulse rate when switching on one by one (stayed solid red). Only 2 and 5 seemed to have any impact, with both introducing the same impulse rate individually and together...Last edited by RedBeard89; 13-10-22 at 18:35.
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Level 6013-10-22
Have you been able to work out exactly what each of these 4 circuits do? For example if 1 = kitchen sockets, 2 = lighting, 5 = rest of house sockets and 6 = cooker. That kind of thing.
It may well be the case that the red light will stay solid red on 1 because there is no power being used/drawn via that circuit when you put breaker 1 to on.. So if 1 was the kitchen socket circuit you'd would need to turn something on in the kitchen such as a kettle before the solid started flashing. Same with each individual circuit - find out what each one does and find out if you can the circuit causing the high number of flashes/pulses per minute that you reported before.
As a baseline though turn on all circuits and see what a baseline flash rate is - say just have the TV on and a couple of lights maybe. Then go to each circuit (1,2,5 and 6) in turn (if you don't know what they power then do a trail and error to find out). So if only the lights work with say number 2 breaker ON, you should see the solid impulse go off and start blinking if you turn on light all over the place. Even with plenty of lights on most are very low powered these days so not many impulses per minute. But turn on say a socket circuit and start boiling a kettle then you will see lots of impulses in the minute.Last edited by Mailman; 13-10-22 at 21:52.
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Level 9213-10-22You should be able to identify any circuit type by the rating of the breaker. 6A for lighting circuits, 20A for radial power circuits, 32A for ring-final power circuits, etc.
Cookers, immersion heaters and electric showers will (or should) always be on individual breakers, as should feeds to garages and/or outbuildings.
Just a word of caution based on personal experience at a previous rental property...
Just because an appliance looks like it is off, doesn't mean it is, er, off!
Case in point was the dual-fuel range cooker we had in our last but one place.
Since the mid 90s, I have been tracking energy usage and keeping spreadsheets and costings of my domestic energy consumption. I know my baseline load and I monitor the daily consumption, periodic average consumption and annual consumption and plot everything on a graph. I happened to spot an increase in my usage from an average of 8kWh a day to nearer 11kWh a day. Now, something was obviously amiss, so I went through the house with a fine toothed comb. I traced the fault to the range cooker. Isolating the cooker at the cooker switch, or turning off the breaker, and my 3kW 'drain' suddenly vanished. Turn it back on again and the drain was back. Only....the oven was off.
Actually, it wasn't. Even in the off position, it was costing me 3 units a day. Very odd, until I took out a glass roasting dish that lived in the oven and felt it was very slightly warm. Not hot, just a little above what it should have felt like at ambient room temperature. Had the wife been using the oven earlier? No.
I then investigated further, took the front panel off and dabbed around with a multimeter to discover that one of the sets of contacts in the oven switch had welded themselves closed. The element was permanently powered, but at such a low thermostat setting it wasn't getting hot, just warmish. The other set of contacts in the control, which were fine, operated the lamp and fan...and when you turn the switch to Off and the light and fan go off, you immediately assume the oven has too. Not the case, and costing me 3kWh a day.
Back then, my leccy was about 9p a unit (2014) so added up to 27p a day, or an extra £100 a year. In todays money, that parasitic drain would be an extra £380 a year. But, because I'm keeping tabs on a daily basis, I'd only lost a week.
Anyway, if you are experiencing unusually high readings, especially if they have risen suddenly and stayed higher than normal then my advice is to get someone who knows their onions and check out any electric oven, electric shower or immersion heater.
Even 'heavy duty' contacts on High power appliances can fail and they will fail in one of two ways...permanently off, or permanently on, as my oven was.Last edited by retrotecchie; 13-10-22 at 23:11.
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Level 1014-10-22Having taken a closer look at the fuse box I can confirm the following as per the numbered picture:
1 - Operates Oven
2 - Operates Lights
5 - Operates Plug sockets
6 - I can't seem to identify what this operates - as nothing seems to switch off when it is switched off... any ideas as it is 16A rated? -
Level 1014-10-22FYI I believe the property previously had a water tank/immersion heater which was subsequently removed and replaced with a combi boiler.
I've since left the 16A breaker switched off and will see how it impacts hourly usage figures.
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