Faulty electricity meter??

iPink

Hi, I'm looking for some advice...

I recently moved into a new house, been here 8 days now, the meter etc is very old...
Before I moved in I asked the land lord to do a unit check for a day & the readings came back as very high & this was when the house was empty... the land lord called an electrician who said the timers were all set wrongly & he had done a new check after fixing them & there was hardly any consumption...

I should state that there are storage heaters that run on night electricity, so I have two meters (day & night) & I expected to pay a bit more for the storage heating...

The house was unfurnished so all the appliances etc are mine & were the same in my old house except for the fridge, cooker & washing-machine, my bill in my old house was between 85-110e every two months... I also had a dish washer there which I don't have in the new place.

I recently switched to Bord Gais & just rang them to check the usage, turns out that my day use has been over 150 units & night use just over 100... this means about 30e for the 8 days I've been here, and I wasn't here for 3 of them... this works out at over 240e per two-month bill

It's a small house & only myself & daughter live here, all my bulbs are energy efficient, I've used the washing machine twice on 30degrees & the dryer once plus a couple of quick showers (electric), the immersion is set for an hour a night on a timer plus the usual; chargers, tv etc

There has to be a problem here especially with the day usage, BG told me that if I get the meter checked (looks like something from the 60s) it will cost 400e if there is nothing wrong with it, and the chances of it being faulty are very slim, the girl said that only one they have ever tested has been faulty. I find this hard to believe especially as I personally know someone that had a faulty meter.

Has anyone any experience with this type of problem or any advice/suggestions...

Thanks in advance

Thoie

Can you check the timer again? It should look just like a clock near the meter. We had a problem in that there was nothing wrong with the meter, but the clock kept gaining/losing time. Check the immersion as well - if you have night storage you should set that just to come on for an hour (or whatever) during off peak. The other thing to look for - when the immersion is on does it seem to heat the water to boiling, and keep boiling and bubbling away? It's not uncommon for the thermostat on an immersion to go, and that would keep eating electricity while it's on as well.

iPink

Thanks for that Thoi,
the clock settings are ok, they have just been re-set by an electrician just before we moved in
the immersion is on a timer & set to come on for an hour at night when it's cheaper night time electricity but I didn't know that about the thermostat... could be I guess but the thing is it's the DAY time meter that seems to be running too fast & the immersion only comes on at night

brightspark

This page shows how you can use your meter to measure power consumption over a relatively short period.

http://cipco.apogee.net/foe/frcmr.asp

Check your meter to determine the actual revs per kWh.

Just follow the steps up to number 6 to determine a kWh consumption.

Plug in a heater (cold) that you know the rating of, say 2 or 3 Kw, leaving everything else off (making sure that it stays on and dosent cut out on reaching temp)

You should then be able to determine if the meter is running significantly faster than expected.

(The more accurately you know the power consumption of your tested device, the more accurate the test will be)

iPink

Great, thanks, I'll try that!

brightspark

what revs per kWh is your meter?

(Should be clearly marked)

iPink

brightspark- it says 240 rev/kwt?

brightspark

Ok, that means that if you had a 1 kW load on for an hour it would turn 240 times.

Every minute it will turn 4 times for every kW you are using

now find something like a heater that has its kW marked on it and see how many times in a minute the meter spins with just that on.

2011

BG told me that if I get the meter checked

ESB Networks are still responsible for the meter, not BG. I would suggest that you ring ESB Networks and express your concerns. I would find it hard to believe that there would be a charge for this.

I would be surprised if the meter was faulty to be honest, but at least you can rule it out.

Before I moved in I asked the land lord to do a unit check for a day & the readings came back as very high & this was when the house was empty

OK so perhaps:

1) Someone else is connected to your meter! It has happaened.

2) There is something switched on all of the time that you are not aware of.

Ring BG and find out if most of the bill is made up from day units or night units. I think you will find that it is night units and the storage heaters and/or immersion are a major part of the problem.

Here is what I you could try:

1. Look at the meter. Get a rough idea of how fast it is turning.

2. Go to the fuse board / distribution board.

3. Switch off 1 circuit at a time and look at the meter.

4. Try to identify what circuit(s) makes the meter turn fastest.

5. Once you have identified what circuits do this try to identify the item(s) on that circuit that are using most power. This is simply a process of elimination.

Here is what you might find:

1. When one circuit is off the meter slows down significantly and you seem to have "lost" nothing. Investigate and get rid of / unplug /disconnect it.

2. You should find that when every circuit is turned off the meter stops! If not either someone eles is taking power that you are paying for or the meter is faulty or there is another board (or load) connected to it that you are unaware of! If this is the case it needs to be resolved.

3. Perhaps an immersion (or 2!) are on all of the time and you think it is off! The immersion may switch on all night on the night rate automatically without you knowing. Some systems have 2 seperate immersion elements.

4. Perhaps the wrong meter reading were given by mistake.

5. Perhaps the wrong details were given to BG and/or the ESB and you are being billed for someone elses meter by mistake!

From my experience everyone with storage heaters seem to get far larger electricity bills than they feel they should. Turn off the storage heaters for a 48 hours and measure the units and compare to the same period with the heaters on.

all my bulbs are energy efficient

Energy efficient lighting for domestic installations is over-rated in my opinion. Lighting is only a small portion of the electricity bill in most houses.

Heating water electrically is very inefficient. Gas for example is much cheaper.

Best of luck with it! Let us know how you get on.

iPink

2011- thanks you so much for all that information, I will try it out tomorrow, I was also in Aldi today & they had these plug through things for measuring power... I will try that also!

sayra

Hi. Did u have any joy figuring out the meter....??
I've just moved house and have the exact same problem bills have doubled and. Usage doubled but exact same appliances as previous home.
Bord gais just said readings are correct n nothing they can do

beanie10

Ive been called out twice to solve problems like this and its very rare its the meter. First guy was getting bills of €700 per 2 months. On first visit i noticed he had a pump on mains water to boost the pressure which was running permanently. He wasnt interested in that being the cause but was full sure it was the meter and paid the €400 to get it checked.
The bills kept on coming foe best part of a year when he called me back. The pump was still running constantly so had to tell him again to get pump fixed. He got his plumber out and found a leak under utility floor, thus pump running constantly. When he got it fixed his bill dropped to €350.
The second lady had a frost heater in attic which was turned up to max ie the heater was on constantly. Her bills dropped from €240 to €120. Its worth trying put some of these.