Energy stealer appliance in the house, finding the culprit

paloaders

Hi folks,

I'm not living in my house at the moment due to family illness. I've electrical heating in the form of one of those air pumps that pulls in the air and warms it up and heats the water that way. I've turned off all the appliances I'm aware off except for the fridge and all the heating and I'm still racking up the electric units especially the day units which is a disaster as you can imagine. Is there anyway to determine what could be still using electricity in the house apart from turning off all the fuses at the board and bringing them on one by one to see if I can figure out what in that particular board could be causing the energy leak? Any tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

PA.

eusap

You can buy an energy meter in DID, it gives you a visual screen of current usage, allows you to wander around the house and see whats causing current spikes

theteal

How old is the fridge? It could well be that. What kind of useage are we talking?

Tapo smart plugs are great for measuring useage although you have to plug the suspected device into to get a reading so it may take bit more detective work or you buy multiple tapos

paloaders

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146811#Comment_120146811

Thanks a lot for that Eusap! I'll give them a buzz and see if it's what I'm looking for. How does it allow you to wander around the house to see what's using the energy would you know?

paloaders

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146852#Comment_120146852

Thanks Theteal, the Fridge is only since 2015 so I'd hope it'd still be in good nick? It seems I'm still getting bills well over the 100 euro mark for the period even though I haven't been in the house pretty much all year. Aaand I have solar panels on the roof so I would've really hoped that the panels would've stepped in and provided the necessary for whatever appliances are calling for it.

eusap

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146907#Comment_120146907

check out Efergy online, this is the meter DID sell. you put a measuring clamp at the meter and the display can be plugged in our operate on batterys. Take the display with you and switch things on/off and wait 10 secs and the display updates.

We found some old halogen bulbs where eating electricity or running the washing machine at 60 deg

phormium

How long is the €100 bill covering? How many units in that.

Have you a radon fan on 24/7, I'm convinced mine really increases the unit use even though everyone says they are light on electricity! Same if you have any sort of pumps with sewage/water systems.

I have been tracking my electricity unit usage for some time out of curiosity and I know when I am away and all that is on is fridge, freezer, wifi/sky and that radon fan the house uses on average 4 units per day.

Kencollins

I would be looking at the heating. Is it standard air to water? Or does it heat water with thermoelectric panels (really small and thin black panels that you can see the squiggle pattern of the pipes in?)

Given the low temperatures lately a regular air to water hearing system will have to rely on electricity to raise the temperature of the water to higher than can be recovered with the compressor. This can be over 2KWh, depending on the heat demand and outside temperatures.

If it is thermodynamic panels, these have been proven to use a lot of electricity once they are installed in anything other than a perfect environment. Ireland unfortunately isn't a perfect environment for this technology, not are families with an average to high hot water requirement. They were sold up to a few years ago with statements of "all your hot water for the cost of running a small pump, but they were not backed up with proper data.

smuggler.ie

Perhaps worth to watch this to get different angle view on how heatpumps might not be as they where advertised, further to that some of them are fitted with electrical heater elements(immersion) for a "boost" when they cant provide what you demand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhAKMAcmJFg