Our house is a typical 60's house, with 2 phases coming in from the street. Our meters are inside, they are the old ferranti dial type, there is four in total. Two are in use, the third was connected on nightrate via a ripple switch to a nightstore but this has been removed and the connection converted to a heatpoint. The fourth - water heating - is obsolete as we have gas hot water. We use on average 500kWh per month which seems a lot, as we have the gas hot water, and a woodburner for heating. There is a fan heater in two bedrooms but both are used infrequently and are on thermostats. The only other two 'major' appliances are the fridge freeer, and a chest frreezer. Combined these use 40kWh a month. What options are there from an electricians perpective are there for testing the meters and or monitoring electricity usage? Thanks in advance.
ryanm2,
Jun 4, 6:06am
You can get a clamp on cent a meter which measures actual power used. I guess you will need 2 though as you have 2 phases.How are you getting your figures for the chest and fridge freezer?, a bad seal on a chest freezer can cost you a lot. How do you cook? Free standing oven?
kwaka5,
Jun 4, 6:08am
You can ask to have the meters replaced and tested. If they find fault then you should be reimbursed if no fault found then you will pay for the meter replacement. Best thing is to take readings every day at the same time of the day and record that. Alter your electrical usage and you should see the change in the readings. I.e turn off your freezer for 12 hours and re read. This will give you an idea of usage. Or better still, beg borrow or steal a plug in usage meter and check all you appliances to make sure you are forgetting about something plugged in.
kwaka5,
Jun 4, 6:09am
Basically you need to check to make sure you are correct. I used to do meter installs and investigations. It is very rare to find a meter that is actually faulty in favour of the supplier.
6,000Kwh per annum doesn't sound significantly high to me.
As for your actual question: Perhaps buy a meter and monitor it yourself. I got a PDL one at the beginning of the year (which i can't find a link for) and found that the things that were using much of the electricity were not the things I had suspected. You just clamp a wireless transmitter to the main power cable in your meter board which feeds real time usage data to a wee screen in the house
EDIT: beaten by just about everyone else already. :-( ha!
kandjaja,
Jun 4, 6:16am
I have a plug in meter that I used. I question the accuracy but its a good indication I guess. We have an electric hob/electric underbench oven for cooking. Are these hungry on power?
ryanm2,
Jun 4, 6:19am
They are hungry on power, in particular the hob, how often do you use it for cooking though, 30 mins a day, maybe 2 elements max? Dont use the oven to heat the house either.
kandjaja,
Jun 4, 6:19am
So they would usually read high?
kandjaja,
Jun 4, 6:20am
Oven to heat the house? That's novel LOL. No we have a wood burner. That usage you mention is about right.
daves01,
Jun 4, 6:34am
No, Kwaka is right. The older meters tend to read on the low side especially on the low demand times such as overnight. And when meters are replaced (as they have to be) the newer meters are more accurate and record the actual usage and therefore a higher power bill which then gives rise to the power companies are ripping me off outbursts.
5425,
Jun 4, 11:37pm
I assume your family is the only occupants on the property. Sometimes parts of older housing is split off to flats. ? and the electrical wiring was not correctly done as to what is now existing.
skin1235,
Jun 5, 1:01am
typically the ovens used a 3kw element, typically the two hobs use 2.4 kw elements 3 hrs oven and 1 hrs with 2 hobs = 13.8 kw ( but thats assuming the oven is uncontrolled, normal would be 30% = 3hrs use is 1 hr of supply to the element, so 7.8kw in the above would be closer to reality
russ18,
Jun 5, 1:30am
The old dial meters had written on them how many revolutions of the dial it takes to make 1kwh (186?) I once used a heater, clip-on ammeter, multimeter (volts) and a calculator to check a revenue meter.
kandjaja,
Jun 5, 7:13am
You're right, mine say 225 revolutions/kwh I'm a stupid builder, I don't even want to begin to understand the calculations involved with your meter check! LOL
kandjaja,
Jun 5, 7:27am
Yep its a standalone 3 bedroom house. 2 adults, 2 stroppy teenagers with all the usual electronic crap, and a 2 year old.
kandjaja,
Jun 5, 7:30am
Close. 3kw oven, 2 elements at 1800w each, 2 @1200w. When you say uncontrolled I guess you mean the supply which is uncontrolled.
skin1235,
Jun 5, 8:03am
trying to explain that although the oven is 'on' the element is not drawing the 3kw continuous , controlled = thermostat on this occasion
equally the hob unless you have the rheostat on full the elements do not draw max for the whole time they are turned on
kandjaja,
Jun 5, 7:54pm
Ahh yes, thanks for clarifying that.
skin1235,
Jun 5, 8:32pm
I wouldn't get too upset at 500kw month we have an old 13 ft stud 6 bedroom villa, no in roof insulation, definitely no under floor, the walls are old 1inch weatherboard with 1/2 matchwood inner, skrim and wallpaper, one magnum fire with wetback and no heat transfer system ( as yet - theres one in the back of the mind that may get to see light this year) a couple of years ago we fitted a caliphont for hot water in the biggest user area ( the bathroom ) theres 38 light sockets, 2 freezers ( which replace one old big one, used to gobble up approx $60 month, the two smaller new ones combined only use about $28 per month ) usual other appliances, although have removed the hob and oven, now use a 3 ring gas hob and an on bench oven (1300W ), excess's would be 3 computers 24/7, large tool shed full of tools most of which are electric and when used eat power like its going out of fashion (sons a builder and I still have most of my old gear, do quite a lot of joinery and other tinkering) plus a 1.25 kw possum plucker that when used is at least a 2 hr exercise we use around 750kw per mth on the meters
aredwood,
Jun 6, 12:13pm
Wish my winter bills were only 500kW/hr per month. My hot water is solar / waste oil boiler. Cooking is gas, and heating is from the boiler also. Yet current bill is 934Kw/hr over 33 days. Have already checked fridges / freezers, computers ect with a plug in power meter. And they use nowhere near enough to account for the bill. No clothes dryer or any electric heaters.
OP - do you have a clothes dryer? As they use lots of power.
kandjaja,
Jun 7, 5:44am
Yes we do, but its used sparingly.
jonners2013,
Dec 20, 10:01pm
i'm inclined to agree with what most other people are suggesting - it's not that your electricity usage is high, it's that your expectations of power usage don't match reality.
a family of 4 spending that amount on power is doing extremely well.
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