Can this happen and what is the easiest way to check for it ?
I'm having very large electricity bills, randomly; not every month, but this month is 3 times what I paid last year at the same time.
'Smart' meter so not because of estimates. Electric Co says it's 'normal' !?
ryanm2,
Mar 9, 12:24pm
More often than not its a faulty appliance. Hot water cylinder, fridge or freezer? Do you live in a stand alone house or part of a complex? Have seen in the past large houses that have been split up but 1 or 2 circuits being paid for by other tenant.
myboylollipop,
Mar 9, 12:27pm
Change your power company to energy on line.
androth2,
Mar 9, 12:44pm
Turn of everything and check if meter is still showing consumption. You may have to do this a few times at different times of several days. A friend had a neighbour run an extension cord over the fence from their garage to the other garage to run a washing machine. The cord was hidden from sight
zak410,
Mar 9, 12:49pm
Thanks. Stand alone house, no freezer, fridge seems to run OK, old hwc though but doesn't seem to heat often (can hear it when going) Also excessive bills are intermittent ?
Changing power Co soon, just to make sure.
#5 thanks; too far from neighbours to be any of their extension lead.
trade4us2,
Mar 9, 1:15pm
Probably the most common reason for high power usage is that the hot water cylinder is overflowing hot water. Can you see the overflow pipe?
lythande1,
Mar 9, 1:55pm
yes and check them one by one.
zak410,
Mar 9, 2:35pm
Thanks, but relief valve nice and dry.
Will check a fuse at the time.
beejayem_nz,
Mar 9, 4:00pm
I had this problem last year and it was a pipe leaking under the house the hot one didnt discover it for 6 months as someone went under the house for another reason and discovered it, lucky as I would still be paying for it
zak410,
Mar 9, 5:56pm
No hot water pipe underground here.
elect70,
Mar 9, 8:16pm
Youd be surprised at what chews up power . desktop comp 600w/hr same with 55inch Tv so if on all day = $$$ check fridge door seals turn off unused appliances even on standby the use power . Lights darker ealier so on sooner =more power .
ianab,
Mar 9, 8:32pm
An average PC wont draw anything like 600w. You might get to that with a high end gaming PC, when it's actually running a game. More like 100w for an average PC doing "normal" stuff.
A new Samsung 55" TV uses about 200w, although older ones would have been more power hungry.
So they DO use some power of course, but it's not scary high amounts. Standby uses some power too, but it's relatively small. Yes 5 or 10w x several appliances does add up, but it should be consistent.
A leaking hot water system, now that can chew the power as that's like 3,000w when it's running. A faulty fridge or freezer will also chew some power if it's lost most of it's gas, and needs to run most of the time to try and stay cold.
Also look for weird things. Friend had a higher power bill, and found her cat was playing with a heater switch in the spare room.
But the advice of turning everything off, then connecting one at a time is a good check.
trade4us2,
Mar 9, 9:04pm
If possible, get meter readings every hour, and look at the power being used every hour. But probably the crazy meters these days won't allow you to do that.
tweake,
Mar 9, 9:42pm
what sort of amounts are we talking here ?
zak410,
Mar 9, 11:15pm
This is a graph for last year usage, and my mistake we still have estimates (light colour) but average use increasing a lot :
Smart meters can take meter readings every 1/2 hour. If your current power company doesn't give you access to those readings - change to a company that does. You can then look in more detail to the months with large bills. And see if the average usage is higher, or if it is only certain days / times when usage is higher.
Do you have any water or wastewater pumps? Faulty float switches or controllers causing the motor to run continuously. Any water leaks on the pump outlet?
Any underground power cables? They can develop insulation faults, causing the power to leak away through the ground.
aredwood,
Mar 9, 11:36pm
Just had a closer look at your graph, and it says that 3 out of 4 months your bills are estimated. Compare solid yellow Vs yellow/white stripes.
mrcat1,
Mar 10, 2:17am
It will be on the roof, the seal in the ajax valve leaks and allows hot water to run onto the roof so it keeps getting cold water into the cylinder to have to reheat. The seal is only a couple of dollars and not that hard to replace.
marte,
Mar 10, 4:56am
Check your roofs downpipes for water on a sunny dry day. If there's water there it can be from the hot water cylinder overflowing.
Mine was a Copper tube that was not insulated, it froze and made a split down its side that was not really noticeable, two story flat. It was the running water leaking out its side on a hot day when I noticed the water running down the downpipe.
marte,
Mar 10, 4:57am
Oh, the warming draw for the oven. That happened to somebody I knew once. 400 watts.
prancer3,
Mar 10, 7:05am
Think your estimates aren't being charged at a high enough rate. With a reading only been done 4 monthly there is more room for discrepancies. Read the meter useage on the day the estimates are usually done each month and compare the real useage with their estimate.
dibble35,
Mar 10, 7:14am
The way im reading that graph is that they way under estimated your power consumption over winter, so big bill in November, then Dec, Jan, Feb they have upped the estimate so 3 times what your reading was for last Feb, You may find that Marchs bill is quite low. An actual reading every 4th month isnt very good, should be every 2nd i would have thought. PS if its a smart meter. why are they still doing estimates?
trade4us2,
Mar 10, 7:49am
Turn all taps off and check to see if the water meter is still going round. Everybody should have power and water meters that show what is being used at the moment. My smart meter is useless for that. I wonder what the manufacturers and power companies are thinking?
zak410,
Mar 10, 9:00am
Yes, we have a long (and old) underground cable going to a shed; every thing else seem fine so I suspect this 'may' be the cause. Can it be somehow measured ?
trade4us2,
Mar 10, 10:19am
The graph shows an average usage of about 20 units a day, which is a bit less than I use. So there is probably nothing to worry about.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.