have i messed up

[mikparkes]

As I was moving out of my house and putting it on the market I decided to replace the CU unit and test the electrics. This would be my first time doing this since i finished my EAL domestic installers course.

I found so many fault's, testing failures and exposed wiring it was unreal. For example no earth's to lights, 4 cables running to one socket on a wall witch would be fine if it didn't hadn't pushed the plaster of the wall and a ring main that had 4 sockets on it and 5 spurs consisting of 11 sockets.

One by one i fixed all the problems mostly by the use of connection box's and fresh cables from them to whatever they were supposed to supply and changed the ring into 2 radials rather than fusing all those spurs. I completed the periodic test's and stayed in the house 2 more weeks 2 finish decorating with no problems before moving out. I left nothing electrical in the house only only the gas central heating was using electricity for the timer.

I have only been back once when i met a friend there and played some guitar together.

As the sale should complete shortly i decided to pop in take a meter reading and shut down the CU completely. My friend did decide to try the electric fire i had fitted to the wall (but not plugged in) and i discovered that the RCD had tripped, not sure if it tripped when she plugged it in or before.

After getting back home i entered my meter reading only to notice that apparently i've used 8430 Kwh hours of electricity in 8 months. thats 10 times my normal usage when i lived there.

The woman on the phone said that the meters can't be faulty and that it must be a wiring fault. I was wondering what I could have done that would help a property pass it's periodic inspection but do that to my electricity usage.

 

[telectrix]

check for a tap into next door. if it's a terrace house, look in the attic.

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Did you in any way change the tails coming out of the meter?

 

[Des 56]

Thats about one and a half KW per hour usage,seems a little close to a 1-2 KW electric fire on load continually

Have you clamped the supply to see what is being drawn
If you have raked up that sort of usage,then it should become apparent whats going where

 

[mikparkes]

Didn't change the tail's just plugged them into the new CU.
That comment about next door is making me paranoid. There was one cable under the floorboards in the bedroom that seemed to be going off towards next door. Was only fixing the first light when i noticed that.

 

[Des 56]

Didn't change the tail's just plugged them into the new CU.
That comment about next door is making me paranoid. There was one cable under the floorboards in the bedroom that seemed to be going off towards next door. Was only fixing the first light when i noticed that.

If you do find that is the reality,I would advise leaving it in situ, taking some photographic evidence and then going straight to the police

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

That cable could be a wall light?, do you know the neighbours?, tell them to turn every thing on in their house then shut off their supply!, if anything is left on you have your answer

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Go Go power pinchers....This will become all the more common from now on in and when winter comes loads of cretins will be nickin power....It`l be like that scene of bottom where they tap into nextdoors gas..........

 

[nikmet]

Do the nieghbours have a cannabis addiction? lol check there house with a thermal imager

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Went to do a kitchen this morning....could have sworn that was a cannabis plant i saw growin in the yard.....Have you seen what they do to the intake when you have growers in the house......loads of henleys and cables/tails everyware lol.....

 

[Marvo]

Shouldn't be difficult to find where the power draw is if you're methodical and test with a standard clamp meter. You can even do a rough check of the meter accuracy using a small load such as a heater or kettle and a clamp meter.