Something wrong here !

[Flyingsparks]

The house is heated by oil fired boiler but the hot water was only set to come on for 2 hours in the morning & 2 hours at night so the rest of the time the immersion heater was doing all the work. The lady has 3 very young children so is in most of the time and could be drawing off the hot water cylinder most of the day.

I checked the circuits with an ammeter and that is when I discovered that the immersion heater was pulling load, but could not find much else apart from the lighting. Have suggested LED GU10 downlights to the customer.

Nearest neighbour is half a mile away so it cant be them!

I have installed my data logger on the incoming tails and will collect in a weeks time to check what the usage is and find what times the load is being used.

 

[Flyingsparks]

How are the tails connected in to the meter?

Tails come straight out of the meter into a double pole henley block and then 3 seperate tails are taken from the phase conductor and connected to the bottom side of the switch fuse.

 

[Mark42]

Are you sure it was only ONE month? Not maybe a little longer for an initial bill, or even three months. It’s easy to forget when the last bill was – they do come round with alarming regularity! This ‘problem’ might be more to do with psychology than electricity.

Have you actually seen the bill? Was it read or estimated? Are they paying some ridiculously over-priced tariff?

BTW, I believe the 2.5mm connection is compliant if ‘back-protected’ within three meters, and so long at the cable is unlikely to be damaged. Horrible, and scary, but compliant nonetheless.

 

[needasparks]

could it be the last bill was estimated too low and then read after a winter one which is always higher.

 

[Flyingsparks]

I have not actually seen the bill and I suspect that the amount quoted by the customer may be inflated, but she said that the previous months bill worked out to about £90 so clearly the electricity consumption has gone up considerably.

I am aware that with this configuration of wiring, the armourings of the SWA may heat up due to eddy currents, but could this effect also contribute to an increase in consumption of electricity through the meter ? (It is 38 years since I did this theory at college so am a bit rusty on this).

 

[Knobhead]

Eddy currents shouldn’t add to the bill as far as I remember from collage days. The strength of the eddy current is proportional to the current flow through the cores. By generating the eddy current power is lost in the main conductor giving the effect of high volt drop.
I could be wrong on this, I am thinking back over 30 years.

 

[Flyingsparks]

Could a high volt drop lead to higher current flow ?

I will collect the data logger next week and download to my laptop. Hopefully be able to get a clearer picture of what loads are been drawn & when and will also be able to check the recorded voltage readings.

 

[mogga]

you could try disconnecting one of the cables that your customers not using n see if any neighbourds lose power

 

[needasparks]

Could a high volt drop lead to higher current flow ?

That is correct, simerly a higher voltage will make a slightly lower electricity bill.
current and voltage are bi-proportional hence why pylons run at high voltage at a greatly reduced current flow for transportation purposes.

 

[mark1979]

what about these voltage optimisation units which reduce the voltage to save you money?

 

[needasparks]

what about these voltage optimisation units which reduce the voltage to save you money?

Oh you mean the magic beans, I have some here in exchange for your cow. save you walking all that way to market.

 

[ipf]

'nearest neighbour is half a mile away'. Seems like it's in the middle of nowhere. Any leakage invoved ?

 

[nickblake]

any street lighting seen some of them connected a house supply : they've not got storage heaters have they

 

[telectrix]

what about these voltage optimisation units which reduce the voltage to save you money?

reduce the voltage, you increase the current, or the time taken for the kettle to boil. either way, you don't save anything. to raise the temperature if a specific amount of water takes x no. of calories. these calories equate to joules, which equates to kW, energy can't be created, only converted from 1 form to another.

trhe only way you will save with one of these units is on lighting, but your lights will be dimmer. easier and more cost effective to train the kids that switches can be turned off as well as on.

 

[mark1979]

agreed tel, but the point i was making is that higher voltage wont reduce your bill.