On Jan 3, 11:56 am, mike wrote:
But I do remember at around that time the electricity meter was
changed - from a beefy black plastic rotating wheel thing, to a small
plastic box with LCD readout and blinking led!

There was a post on here a while back (2 months-ish?) from someone
who'd had a new meter installed.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...c6467858269e01

The old meter measured kWh, the new meter measured kVAh . The point
was that the new meter charged more for inductive loads (motors), so
the poster's use of his numerous power tools was costing him lots more.

Might be relevant if motors make up a significant part of your
electric consumption.