I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?
--
Chris

No heating?
You could switch everything off and check that your meter has stopped
turning. Then switch on items (or circuits at the fuse box) one at a
time to see if there is a big demand on a particular circuit.
er
cheers

Jacob

In article .com,
writes
No heating?

No - it's all gas.
BTW ... thanks for your very quick reply, Jacob.

You could switch everything off and check that your meter has stopped
turning. Then switch on items (or circuits at the fuse box) one at a
time to see if there is a big demand on a particular circuit.

That sounds like a good idea.
What do the flashes on the meter mean?
Is each flash a thousandth of a unit?
--
Chris

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 09:50:21 +0000, Chris wrote:

I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the
moment, made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

People at home all day, lights on?
What do use to cook?
Computer(s) on 24/7?

Small loads on for long periods soon add up. 83W, yer less than
average these days PC just the CPU box) will take 2 units in a 24hrs,
add a monitor on for 12hrs and you have 3 units/day...

18 is nothing we chomp through well over 20 but then we cook by
'lectric.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Don't know - there's nothing on mine which you'd call a "flash",
perhaps your's is more modern.

cheers

jacob

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Chris ] wrote:

I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the
moment, made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can
that use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?

It's not difficult to use this amount - I use even more, but I have got a
pond pump running 7x24 and 3 computers on for most of the waking hours.

It's surprising how much power is taken by lighting, if your house is well
lit. When it's dark tonight, go round and add up the wattage of all the
lights which are on. You may well have a couple of kW or more. Run those
for 6 hours, and there's 12 units straight away!
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Chris ] wrote:

In article .com,
writes
No heating?

No - it's all gas.
BTW ... thanks for your very quick reply, Jacob.

You could switch everything off and check that your meter has stopped
turning. Then switch on items (or circuits at the fuse box) one at a
time to see if there is a big demand on a particular circuit.

That sounds like a good idea.
What do the flashes on the meter mean?
Is each flash a thousandth of a unit?

See what it says on the meter. Mine says 250 revs per kWh (unit). There are
black and green marks on the edge of the disc which come round once per
rev - so if you time a few revs, you can estimate your current (!) rate of
consumption.

If you want to know how many units plug-in devices like fridges take over a
24-hour period, you can buy plug-in measuring devices from places like
Maplins or MachineMart which will tell you.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 10:18:56 +0000, Chris ] wrote:

In article .com,
writes
No heating?

No - it's all gas.
BTW ... thanks for your very quick reply, Jacob.

You could switch everything off and check that your meter has stopped
turning. Then switch on items (or circuits at the fuse box) one at a
time to see if there is a big demand on a particular circuit.

That sounds like a good idea.
What do the flashes on the meter mean?
Is each flash a thousandth of a unit?

This will usually be written on the meter - e.g. "1000 imp/kwh" means 1000 flashes per unit.
Some meters have a blob on the LCD which goes on/off at whatever rate is indicated.

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 09:50:21 +0000, Chris ] wrote:

I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?

I'm using about the same. I have two PCs on 24 hours/day however and
the occassional use of the 3KW immersion heater.

Do you have lots of very bright lights?!

M.

Chris ] wrote:
In article .com,
writes
No heating?

No - it's all gas.
BTW ... thanks for your very quick reply, Jacob.

You could switch everything off and check that your meter has stopped
turning. Then switch on items (or circuits at the fuse box) one at a
time to see if there is a big demand on a particular circuit.

That sounds like a good idea.
What do the flashes on the meter mean?
Is each flash a thousandth of a unit?

It'll almost certainly be written on the meter somewhere, it is on our
'flashing' meter.

--
Chris Green

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?

Chris


Leaving things, like the Tele' PC and tape/disc appliances, on Stand-By Mode
isn't turning them off. They can be using just as much power in stand-by
than they use when fully operating. Don't leave them in stand-by, turn them
off properly.

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?
--
Chris

I have a neighbour who's security light is on at night more than it is off.
As most of them run at 500 watts they can bang the night time usage up
enormously.

Buccaneer wrote:

I have a neighbour who's security light is on at night more than it
is off. As most of them run at 500 watts they can bang the night time
usage up enormously.

Mine's like that unfortunately, still trying to 'cat-proof' the garden as a
few times I've seen the light on I've seen cats walking around at the
back...

John.

Mike Harrison wrote:

This will usually be written on the meter - e.g. "1000 imp/kwh" means 1000 flashes per unit.

Mine's also 1000 flashes per kWh, so that seems to be pretty standard.

In which case your consumption in watts is 60 times the number of
flashes per minute or 3600 divided by the number of seconds between flashes.

--
Andy

I have a neighbour who's security light is on at night more than it is
off.
As most of them run at 500 watts they can bang the night time usage up
enormously.


Shortly after moving into our current house I replaced the 500 watt halogen
in our back yard with a sensor driven 60 watt bulkhead. The light level is
more than sufficient in a smallish area. The 500 watt halogen (not PIR
triggered) has been relocated to adequately illuminates the paddock beyond
the yard. IMO most 500 watt halogen fittings are totally unsuitable for the
usage they are put to. Usually small front gardens where they annoy the
neighbours, or dazzle oncoming cars. In a previous house a PIR 500 watt
halogen on the garage door pillar made it impossible to reverse into the
garage due to the glare. It was replaced with a 15 watt Compact Fluorescent
Lamp (CFL) in a coach lamp on a timer.

I also changed the inherited 3 x 100 lamps at the front of our current house
with 2 x 15 and 1 x 7 watt CFL's. As these are on daily in the winter from
4.30pm to 1am (no street lamps here!) they alone are saving us a fortune! I
also use CFL's in all fittings in usually inhabited rooms.

Our electricity bills are about a third of the previous owners of the house.
We average 18 units per day in the winter. Given we're a family of four,
living in a pitch black rural location, and I work at home on a PC three
long days per week I'm pretty happy with this.

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:34:37 -0000, Doctor D wrote:

I also changed the inherited 3 x 100 lamps at the front of our
current house with 2 x 15 and 1 x 7 watt CFL's. As these are on
daily in the winter from 4.30pm to 1am (no street lamps here!)

So you are outside every evening, in the winter? Why bother lighting
the outside when you are, presumably, inside and still awake? Any tea
leaf will wait an hour or two after you switch 'em off before quietly
breaking in under the cover of darkness.

I do agree that using CFLs for the lights that are on most often is a
very good idea from the lecky bill point of view. Pay back even at
5p/unit on our 6 lounge lights at =A39 each is/was something like 6
months.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

BigWallop wrote:


Leaving things, like the Tele' PC and tape/disc appliances, on Stand-By Mode
isn't turning them off.

Quite true thus far...

..................... They can be using just as much power in stand-by
than they use when fully operating. Don't leave them in stand-by, turn them
off properly.

But this is misleading. For TVs, standby power is prolly under 5W - so
it'll take 200 hours (call it a week) to chew up 1 unit. Ten such
'standby' appliances, though, will eat you 1 unit a day. It's certainly
worth making your controls for AV appliances, PC peripherals, and the
like convenient enough to operate that you can turn each group truly
'off' when you're not using them; but this is impractical for some gear
such as your VCR which needs to keep its clock going, and other things
which lose their settings when not connected to the mains.

For PCs, they'll usually use even less when 'off' but connected - but
they'll use relatively plenty (say 50W) when in 'hot standby' - the
ready-to-start-up-in-a-few-seconds mode which XP and probably earlier
versions of Windows calls 'Stand By'.

For tape/disc appliances, they use little power even when 'fully' on
(20-30W would be typical), and where they have a 'standby' mode, will
use maybe a tenth of that.

Across the country, there's more 'background' load from all the
small-power standby appliances (and the DECT phones plugged into the
mains, and and and) than there was 20 or even 10 years ago; so if you
multiply up all the 'standby' usage of our 20million+ households it
comes to quite a lot. But multiplying up the heat losses from drafts,
poor insulation, inefficient fridges, and the like chews up several such
quite-a-lots!

Stefek

Chris wrote:
I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?

Teenager + Lightswitch = £££

OT

I can't help wondering if I could make my fortune by designing a switch
with only and "ON" function and save mony in manufacturing. It's likely
to sell quite well as there is a large proportion of the population that
don't use the "OFF" side of the switch at all; ever.

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?

If it was 'leaking' it would likely be heating something and you would know
about.

Alternative the leak would be so large that it would blow a fuse!


Any ideas?

Immersion heater left on? Daytime use to tumble drier, any electric fires or
fan heaters?

Any tests I can do?

Yes turn everything off and watch the meter.


--

Michael Chare

Chris ] wrote:

I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the
moment, made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

A power hungry computer perhaps :-)
Left on 24/7 with a large CRT and so on could easily use half of this.

Rest is probably the tele.

"JM" wrote in message
...
Buccaneer wrote:

I have a neighbour who's security light is on at night more than it
is off. As most of them run at 500 watts they can bang the night time
usage up enormously.

Mine's like that unfortunately, still trying to 'cat-proof' the garden as
a
few times I've seen the light on I've seen cats walking around at the
back...

Yep - I found a cat happily sunning itself under mine a while back. They
even know that when it goes off they need to move their butts to get it back
on again. Had to move the sensor to ensure ground based objects don't
trigger.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ill.com...
?On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:34:37 -0000, Doctor D wrote:

I also changed the inherited 3 x 100 lamps at the front of our
rrent house with 2 x 15 and 1 x 7 watt CFL's. As these are on
daily in the winter from 4.30pm to 1am (no street lamps here!)

So you are outside every evening, in the winter? Why bother lighting
the outside when you are, presumably, inside and still awake?

Some insurance policies now insist on such lighting.


Any tea
leaf will wait an hour or two after you switch 'em off before quietly
breaking in under the cover of darkness.

Don't tell the insurers :-)

"Andrew Chesters" wrote in message
...
Chris wrote:
I'm using about 6000 units a year; roughly 18 units a day at the moment,
made up of 14 day and 4 night units.

And I can't work out where it's all going!

There's a modern, efficient fridge/freezer, and the pump for the
combi-boiler, and a few things on standby ... but how on earth can that
use 18 units a day?

Can there be leaks?
Any ideas?
Any tests I can do?

Teenager + Lightswitch = £££

OT

I can't help wondering if I could make my fortune by designing a switch
with only and "ON" function and save mony in manufacturing. It's likely
to sell quite well as there is a large proportion of the population that
don't use the "OFF" side of the switch at all; ever.

Why is this restricted to teenagers ? Those of the fairer sex of any age
suffer the same affliction.

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:34:37 -0000, "Doctor D"
wrote:


I have a neighbour who's security light is on at night more than it is
off.
As most of them run at 500 watts they can bang the night time usage up
enormously.


Shortly after moving into our current house I replaced the 500 watt halogen
in our back yard with a sensor driven 60 watt bulkhead. The light level is
more than sufficient in a smallish area. The 500 watt halogen (not PIR
triggered) has been relocated to adequately illuminates the paddock beyond
the yard. IMO most 500 watt halogen fittings are totally unsuitable for the
usage they are put to. Usually small front gardens where they annoy the
neighbours, or dazzle oncoming cars. In a previous house a PIR 500 watt
halogen on the garage door pillar made it impossible to reverse into the
garage due to the glare. It was replaced with a 15 watt Compact Fluorescent
Lamp (CFL) in a coach lamp on a timer.

There is a downside to this though. When I first moved into my current
house it had this arrangement, ie a low wattage bulb on all night. It
was only after we had our cars broken into a couple of times it
occurred to me what the problem with this was. Continuous low power
illumination provides just enough light for anyone thinking about
breaking into the house or car to see what they're doing, but often
not enough light for them to feel vulnerable to being seen by someone.

I then fitted a 500w pir floodlight, which has seemed to have the
desired effect*. The cars are now normally in complete darkness, but
as soon as anyone walks within a few feet of them they are spot lit
from directly above, and very easily visible from mine and my
neighbours windows.


Nick


* Of course sod's law says that my car will probably be broken into
tonight after saying this.......

In article , Stefek Zaba s-nilnews-
writes

Across the country, there's more 'background' load from all the
small-power standby appliances (and the DECT phones plugged into the
mains, and and and) than there was 20 or even 10 years ago

An article on the BBC in the Grauniad mentioned in passing yesterday
that many Freeview set-top boxes don't meet energy saving requirements
when placed in standby mode, and went on to suggest that when the govt
finally turns off the analogue signal, people's bills will go up
significantly due to all the set-top boxes left on standby.

--
..sigmonster on vacation

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:20:38 -0000, Mike wrote:

So you are outside every evening, in the winter? Why bother
lighting the outside when you are, presumably, inside and still
awake?

Some insurance policies now insist on such lighting.

Presumably for some measly discount which you the spend on electricity
or is it a condition of cover, in which case what happens if there is
a power cut? And presumably has to be fully automatic with no easy
abilty to switch off.

Any tea leaf will wait an hour or two after you switch 'em off
before quietly breaking in under the cover of darkness.

Don't tell the insurers :-)

Quite, they really don't live in the real world do they?

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:39:25 +0000, Nick Read wrote:

Continuous low power illumination provides just enough light for
anyone thinking about breaking into the house or car to see what
they're doing, but often not enough light for them to feel
vulnerable to being seen by someone.

Quite a valid argument especially in a quiet place where there are few
passers by.

The cars are now normally in complete darkness,

Think I'd keep the complete darkness, some one wanging a torch about
is much more likely to attract attention than the steady glow from a
fixed light. Mind you it depends on how dark your "complete darkness"
is, here it is star or moonlight only. OK both are actually good
enough to move about in and a full moon is very bright, plenty of
light to be up to no good or be seen by. But we also tend to have a
lot of cloud so dark is can't see your hand in front of your nose
dark.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:20:38 -0000, Mike wrote:

So you are outside every evening, in the winter? Why bother
lighting the outside when you are, presumably, inside and still
awake?

Some insurance policies now insist on such lighting.

Presumably for some measly discount which you the spend on electricity
or is it a condition of cover, in which case what happens if there is
a power cut?

It's a condition. No way round. I don't like it any more than Part P but
few insurers will touch rural properties nowadays. If you go into the
country at night now all you can see is houses glowing in the distance.



Any tea leaf will wait an hour or two after you switch 'em off
before quietly breaking in under the cover of darkness.

Don't tell the insurers :-)

Quite, they really don't live in the real world do they?

I think they regard themselves as the 'real world' and us as a warped
figment of the imagination (with thanks to Hitchhiker whenever)

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 00:22:33 -0000, Mike wrote:

It's a condition. No way round. I don't like it any more than Part
P but few insurers will touch rural properties nowadays. If you go
into the country at night now all you can see is houses glowing in
the distance.

Not round here, some have a lone 60W bulkhead over the door they use
the most but thats about it, certainly no permenant all round
illumination.

(Makes mental note to check insurance policy...)

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

To take all the points raised!

Children of 6 & 4 also leave all lights on - back to CFL's again!

No worries about crime here, our car insurance is much cheaper than it was
in "nice" Surrey and no comments from buildings/contents insurance
companies. Our cars are locked away in the garage at night, but neighbours
have no problems.

I take the point about external lighting, but in reality a 500 watt light
would not wake us, and despite being in a village, our neighbours are not
close enough to see or hear anything either. The reason for leaving them on
is mainly for visitor and general aesthetics. The cost is so low with CFL's,
and the fittings were already there. I did splash out £20 on a Screwfix
timer with random function though!

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 00:22:33 -0000, Mike wrote:

It's a condition. No way round. I don't like it any more than Part
P but few insurers will touch rural properties nowadays. If you go
into the country at night now all you can see is houses glowing in
the distance.

Not round here, some have a lone 60W bulkhead over the door they use
the most but thats about it, certainly no permenant all round
illumination.

(Makes mental note to check insurance policy...)


I would. It was in this year's renewal together with a whole host of
security upgrades to locks and so on. We couldn't meet ome of them as it
would have meant hacking a several hundred year old door so had to pay a
surcharge.