Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to measure the usage of electricity by particular appliances?
Trying to discover what might be an offending appliance causing our electricity bill to spike 6 fold in one quarter. TIA
How to Measure Electricity Usage by Appliances
djk on 05/12/2017 - 13:48
Last edited 05/12/2017 - 13:48
Last edited 05/12/2017 - 13:48
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Thank you, maybe you should get a job at Bunnings cause they told me they didn't stock anything like that. Seriously though, thank you so much!
6 times is a lot!
Is it 6 times the cost or 6 times the usage? (obviously if it's cost, then some of that might be explained by an increase in charges)Before buying a power meter, check the obvious things that suck power…
- Electric Hot Water that has sprung a leak… therefore water constantly draining and therefore water constantly heating.
- Similarly any electric heaters that you might have been running this year as opposed to last year?
- Pool pump constantly running?
- Extra TV viewing (ie TV on all day instead of only at night)
- a whole lot of extra cooking with Electric Oven recently?
- Fridge or freezer that is on the way out and constantly running instead of cycling on and off? (seems unlikely to increase by that much though)I have a whole house meter… I can see the ripple of usage caused by the fridge overnight as it cycles on and off, similarly when the Oven, Dishwasher and Washing Machine are in use (we don't have electric hot water so these appliances are the biggest power suckers we have). ANd I can spot the difference when flicking a light bulb on if I'm watching the meter, it's just not easy to spot amongst the noise of general usage unlike the Oven coming on.
You can get plug in meters too to test usage of individual appliances.
The only large appliances are a fridge, freezer and washing machine and we checked meter readings for them running individually and they are running according their specs.
No electric hot water, electric heaters, pool pump, TV's or entertainment equipment and don't use the oven. Everything else like the telephone, microwave and lights simply don't use enough power to cause the meter to change in a 2 hour period.
The electricity company agrees something strange is happening and strongly suggested it must be the fridge on it's last legs, but want $600 to come out and test the meter, so I need to be able to eliminate everything else first which is why I've trying to find some reliable way to measure each and every appliance.
Thank you for your help.
PC left on cryptomining (whether deliberately or not)?
It's gotta be something fairly decent to do that sort of damage!
Definitely not just rounding up from Estimates to an actual read this quarter? Go back through your bills and look for [E] next to the meter read numbers.
Check the meter read too, could just be a typo by the meter reader.
I just googled "measure appliance power usage" and various devices came up. I've never used such a device so can't recommend any of them.
That said, a six-fold increase is either due to a major appliance going crazy (something like a pool pump that draws a lot of power and is running constantly, or possibly a fridge/freezer issue), you suddenly increasing your usage of power hungry air conditioning/heating or other major appliances, or you've been the victim of "estimated power billing" and this is actually a square up charge from your electricity provider after doing a meter read and discovering you've been "undercharged" for some period of time.
First port of call is to talk to your electricity provider on the reasons for the spike … is this an actual increase due to increased usage, or is this a "correction" for previous undercharging? In either case, but certainly in the latter, you would be able to negotiate an arrangement for payment that doesn't leave you with a massive hole in your cash flow.
No doubt others will have more to say on this matter of spikes in billing for this reason and what you may be able to do about it.
Talked to them when we recovered from the shock of the bill. They said it was accurate and we were still using at that rate. So I turned off and unplugged everything except the fridge, freezer, microwave and phone.
Their suggestion was a payment plan so we would have to pay the full amount and lose our 25% pay on time discount. Given the appliances in use they suggested the bill was exorbitantly high unless one of the appliances was dying and sucking up energy because of that. They were convinced it would be the fridge and suggested an electrician could check it for around $600-$700. Their response to if it might be the meter was they could send someone out to test if for around $600 or we could turn everything off and turn on each appliance for two hours and monitor the meter. Also checked with the neighbouring apartments and no one else is having the problem.
Tried to find something that would measure the usage for each appliance but Bunnings said they didn't have any and JB Hi-Fi had one, but it doesn't work unless you buy the accompanying hub for another $200. So far the usage is less than the 3kw per day same time last year to 18kw per day this year and nothing we've measured by monitoring the meter comes close to accounting for that. Hence my post.
Thank your for your help.
3kWh/day is incredibly low usage!
I'm thinking the bill estimate issue is the problem..
You were on incredibly low estimated usage and now they've finally done an actual read.
Or your meter was recently replaced and your old one was not reading properly.Today in my house, we'd consumed 3kWh by midday.
Vampire power (things in standby) and fridge use 1kWh from midnight to 7am alone… so ~3kWh/day just for them with no other usage!On holiday, turning everything off except fridge and modem I can cut the vampire power consumption down to around 100Wh/h (ie 0.7KWh between Midnight and 7am)
Is your meter the old fashioned spinning metal disc type, or a newer digital one?
The digital ones can be wildly inaccurate under certain loads. Any new appliances/lights?In any case make sure the meter ID number and reading match the latest bill, and make sure the last bill(s) were not estimated usage.
PS. You meant to say "3kWh per day". A kilowatt (kW) is an instantaneous measure of power, a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a measure of (cumulative/total) energy.
Your power meter is likely to read both units, it's important you know the right one (your bill is for kWh)My dad got an unexpected refund after a misread recently. It was for more than the total of the last bill. Perhaps you could get some money back if there is a problem on their end.
are you sure no one is growing that funny weed in your ceiling?
Actually have a ceiling space but there is no access to it. I sure could use the relaxation benefits of some if they were though, because this is surely doing my head in. Thanks :)
If you've got a solar array check it's status. Is it generating and exporting energy?
We are in a renovated apartment in a 1920's building, the strata simply wouldn't spring for anything like solar. Thank you though.
Are you in VIC?
If so - perhaps you could ask them to provide you with a weeks worth of reads and then see what time the power was used the most? It'll help eliminate certain appliances.Has anything changed in the last quarter? (bought any new appliances, living arrangements ..etc..)
If you have the dial based meters - one way would be to turn off all appliances room by room then measure how much the dial spins by the half hour/hour?
Clicking on his name, he is in Syd. Victorians have significant access to power records due to smart meters.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlec-energy-cost-electrical-met…
or similar from ebay, etc https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=power%20energy%20con…