Boiler constantly pulling 50 watts electricity?

[deadman3000]

Recently I've been re-appraising my energy costs and monitoring electricity usage with those power meters that attach to the cable coming into the home to the master switching box. I went around turning everything off but could never get to 0. There was always a constant 50 watts usage. I found out that it's the boiler (Saunier Duval Thelia 623). If I turn it off at the master switch on the wall then I get 0 electricity usage. I just had a word with my landloard and he says that's normal and is needed for the pump to work every 24 hours to prevent cold seizing the pipes and for the extractor fan to keep the pilot light lit. I can't turn it off at the wall everyday because the pilot light will go out and I would have to kickstart it again. Plus it might be problematic (like the system seizing up in the cold). I'm kinda miffed that it's drawing power (albeit not a great deal) when it's doing absolutely nothing as far as I can tell.

Is this really normal and is it just that my boiler is old and not energy efficient?

 

[dcawkwell]

Lots of appliances draw power.
Like fridge, tv, house phones, set top boxes etc.
I draw approx 200watts all the time in my house can't get it any lower
without switching everything off at the plugs.

 

[dormermike]

Lots of appliances draw power.
Like fridge, tv, house phones, set top boxes etc.
I draw approx 200watts all the time in my house can't get it any lower
without switching everything off at the plugs.

Same here - 220 watts at "idle".. thats the fridge, tv/dvd/microwave/oven etc on standby and house alarm system.

 

[mfarrow]

We've got 170W with all only the kitchen appliances, boiler and smokes connected.

That's when we go away. God knows what it's like the rest of the time.

 

[flameport]

Those power meters are grossly inaccurate on small loads, and even on larger ones they are pretty poor.
They assume the voltage is some set figure - which it never is.
They also assume the loads have a power factor of 1, which for a majority of appliances is incorrect.

That boiler won't be using 50W.

 

[MeterMonkey]

Ive installed many many smart meters, The highest idle load ive seen after switching the electric back was 2.3KW

After he turned off his 7 kitchen spotlights, it went back down to the normal 0.7/0.8.

Anything around the 700watt region is pretty normal.

 

[mickyg]

Does anyone wanna mention the fact that the 623 has a constantly running slow fan ?

btw dont switch it off, you'll get pilot outage and possible superheating of the main heat exchanger

 

[Dan Robinson]

A Potential 50w draw is the least of the OP's worries if he still has one of these POS still operational

 

[Dan Robinson]

Does anyone wanna mention the fact that the 623 has a constantly running slow fan ?

btw dont switch it off, you'll get pilot outage and possible superheating of the main heat exchanger

The OP did

 

[mickyg]

Does anyone wanna mention the fact that the 623 has a constantly running slow fan ?

btw dont switch it off, you'll get pilot outage and possible superheating of the main heat exchanger

The OP did

ha yeh answered his own question really and got incorrect answers in response
only jesting...

 

[Agile]

An interesting question is if domestic meters really measure kW or KVA?

I dont know the answer.

But the BBC's old 200 kHz Droitwich transmitter consumed perhaps 1.5 MW and because the consumption was significantly reactive there were power factor correction capacitors on the 415V busbars.

Tony

 

[big-all]

60w errant reading is quite normal if you remove every other item from the equasion then the 10w light bulb or the tv/fridge/will all have an extra 60w ish to there reading iff everything else is turned off

consumption below 500w is progresivly less accurate because off induced loads
plug in meters are more accurate

 

[bell824]

Does anyone wanna mention the fact that the 623 has a constantly running slow fan ?

btw dont switch it off, you'll get pilot outage and possible superheating of the main heat exchanger

The OP did

ha yeh answered his own question really and got incorrect answers in response
only jesting...

no you wern't you got caught out

 

[SimonH2]

An interesting question is if domestic meters really measure kW or KVA?

I dont know the answer.

The utility supplied meter measures kW - that is what you pay for.
Large industrial users may also have VAR (volt-amp-reactive) meters to measure the non-unity power factor load - and they'll have a tariff for kVAR. Although VARs don't consume power (and aren't billed to most customers), they do contribute to the current in the cables (and the losses in transmission), so there is a desire to minimise them.

These cheap "energy monitors" don't measure either ! They measure current, but do not measure voltage or power factor - thus they can only guestimate power consumption based on measured current and assumptions about voltage and power factor.