Electricity Leak?

[str]

Wonder if anyone can shed some light?

Have recently bought a small shop and it would appear that we are going through £150 of electricity a month! Appreciate that this will be in part down to tarriff, etc that we are currently on, but it still seems very high.

Basic lighting (mostely tubes), 1 electric heater over the front door which has just been started to be used, 1 extract fan in the basement which runs fairly constantly and a further extract fan in the W.C. which is timed with the light.

Is there such a thing as an electricity leak? Am waiting for an electrician to come round to have a look but wondered if anyone had nay ideas?

 

[davy_owen_88]

http://www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=152943

If there really is absolutely no load connected and no neons then call in an electrician and get him to perform an insulation resistance test on the circuit in question. You may have low IR which can allow small currents to flow between conductors.

Are there any cables connected to your electricity meter that do not go to your consumer unit? Any cables leaving your consumer unit that are energised but you don't know what they supply?

 

[JohnD]

is there an upstairs flat using your electricity?

or an outbuilding? freezers?

it's heating that uses most.

stand by your meter watching it go round, switch off the circuits one at a time in the consumer unit and see which makes the most difference. Then walk round and see what appliances stop working when you turn it off.

Take meter readings at least once a week,preferably daily at the same time to see what the usage pattern is.

I hope you checked the meter yourself when you moved in.

 

[sm1thson]

one way to see where it is all going is as per the linked topic, these devices are on sale at maplins at the moment maplin wireless energy meter . people will argue you dont need one, Ive never felt the need as i am energy conscious and have a good idea what is using what (or watt!?!). at the weekend we put a clamp meter (the tool version of the meter in the link) on my dads tail and he nearly had a fit how much he was using when there was no significant load on (ie no washer etc so house was basically in standby, it was dark but only minimal lights on and he was using 1kW) we went round switching things (and breakers) off and he concluded he needs to turn more things off and hopefully use more energy efficient lighting (he has some but he still has some normal bulbs and claimed it wasnt worth changing them as they were often 40w and or not used constantly), it wouldnt surprise me if he buys one of them meters to help keep an eye on things (together with some new bulbs).

obviously your situation is different but the same technique would help show what is been used where. (but note you can only put the device over a single conductor eg the tails not T&E so you cant measure each circuit but you can measure the whole installation and turn circuits and devices off and note the results)

 

[2scoops0406]

Have you put those insert thingies into the sockets to stop it spilling out ?

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[electronicsuk]

at the weekend we put a clamp meter (the tool version of the meter in the link) on my dads tail and he nearly had a fit

Oh dear! Thanks for giving me a laugh this morning

 

[sm1thson]

^ha yeah we made similar jokes at the time, then when i wrote that i made the same slip and realised that it didnt sound very family forum friendly, I was going to edit it but forgot.

 

[Taylortwocities]

There's a tap on this transformer

 

[stem]

An experience I had backs up what others have suggested. A nephew of mine ran a florists shop which he rented from a landlord. The shop was originally built with living accommodation but at some time the upstairs has been turned into a flat and rented out separately.

I had a call from my nephew with a similar problem. He only used lighting as the shop had to be kept cool. I found that the meter was rotating with nothing switched on. It turned out that when the flat was separated out a new meter & consumer unit was installed for the shop and the downstairs lights and sockets connected to it, however, there were two spurs from the shop ring that fed 4 sockets located in the flat upstairs, hence the additional cost to the shop.

 

[pdcelec]

If there are lots of vertical runs of cable, there will be lots of voltage drop as it falls out of the end

 

[Taylortwocities]

Does it pool at the bottom if there's loops?

 

[FourFootMedia]

Does it pool at the bottom if there's loops?

We have a problem like that, if we plug a lamp into a socket a floor level it's brighter than one plugged in at worktop level, must be that ol' gravity pulling the elec-er-trick-er-ty downwards in the tubes.