Client Dont Believe Their Electric Bill

[kerching]

I have a 1ph N & E break out box, but as has been said for loads that can't be unplugged there is an issue, as there is with the price on the MMC850!

Plus, I have not heard good reports, and it is virtually unobtainable at the moment?...

A client purchased mine for me about 6 years ago, so i never bothered with cost

what are the "issues" of which you speak?.....never had a problem with mine....mind it doesnt get used much and sits sulking with the rest of the toys for most of its life

 

[Sidewinder]

batty,

What they have in the house is irrelevant, as it may well not even be used, i.e. turned off!

The first thing you need is a load assessment, then go from there.

Unless you actually know what is being used, how can you look at what can be changed?

Just because I have a 3ph oil cooled arc welder, a 3ph lathe, a 3 ph milling machine, a 1ph MIG set, a 1ph arc welder, a 1ph 3kW compressor & a 3kW 3ph compressor, 3 x 3kW 1ph heaters, 1x3kW hand wash, and 14  off 2x70W fluorescent lights in my lock up/factory unit, and other stuff, does not mean that they all draw power at the same time, even at all.

I've used 1 unit of electric in 2/3 years according to my meter readings, so, the first thing you need to know is what is being used, not what is there to BE used!

IMHO

 

[steptoe]

and,,,,,

tbh,

its not that much a 'fair sized house' if its on a single phase feed imho

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

My initial thought is...

What has suddenly raised this query?????

Is it one bill that is suddenly higher than the normal bills???

OR  have they been getting large bills for several months???

Does the customer know how to read their own electric bill??

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/bills/

How many live at the house???

AND..

HOW MANY TEENAGERS????

TEENAGERS consumer power like its going out of fashion IMHO!!! :innocent

Are you doing some other work at the property???

and have you factored in some money for doing this analysis..

As snakeskin said  don't do nowt for nowt (maybe paraphrased?? opcorn   )

get thew customer to do their own homework first before wasting your own time....

http://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/household-bills/

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_energy_and_water_supply_e/consumer_energy_supply_e/consumer_energy_bills_e/consumer_problems_with_energy_bills_e/your_energy_bill_seems_too_high.htm

 

[steptoe]

yer, as for your first point SL,

have they been getting estimated bills for a while?

 

[batty]

Well quite honestly I have had it with people in the past one had two electric towel rails on 24 hours a day and a load of 70 watt son lamps in the garden from dusk till dawn add them together and you soon get up to a hundred pounds.

 

[wozz]

I have done a few investigations and just used my eyeballs, one customer questioned their bills, they had 4 American fridge freezers some with nothing in them, more down lights left on during the day that you would believe and only the cleaner was walking around, two washing machine and two tumble dryers going flat out while cleaner is there, groundsman shed had a convector heater and water heater on all the time, but the TV was o standby so they must be saving money! 

Some customers don't understand electricity usage a little bit of education can make a big difference to bills. But this was far from a 'fair size house' but it was just on a single phase supply just a strained one! 

 

[steptoe]

I reckon changing my 10 halogens in the kitchen to LEDs (even when they were near £20 ea) has paid for itself in under 8months.!

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I am working in  a new build house where all the lighting is led. The woman still follows me round turning off lights even when i am working in a corner but seemed not bothered when i pointed out both immersions (and the boiler) had been on 24/7 since they moved in

 

[Bruspark]

The meter may be wrong but a 30 minute test with just a 2kw fan heater connected and all else off will common sense check it. While doing that stick an elite energy monitor on the meter cable too (£30 ish) and validate its readings too. This will help them understand the issue better themselves

I suspect the number of electronic devices on constant standby is probably a contributor although that bill suggests excessive use of halogen down lights or immersion heater or forgotten space heating in lofts or sheds

 

[apprentice87]

The main problem is the foreign electricity firms charging us mega money to subsidise their activities at home and their share holders. I hear that after hearing what was said at the labour conference, that centrica were threatening to "pull out of britain" Bye Bye then, and take deutsche bahn and edf and all the rest with you. Renationalise them all I say. Things might not have been perfect years ago, but at least we were not being robbed by foreigners.

I read one loony in a news paper saying that "if labour had won the 1979 election we would still be stuck with loss making coal mines!!!!" What planet are they on????? As soon as they shut the mines around here the local docks had literally MILLIONS of tons of the stuff coming in. Even now, trains, [foreign built of course] laden with the stuff, still trundle past here everyday.

john...

 

[NozSpark]

Our locsl pit shut down, not because it was difficult to mine or because it wasn't profitable....but because it was the wrong type of coal... go figure ?

 

[Andy™]

The main problem is the foreign electricity firms charging us mega money to subsidise their activities at home and their share holders. I hear that after hearing what was said at the labour conference, that centrica were threatening to "pull out of britain" Bye Bye then, and take deutsche bahn and edf and all the rest with you. Renationalise them all I say. Things might not have been perfect years ago, but at least we were not being robbed by foreigners.

I read one loony in a news paper saying that "if labour had won the 1979 election we would still be stuck with loss making coal mines!!!!" What planet are they on????? As soon as they shut the mines around here the local docks had literally MILLIONS of tons of the stuff coming in. Even now, trains, [foreign built of course] laden with the stuff, still trundle past here everyday.

john...

local port here imports massive amounts of coal. iirc, it goes a few hundred miles by train to Drax