Low Mains Voltage (~190-220v) - How to resolve?

[toontoonizer]

300kwh per day, ouch, that’s nearly what we use per month!

you growing drugs ?

seriously that is huge consumption- what are you doing?

I wish I was growing drugs then I could pay for this bill.

Seriously, we have nothing that could be drawing that kind of massive consumption. No machinery, no motors etc. 

The main house is quite large (6 bedroom), 3kw immersion heater (only for hot water and only used when there is no oil), oil fired boiler (when we have oil), small 300w underfloor heating circuits in 4 bathrooms, that are set to 21degrees. We also run a couple of 2kw oil heaters for 1 or 2 hours a day and normal kitchen appliances, washer, dryer, stove, kettle, microwave, oven. Lights are all LED. 

The annex is basically another house, 3kw immersion heater (which is always on, but only heats when water drops below temp) underfloor heating in 5 rooms (totalling 4kw + .8kw + .5kw +2kw + 0.2kw if they were all on at the same time), they are never on at the same time and are set to 20/21 degrees). All LED lights, normal kitchen appliances but we have a boiling water tap which is 1kw always on. There is a wine cooler which is 1kw, coffee machine, oven, microwave oven.

I've done some basic calculations and I can't get up to 300kWh. It just doesn't make sense, even though there are effectively two abodes. 

Or is it possible that a comprehensive test of the whole installation, inc all final circuits has not been made..

and you do have some faulty kit somewhere drawing far more than you thought?

Hence, more load more volt-drop!?

On an earlier post I think you said you have no electrical certificates for any parts of your installation..

Have you asked your electrician verify the condition of all circuits?

On the balance of probability you would have to assume the New-Meter is good?

:C  

This faulty kit would have to be drawing 100kwh a day at least. I think we would notice something like that!

I would have to agree re the meter but I can't identify anything else that would be drawing this kind of consumption. The meter is emitting an audible buzzing noise. It's also shown solid red lights when we have had power going through it. Usually the 1000/kWh import light is flashing non stop, once a second. 

Today, no one was at home for one hour. We consumed 10kwh while no one was at home. 

I've enclosed a pic of the meter, that last digit doesn't happen to be a decimal point does it?

 

[apprentice87]

Would not that be a load of 7550 amps????

I had a faulty meter once, that had only been in a week when they changed it. A light came on to indicate that i had tried to get the meter to run backwards. They got all excited in the swalec place till i pointed out that it had only been there a week on a new supply and i had used precisely seven units..

john..

 

[toontoonizer]

Would not that be a load of 7550 amps???? 

For the dwellings? There is nothing out of the ordinary for all electric properties from what I know. The annex is the size of a small 1 bedroom detached cottage.

Plus a load of 7550 amps would blow all the main fuse switches and the supply fuses fairly quickly.

I don't expect a small bill, we live in a large property but 300kwh a day/£1000 a month is just insane. 

I had a faulty meter once, that had only been in a week when they changed it. A light came on to indicate that i had tried to get the meter to run backwards. They got all excited in the swalec place till i pointed out that it had only been there a week on a new supply and i had used precisely seven units..

john..

Either the meter got frazzled during a period of extremely low voltage by bringing it out of its operating voltage, or we are actually consuming the same power as a small factory 

 

[Murdoch]

^^ you need to get on to the meter provider and fast

 

[apprentice87]

Would not that be a load of 7550 amps????

I had a faulty meter once, that had only been in a week when they changed it. A light came on to indicate that i had tried to get the meter to run backwards. They got all excited in the swalec place till i pointed out that it had only been there a week on a new supply and i had used precisely seven units..

john..

What am i on about!! That will teach me to post things at one in the morning!! I thought it was one of them "smart" meters [that i have never seen] indicating that you were pulling a LOAD of 1737kw, THAT would be 7000 odd amps [at 230v]

If you are saying that the meter indicates that you have used 1737 Kwh over 8 days, then that is 217 Kwh a day..

If you are using 217 Kwh a day, then it is almost certainly correct, as this would be;

39A X [say] 230V = a load of 9.04 Kw..

You multiply 9.04 Kw X 24 hours, and you end up with 217Kw a day

Since you say that you pull 100A at times, an average of 39A over 24 hours seems reasonable..

You need to turn that heating down..

john.....

 

[toontoonizer]

There's a solid red light on the kvarh import? Any one know what this means? It's an ester A1140

 

[binky]

There's a solid red light on the kvarh import? Any one know what this means? It's an ester A1140

View attachment 11043

it means you have electric connected but aren't using any/ using very little, it flashes when you are using leccy.

 

[toontoonizer]

it means you have electric connected but aren't using any/ using very little, it flashes when you are using leccy.

Oh we are definitely connected and using it. The meters gone up 3 units over 20 mins (which seems to be accurate given the load over those 20 mins)

 

[binky]

Oh we are definitely connected and using it. The meters gone up 3 units over 20 mins (which seems to be accurate given the load over those 20 mins)

some bedtime reading for you.... 

https://www.camax.co.uk/downloads/A1140-complete-manual.pdf

the functionality of these meters is impressive, you can get all sorts of info from them. 

 

[toontoonizer]

some bedtime reading for you.... 

https://www.camax.co.uk/downloads/A1140-complete-manual.pdf

the functionality of these meters is impressive, you can get all sorts of info from them. 

Apparently it's the anti creep mechanism - but we definitely had consumption so the anti creep would not be necessary?

 

[apprentice87]

The light is on the Kvarh side of the meter. i would ignore that as it means nothing to you. In the uk houses are billed in kw [which is true power and NOT kvar which would be apparent power [power factor and all that] In some places they bill you in kvarh to attempt to force you to improve the power factor of the stuff you have connected up..

Having said that, you need to make sure that the meter is NOT registering in kvar, as you will then, depending on what you have connected, have a bigger bill..

john..

 

[binky]

Apparently it's the anti creep mechanism - but we definitely had consumption so the anti creep would not be necessary?

to be frank, I don't really understand half the functionality of these meters, and I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as your bills seem 'normal' leave it alone 

 

[Geoff1946]

Having said that, you need to make sure that the meter is NOT registering in kvar, as you will then, depending on what you have connected, have a bigger bill..

I think that's up to the user when reading it. IIRC you select what to read from a menu.    (God help the meter reader who visited my house and submitted my solar reading as consumption.)