Can anybody provide electricity useage for appliances?

[ozankoys]

Hi
Some new tenants of a very small apartment have run up an electricity bill of over 1000 TL in 3 weeks. The previous tenant's last bill was 105 TL for the month.
Obviously there is something radically wrong but I would just like to work out approximately the estimated useage if they had had their appliances on 24/7 during the very cold weather.
There is an 18,000 btu aircon, basic size fridge/freezer, portable electric fire, immersion heater.
Does anyone have any idea how many units these are supposed to use per hour please?

[Philoz]

When I moved here full time from the UK about 18 mths ago,I recall my bill went from around TL300 to TL 1300 the next month -I then realised that I had switched the Immersion on for some visitors I had for a week,and forgot to switch it off for 6 weeks!!
I have since purchased In the UK a new switch which has a great big light on it,and a boost button.
Lesson learned.
Immersions are a killer to run-and they don't make a noise like air-con- I would look there first.

[Rambling Rose]

I have a list which came attached to an anti surge device! But it doesnt give air con so unless someone else comes up with something maybe a Google search would give a list.

My list gives what came to me as some suprises: One of the highest is a kettle at up to 3000 watts, along with toasters , radiant and fan heaters at about the same and a washing machine is 2500, all according to age, size make etc. Fidge an Freezer, given separately are only 100 and 300 respectively.

One thing you might check is that solar water heating is operating and correctly. Even at this time of year there is often enough sun to give quite a start to water heating and save on immersion heating which I believe is quite high, though I dont have the figures.

If you friends are new to the country are they expecting to heat whole apartment at UK levels . Anothe thread here suggests that most of us accept that with buildings designed for coolth in hot weather, cost forces us to accept some shivers during winter and /or resort to other ways of keeping warm, such as open fires, gas or parafin heaters, etc.. plus thick duvets and hot water bottles and turn the heat off overnight.

[ozankoys]

Hi thanks for replies we think it may be that they left the immersion heater on all the time although they are saying they did not! It is now being monitored so hopefully this should resolve the problem over the next few days.

[kiplet]

Our imersion switch only allows you to press the button for 1/2 an hour 1 hour or 2 hours . Light goes off when the time as been reached, really good and prevents big bills. Brought in the UK, brought it over and had it fitted. Hope this helps.

[Dalartokat]

I was led to believe that leaving the immersion heater on all the time was cheaper. When you draw water from the immersion it takes less electricity to fill up because you already have hot water in the system. Only when you draw all the water from the emersion and it has to fill up from the start, does it take more electric. So was these people continuously using the hot water and draining the immersion so it had to keep hotting up from the start? Element won't last that long if that was to keep happening.

[Rambling Rose]

Scary isnt it, how a little innattention when one has other things on the mind, can run up big bills! Hope you friends manage to sort the problem out quickly.

[Dalartokat]

Ozankoys, I have a power meter which I purchased from Lidl still in the packing and is the size of 2 3 pin plugs sitting on top of one another. If you can find someone I can post to in the UK that can take it out to you, your very welcome to have this, as I have no need for it. It measures power/energy consumption of a connected device in costs or kWh. It would give you an idea of how much energy is being used.
You can email me if you wish on Charing@fsmail.net

Sylvie

[Rambling Rose]

Where are the Electrical Engineers when you need them? I looked up the Energy Saving TRust when I saw Message 6. They say "dont leave your immersion heater on all day and night, it wastes electricity heating up water you dont use". Also I think we also have to take account of the climate and solar heating. I find that very rarely on days with no sun at all does the water go really cold even if I forget to turn the immersion heater on. At worst it is lukewarm. Also, even without insulation, the ambient temperature is higher here than the UK, and very rarely reaches freezing point. It may be significant that Ozankoys friends moved it at the coldest time of year.
Btw it is also worth checking the thermostat is not turned up higher than necessary.

Ozankoys this is a subject of use to many of us. Could you be kind enough to let us know the outcome of your investigation.

[ozankoys]

Hi will keep you posted as we are now monitoring it himself has turned the thermostat down on the immersion & is going to fit a timer. It is interesting that since alerting the tenants to the problem their useage for the day dropped down to 25 units from an average of 75. However as they had been out all day until the early hours it still seems high for virtually no appliances used in a 24 hour span.
Sylvie thanks your kind offer I will email you.

[ozankoys]

Update on this subject. Himself has been today to fit a timer on the immersion & they have only used 20 units in the last 24 hours, this still seems a bit high though for what they are admitting to using.

[Gavin Simons]

Hi all,
When I moved here I brought with me a neat monitor for my total consumption. It displays current usage, average usage and can be programmed to work out costs per Kw hour.

It consists of a coil that fits the incoming main cable, a sender unit and an RF receiver with digital display.

It is an easy way to monitor your usage in real time.

Take a look at http://www.efergy.com The unit I have is an Elite 2.0R but there are others on the market.

Good luck!

[Rambling Rose]

JJust a thought (I have got intrigued by this problem!). When people move in a lot more hot water and washing machines and kettles are used than normal, and in my experience doors tend to get left open and a lot of electricity used heating the open air! Also things like electric drills to put up hooks etc. All high electricity users.

[pippie]

Just a thought - are you sure it is the tenants that are using all that electricity? Might be interesting just to check if everything is switched off inside the house, is the meter still going round. Then, if you switch off the mains does it also stop???

[ozankoys]

We have checked the meter has not been tampered with. Don't think our tenants possess an electric drill!