Can someone please help me?

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Adrianax

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Hello, this is my first post and I am hoping that someone could help me with some information.

Me, hubby and our 3 kids moved into a 3-bedroom flat in Durban in March last year.

Since March to October 2016 our electricity usage was at around 1520 kWh per month.

End of December we received a bill for 1 month which now states kWh usage as 6320 kWh for the month.

Now, we received a bill for 2 months January 2017 to March 2017 which stats our usage as 6600 kWh per month.

Is this normal?

We only have a single TV. We use aircon only at night. Yes, we have an oven and geyser, but that is that.
 
they might use a average to determine use but should not jump like that
 
No, that would not be normal.

6600KW would be 220KW / day.
That would be excessive unless you have a factory or feeding the neighbourhood.

Where is the meter?
Suggest turn off the house and check that the meter isn't running.
Even 1520KW/ month is very excessive.

Do you have a pool pump? Anything else that would draw lots of power?

Things that use power are things that generate heat, so cooking, geyser, heaters etc.
Even with those all on 24/7 you'd struggle to hit 220KW a day though.


Either something is very wrong (i.e. someone is using your power), or they've misread the meter, or you're paying the bill for the entire block.
 
:wtf:

We're only 2 people, but we only use between 300 and 400 units per month, and we have a computer as well (which admittedly uses very little).

I can understand 1500 at a push in your situation, but 6000+ is insane, I would definitely follow this up.
 
Possibly that Air conditioner ?? But knowing the Municipalities , well yes< enough said?? Get a Pre-paid meter installed, that way you can monitor and view exactly how much Kw you are using daily.
 
lsheed_cn said:
No, that would not be normal.

6600KW would be 220KW / day.
That would be excessive unless you have a factory or feeding the neighbourhood.

Where is the meter?
Suggest turn off the house and check that the meter isn't running.
Even 1520KW/ month is very excessive.

Do you have a pool pump? Anything else that would draw lots of power?

Things that use power are things that generate heat, so cooking, geyser, heaters etc.
Even with those all on 24/7 you'd struggle to hit 220KW a day though.


Either something is very wrong (i.e. someone is using your power), or they've misread the meter, or you're paying the bill for the entire block.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer Isheed_cn, we thought that much.

Our meter is locked up in a basement under our building with all the meters of all the other units.

No, we do not have a pool. We have a single oven with 4 stove plates, our own geyser, 1 television and 1 laptop and 2 cellphones we charge once a day. We have a washing machine and wash at least one bundle a day, but some times two bundles a day. We do have aircon, but it is switched on only before we go to bed and off when we wake up.

I do cook once a day, but not every day, since we do go out for takeaways some days.

Kids bath once a day. Very seldom twice a day, but normally only over weekends if they go out swimming in the sea.

If someone is stealing electricity from us, I am not sure where and how they will do it. Nothing is plugged into our plugs. There is no obvious wiring we can see.
 
Marius Flash said:
Possibly that Air conditioner ?? But knowing the Municipalities , well yes< enough said?? Get a Pre-paid meter installed, that way you can monitor and view exactly how much Kw you are using daily.
Click to expand...

Thanks Marius, last year the aircon was on 24 hours a day for at least 4 months. Since around December we started switching it off during the day as it did not cool as it did before and it still needed to be serviced. So, we switch it on at night and off when we wake up. There is no aircon during the day for at least 6 months now.
 
qscwbt said:
they might use a average to determine use but should not jump like that
Click to expand...

Thanks qscwbt

No, this is actual meter readings. I checked the reading on the actual meter and compared it with their statement. It is correct. The sudden increase from 1520 to 6320 kWh started end of November last year for some or the other reason.
 
Turn off all of the switches on your DB, then turn one on at a time and monitor the meter.
Turn off the switch and turn the next one on etc until you can identify which circuit is causing the usage, once you know that then you can figure out which appliance in particular is the culprit.
 
Are you sure they read it right the first time? As 6000 for a month is ridiculous, we use about 300 with a family of 3 and we're not conservative on power at all.
 
Rocket-Boy said:
Turn off all of the switches on your DB, then turn one on at a time and monitor the meter.
Turn off the switch and turn the next one on etc until you can identify which circuit is causing the usage, once you know that then you can figure out which appliance in particular is the culprit.
Click to expand...

Agree. That's the easiest way to isolate.

I have a digital pre-paid unit in my apartment, which makes it super easy to detect high power draw. Your usage is way high for an apartment. My average - family size similar - is 20 to 25 kwh per day in summer and 30 to 45 kwh per day in winter. All depends on how many days we run the aircon or heating.

Here's what I've figured re the power draw. Not scientific mind you :)
Appliances consuming the most power...
Stove - Hob - roughly 0.5 kwh per plate.
Stove - Oven - 1 kwh
Geyser 300L - 4 to 5 kwh for about 30 mins after baths
Dishwasher - 1kwh
Aircon - 1kwh
Underfloor heating - 0.5 kwh per heating pad.
 
Something is not right there.

I live in a 4 bedroom house with 3 adults and a 7 year old. We average around 25 to 30 kwh per day.

Appliances are:

1 x 42" LCD TV
1 x 54" LED TV
2 x DSTV Explora
200l geyser
Electric fence
Laptop on 24/7
Apple Mac on 24/7
Fridge
Freezer
Bean to cup coffee machine that gets used a lot as i work from home.
Dishwasher used once a day
Washing machine
Water cooler
Microwave
I also have about 6 x 20w LED flood lights on from sunset to sunrise.

No aircon or other heating appliances. Cooking gets done on a gas stove with gas oven. I also have a wood fireplace for heating in winter.
 
Someone else is stealing your power I suspect.

I have a three aircons in my house (sure not all on at once so really counts as one only), two tv's, a massive fridge, a microwave.

Microserver that is on 24/7. Xbox One and PlayStation at least two hours a day.

Baby that baths once a day and two adults who shower once sometimes twice a day.

Cook pretty much every night and I never top up more then 555 kw units in a month.

Dishwasher on every other day and washing machine twice on a weekend.

So even if you ran the aircon all day every day I don't see how you could get too far over 1000 units.
 
I suspect that somewhere in that basement you will find some spliced cables. Maybe you can record all the metre readings today then again in a few days. See if some are standing still or barely moving.
 
Sounds like they are billing you for all the other flats as well as your own. We use about 1500kWh per month on the farm where we have pumps and 3 houses with electric geysers. I think a faulty geyser could also use that much if it was boiling all day and wasting hot water from the overflow.
 
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