How to convince my landlord there is something wrong with the electricity meter

Wrath of Khan MD said:
as said before about the DB:

turn the mains off when you go to work, write down the meter number (house obviously empty unless you're using it as a brothel) so no one is at home. Then when you come back from work at 5-6pm see what the meter numbers are. Don't worry your food in the fridge will be fine.

second to that, there is no way you're using 250 units a month for 2 people showering daily etc, a geyser is around 60% of your electricity usage. Sorry but that's impossible.

other people on this post should say what their electricity usage is and how many people are in the house..
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5 minute showers don't use that much electricity, I've got 4 people and the showering and cooking only uses about 6 to 9 units a day, so if you remove cooking + other device usage it's possible, unless the previous place had a slow meter. The one complex I lived in did for us, as for 7 years 3 of us used about 250 units a month.
 
Lupus said:
5 minute showers don't use that much electricity, I've got 4 people and the showering and cooking only uses about 6 to 9 units a day, so if you remove cooking + other device usage it's possible, unless the previous place had a slow meter. The one complex I lived in did for us, as for 7 years 3 of us used about 250 units a month.
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Just heating a 150L geyser from cold to hot would take around 2.5 hours, that alone is R7.50 at R2.50 /kwh for 3kw. So using 150L a day would be R225 a month. We haven't even factored in lights, washing, tv, internet, plugs, lamps, hairdryers, cooking, kettle, etc etc.

It's impossible to use like R750 or thereabout for a family of 3 in a month

People wouldn't be jumping up and down about electricity prices if it was this cheap..
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
second to that, there is no way you're using 250 units a month for 2 people showering daily etc, a geyser is around 60% of your electricity usage. Sorry but that's impossible.
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Not impossible at all. We use about 8-12 kWh/day, so just over 300 units a month average.

I think you might be overestimating hot water consumption. You mix your hot water with cold when you actually use it, so 150 L becomes 300 L or more of actual shower water.

In any case OPs usage of 1000 units a month equates to refilling and reheating a geyser from scratch more than 4 times a day, and that pretty much is impossible without something being broken.
 
Tomtomtom said:
Not impossible at all. We use about 8-12 kWh/day, so just over 300 units a month average.

I think you might be overestimating hot water consumption. You mix your hot water with cold when you actually use it, so 150 L becomes 300 L or more of actual shower water.

In any case OPs usage of 1000 units a month equates to refilling and reheating a geyser from scratch more than 4 times a day, and that pretty much is impossible without something being broken.
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how many people in your house, how many baths / showers per day? what else do you have in the house... also depends on what his geyser temp is set to, what time of year etc there are a multitude of factors to take into consideration.

Would be interesting to know if he ever did a test whilst he was out at work???
 
Zellephant said:
My neighbour does pottery on a semi-commercial scale, and has an electric kiln. My suspicion is I am somehow paying for that. Have electrician coming out later today to investigate.
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xhss9.jpg


What was the outcome of the electrician's visit?
 
It sounds like they have one meter, and is simply dividing the usage by number of houses.

I have a friend who lives in a complex where they did this. Totally unfair.
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
second to that, there is no way you're using 250 units a month for 2 people showering daily etc, a geyser is around 60% of your electricity usage. Sorry but that's impossible.
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We are 2 adults plus a baby, I have a pool and my geyser is electric. We use about R1500 a month on electricity. I do turn my geyser off at the DB during the day
 
Went_For_Beer said:
We are 2 adults plus a baby, I have a pool and my geyser is electric. We use about R1500 a month on electricity. I do turn my geyser off at the DB during the day
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Assume you also got the pool on a timer.
 
Wrath of Khan MD said:
Just heating a 150L geyser from cold to hot would take around 2.5 hours, that alone is R7.50 at R2.50 /kwh for 3kw. So using 150L a day would be R225 a month. We haven't even factored in lights, washing, tv, internet, plugs, lamps, hairdryers, cooking, kettle, etc etc.

It's impossible to use like R750 or thereabout for a family of 3 in a month

People wouldn't be jumping up and down about electricity prices if it was this cheap..
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Where on earth is the Electricity that cheap? I’m on Eskom direct and it’s R3.66/Kwh. Previous place was CoCT and was similar cost per unit (slightly more if memory serves)
Wrath of Khan MD said:
how many people in your house, how many baths / showers per day? what else do you have in the house... also depends on what his geyser temp is set to, what time of year etc there are a multitude of factors to take into consideration.

Would be interesting to know if he ever did a test whilst he was out at work???
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I work from home, so never really not home. We also lead active outdoor lifestyles, so sticking to specific shower schedules is not that easy. So I rather leave the geyser on all day. Besides, my feeling is a well insulated geyser works out pretty much the same cost whether you leave it on on put it on a timer, especially if your usage is random.

Flanders said:
xhss9.jpg


What was the outcome of the electrician's visit?
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Not the pottery kiln, but I have been paying for my own, as well as 2 other units geyser usage. No idea how this came to be, obviously the electrician screwed up when doing a previous wiring on the place. Solved now, and will monitor usage going forward.

All those saying you can’t come right with 250/300 units a month with a two person household, I beg to differ. We did for more than 2 years at previous place. Geyser remains the number one power consumer though. I have approached the landlord about installing a small on demand hot water unit in our kitchen (at my cost) and going gas in the bathroom as well.

Im happy to pay for the installation of both if they agree not to increase our rent for another year. Saving would be well worth it.
 
Went_For_Beer said:
We are 2 adults plus a baby, I have a pool and my geyser is electric. We use about R1500 a month on electricity. I do turn my geyser off at the DB during the day
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That is more than double the 250 mentioned.

Around 600 kWh.
 
Zellephant said:
Where on earth is the Electricity that cheap? I’m on Eskom direct and it’s R3.66/Kwh. Previous place was CoCT and was similar cost per unit (slightly more if memory serves)

I work from home, so never really not home. We also lead active outdoor lifestyles, so sticking to specific shower schedules is not that easy. So I rather leave the geyser on all day. Besides, my feeling is a well insulated geyser works out pretty much the same cost whether you leave it on on put it on a timer, especially if your usage is random.


Not the pottery kiln, but I have been paying for my own, as well as 2 other units geyser usage. No idea how this came to be, obviously the electrician screwed up when doing a previous wiring on the place. Solved now, and will monitor usage going forward.

All those saying you can’t come right with 250/300 units a month with a two person household, I beg to differ. We did for more than 2 years at previous place. Geyser remains the number one power consumer though. I have approached the landlord about installing a small on demand hot water unit in our kitchen (at my cost) and going gas in the bathroom as well.

Im happy to pay for the installation of both if they agree not to increase our rent for another year. Saving would be well worth it.
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Glad you got it sorted. We try to stay around 300-350 units a month. Two people as well. If it wasn't for the geyser I'm sure it would have been less.My desktop PC seams to eat electricity for breakfast, so I stopped using it.
 
Zellephant said:
I have approached the landlord about installing a small on demand hot water unit in our kitchen (at my cost) and going gas in the bathroom as well.
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Just careful with gas, generally would avoid, there's a reason California and others are phasing them out.
news.stanford.edu

Gas stoves emit unsafe levels of nitrogen dioxide

A new study finds people in households with gas stoves are breathing unhealthy levels of a pollutant linked to childhood asthma, even in rooms far from the kitchen.
news.stanford.edu news.stanford.edu

Here in Austria I also need to have someone come and check it every year, so it's not really a saving, South Africa also has a requirement of annual + 3 year service and statutory inspections, though do wonder how many actually do it.

The instantaneous gas water heater also isn't that great, keep waiting a bit for it to get hot and gets annoying quick as also need enough hot water to go through to trigger/keep it on, shower it's "fine" but for dishes it's quite a bit of water to trigger (you can generally set this though but setting too low wastes gas so a balance).

Tbh, I'd also expect gas price to keep rising over the next decade, if you can go solar panels for the geyser if roof space, rather do that as then excess power can bring electricity price down. Question is more cost of the install / how long you're there, maybe talk with landlord about installing and basically make a calc that if leave before 10-15 years landlord picks up the tab, but if get to that point it's break-even, all depends on your relationship with them.

Can also go solar geyser if really need to if roof space an issue, but generally it's near always better to go panel set-up.
 
Went_For_Beer said:
Unfortunately I have a sub prepaid meter from Recharger and they hurt us. Currently paying R4.33 a unit. For R1500 I get 346.80KWh
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Which is why sticking to kWh is the only thing that makes sense for these comparisons.
 
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