Is this electrical leqkage

Oct 01, 2008 3 Replies

With the rising cost of electricity in the UK I purchased a meter that tells me how must electricity I am using. I have found this very useful and have managed to reduce my usage (mainly just removing and switching off things) what I looked at today as the house was empty was to try and get the reading as low as possible, What appears to be happening is that I can not get it below 100Watts buy turning everything off I can find. If I switch the two ring mains (plug sockets) off I can get it to zero. I believe the unit is accurate any ideas where the 100Watts are being used, can there be a leakage?



Thanks gazz


Any transformers on devices like furnaces, etc. ? You should be able to track it down with the breakers.

greg

Fridge ? Freezer ? Central Heating ? Stuff with clocks on - cooker, microwave etc ? Sat receiver ? VCR ? DVD player ?

If you genuinely had 100 watts of leakage on your household mains wiring, I would treat that as cause for huge concern ...

Be aware also that although you believe your power meter to be accurate, they are mostly designed for reading nice symmetrical draws like you would get from a light bulb and so on. Many modern devices employ switchmode power supplies, and in standby mode, these often operate in a power saving 'burst' mode. Some cheap power meters can't cope with this highly asymmetric draw, and will give an erroneous reading. Also be aware that although shutting off equipment that has a standby mode seems like a good juice-saving plan, standby modes often mask important housekeeping tasks that need to go on in the background - keeping your Sky box updated, and keeping the modem live to comply with the terms of your contract, for instance, especially if you have Sky MultiRoom option.

Arfa

Doorbell transformers are on all the time (in the U.S.) and usually out of sight in the attic rafters somewhere.

And, if what you mean by "buy (sic) turning everything off" does not also include unplugging all the wall-warts that power the "off" things, then that's a power sink, too.

Motion-activated exterior lights?

Jonesy

Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux 38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2 * Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm

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