It's the next 2 or 3 I have to watch. It's starting to get cold upstairs now and I'm very tempted to turn on the nystores, but am resisting. Filling the hot waterbottles with the hot water as it runs into the bath - rather than boiling a kettle. Hot water comes from the wood burning stove.

We may even manage to get a couple of windows double glazed - all depending on the weather.

Also been given a nice pair of pink velvet floor length curtains - for girls room - which should make a difference.. . . every little helps. . . . .

Nystore heaters upstairs are still out of action. Our sparkies blame the old meter which 'should' be changed by the provider. I phoned npower and they sent someone out. He refused to touch the meter and left this message for our sparkies:

Req feed fused down from contaool (can't make the word out) to feed main terminal on clock & switch wire back to coil & neutral to other side of coil.

Great idea mrswhitecat. But I have an even better one. We are going on holiday in 5 days time. I plan to leave it all to grandma to sort out. We have, after all, been holding the fort while she's been swanning around Monaco and Genoa (visiting friends and relatives - so not too expensive). Jealous?? Moi?? I pray each night that I'm not

Update:

Today we received our latest electric bill for the period 13 Aug 2008- 17 Nov 2008 Note the FIVE months it's taken them to send out this bill - no wonder we have problems trying to keep track!

It's for £125.92!!!!!!! MUCH better than the one that was over £600!

Although the big bill and this latest one are not for the same time of year, We have noted these important differences:

The price of units has gone from between 13-17p a unit to between 5 and 7p a unit.

When we had the big bill we had used over 4000 units. This bill is closer to 1400 units.

The bill now includes an 'average daily consumption' comparison. It tells you how many kwh you averaged per day on this bill (16.69 kwh) , and on 'this bill last year' (45.67).

As you know, since the large bill we have replaced an old constor heater with a new nystor. We've had the whole of the ground floor rewired and swapped a number of bulbs for energy efficient light fittings, AND, grandma stopped using her electric fire - and started burning wood on her fire instead. . . . .

HUMMMMM. I wonder which one of these changes made the most difference?

wow. that was an epic read! I was hoping you were going to discover terrorists syphoning lecky to destroy right thinking people. never mind. Hope it continues to come down for you!

Who needs telly, when we have a forum like this!!!!

Brilliant! Brilliant!

Just read the whole lot. Maybe npower were embarrassed, and made some changes their end???

You must be relieved, Ludite. Well done for your persistence!

Posted By: brig001Hi ludite, I read back a few posts back and noticed the comment about the American voltage wiring. I assume this was fed from a transformer. If that was still connected, it could account for a fair few Watts, especially if 40 odd years old.

Glad you got it all sorted anyway.

Great thread, just read the whole lot! Shame there wasn't a definitive answer...


Related to the above comment, in my (more) stupid teenage years, I found a text file on a BBS which described how to get a meter to run backwards. This was in the days before they all had a ratchet mechanism to stop you doing exactly that.

I tried it - used an old Sinclair Spectrum power supply, what you did was [detail edited out - thought better of it] Then you connected the primary to a socket, if you got it the right way round it made the meter run backwards, and if you didn't it made the meter run forwards, much more quickly!

Being a nerd, i was only interested in this for the technical novelty value and wasn't brave enough to actually try it for more than a minute or two.

Anyway, I do wonder if something to do with the "American wiring" transformer was somehow affecting the meter in this way, even if it wasn't drawing any real power...

I discovered that my desktop PC appears to draw several watts even when switched off using the rocker switch on the PSU itself. That's quite surprising as I thought the switch was the first thing in the PSU after the IEC inlet socket. I plan to take it apart when it's due for replacement to find out why.

Hi all :) I just wanted to provide an update.

Like 'evan'. I'm a little disappointed we haven't yet got to the bottom of the problem.

Last month we finally severed the electrical umbilical cord that tied our cottage to the main house. The cottage has used 285 units since it received it's own supply - I know, because I've just popped out to read the meter ;)

In a few days time, Grandma is set to rewire the final part of the main house. I have high hopes that we might yet discover the problem.

Grandma does not believe rewiring is necessary - "The Queen hasn't done Buckingham palace you know!"

I remain tight lipped and smiling. . . the cold weather draws ever closer, and we shall see what happens this winter ;)

best wishes to you all.

the Ludite.

Thankyou LizM.

Although the grandma character is 'highly amusing', like many great comics, she's a night mare to live with, and not much better as a close neighbour either

As her daughter, I can only expect to go the same way myself - it's just a matter of time.

They do things differently there They certainly do down here!