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800M 32mm SWA - could this cause increased electricity bills due to voltage loss

Former Community Member over 4 years ago

Hi all,

Our electricity usage is very high (6,000 KWH annually) but we dont have any electricity heating or anything that should be chewing up that much electricity.

I'm looking for reasons why the usage is so high.

Our meter is actually sited on a neighbouring property and then a 35mm2 2 core SWA cable runs approx 800 meters to an Ashley Eddison transformer that regulates the voltage and amperage.

Could the length of the cable, the associated voltage drop and then the transformer usage contribute significantly to the electricity usage..?

Thanks and my apologies for any inaccuracies and ignorance!

Rolf

0 Chris Pearson over 4 years ago

perspicacious:

A true efficiency of around 86%.

OK, so instead of consumption being 6,000 kWh/year, it is about 5,000 kWh/year, which still seems high. It is, however, only about 16 kWh/day and an average load of 3A.

Perhaps a smart meter with 1/2 hourly readings would help?
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0 Sparkingchip over 4 years ago

Can you hook the dishwasher up to the hot water supply rather than the cold supply? That has the potential to make quite a saving on the electric bill over a year.

https://www.miele.co.uk/e/hot-water-connection-zpv000000000000000020000143400-f
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0 Sparkingchip over 4 years ago

Sparkingchip:

Can you hook the dishwasher up to the hot water supply rather than the cold supply? That has the potential to make quite a saving on the electric bill over a year.

https://www.miele.co.uk/e/hot-water-connection-zpv000000000000000020000143400-f

If you have a combi boiler that might not work well, as the machine could still fill with gold water whilst the boiler is heating up, you might need to tweak the plumbing and how it works.

To “hot fill” the washing machine is more complicated, you’d need an accurate thermostatic mixer to deliver the water at the temperature of the coolest wash you want/need to do say 40 degrees and let the machine heat any washes above that, if you then wanted to do cold washes you would need manual bypass taps to deliver cold water.
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0 Sparkingchip over 4 years ago

In my head I am picturing a very nice family home out in the country, at least one extra freezer out in the workshop, the washing machine running at least once a day maybe more, possibly a “log cabin” garden room that may could or is home to someone and so on and so forth.

I was adding yet another distribution circuit onto a farm installation a few years ago and there were a couple of guys installing solar panels and storage batteries in the buildings, they said they saw so many places like that which just keep growing, there’s six fridge/freezers just for starters, but the solar PV makes a big difference genre taking the installation off grid for part of day through out the year and keeping voltages up.

Although as has been explained before we don’t have to confuse D.C. theories with AC theory, inverters can get the electric into the grid by skewing the cycle rather than upping the voltage.

I assume all the basics have been covered such as replacing all lamps with LEDs.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/how-much-electricity-does-a-home-use.html
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0 Former Community Member over 4 years ago

Its not quite a log cabin but it is a nice house in the country but there are only two of us...dishwasher and washing machine only on every couple of days, regular single fridge-freezer, I'd say we have low to average energy usage, hence the search for where it is going!
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0 Chris Pearson over 4 years ago

Rolf:

Its not quite a log cabin but it is a nice house in the country but there are only two of us...dishwasher and washing machine only on every couple of days, regular single fridge-freezer, I'd say we have low to average energy usage, hence the search for where it is going!

What rating is that fridge-freezer? Sorry to keep mentioning it, but swapping an old separate fridge and freezer for an A+++ one reduced our consumption by 25%.
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0 Former Community Member over 4 years ago

The fridge is an A+, 474kwh a year.
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0 Former Community Member over 4 years ago

Well that's 13% of your desired average user on the fridge alone.

I'll second Andy's advice and spend £20 or so on an Owl energy monitor. The display is portable so you can wander round your house turning stuff off and see where your "excess" load is.

Regards

BOD
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0 broadgage over 4 years ago

As has already been said, the long cable and voltage drop therein can be a source of appreciable loss. Not easy to determine since it depends on the pattern of use, not on the total consumption.

The losses in the transformer are only partially known. Stated as being 2% but we dont know if this means 2% of the actual load in use, or 2% of the rating of the transformer. And allowing for rounding to the nearest whole percentage point, 2% could mean 2.49%.

Another source of loss occurs to me. Could anyone have made a connection to your cable along the 800 meter route ? Are there any other buildings, or any outdoor lighting along the route ? Or has anything been connected on your side of the meter at the building where the supply originates.

Either as a mistake, or due to deliberate dishonesty.

Live jointing of such cables is not for the faint hearted, but can be done with proper training. DNO staff or sub-contractors do it all the time.
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0 Former Community Member over 4 years ago

Any progress Rolf?

Regards

BOD
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800M 32mm SWA - could this cause increased electricity bills due to voltage loss

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