Whats chewing my power? Diagnosis help!

link1896

Mr Greenfield
Years ago I had an oven with a faulty thermostat, would turn the 3200 watt heating element on at random times all by itself.

Turn off all unnecessary breakers at night and start experimenting
 

Rorschach

Didnt pay $250 for this custom title
Don't trust wiring and labels they are usually wrong.

I've had random appliances on wrong circuits and all that. It seems sparkies just wire to whatever is closest to them haha.

At that power level you are looking at major appliances, heating/cooling, hot water, air con, ovens (lol?).

I'd start by trying the following:
  • Switch all appliances off at the power point.
  • Check all the hard wired appliances for timer settings.
Reckon I'll get a power meter and see whats drawing it, it's either the fridge or the HWS.
I may also have a faulty timer switch

And the wiring I god from looking at what manuals I found online.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Reckon I'll get a power meter and see whats drawing it, it's either the fridge or the HWS.
A fridge is about 100-250w max.

It has to be heating, cooling or HWS as its a timed load.

That efegy energy meter I linked has a small CT that can be clipped around the positive cable, it trends on the display and can be looked back at later.

You could clip it over the HWS positive and it will tell you what times its drawing load, what load and even how much it costs you a day.
 

Rorschach

Didnt pay $250 for this custom title
A fridge is about 100-250w max.

It has to be heating, cooling or HWS as its a timed load.

That efegy energy meter I linked has a small CT that can be clipped around the positive cable, it trends on the display and can be looked back at later.

You could clip it over the HWS positive and it will tell you what times its drawing load, what load and even how much it costs you a day.
Will have another look, cheers
 

goobags

Likes Dirt
Post up a screenshot of the power usage graph.

As what other said, it’s a significant amount of power. Do you have a pump for the house/garden? Is someone turning on an air conditioner?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

fatboyonabike

Captain oblivious
Post up a screenshot of the power usage graph.

As what other said, it’s a significant amount of power. Do you have a pump for the house/garden? Is someone turning on an air conditioner?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
most modern A/C units wont pull 10 amps unless its a larger ducted unit, the kW rating of an AC unit is indicated in KWr not KWe (kilowatts of refrigeration not electrical kW's)
 

goobags

Likes Dirt
most modern A/C units wont pull 10 amps unless its a larger ducted unit, the kW rating of an AC unit is indicated in KWr not KWe (kilowatts of refrigeration not electrical kW's)
Yep I know about cooling/heating/electrical power ratings. Mine draws 6kW and its 3 phase so wouldn’t see it out of the question that a decent split system could draw 2.5kW


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ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Yep I know about cooling/heating/electrical power ratings. Mine draws 6kW and its 3 phase so wouldn’t see it out of the question that a decent split system could draw 2.5kW
My single phase ducted draws 5.5kw cooling and heating.
 

fatboyonabike

Captain oblivious
My single phase ducted draws 5.5kw cooling and heating.
not exactly...have a look at a thing called COP, (Coefficient of Performance) as I said above, Kilowatts of electrical power is not the same thing as Kilowatts of refrigeration...Kilowatts is just a measurement of power consumption but there is different ways this is applied
have a look at the current rating of the unit and do the maths!
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
not exactly...have a look at a thing called COP, (Coefficient of Performance) as I said above, Kilowatts of electrical power is not the same thing as Kilowatts of refrigeration...Kilowatts is just a measurement of power consumption but there is different ways this is applied
have a look at the current rating of the unit and do the maths!
Its measured on my Efegy Energy meter, it draws 5.5kw of electrical power on the blue phase.

Measured by a small CT on the blue phase in feed.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Actron and Daikin make monster single phase ducted unit up around 18 - 20 kW. It's possible.

Mines a Fujitsu AOT54LJBYL, the heating and cooling is something around 15 & 17kw capacity and as above, the input power is 5500w max.
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
Don't discount the solar inverter either! My brothers family elec bills were going through the roof and they were just paying it thinking it was normal. turned out that the solar inverter was faulty and was actually using a huge amount of power. I'd like to think this would be unlikely with a new system but worth checking if your running out of other ideas.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
A few of those off gridders in the US use heat pumps but layer the insulation. I saw one do the ground pipe thing. 8 or 10m underground. Temp stable at 17C year round. They had 3 months of freezing in the mountains in Montana ans pumping air around the circuit provided a big chunk of general heating.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
A few of those off gridders in the US use heat pumps but layer the insulation. I saw one do the ground pipe thing. 8 or 10m underground. Temp stable at 17C year round. They had 3 months of freezing in the mountains in Montana ans pumping air around the circuit provided a big chunk of general heating.
Location dictates depth. I’ve seen people do something similar at the oceans edge, just run poly pipe out into the sea and back again.

 
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