Another Home Safer with a New Switchboard

Today we were called out to a home in Thomastown, we found the home was still using its original switchboard from the 1960's.  The fuse contacts overheated and burnt the wire behind the switchboard.  Thankfully this did not cause another house fire started by old electrical switchboards.  We replaced the old switchboard with a new Switchboard from ABB.  The new Switchboard complies with the latest regulations.

Some of these regulations include:-

1/  Main Switch is a Circuit Breaker rated to the mains cable capacity.
2/  Safety Switch to protect every circuit.
3/  Work Inspected by a qualified third party.
4/  A Prescribed Certificate of Electrical Safety issued.

So, its out with the old and in with the new.

If your home has an older Switchboard, don't risk it, upgrade it!

If you are not sure if it needs replacing, send me a pic to 0485 006 456 or geoff@eppingelectrical.com and I will let you know.

Geoff

Are you stealing Electricity without knowing it?

In April 2010 we come across a home that had an illegal mains connection to access free Electricity.  If you did not get to read this blog, here it is again.  I thought that was amazing until last Friday when I was called to a home in Epping to repair a fault in the Slab Floor Heating.  After some initial testing, we discovered the Off-Peak Meter was not turning when the Floor Heating Elements were energised.  We knew this could only be the result of a few situations. 

1/  All the Slab Floor elements were damaged.  (Open Circuit)
2/  The Meter is not operating correctly or has been tampered with.
3/  The Off-Peak Meter had been illegally by-passed.

We tested the elements and used an Amp Meter to measure if there was current flow.  There was 12Amps on one element and 8Amps on another.  These high loads really make the old Meters spin quite fast, well not in this home!

The family of six had lived in the house for over 4 years and did not seem to be the type of people to be involved in this sort of activity.  I asked the home owner if they think the Slab Floor Heating is expensive to run during winter, she said "yes, my electricity bill is always around $300".  I asked if this was the monthly bill or a quarterly bill.  It was quarterly!!!  Clearly the home owner has no idea what the bill for Electricity should be with Slab Floor Heating.  The fact that she did not say the bills were higher in winter rang the alarm bells even louder. 

I told the owner that I suspected they were not being charged for the Slab Floor Heating.  She showed me her last bill, as expected it showed 0 KWH (KiloWatt Hours).  From the home owners perspective the bill had always been like this. 

The home owner asked me to look further to determine if there was any sign of illegal wiring.  I first looked behind the Switchboard Panel, this is what I found!

Two enclosures were mounted behind the panel, one was made to look like it was legitimate with the words "Heating Timer Control - Danger 415V".  The lower enclosure had some gear un-mounted, another example of dangerous and illegal wiring.  After removing the covers, I discovered the illegal mains connections and traced them back to the Floor Heating controls.

The owner was horrified to see this in their own home.  All relevant authorities have now been informed of this situation and have commenced their investigations.  They will go back to all the past bills to determine when the last time Off-Peak Electricity was used.  This will allow them to identify the owner at the time to possibly lay criminal charges.  Unfortunately for the current owner, all rectification costs will be charged to them in order to have their Electrical System returned back to the normal state.  This will not only mean removing the illegal wiring but will also include mandatory works to bring the Electrical Switchboard & Meter Panel to the current regulations.      

If you suspect your home to have any illegal or un-safe wiring, call Epping Electrical on 0485 006 456 today.



Geoff Connor
Director
0485 006 456

Are Home Solar Systems in Melbourne Worth the Investment?

I am frequently asked by customers if Solar Systems in Melbourne are a good idea.  The answer is not easy as there are so many factors to consider.  If the customer's only objective is to help the environment, then thats other story.  But for most people (I would say) who install a Solar System, its all about the savings!!!

Well what are the savings?  What factors will limit the savings and most importantly how many years will have to pass before I have saved enough to offset the initial outlay to actually start saving money.

If you are interested to know if its all worth it, drop me a line and I'll work it out for you.

Here are the details I need from you.

1/  The size of the proposed system in Kilowatts (KW).
2/  How much you are paying for electricity per Kilowatthour (KWH)
3/  What your Feed-In Tariff would be.  This is what you are paid for Electricity passed back to the grid.
4/  How many KWH's you use on average every 3 months.
5/  Total cost of the Solar System (after any govt rebates) plus any meter change charges.

Geoff
Director
Epping Electrical

Smart Meter Safety

There has been a lot of media reports recently about the Safety of Smart Meters. It would seem from the reports that some Smart Meters could be un-safe if exposed to an Electrical surge. Other reports suggest that the installation of the Smart Meters could cause Electrical connections to become loose, this can then result in an Electrical fire particularly in older homes with old Switchboards.

A fire was found behind a Meter panel in a house in Epping, this occurred a few weeks after the Smart Meter was installed. In this case the fire was caused by a loose connection, its possible that the movement of the wiring during the Smart Meter installation may have caused the connection to become loose. 

If you have a concern about the safety of your Electrical Switchboard or Meter, call Epping Electrical on 0485 006 456 to book a Safety Inspection or Switchboard Upgrade.

Geoff

Director

Epping Electrical

0485 006 456

 

 

   

High Electricity Bills - Epping Electrical comes to the rescue

June 2011

Epping Electrical was called to a home in a northern suburb of Melbourne March this year to investigate high electricity bills. The owner told us they were receiving bills of over $1000 per month, they had been in discussions with their electricity retailer for over two years who concluded that the situation was simply due to the high use of electricity by the owner. A suggestion was made to the owner to have the home electrical system checked as another possible cause. We did check the installation and found the two-bedroom unit had floor heating install in all the rooms. The floor heating was controlled by a timer within the main switchboard. We did identify the timer had been incorrectly set, this was adjusted to ensure the floor heating elements only came on during the off peak hours.


Whilst the owner was pleased that something was identified at last, the owner was sure something else must be wrong as the electricity bills continued on average to be over $1000 per month even over the summer period. Our attention now focused on the bills and the electricity meter.

The owner explained that the meter had been checked before and was told it was operating correctly. We decided anyway to confirm the meter readings and check these against the electricity bills. What we uncovered would explain everything. We had found that the electricity meter has three registers that tally kilowatt hours. One counts the kilowatt hours used during the peek period, another counts the off-peek period and the third is the total of the two or in other words, total usage over the 24hour period. We found that instead of the first two registers finding their way to the bill, we confirmed that the total kilowatt register was being added to the bill in the peek section. This means that all off peak usage was being correctly billed at off peek rate but it was also being billed at peek rate.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of the story. We thought this would be a simple matter of contacting the electricity retailer and explaining the situation. When we called the electricity retailer they would not accept our findings. Instead they would send out their own expert to investigate. Weeks would pass before a report was issued. It explained that the high energy usage was due to the fact that the floor heating requires a timer and the owner should have an electrician install one to resolve the problem!! The electricity retailer now was satisfied everything was correct and it was the owners issue. They demanded the electricity bill now more than $20,000 be paid.

We attempted to contact the retailer a number of times, they refused to listen and said this is now out of their hands and could do nothing. We decided to contact the electricity distributer in the area. We spoke to at least three people who simply did not know enough about metering, after a few days we got put through to someone that had worked with electricity metering equipment for over 20 years. We explained the situation to him, he agreed to look into this. After an hour he called back to confirm we were right and the billing team would be calculating the correct electricity costs over many years.  This would result in a significant refund to the owner.

I personally had the pleasure to inform the owner of the great news.

This experience for me was often frustrating but ultimately rewarding. At Epping Electrical we are driven by doing what is right and assisting our customers however we can. Its our hope that electricity companies will see this as a lesson to improve the service they provide to their customers.

Names of involved parties have been intentionally withheld.


Geoff Connor
Director
0485 006 456