Geyser running.

[Greg]

I went out to a client in Edenvale yesterday morning. Ever since August last year, 2010, here electrical bill has doubled and then continued to increase between then and now.

To give you an idea June 2010 285 kw units for the month.
June 2011 1564 kw units.

The flat is an old unit. Very small possibly 35 square meters in total. One elderly lady that stays there.

The council have replaced their meter in May this year but that made no difference.

I did my standard thing with this sort of thing. I took a reading at the council meter. I then installed a meter in the unit db to compare the readings over a 24 hr period.

This morning over a 24 hour period both meters recorded 57 kw units.

I noticed the hot water was very hot yesterday and the geyser was still running. The element and thermostat were replaced 4 months ago thinking this was the problem. This made no difference. The thermostat was set at 60 degrees but the water was far hotter than that.

The problem definately lies with the geyser. I don't think this thing is turning off properly if at all.

Now here is my thinking. The thermostat was installed in the thermostat sleeve of the geyser and not the element. What are the odds that this sleeve is badly corroded with rust and sediment and that the heat from the water is batteling to get to the thermostat to switch the unit properly.

The geyser is still the old origional kwikhot from 40 years ago. There is no cover on the front. Tomorrow I want to check if the element has a thermostat sleeve and then move it there to see if that makes a difference. Could the insulation in this geyser have come to its end?

I am not sure this lady has money for a new geyser. The next best thing I can do is to fit a timer to the circuit. There were no visible water leaks. I can't see that the thermostat is faulty.

I will keep you updated.