JANETH

We have just had a mandatory electricity check done following the purchase of our house in Nerja - unfortunately the power constantly trips off now. I understand this is because the fuse or weighting is only standard. I have been told we can have access to a little bit higher fuse, but this will trigger a higher standing charge on our electricity bill. Is this right? Does anybody know how much extra?

What we have got now must be pretty low - we had one small heater on most of the time, and if we tried to have the oven and kettle on or washing machine, or immersion heater, it trips off. I am not sure a "little bit" more will help all that much. I would like to be able to run heaters in each of the bedrooms in the cold weather. What do other people do?

twyntub

It's fairly normal... and it won't be a great deal more on your electricity bill to change it. The standard 'potencia' as it's called can be as low as 3.3kW (sometimes even lower) - and is roughly equivalent to what you can draw from a 13 amp socket in the UK. This is about enough to run a kettle or one small electric heater and nothing else!

Getting it increased is one thing, but you'll struggle to reach UK levels of supply (where a 'small house' gets a 25kW supply) here in Spain. Making better use of what you have is normally the order of the day.

We run a gas hob with a kettle bought from Ikea - it makes great tea (better than an electric kettle) and means we have electricity to spare for other essentials...

Also - aside from putting in central heating or having a fire, using air-con for heating is three times as efficient as an electric heater... a much better way to heat multiple rooms...

Solarwhizz

[QUOTE=twyntub;6120643]It's fairly normal... and it won't be a great deal more on your electricity bill to change it.

Thats a big IF,

"IF" your supply is capable of being upgraded you will only have to pay a slightly higher fee on your bill for the Higher Potencia.

but "IF" your supply cable, or local transformer is at its max, you may be hit with a big number to upgrade!!!

Go Gas as suggested is probably the least cost route.

twyntub

True enough. But it's worth asking... if Iberdrola come back and tell you it's an extra 15 euros every two months I'd go for the upgrade. If they tell you that they need a new 66kV substation at a cost of €10m I'd probably have to say no at that point.

tarn

In Spain you pay for two things:

• Your monthly energy consumption, measured in kWh
• Your maximum "rate of energy consumption", expressed in kW

A kWh costs 0.933 cents + VAT

The right to draw from the network at a given rate costs some €1.64 per month per kW. It is called "Término de Potencia", and it grows in leaps of 1.1 kW.

3.3 kW is reasonable for a Spanish house with a gas kitchen, no air conditioning. A PC draws some 300 W only, and the whole lighting could go for some 500 W. A microwave oven or a dishwasher would stretch the margin though.

The sale of things like instant flowing-water heaters is out of question in Spain, since we would need a nuclear plant every 100m for that.

In any case you might ask and pay for as much potencia as the aggregation network allows you to. You are in trouble only if you are in a really small town or an old flat.

When asked for more power, as far as I know the utility should change the trip switch for free (or almost) and seal it to prevent tampering.

Plug-in power meters have become really cheap. They are useful to pinpoint energy leaks or assess reasonable "Término de Potencia" arrangements beforehand.

dazzle

tarn, can you explain what plug in power meters are? Would they be useful in finding out why electricity bills have suddenly jumped in cost?

tarn

Dazzle, the Watímetro or medidor de potencia is a small box with a plug-socket pair and an LCD display, much like these timers for switching ligths off and on.

Likewise, you insert it between the mains and the appliance you want to measure. A caveat: Mine is rated 3 kW and I'd blow it up if I tried to use it, e.g, with the kitchen at full throttle. Anyway the plug for these appliances must have larger prongs anyway, making it unusable with them.

So you plug, switch on and learn the actual power consumption. For instance, my halogen lamp was dimmed to the faintest some four hours every day but I learnt it was an energy hog.

Don't remember the actual value, but imagine it was as low as 20 W.

four hours/day x 0.02 kW x 200 days/year = 16 kWh/year. Pretty expensive luxury for just a dim light.

My advice is, leave most things unplugged overnight. Buy the thing if you still suspect some of your appliances is bleeding energy and you couldn't figure things out from the specs.

Mine cost €45 in Germany two years ago, I've seen them at some €20, don't remember if in Spain or Germany, possibly in Lidl? months ago.

Would ask for it in a large retailer like Leroy Merlin or Brico Depot, then compare prices with a small dealer.

Solarwhizz

http://www.doctorenergy.co.uk/acatal...onitoring.html

mofieldhouse

We have had our electricity upped and it wasnt much to do it 40 euros. To off set the extra we might be using we have gone onto night rate. This is cheap electricity between the hours of 9p.m and 11am the following morning. We put our washing on of a night and have our water heater on a timer. Our last bill was half of the previous one. To go onto night rate you just call the electricity board and they fit another clock. Of course any electricity you use in the day is more expensive but the things you tend to use in the day are the cheaper things. Hope this helps.