Our electricity bills have always been high, but I put it down to the fact that we were a large household - we have five children. But over the last three months we have really been making an effort to cut back after the latest bill put us up to £500 a month (gas and electric combined). I rang npower this morning to give them the latest reading only to find that despite our attempts to save energy our usage had actually increased.

This is now starting to a look a bit fishy. I was told our usage is 146kw a day - just over fifty thousand kw a year. Can this be right for a household of seven or are we paying for our neighbours too? We live next to a block of four flats and the electricity meter is attached to the adjoining wall.

How can we establish if we are paying for them too - and if we have been how can we get our money back? We have lived in the property for seven years.

Wow, that is harsh, especially as you have been trying to cut down.

I can not help with your query re: you paying for others.

However, I just thought I would post as my energy bills have gone right up this year to. We're with Southern Electric.

Our combined gas & electric has increased by almost 60%.

Can you try googling "average annual kw consumption" or something to see if 50,000 is normal?

Hope someone else can help you more.

Brisco.

Hi - the average UK household gets through 3,000-4,000 a year apparently - so we are getting through 12 times as much! Any advice welcome.

What type of meter (credit/key/token) and how is your flat heated (gas/storage heating)?

Have you been sending in meter reads, if so have you been including the digits after the decimal point?

Hi

Your bill cannot be right. I do remember an item on a consumer programme (watchdog) that there was a problem with meter readings. it depends on the meter type as to how they calculate the usage. A lot of bills had a conversion calculation applied by mistake which more than doubled usage. Customers were getting back large sums for overpayment. You may wish to search for this on the internet, so you can look into this.

Also check with consumer direct. http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/EnergySupplyandPost/energysupply/

Your energy supplier has a duty to look into, provide a free meter check. With the amount you are spending perhaps they may have an energy consultant who can visit and provide face to face advice.

newsjunkie:

First of all 50,000 units a year is a hugh amount. 146kWhrs/day during the last winter would also be a lot but is possible. Since you haven't mentioned how you heat your home, how warm you like it to be and how well or poorly insulated the property is it's not totally possible to dismiss 146/day, but 50,000/year no way.

Before focussing on the possibility of a wiring error you need to get a handle on your consumption. Read your meter daily for a week, then weekly for a month then monthly. You should have been aware of your 146kWhrs/day before NPower told you.

As I write this I realise you did mention "gas and electric combined". I am confused now. What is your gas consumption and what is your electricity consumption? Is the 146/day gas or electric or total?

Thanks for all the advice, in answer to your question the house is a five bedroom terraced property built in the last thirty years. It is heated by gas and our gas bills have always been low. Our electricity bills have always been very high though which I put down to the fact that we have a large family with a lot of washing, and the tumble dryer gets used a lot. Three years ago I used uswitch to change suppliers and we went with npower for both our electricity and gas combined. It's only since we have been making a real effort to cut back on our electricity use yet at the same time saw an increase in our bills that I realised there might be a problem.

Npower is sending someone out to investigate but we will have to pay a £70 call out fee!

Hi

Have you seen the latest post re Times article. Npower rip off.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article6487652.ece

Show this to the Npower person who comes to visit you.

Thanks that's really interesting - it might make a big difference to the amount we're paying if the direct debits have been calculated over an 18 month period taking in two winters. £500 a month is like a second mortgage!