JnP:

Here is the thread where somebody else suspected the meter might be wrongly connected to a neighbouring flat.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/problem-with-electricity-bill-33056.aspx

This is much more likely than the meter being faulty or erratic or the appliances being faulty.

In your case you say you are on Economy 7. You will have either two meters or 2 readings to take but you haven't explained which meter is reading your questionable units. Have you got storage heaters and are they definately switched off ie COLD?

Another thing to check is that the time clock is accurately set unless you have a radio controlled meter which should be accurate.

Forgot to add, if you have a radio controlled meter, sometimes Economy 7 is topped up during the day. Make sure you understand whether or not the water heater is fully switched off because that just might explain the erratic readings.

The meters for the apartment block are located in a locked cupboad, which I did not have the key for. Only when Npower rang up to obtain a meter reading did i manage to get a key off the landlord. This will be the first meter reading I have given in the 1.5 years I have lived in the apartment since the one I gave when moving in. This in retrospect was not good, however does not explain the 165 units used when we were on holiday, and the erratic nature of the meter.

I have eliminated all possibilities of what can be using the excess power when we are not in the apartment, there is literally nothing. The tariff we are on is economy 7.

My arguement is not based on the woolly jumpers, but on the meter ticking over at a rate of about 20 units a day when we were on holiday. Unless other appliances outside of the apartment are linked into the meter, I cannot see where the usage is coming from. I have also taken to noting down the hours each appliance is used a day and when.

I have also been through the account twice with Npower to make sure meter number and readings tally.

Is there any possbility of the meter being connected into someone elses apartment?

Help much appreciated

JnP:

The previous quarterly reading was estimated, however at the time I considered it to be there or there abouts, taking into account the price hikes at the time.

Sorry I don't understand what you are saying there. The price hikes don't affect the reading only the size of the bill.

I know I am being harsh but you need to get away from the "woolly jumper" argument and concentrate on the meter and the readings. You have not made your position any easier by accepting the previous estimated reading? How many readings back was there previously an actual? Npower are quite right about common usage patterns, they cannot be mind readers regarding occupancy. Also their previous advice to take readings for 7 days was sound. In fact while the problem is ongoing you should be taking readings every day you can.

To get back to the usage, first of all are you on a single rate tariff or an Economy 7 type of tariff?

A recent post here raised the issue of next doors (or upstairs) meter being wrongly entered in the electricity company database. Can you eliminate that possibility?

Are you absolutely certain there is not a heater somewhere on a timeswitch or thermostat?

There is little point in testing the appliances. Only things that get hot use a lot of power. Standby items use peanuts. A few washes/dishwashes will use a few units but not 20 or 35.

Jalexa

The previous quarterly reading was estimated, however at the time I considered it to be there or there abouts, taking into account the price hikes at the time.

The heater we have is immersion, that is set to come on between 0500-0600 and then turn off for the rest of the day. We don't normally use the electriic heaters as we are in an apartment complex and get heat from other apartments+ wear jumpers instead of lounging around in shorts and t shirts in the middle of winter, but will concede that we use them occasionally when it is very cold. TV/Laptop gets about 2 hours of usage a night. we normally do 3 and 2 loads of wasking/dishwasher a week, respectively: always done late in the evening, usually around 2200. Other than that there are no big sources of drainage in the apartment, when we leave for work all switches are off, so no appliances on standby.

Incidentally the elec bill for the apartment above where 2 guys work from home is less than what we have been billed.

Have agreed with Npower today to get all appliances tested by landlord. Not sure where that leaves me in either case i.e. will the landlord accept responsbility for bad appliances, if that turns out to be the case? or what will npower do regarding the meter, given that on average it is metering around 20 units a day so they consider it not a problem.

For reference, the meter does not appear to correspond to usage, on one day when we did 3 loads of washing post holiday it metered 9 units of elec, then a couple of days later when we were out the house the entire day, it metered 35 units. If this is to be a drawn out arguement, then one of my main points will be that the meter does not correspond to usage, which in essence defeats the purpose of the meter.

Again, any advice would be much appreciated

JnP:

npower are sticking to the line that this is average consumption (even though I am not there) and will not get anyone out to test the meter. Any advice would be most welcome.

First of all regarding the meter, you can insist on it being checked but be aware that if it is found to be correct you will be charged for the test. It is extremely rare for a meter to be wrong.

You need to move away from the "how prudent you are argument". Unless you are prepared to pay for the meter test it doesn't hold water. Yes, 165 units is quite a lot in 7 days for an unoccupied house but nowhere in your post do you describe what type of heating you have, in fact you specifically avoid that. Honestly its not boring to people who are interested in responding.

So basically, more info is required, specifically whether the previous quarterly reading on the bill was actual or estimated.

I would laso *** to post my current problem with Npower to see if anyone can shed any light on what actions I need to take:

We have already paid around £400 for our electricity for the year on a 2 bedroom apartment. We work 9-5 and typically we do not use a lot of electricity, will not bore you with an account of how tight i am with elec heaters, lights etc... Anyway we received a quarterly bill recently for £1100 following a meter reading. I rang up and said this was high given how prudent we are with electricity...Npower advised I take readings for seven days if i think the meter is faulty:

We were due to fly out on holiday the next day for a week so after turning everything off (apart from fridge freezer) I took a meter reading and we left. On our return i took another reading and it turned out that in the 7 days away we had managed to use 165 units of electricity. to cut a long story short npower are sticking to the line that this is average consumption (even though I am not there) and will not get anyone out to test the meter. Any advice would be most welcome.

New to this forum, so hello! Be gentle!

I found your forum when I did a search on digital electricity meters, and their accuracy... I say that because I am currently going through a small amount of stress as to my electricity charges, or more specifically, the next bill I'm due to receive!

I have a 3 bedroom semi detached house, I am out at work during the day so the main amount of electric I use in the evening, telly, lights, cooker, computer... the usual stuff... The heating is gas central heating on a timer which lights for 1 hr in the morning, and around 6 hours in the evening.

I have dual fuel supplied by EDF. I have a digital meter for the electric. When the meter was last read in October 2008 the reading was 31731... Their latest bill, sent to me on 5th Feb 2009 gave an estimated reading of 33711 meaning I'd used an estimated 1980 units. Although the bill was high, its been winter so its not overly surprising. I have gas central heating but obviously with the darker nights I have my lights turned on more often. The bill was £258.58. I'm used to paying around £150-£250 so no major problem, but I always like to see what the ACTUAL figure is on the meter...

It was 44891!!

Woah! 13160 units since the last reading of 31731??!!

I phoned EDF and paid the estimated bill by debitcard. I asked them what they thought the usual level of unit usage per day was and they said around 15-20... According to my meter I've been using around 150 per day every day for 3 months! They asked me to keep a daily check on my meter readings and so far they've been Sunday 44891 - Monday 44915 - Tuesday 45210...

So thats a 'normalish' 24 units on Sunday-Monday then 295 units for Monday-Tuesday (and I wasn't even home for most of Tuesday!)

Other than reporting this for your consumption pleasure, is there any advice any of you can give me as to how to proceed? I've asked EDF to record it on my customer file and will be continuing to log the meter readings... Do I contact the Energy Watchdog? Or BBC Watchdog? Or who!!??

Help!!

PS... The estimated Gas bill was within 10 units of being correct, so no problems with that then! - Just as an aside, we had a couple of powercuts a while back... How does a digital electric meter survive a powercut? Has it its own battery? What happens when the power is cut off for a while, can it possibly corrupt its readings?

HI thanks

yes it was a typing error just as well because water and electricty dont mix it would be interesting to see what the answer was though from OFWAT!!!!!

Hi groovy

Ref your query regards the power cut if your house was the only one which lost power when the street lights went out it could well be that there may be a problem with the connections,I have worked in the housing section of the construction industry for 25 Years and it would not be the first time it as happened,the electric Storage heaters in your property could be some thing to do with the high usage as they are prone to going wrong especialy if they have not been wired up to get the best out of the cheap electricty at night time.Do a simple exercise of switching them off individually overnight while the weather is mild and monitor the readings,.one of the other things that can go wrong is the controls on the heaters and they dont switch off when they should having stored the heat in the radiator.

Good luck

alexah:

Hi groovy

You could well have a problem but you will find that everyones bills have increased by over40% because of the rises imposed by all the suppliers.I have just wrote to complain to E-ON and asked the OFWAT if they were allowed to impose such huge rises because they effectively doubled my last bill.

I understand bills have gone up but unit usage hasn't.

Because our bill is so high we had neighbours keep check on their usage for a 10 day period us in October last year so we could compare. Our homes are all electric, double glazed, cavity wall insulated, 300mm loft insulation and each property has 5 storage heaters. Each neighbour has a partner at home during the (we are not home until 4pm), they used approx 13 units during the day (give ot take a unit) and 12 units at night in comparision we used roughly 30 unit per day and 28 units at night. We have been querying are usage for a while and getting no where, but SP keep telling us we are 'high users'

Is it possible for the street lights to be wired into our property! we have a power cut at 1am two nights ago - ours was the only home on the block to go down as did the street light directly outside our property - at 8pm with engineers still trying to rectify the propblem the whole street went down along with the rest of the street lights.

As if by magic when they managed to reconnected the supply at 11pm all the street lights came back on - which makes me think are we paying to light the street - with such high usage?

In 74 days we are meant to have used £950 of electric compared to the neighbours £290.00 bill - something is definately wrong. We are now at a loss what to do we have a 14 day wait until the energy ombudsman gets involved

Hi Alexah

I am only writing this in the hope that you have made a typo as OFWAT is the water industry regulator, the one for the gas & electricity markets is OFGEM or for consumer advice you can ask for your complaint to be refferred to the Ombudsman Service

Hi groovy

You could well have a problem but you will find that everyones bills have increased by over40% because of the rises imposed by all the suppliers.I have just wrote to complain to E-ON and asked the OFWAT if they were allowed to impose such huge rises because they effectively doubled my last bill.

Hi JulsC,

I am sorry to learn of your problems with ScottishPower I am familiar with the type of heating system you have, particulary the Comfort Plus White Meter. This type of meter is only installed for a certain type of heating system. Although you have the older set up, i.e 2 meters, this will more than likely be replaced at certain time with one meter which will display all three rates, day, night & offpeak.

There are two types of this metering system, one is called Weathercall & one is called Non Weathercall. Dependant on where you live within ScottishPower's area you will have one or the other. The first is designed to operate your storage heaters remotely by sending a radio signal to turn on heaters to charge up on their offpeak rate, these types are usually found in remote areas of their regions The latter, Non Weathercall, is found in large towns/cities and the meters own timeswitch will provide the electricity to your storage heaters.

The problem is, as with any electricity heating, it is known for being expensive no matter what tariff you are on. Also, with storage heaters, it depends on the size of your heaters. As you say, back in 2006 when you had two heaters in operation, your usage was approximately higher, than in 2007, when it was lower, but has creeped back up. But if you have a 2KWH heater, for the one that still works, this will use 2 units an hour, again if its a 3KWH one, again its 3 an hour, and the offpeak can charge I understand for up to 18 hours.

Hence you might get periods where the usage is less than others, especially if its the Weathercall variety, as it will have different signals for different periods of time. You usually find the bigger KWH (3 or 4 KWH) rating heaters in larger areas, say lounge/kitchen, but smaller areas, bedrooms or hallways/bathrooms, etc will have smaller ones say 2KWH.

Also you have the other meter, which is 2 rate, day and night, the night rate will give you 8.5 hours of cheap rate electricity, this is usually 12 midnight till 8.30am, or staggered say 11.30pm till 8am, but this could suit you greatly as you especially with the shower and washing machine in the morning as this will be on the lesser expensive night rate price, ScottishPower will be able to confirm your meter times.

Regrettably theres nothing much you can do with this system, as ScottishPower cant install any other type of meter for your physical heating system. Also you might find this type of system difficult to change supplier on, as this set up, usually has two unique electricity supply numbers, which most other suppliers, might not be able to bill you for, especially as you have two meters, one 2 rate and one offpeak.

The best thing, especially for you to monitor your own usage, is contact ScottishPowers and see if you can register for their online service. Its the best from any supplier, as voted by the pricecomparisons websites, I am on it, and it gives you real time billing, allowing you to enter your readings, monthly if you wish, which will allow you the benefit of determining your usage. You wont receive paper bills but after you have updated your readings, you log back on after approximately 2 working days and you see a PDF version of what you used to get through the door. You will also receive online discounts.

You also mention you have had the benefit of their cheaper packages, I myself was on PriceFall, but switched to their Fix 2011 tariff as I could see where prices were going, you should have been offerred their Fix for Free tariff, ( i got sent their PriceFall maturity letter by mistake!) but in essence they have fixed your new prices up to May 09. This is again an excellent deal as unlike nearly all fixed rates their are no premiums or penalties for this reassurance, so for example if and when they do drop their prices, you can contact them and get them to move you off Fix for Free straight away onto their new standard rates.

At this present time, they offer two other deals...Capped Price 2010 and PriceSure. With your tariff I wouldnt bother with the latter, as PriceSure fixes your prices as they are now, so you wont get the benefit of any drop. PriceSure is fixed till the end of Jan 2010. With Capped Price you are guaranteed the prices, again as they are now, but for the premium of a £1.00 .... but if your thinking why would you.....consider yes prices are expected to drop, so you will get the drop, as the product explains, again still paying the £1 premium, but if prices then increase.....as there is expected anticipation at the end of this year, or start of next year....then you wont get the increase, but who says what will happen or what they will offer you at the maturity of that deal. Capped Price 2010 is guaranteed till April 2010...so slightly longer than PriceSure.

However I have been with ScottishPower for years and when they drop prices I am sure they will offer a new deal whether it be fixed or capped.

As for meter testing it is very rare for meters to go faulty and if they do its usually obvious for the owner to see, as the meter readings are usually all over the place. But again as ScottishPower say there is a meter charge and it could be a no winner if your meter is found to be accurate you dont get the fee back.

Finally I think from the timeframe you mentioned (12 years) you must own the flat, as if it was private rented etc you could ask your landlord/letting agent for their consideration in changing/updating the heating system in your flat. If its privately owned then maybe this is something you could consider...but again, any electricity system is usually cheaper to get installed but more expensive to run than gas......

Hope this has been of some help.....??

We live in a modern mid-terrace 3 bedroom home, 300mm thick loft insulation, fully double glazed, cavity wall insulation; we have the usual A+ rated appliances, TV (CRT), Sky, DVD, Cooker, Microwave, Kettle, Wii, Tumble dryer, Shower, and use energy efficeint bulbs throughout the house. We are having terrible problems with our electric bills, Scottish Power keep informing us we are "high energy users" which we dispute. We are all electric with no gas supply, the bill for the past 61 days has just come in £950. Our bills are so high we switched the storage heaters off last February.

With an £800 bill in September, last October our neighbours kept a check on their consumption for us, their average use was: 13 units during the day and 12 units at night whereas ours was 29 units during the day and 27 units at night. We can't understand why our useage is so high as we have roughly the same appliances as they do; except ours are all new A+ as they have blown up when turned on and we use two oil heaters.

Looking back at last years bill Jan 08 - Nov 08, we paid £2798.00 (exc standing charge & VAT), we have been challenging SP for the past 6 months to no avail; they have put a new digital meter in (which melted within 3 weeks).

Having complained time and time again and getting nowhere fast, we have now given them 14 days and the energy ombudsman have infomred us they will get involved.

Hi,

Glad to see this post. I moved in to a flat on the 24th of november and was on a prepay meter which was costing too much so i phoned british gas and they got another one fitted on the 9th of december. this was supposed to be e7 meter its digital. so about a month later i phone them up to give them a meter reading ( i have everything electric no gas, one bed flat 3 storage heaters one cooker and a washing macine which i use 2 a week possibly plus a stupid electric off peak water heater they gave me a bill of £146.00 for a month i nearly died as we had had an electrician in a few weeks before who said that my electric would be roughly 30 ponud a month. I didnt pay this bill as i had requested to go quarterley but at this point i switched 2 storage heaters off. Looked at my electric meter and its still nearly double what it was a month ago! I got a electrician over today i live in ahousing association flat and he said the meter must be wrong so will start phioning tomorrow and hope this gets sorted.my meter readings look like 22 units per night and about 12 during the day which is fairly phenomenal however i am not really sure how to read my meter i have no red numbers or decimal points which every one else seems to have.

My electrician man said that a bill that high for one bed flat would be something to take to trading standards plus i recently had an energy assessment through thet the housing association had got done and that estimated i would be using 7 pound a week so i thought if i dont get this sorted i would phone them and ask them to try and fight it for me.

The people that did the assessment for the flat are called Vibrant energy and their number is 0845 6127476they may be able to help.I will let you know how i get on with my probs!!