HUGE electricity meter reading

russ21282 · 4 March 2008 at 8:44PM

Hi all,

we moved house about 8 months ago and had a new meter put in by British gas. Since then they have estimated 2 readings, the first being around 700 and the second for February around 1800. This all seems fine as the bill was just over £100 for the quarter.

However, after looking at the meter, the reading is about 8000! This would cost us around £800 for the quarter.

In the old house we have had 5/6 people living in the house, in most the day, 4/5 comps on a lot of the day, 5/6 showers, dryer/washing machine/cooker being used a lot. our usage was £180 for the same quarter last year.

In the new house we have 4 people here don't have a dryer and showers are heated by gas, cooker is gas and there everybody is out most of the time at work.

British gas are putting in another meter for 4 weeks to see if the meter is inaccurate (it will cost us £50 if it turns out to be accurate)

If it is accurate what else could it be? this seams impossible for how much we actually use!

russ21282 · 5 March 2008 at 11:56AM

Anybody any ideas? If the meter is right the only things i can think of is somebody is stealing our electric or maybe something is draining it like a short in the house somewhere. Is this plausible?

ScoobyCanDo · 5 March 2008 at 3:02PM

Don't panic .................... don't panic!

First off, take a Meter Reading each day, at the same time to see how much energy you are using in any given 24 hour period (I'm guessing we are talking about Electricity?).

Next work out WHAT appliances you are using during that 24 hour period (often where kids enter the equation - CHECK the immersion Heater is not being left SWITCHED ON .......... or any Electric Heaters, hidden in the depths of their 'SWAMP' ..... sorry, Bedrooms?) and try to calculate their kWh ratings, against the time they are in use and compare to your daily Meter Reading?

OR just pop in to your local Maplins Electronics Store and buy a Plug In Energy Monitor (1 should do) and use it on each appliance in turn to get an actual reading of use for that appliance.

Plug-In Mains Power and Energy Monitor

Go to :-

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343&criteria=Energy Monitor&doy=5m3

They WHERE only £9.99, but have gone back up to £27.99 .......... or look on Ebay for a cheaper one.

If you think someone is nicking your power, wait until the evening and then switch the supply OFF ............... if you see your neighbours lights GO OUT .... you'll know??? :rolleyes:

If as you say, you mainly use GAS .............. then your Gas part of your bill should be a LOT higher than the Electric part? ........... and without all the info in front of us, it's a bit of a guess.

russ21282 · 13 March 2008 at 1:12PM

Thanks for the reply scooby, yes it is electric i'm talking about and our gas bill was £200 for the quarter. I haven't been at the house to take readings each day but i have checked the meter again 2 weeks after speaking with british gas about the huge meter reading and it has increased by just over 200, now that would seem more reasonable compared to 700 for the same period!

Now what concerns me is they are going to put a second meter in and it will show our current meter is accurate and then we will be liable for the bill.

But i'm still 100% positive it can't be right as we haven't changed anything in the last 2 weeks.

I think its strange how its come down after speaking to them. A guy from british gas mentioned we might not have been moved over from the prepay tariff when we started paying by dd, but i can't see how this would make the reading high.

Any ideas?

Cardew · 13 March 2008 at 3:10PM

Going back to the beginning, are you sure that the 700 and 1800 on your bills are meter readings and not 700kWh and 1,800kWh consumed?

e.g. Is it possible that the meter was not at zero(not all are set to zero) when fitted 8 months ago and could have been reading, say, 4000? so the first estimate for 700kWh would have been a reading of 4700 and the second correspond to a meter reading of 5800?

Look at your bills carefully and they sometmes have a label on the meter saying "meter fitted on date xx/xx/xxxx meter reading yyyy

russ21282 · 2 April 2008 at 8:21PM

Thanks for the reply Cardew, the meter was installed and started at 0 or so it says on the tag thats attached to it.

I have called british gas and told them the actual meter reading and they sent a bill out for around £800 for the 1/4.

Needless to say i don't think i should be paying for this as it seems impossible to me. The woman from british gas even asked if i had a hot tub which might have been using a lot of electric!!

I've been taking meter readings for a month and on average we're using 150 a week now. I find this a little suspicious as it has gone right down since i told them about the issue.

Is there something they could have changed which has reduced the consumption? a chap i spoke to on the phone said something about still being on a prepay tariff, but i can't see how that would have an effect on the meter reading, we'd surely just have been charged at a higher rate.

Has anyone any ideas of what would be the best action to take next as there must be a mistake somewhere, but i think they will soon be pushing us for the money!

Terrylw1 · 2 April 2008 at 10:43PM

Hi,

If you are sure the meter went in on 00000 (engineers sometimes fill them in wrong, so keep an open mind on that) then if you believe 150 units is way to high, you need to go down the meter accuracy route.

It sounds like they are fitting a "check" meter which will record alongside yours. This could prove that your meter is running faster than the tolerance guide i.e. speeding, as it's called.

It's very rare, but considering it's happened on a meter fitting it could mean the manufacturer set the speed incorrectly.

They can also do a Standard Load Test (SLT) which will prove this.

Whatever happens, don't get that meter reaplced until its sorted or you lose any proof if it's speeding.

Have you tried switching everything off to make sure the dials stop recording?

They can't send any messages to the meter to affect speed, they are not that advanced.

SwanJon · 2 April 2008 at 10:47PM

There is nothing they can do to the meter from their call centre to reduce how much electricity you are using.
The only ways it would look like you were using more before and less now are
1) You are. Someone else in the house has really cut back without telling you!
2) the meter didn't go in at zero. Very difficult to prove. You could ask them to check if the meter had been in anywhere else before - give them the serial number and see what they can do.

whatatwit · 2 April 2008 at 11:46PM

Are you all adults sharing a house, maybe someone has had an electric heater running that you were not aware of?

russ21282 · 17 April 2008 at 3:17PM

They have installed a meter alongside ours today to see if it is speeding. I don't think there is a difference as of yet, which is bad news.

We never checked the reading when the meter was installed, so we just have the tag on there to refer to, which is 0000. We haven't told anyone else in the house and we have been a little more careful but excessively so.

150 a week seems reasonable to us as this is the sort of figure we were using this time last year, but there has been a massive difference in the last month that i have been checking, to the 8000 we have apparently used in the previous quarter.

What would be the best way to approach british gas to sort this out as i'm still 100% sure there is no possible way we could have used that amount in such a short time. for the past 5 years it has ranged from £20 to £50 a month, so 4 times the highest we have ever used can't be right.

thanks for replies so far!

russ21282 · 17 April 2008 at 3:33PM

After checking the tag attached to the wires again, the date on it is from 2002, so they haven't actually put a new tag on with the original reading for the current meter.

HUGE electricity meter reading

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