Yet another high electric bill, need help please!

Sukie_2

Hi, can anybody point me in the right direction please? We changed from BG to EDF because of problems with BG. EDF have tried to be helpful, but we're still not getting any sense as to why our bills (readings) are so high.
There are 2 of us living in a 2 bed bungalow, with gas heating and water and I cook with gas. We have the normal things in the house, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer (only used when ness.) 2 freezers, 2 fridges, t.v, stero, 2 computors (not left on) saver bulbs and so on. No kids and we are in our 50's, the bungalow has all its insulation and dbl glazing. EDF tell us our consumption should be between 15 & 19 units a day, so how come we end up with the lower end at 25 & the higher end at 33!!
We've stwiched of the meter, nothing going to earth. Read the meter daily for a week av. consumpution 16 per day, have purchased a power measuring thing and can't find anything that's chewing up the electric, so where's it going?!
EDF tell us, nobody has been here, that there are "no high and low peaks" so the meter is okay.
The bungalow was rewired in 2000, plus a new digital meter which has a K98E number.
We can't make sense of this, we have the same as when in a 3 bed house, but our readings are much higher here, we moved in 2 years ago. This was my parents home and Dad was always complaining of the electric bills. Could the meter have been clibrated wrongly when put in, how could we check it?
Any thoughts anybody please, it's driving me nuts, just can't find a gremlin to explain it all!!
Any thoughs anybody

Rikki

Have you tried turning everything off?

Sukie_2

Hi Rikki,
Yes probably didn't explain properly. Turn every single item of for about 45 mins the meter didn't move!

Magentasue

Two fridges? Two freezers? That's a few units a day before you even put the kettle on!

I don't understand how you are using 16 units a day by your meter readings but 25-33 by your supplier's reckonings if they're reading the same meter. Do the readings on the bills match your readings?

Rikki

The fridges and freezers are these older and as not energy efficient.
Boiling a kettle frequently uses a lot of electricity. Have you tried using a gas kettle or flask for a day and seeing if it improves the meter readings.

Scratching my head for ideas.

brysiewysie

This may be of some help. Try registering at this site and entering regular readings;

http://www.i-measure.org/

In itself it won't do anything but it may help to build a picture.

Is the power measuring 'thing' something that just plugs into an individual power socket or does it have a clip round the main wire out of the meter and it measures the whole house use?

Sukie_2

All our appliances are A rated, we checked the large freezer and that cost us 73p over 60 hours. The power thingy is one that plugs into each socket. Kettle was over 24 hrs used .75kwh, TV just on 7hrs 30mins used 1.43kwh.
As to the readings, difficult to know. My mother was with Powergen on Staywarm, we changed when we moved in to BG also changing the "customer name" to ours. Powergen did not read the meter and gave BG an estimate, which we disputed as it was 5000 units lower than it should have been. BG also did not read the meter and chose to ignore the reading we gave them and gave us their estimate, which we continued to dispute, so the start figure EDF were given by BG was totally wrong. In a letter from BG to us it states in 2 cases, 1 from our reading and 1 from Seimens they thought the reading too high so would disregard!!
It seems like a mine field.
I seriously wonder if this stems back to when Mum was alive and on Staywarm, but we can't get any sense from any of them.
Will definately try that site, sounds like a good thought, thanks

Rikki

Stay warm is at a lower rate and direct debit payments are fixed for twelve months.

If you took readings when you moved in and supplied them to BG and EDF they should accept them.
Have you tried contacting www.energywatch.org.uk. They are there to sort these type of problems out if the companies are not playing ball.

Magentasue

It seems as if it's not your meter readings that are in dispute, then, but your starter reading?

Or is it? You've been there two years now so the first artificially high bill(s) are probably history now. Or have you had a series of estimates?

Final thought - just noticed you said you read the meter for a week and it was OK. Could it be that you have very high winter use that distorts your average? You're probably going to be using more than 20 units a week for those six months of the year when you're using the tumble drier, needing lights on, running the CH etc.

Sukie_2

Hi Rikki & Magentasue, Yes I agree, they should accept them, espeically as they were higher than their estimates, but they didn't, as stated in BG's letter to us, BG didn't even accept the actual reading Seimens took as it was too high!
We have been disputing the original starter reading since we first took over but it's like banging your head on a brickwall!! The people on the phone lines are as helpful as they can be, but how on earth do you get to the head honcho.
As to the readings, I accept they go up in winter but not to double plus on a daily basis, even if we used everything 24/7. It was EDf that told us what our normal summer usage should be, for what we have in the house and that was max 19 units per day, ours is 25. They even say it is very high!
We are happy to pay, everybody has to, but where are these extra 140 units, roughly per month? Seems like an awful lot to me

Sukie_2

Forgot to say, sorry, think energy watch might have to be our next move