Help with abnormally high electricity bill

Peebo

Hi looking for some help.

I live in a 2 bedroom ground floor flat it's a pretty old flat and my electricity consumtion seems to be ridiculously high. For the last 61 days I received a bill from Scottish Power for £1001.96 for 6870 units this is a huge amount and I dont know how it's possible which averages 112 units per day. This time last year the same period we used only 2909 units and nothing has changed since. Here is a list of what I have turned on in the house.

Microwave. (rarely used but does have a clock on it)
Cooker. (Used about 3 times a week for roughly 1 hour a time)
Washing machine (about 3 or 4 times a week)
Larder Fridge (Energy efficient A+) rated
Freezer (Chest Freezer)
PC on every day between 17:00 to 23:00
TV and V+ box (about 5 hours a day its on)
A few alarm clocks
1 electric wall heater (on through the night only on low setting)
Kettle (3 times a day)
Immersion water heater (1 hour per day)
1 main light on in the house for 6 hours per day.

(There is 2 Storage heaters but they're on another meter.)

There is 2 adults and 1 baby in the flat. Both adults work 9-5 so no usage between those times (Mon -Fri)

Now Scottish Power have based this bill on a meter reading we gave yesterday which we checked today and it's gone up 22042 to 22119 in 24 hours. The girl at customer services thought that was high as well but has refused to do anything to help because they've based the bill on the meter reading we gave. Is it possible this could be right? I just cannot see how we could use so much electricity.

Is 77 units a lot for a days use or is there something else possibly going on?

any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

KimYeovil

Are you sure the reading is 22119 and not 02211.9?

Treadway1

This does seem excessive as I worked my annual electric comsumption out as 3198 KWh, which divided by 365 works out as just over 8 units a day. Admittedly I live alone in a 3 bedroom semi, but 79 units a day seems absurd.

This is only a long shot (Although considering the huge reading your meter's giving, maybe not) but is there a chance that any other flat is connected through your meter. Again, I know this may seem unlikely but I read a story a while ago about a woman who was paying for her neighbours water for 10 years and paid over £10,000 more than she should have. :eek: . Might be best to do a bit of investigation work...

Best of luck though. Let us know how it goes.

filmnoir

Your living in a 2 bedroom ground floor flat. Is there multiple flats? Does each flat have its own electric meter? The two Storage heaters, why are they on another meter?

Treadway1

KimYeovil wrote: »

Are you sure the reading is 22119 and not 02211.9?

Sorry Kim, just seen your post. Peebo, as Kim says, are you reading the meter properly. Thinking about it now, Im pretty sure only the first four numbers count on an electricity meter. In which case, your meter going up from 2204.2 to 2211.9 would only be 7.7 units, which would sound a little more plasuible. Although this still wouldnt explain the £1000 bill I guess!!! Unless SP arent calulating the numbers correctly.

Peebo

Well I had thought perhaps maybe upstairs might have tapped into it but how would you go about checking? I've turned off all the electricity in the house today except for the PC, Fridge and Freezer everything else is totally powered off so I will check this time tomorrow to see how much it's gone up by.

Peebo

I just checked the meter reading and it definetly doesn't have a (.) in it anywhere so the reading is correct.

Peebo

filmnoir wrote: »

Your living in a 2 bedroom ground floor flat. Is there multiple flats? Does each flat have its own electric meter? The two Storage heaters, why are they on another meter?

The heating has it's own Domestic meter, I dont know why though. The reading on that meter was 28327 yesterday and 28350 now so it seems to be ok I think.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi

This does sound like a large amount of electricity to be using for a two bedroom flat.

Properties with all electric heating usually have meters with more than one rate, economy 7 or RHT for example, you only refer to one reading is it definitely a single rate meter?

If it is and your storage heating runs on a single rate meter it is being charged at a high rate rather than the reduced rate like you get with E7 and RHT.

Are there any other plug in heaters being used? Any under floor heating or towel rails in use? These are all extremely expensive to run and use lots of electricity.

Let me know a little more and I will try and help.

Fire_Fox

Are all your readings actual or have they been estimated on any bill? Are you playing catch-up for low estimates? Is it possible you have had the meter changed from imperial to metric? Does the meter number on your bill match the meter itself, and does the meter number on your current bill match the old bill? Is the last digit on the meter a different colour to the other digits?

welshsue

Hiya
That does seem very high. We are a family of 4 in a 3bed detached house. 3 of us are home all day due to my disability and we have tv,pc's, kettle, washing machine, fridge, freezer, dishwasher, cooker, heating etc on most days.
Just checked my meter and since 3rd November when we had a new meter installed I have used 2262 units (£321.00).
There is definately something funny going on with your meter. Is your meter lcd display or the old display. As far as I am aware all of them have a decimal point in the reading. Ours is 2262.30.

As per the last post if its an old style meter the one after the decimal point will be in a different colour. i.e red