Sky-high electricity meter readings

RubberBob

Hello,

I'm looking for a bit of advice as to what to do regarding a recent electricity bill - any help would be great.

I moved house approximately 2 months ago into a 3 bed detached cottage with electricity supply only (no gas). 2 of us currently live here. We've just had a bill come through for £176 (estimated usage) for the period 7 January to 5 March which seemed OK to me until I went out and read the actual meter reading ...

'other times energy'
821 units (estmated reading)
2914 units (actual reading)

'weekday daytime energy'
473 units (estmated reading)
2227 units (actual reading)

By my calculations from the unit price etc this would make my bill £691.08.

Our usage of electricity is not massive. Our appliances are A rated, I have a computer running most of the day, everything else is turned off standby when not in use and we have low-energy lightbulbs. The house is heated by storage heaters which were installed approx 1 year ago - they are set to I (rather than II) and are on a low setting: between 1 and 3 out of a scale of 1-6 and they're not on all day. So basically the heating is not turned up very high - I'd rather put a jumper on than turn the heating up ... Hot water is by a fairly newly installed imersion heater. This only comes on at night for 4 1/2 hours. According to energyhelpline.com our usage should be about £1000 - £1200 per year (not £691 for 2 months!).

The couple that moved out before we moved in took their end reading (our start), and although I didn't check it, I have known them for a few years and completely trust this to be accurate.

Can anyone advise on where I may have gone wrong with our usage of electricity or if there is any way that this reading is incorrect - e.g. meter broken or running too fast? Should I be going to the supplier (Scottish Hydro Electric) to give the actual reading and to make a complaint? Could the storage heaters have been wired wrongly - i.e. not into the cheap rate? I don't understand!

Also, we seem to be on a tariff that I can't find on the SHE website or anywhere else for that matter: Evening/Weekend tarrif. This has a higher unit price (9.56p / 16.52p) and standing charge (20.18p / day) than any of their other tariffs. I never got an option of which tariff I wanted when I changed address and phoned them up. Can I backdate any change to the tariff if I make one?

I'd be really grateful for any help on this - sorry if the above turned into a bit of an essay!

Rob

jimexbox

One thing is costing serious money, your electric storage heaters. They are expensive to run, though cheap to install. You have to change to an economy 7 tariff, then charge your storage heaters using E7 night rate electricity which was about 4.2p in my area last time I looked. Then release the heat during the following day.

If you change tariffs now it is not back dated, you either submit a reading or they will take an estimated reading.

dunloadin

You should not have a clock set for Evening/Weekend tarriff, this tariff is normally only available for buisiness properties....not all of them use it, normally Resturaunts/Takeaways/Hotels. Ask Hydro if they have you on a business account...if so get it sorted ASAP (you'll be paying full VAT).

Also get them to change the clock or meter to a Eco7 tariff, as at the moment your storage heater elements will be heating your house, not the bricks! In fact they'll be on for the whole of the weekend and most of the Evening through the week....hence the high consumption.