Massive Electricity Bill - npower

dwh103

Hi all.

Background:

Moved into new place July 2006. Did uSwitch and they said npower was the cheapest, so went with them (ok, that's mistake number 1!). It is a small, 3 bedroom terraced house, all electric. Storage heaters, Economy 7 etc.

Was told a new meter needed to be fitted, and after buying the house some electrical work was needed (including updating the fuse board etc and all that). These were both done in August 2006. New immersion heater element and timer in July 2008 after a few months with no hot water (had electric shower!). Since then, timer is on for 90 mins in the morning and an hour in the evening. Heating is off for most of the year and only ever turned on on low settings as exceptionally effective.

Meters have been read and readings given to npower at least every 6 months. Though they don't seem to have one of them (last October).

Bills started off at £90 a month, before dropping to £60, then 40, 30 etc, based on the correct readings I was giving them (paid monthly direct debit and account always in credit).

Now I knew nothing about the bills, it's all confusing, and trusted things to run smoothly. Had no idea what a KwH is or how many to expect, I'm just the normal consumer sap.

I'm told someone read the meter (correctly) in March and I then get a bill for £2,000, with £1500 of 'cancelled bills', suggesting I've used 35,000kwH in the 2 1/2 years since the new meter (15k standard, 20k off peak). Best part of 12-14k per year. 1,000kwH on the off-peak meter in 12 weeks with storage heaters all switched off at the wall. And 12.5k offpeak usage in 10.5 months from April 08 to March 09.

- Is this usage highly unlikely?
- Anybody experienced a similar problem following a meter change?
- If these figures are somehow correct, do I have any recourse against npower taking an exceptional amount of time to advise me of higher bills?
- If it's some electrical fault following work I've had done, do I have any recourse against the people who carried the work out?

I'm monitoring the figures over the next 2-3 days, aside from that, what should I do? Sorry about the length of all this!

Thanks for anybody who gives me any advice!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

There is no point in monitoring electricity used for heating in June as a guide to your overall consumption.

In 2.5 years you have used an average of 6,000kWh day and 8,000kWh night per year which is not excessive for an all electric house. As a comparison the average UK household with gas uses 20,500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electricity. So 23,800kWh pa and you are using 14,000kWh.

1000kWh in 12 weeks on the off peak meter is again not high. Presumably you heat water at night , have a fridge, freezer running and use other electricity in the off peak period.

So I suggest far from being 'highly unlikely' your consumption is quite modest.

You should bear in mind that the average family(with cheaper gas) has an annual bill of £1,300. Most all electric houses with storage heating are more expensive(don't forget daytime electricity is more expensive when you have an Economy 7 tariff with storage heating) So your DD dropping to £30 a month was obviously nonsensical.

I don't know what tariff you have but at today's prices your consumption should be in the order of £1100-£1200 pa.

If the meters have been read every 6 months by yourself(and you say they were correct readings) then the only conclusion is that you have been reading them incorrectly. Did you actually check that the readings you gave were those used on the bills? - it is not unusual for the 'computer' to ignore readings it 'thinks' are incorrect.

Your situation is not at all unusual, a couple of years of bills based on incorrect/estimated meter readings followed by a 'catch up' bill.

You can dismiss the idea of electrical work on your house being the culprit. You cannot 'destroy' electrical energy - any short or fault using a tiny amount of that energy would cause a fire or something to melt.

So the bottom line is that you really have very little recourse against NPower IMO, however if you make a 'fuss' you might get a 10% -20% reduction as a goodwill gesture, and of course time to pay back.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

You should bear in mind that the average family(with cheaper gas) has an annual bill of £1,300.

Really? Why?

Edit: OP, I personally think your bills are fine - leccy is an expensive method of heating your home.

Magentasue

Given that you have storage heaters, an electric shower and you heat enough water for several people, I would agree that your bills are reasonable.

dogshome

Hi Cardew - Just a comment on "any short or fault... fire or melt" It is possible to have a fault which will steadily use power without blowing fuses etc - The classic is careless plastering around a recesssed power socket - if plaster bridges the terminals it will conduct electricity, but with such a high resistance it doesn't overload the circuit, but it will leak power 24/7 - I reckon it's worth dwh103 getting an electrician to put his meter across the fuses with everything unplugged/turned off

Cardew

dogshome wrote: »

Hi Cardew - Just a comment on "any short or fault... fire or melt" It is possible to have a fault which will steadily use power without blowing fuses etc - The classic is careless plastering around a recesssed power socket - if plaster bridges the terminals it will conduct electricity, but with such a high resistance it doesn't overload the circuit, but it will leak power 24/7 - I reckon it's worth dwh103 getting an electrician to put his meter across the fuses with everything unplugged/turned off

The 'leaked power' will still produce heat(Ohms law still applies).

Your example might(in theory) dissipate a couple of Watts, but you would still have heat produced. In practice I doubt that it will ever happen, or at least I have never heard of the situation.

The OP is talking about thousands of kWhs!

dwh103

Thanks for all the replies guys! I really appreciate any time that people have taken to respond!

The plot has thickened a bit. When I signed up I requested economy 7 (sensible as I have storage heaters, right?). Npower are now saying that my price plan has always been on their standard charge. There's no way on earth I signed up for that! My meter was changed AFTER I signed up to npower. Obviously the greeting letters make no reference to the price plan, but they imply that the charges are as per economy 7. And they all contradict each other and are confusing.

Naturally customer services can't send me historical prices or an audit trail, so I'm having to write to them to request that.

My old supplier says 'Economy 7' in the price plan, so if I request a switch - why should they change it to suit them?

Will see what they have to say, but given the standard off-peak rate is around 60% higher, and that's where 60% of my energy useage is...interesting.

I think I have enough documentation to make their lives rather awkward!