HUGE Electric Bill

cantcope

Hi,

I moved into a new rented property in february and I've just got my first bill in from Powergen for £230!!!!! :eek:

I live in a 2 bed flat, economy 7 storage heating.

I only use the heater in the lounge which as far as i know comes on at night time. I am at work all day and away every other weekend so how come i've used so much electric??

Any ideas? I've just called powergen who are sending someone out to check my timers but where do i stand on having to pay such a huge amount?

i've only been putting £40 a month away so am £110 short on what they are asking for

Cardew

If you have used it - you have to pay it. The question is have you used it?

Assume you read the meter when you moved in and they are the readings on the bill? Also the final readings are correct and not estimated?

If you use E7 correctly your night units should be much higher than your day units.

cantcope

The timers for the E7 are set up perfectly. I had E7 for 5 years before so know how to work it. However, my day units are 4 times my night units. Someone has said it may be that the timer isnt actually switching over even though it is set properly (apparently my neighbour had the same problem).

Hoping and praying thats what it is.

Cardew

cantcope wrote:

However, my day units are 4 times my night units.

Clearly that is the problem. Most on E7(with storage heating) would expect night readings to exceed day readings by a considerable factor.

Could you not have a late night, or an early morning, to check when the Night meter starts/stops reading?

Good luck - and let us know the result; especially what Powergen give you back if it is their error.

tanith

Did you do a meter reading when you moved into the property? You might be paying for someone elses power use......

cantcope

Well the engineer just came out and it seems the meter/timer was totally up the creek.
It's been charging at day rate AND night rate 24 hours a day. Here's to a hopefully much smaller bill soon

matto

Not sure what the rules are regarding charges when the meters are wrong. But I think the only fair way of charging you would be to presume you had only used the units at night.

anniecave

I now work for a debt collection company and I used to work for an electricity supplier .When we've come across this, we manually recalculate what it should be and send out a new bill. From what is sounds like they should be able to manually recalculate this ok. Take a note of the date the meter investigator came aoround as you should get a bill going up to that point and normal billing afterwards.

Hope you get a correct bill soon.

cantcope

Thanks. Am looking forward to my new bill (now i never thought i'd say i was EVER looking forward to a bill lol)

cantcope

Finally just spoken to powergen about my bill. They have recalculated it now up to today and it came out at tenner cheaper! big deal. I know this is 3 weeks on top but still!!!

Anyway, had a grumble and they knocked £100 off so now it stands at £124. plus i got £20 credit for them messing me about with engineers not turning up when i'd stayed in waiting for them.

Very happy