Is my meter faulty? What next?

Cuilean

I'm a tenant in a rented two bedroom flat. Two of us live here, and both of us are out at work during the day. This is the third flat we've shared. All have been GCH.

For the previous two flats, our supplier for both gas and electricity has been Powergen. We do the quarterly cash payment option. They've generally been very reasonable, with the electricity coming in at no more than £5, and the gas being £100-£150. They are usually a bit over-keen with their estimates, so I've made a point of phoning in correct readings, and they reissue bills.

Within the last fortnight, a bill for £157 came in, and I paid it. I filed it and forgot it. The thing is, a bill has come in today, asking for £167. On closer inspection, this is for gas. Clearly, my not bothering to check the £157 has tripped me up - I paid £157 for electricity! Of course I've gone back through my electricity account now and seen the account history as:
12 May 06 Payment Received 157.43
02 May 06 Invoice 159.82
12 Mar 06 Payment Received 5.00 (Minimum payment is £5)
07 Mar 06 Invoice 2.61

Help! The electricity meter history shows a jump of 02377.0 on 7th March to today's reading of 04210.9 - call me daft, but that seems like an awfully big jump. Advice, please!

Jeddy

That equates to approx 24kW per day (4210-2377)/ 75days which is more than I use in my 4 bed place (but then we tend to be out quite a bit).
Check the reading today, then at the same time tomorrow - it is about 24 different? If so, then something is using a lot. If not then something has used a lot in the past which you are going to have trouble tracking down.
If something is currently using a lot then check daily to see if you can identify a pattern, and then hourly if there is an offending day. Also try turning most things which may use a lot off (TV, fridge etc.) but don't worry about things in standby / clocks etc. How much does it use over 15mins? Should be minimal. (Don't forget to turn the fridge back on).
You can see the pattern, try to track down what is using a lot.
Does one of your flatmates have an electric fire?

Cuilean

Thank you, Jeddy. The readings we have are:
12th December 2355
7th March 2377
1st May 3942
20th May 4210
21st May 4230
22nd May 4240 (11am) 4243 (4pm)

Does that look normal?

The only constant we have is the central heating, which hasn't been on for about a month now. The water boiler comes on automatically, but we've never touched the settings, so there's no reason to suspect it.

Powergen have booked an engineer to come out and test the meter, but not till June 12th. They were incredibly rude to me on the phone yesterday, and I suspect they really don't give a monkeys.

jenniferpa

If you really aren't running any electic fires or fans (very big eaters of electricity) I would be looking suspiciously at the water heater. Perhaps the timer circuit has blown and it's on all the time. Have you noticed that the water is hot all the time? I'm assuming you have it set so that you have hot water in the morning and the evening. The other thing you can do if you have free time on your hands is go round every single appliance, light bulb etc and note their rating, so you can calculate how much you should be using.

Is this a purpose built flat, or a conversion? Sometimes in a conversion you can be supplying other areas of the building.

matto

Something's doesn't seem right.

Between 12 Dec and 22 Mar you used 22 units.
In the last two days you've used 33 units.

I suspect the problem is with the water heater. How long have you been in the flat? If you haven't been in long and have had the central heating on up until now it maybe that the electric water heater wasn't heating the water because the central heating was. Now you've turned the central heating off the water heater is heating the water. How much this uses depends on how well your tank is lagged, whether you've got any leaky hot water taps and how hot it heats the water to.

I would switch the hot water heater off and use the gas boiler to heat the water for a few days to see if that makes an difference, And if you're worried that it might be more expensive to heat hot water using the boiler rather than an electric heater see this site:

http://www.nef.org.uk/energyadvice/mythstruths.htm

Cuilean

Cheers, Matto. AFAIK, we don't have our own water tank so I can't check the lagging. I'm guessing there's a communal one for all the flats in the crawl space somewhere. All we have is the gas boiler unit which does both the heating and the hot water. All I've done to shut the heating off is turn the thermostat in the hallway right down.

Jennifer, these are purpose built flats. They've only been built within the last 18 months. TBH, bells rang when I moved in and saw the reading on this meter was in the thousands, when the last flat I left (It was in an identical block across the road) was on 380. I just put it down to the last occupants being being energy users.

jenniferpa

So let's get this straight - your water is heated by gas? So each time you draw water, the boiler fires up? So no immersion heater, which is what I and Matto assumed? Or have I missed something somewhere? What appliances do you have - washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, fridge, freezer, oven, microwave?

matto

I'm at a loss as to what to suggest. I can't see that any other standard appliance would use so much electric.

The one thing that does seem to have changed between the low electric usage and the high usage is the fact that you have turned the central heating off. I would try switching it back on and see if that makes a difference.

Jeddy

The other big drain on electric can be a fridge. Is it new? What energy rating did it have? Did it come with the flat? Is it next to a radiator? Does the door shut properly (does it forever need defrosting).