Help please npower bill - I think I'm being overcharged

Paul_Davis_2

Can anyone advise me on how electric meters work? On 14th July 08 our electric meter read 97268. (This is the last 'actual' reading that I have prove of on a bill from npower). Last week our reading was 01548.

I'm trying to work out exactly how many units we used. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Paul_Davis_2

Sorry, I'm a total klutz (we've just had a bill saying that we owe them 600 despite paying 120 a month dd over the last 2 years). The actual reading last week was 4561.

Am I right in thinking that my meter clicked over to 00000? Then our usage was 4561 plus 2732?

I've just lost it with customer services (and apologised) but want to have my facts straight before I call back.

julieq

Yes, it's clicked round. Actual reading is [1]01548 - the left hand '1' isn't shown. So take last reading from that and you have usage.

brewerdave

If you having been paying £120 pm for electricity ALONE since that last actual reading that equates to ~ £2160 paid to NPower- If you have used 7293 kwh of electricity (4561plus 2732) they should actually owe you a fair bit dependent on your tariff - UNLESS you are paying back previous debts.

Paul_Davis_2

Thank you. It was gas and electric. We have gas for heating and water, but are careful how we use it. We use electric for lighting and cooking. I'm religious about turning off lights and stuff at the wall.

However, I'm going through our bank accounts and it seems that 3 dd's weren't taken in 2008 (I'm surprised I didn't pick up on that, but they've never told us we were behind) and I know that when changing bank accounts I paid 2 months via debit card rather than dd.

I've got the meter readings from when we started with npower so I'm sat here working out what we've paid them against what we've used right from the start.

My gas starts at 4370 and ends at 5039, but I need to convert that figure to KwH, which is my next task.

brewerdave

Don't forget that you need to know whether your gas meter is metric or Imperial (ie reads in m3 or 100s of cuft) when you convert to kwh.

aelitaman

Just to let you know that useage works out to about 30units per day of elecy, that is high compared to average useage. You might want to have a think about what is using all that elecy.

brewerdave

aelitaman, his electric usage averaged over 18 months is ~ 13 units per day not 30!
Readings are from July 14th 2008 until last week eg 6th Jan 2010

aelitaman

My bad must have pressed the wrong button on the calculator. opps.

Premier_2

Paul_Davis wrote: »

Thank you. It was gas and electric. We have gas for heating and water, but are careful how we use it. We use electric for lighting and cooking. I'm religious about turning off lights and stuff at the wall.

However, I'm going through our bank accounts and it seems that 3 dd's weren't taken in 2008 (I'm surprised I didn't pick up on that, but they've never told us we were behind) and I know that when changing bank accounts I paid 2 months via debit card rather than dd.

I've got the meter readings from when we started with npower so I'm sat here working out what we've paid them against what we've used right from the start.

My gas starts at 4370 and ends at 5039, but I need to convert that figure to KwH, which is my next task.

Be aware that some companies treat what is collected as 2 separate amounts even if collected by 1 DD.

Your statements should detail all you need to know. i,e, how much gas and electricity you have used both in terms of kWh and £.

Your statements should also detail how much is being credited by your DD payments (split between gas & electric if necessary)

It can be that you are in huge credit on one fuel whilst the supplier chases you for debts on another. Crazy I know, but if that is the case, then call the supplier and see what they will do. Sensible thing would be just to transfer some credit to the account in debt, but they might issue a refund of the credit and still pursue you for the debt.

Anyway, you've paid about £1800 quid (even allowing for 3 missing payments)
Electric consumed will cost about £900
Gas consumed may cost about £300 (based on metric meter) or £900 (based on imperial meter)

So worst case (or best case based on level of DD the supplier is charging) you don't owe any money.
Best case (or worst case in that supplier has been taking too much in DD monthly payments) is that they owe you £600

Paul_Davis_2

Well, we've sorted it out - we do owe them approx 480. Our usage is averaging 50 a month for gas and 72 a month for electric.

Our electric averages 13.5 units a day, so I'm going to be more careful about turning the tv and computers off at the wall, and washing at 30 deg with a full load. Also, we have 2 freezers so I'm going to get rid of one.

I'm going to clear the outstanding balance by March and then try and find a cheaper supplier. At the moment we pay 12.900p/12.32p per unit of electric and 6.506p/2.12p per kwh for gas.

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.