Phantom Electricity Usage

chukki_ninja

Hi
I’m a little new here but wondering if anyone can offer some advice on my electricity usage. (the story is a little long – Sorry)

I’ve currently been living in a 2 bedroom flat for a month now which has electric everything (heating, water, cooking etc)

Now for my first week of living there I didn’t care about my usage, I ran everything as and when I wanted it, including running my hot water heater for 5 hours a day costing me 15 units a day. That week I used 190 units and apparently this is average consumption for my type of property according to E.On.

So for my 2nd weekend I decided this was too much, so reduced my usage drastically, I turned off all the heaters except 1 and only ran it for an hour or 2 per day and dropped my water heater down to 1.5 hours per day (which would save me at least 10 units alone). However over the 2nd week I used 170 units (only 20 down on the previous week, but I should’ve saved that in 2 days because the water heater not running so much)

A bit confused by all this I tried a little test where I switched off all the electric to my flat at the fuse box so everything was totally dead. I took a reading at this point and went out for a while. I came back 5 hours later and took another reading and it had gone up by 11 units. But how is this possible if all the electric to flat is off?

Also as it’s a flat in a block of 5 the meter is in a cupboard on the ground floor (I live on the 2nd) with a mains breaker switch at the meter, so I tried to perform the same test by turning off all the power at the meter switch, but when I flicked this switch all the power in my flat stayed on.

I’d love it if anyone could shed any light on this, E.on seem to think I’m crazy L

Dave.

PasturesNew

It sounds like you're reading and turning off somebody else's flat.

chukki_ninja

PasturesNew wrote: »

It sounds like you're reading and turning off somebody else's flat.

That was my initial thought too, but both the letting company and Eon seem to think its the right one (thye have the serial number of the one I am reading)
I was tempted to turn them all off, and switch them back on 1 by 1... but I dont think the neighbours will appreciate that LOL

Dave.

savemoney

Could you be reading wrong meter, mistakes do happen when you get billed and the meter isnt the one you have especially in flats, maybe its a different meter and your reading the wrong one

PasturesNew

chukki_ninja wrote: »

I was tempted to turn them all off, and switch them back on 1 by 1... but I dont think the neighbours will appreciate that LOL

Dave.

Drop a note in to all the neighbours - ask them to confirm which meter is theirs ... tell them you're not sure you're reading the right one.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

what you could do to verify meter is, turn off everything in your flat, even fridge, at individual switches, and at fuse box, nip down and have a look at all the meters, take a note of all readings, including the decimal places, if there are pulse lights flashing just take a wee idea of how quickly each is flashing, then nip back up stairs, switch everything back on, put a heavy load on your meter, kettle, 4 rings on cooker, shower, and nip back down, read all again, and your meter should be the one that's flashing the fastest.

Get back up and switch extra stuff off.

spiro

Just because your supplier says meter 'x' is connected to property 'y' in a block of flats does not mean it is true. There will be several metres of cable between the meters and the flats and it is quite possible that when they were installed something got crossed over.

As suggest turn everything and I mean everything off in you flat and go and look at the meters (hopefully you can see them all), if they are the old style with a spinning wheeel one wheel should have stopped. If they are digital look for one hwere the tenths dont move.

If one meter is 'crossed' it is possible others are. Ideally if there are not too many flats and the main switches are by the meters (so wire from meter to switch can be seen) try and arrange to meet all the other tenants at a suitable time. Switch of one switch at a time and find out which flat is switched off and nte the meter serial number and flat number. Do this for all the meters until you have a complete list. If they are crossed the meter serial number on your bill will not match the one the was switch off when you power went off. The perons who did could then check there bill and so on. If you find any mismatches send the complete list to your supplier and they can rectify the matter using 'Working Practice 145 Resolution of Meter Information Mapped to Wrong Premises'.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi chukki_ninja,

I can see you have been given some really good advise on here, I would do as spiro has suggested :T

Once you know which meter is supplying your flat E.ON can correct the account. They sometimes request an engineer to come out and check as well.

It does sound like a crossed meter issue to me.

If you need any more info, just give me a shout .

Helena

Premier_2

chukki_ninja wrote: »

...Now for my first week of living there I didn’t care about my usage, I ran everything as and when I wanted it, including running my hot water heater for 5 hours a day costing me 15 units a day. ...

As well as you looking at the wrong meter as described above, unless you turned on the hot taps for that period also, I don't think you probably used 15kWh in 5 hours.

A normal electric immersion heater is 3kW and so yes, if it was on 5 hours it would consume 15kWh, but if the thermostat is working (and set) correctly, it would probably cut out after about an hour.

(This may not be the case if you have an extremely large tank and heating from cold, but those are usually for those with E7 and rarely require heating from cold once warmed up initially)

chukki_ninja

Thanks for the advice so far. I never thought about putting a large load on the meter and see if it flashes fastest so may have to give that a shot later today.

E.On have agreed to send an engineer out to investigate this further for me, so I'll post an update when this has happened.

Dave.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi chukki_ninja,

I am glad that E.ON have arranged to send someone out, this should get things moving to a resolution.

Let us know how you get on.

Helena