How much electricity is too much?

kazwookie

Colin

What if the lady's meter is fault, and running backwards like she has suggested?

Turning everything off and watching the meter at the weekend sounds like a good plan to me. Maybe you are paying for the communal lights or similar

Premier_2

The meter should never go backwards (despite what someone may have told you). But I wish I could make mine do so sometimes!

macman

OP needs to reconfirm what tariff they are on (not E7?) and look at their meter to see if it's dual rate.
Could this be another case of someone on an old E7 tariff but no longer has storage heaters?

Mrs_FunkyGibbon

I've just called the number I was given last night for the consumption team and it's just an automated line where you leave your details so they can send you an energy saving pack…. no thanks I already save energy by living in darkness with no heating!!

So I've called main customer services and the guy was very understanding and straight away agreed with me that it was too high etc etc "At last!" I thought - someone who's going to see the light and sort it out.
Then he said he would just look into it, comes back on the line and just says, no that usage is about right!

So the outcome is he is going to send it onto the dispute team to look into (again)
He even admitted the meter should not go backwards but didn't seem too bothered about it!

Why is it that everyone I speak to agrees it is way too much but SP think it’s normal!!!
I’m still going to try switching everything off and checking my meter but I think I need to start writing some letters to SP and Ofgem!
Sooooo frustrating!

Fire_Fox

I have a two bedroom all electric flat and two of us use around 4000KWH per year BUT I barely use the heating (14C in the snow) and hot water is only on for half an hour per day, no tumbledryer, no power shower. How many heaters are you using for four hours per day, and what is their rating in KWH? How many months of the year are you heating the flat and what is the insulation like? IMHO your friend who is paying £50 a month either is super frugal or is not reading her meter regularly.

JennyR68

Your last years reading isn't excessively high Mrs Funky Gibbon (I was 10,000 on top of that!), it's your next years prediction the error is with and you need to know what figures they are forecasting to counter argue.

Did you see any better deals on the switching sites? the rate your paying says to me it's time to make a move anyway.

Scottish_Power

Hi Mrs FunkyGibbon

When you called and spoke to the SP agent did he confirm to you what we held as your annual consumption? If 6893 kWh is accurate based on last years consumption, then £1722.16 is almost £1000 more than you will be using this year.

Is there an outstanding balance on the account which is also being included in next years charges?

Your electricity meter can rotate backwards, however it would be very small, not to the extent of going back 5 units. I have detailed below an extract from the Energy Ombudsman regarding this matter:

A meter dial is seated on a spindle, with a magnet situated above and below. One magnet
measures voltage, which is constant, and the other measures current. When the supply to the
meter is isolated, the current stops. However, as the voltage remains constant, the meter,
depending on the position of the dial when the supply is isolated, can still attempt to move
forward, or in some cases backwards; this is called creeping. To break the magnetic field and in
doing so stop the dial from creeping, the dial has two holes in it. It is therefore feasible that the
dial may creep for one whole revolution before coming to a complete stop, and still be recording
within the statutory limits laid down by the Industry Regulator.

If you switch off the electricity at the mains, you should notice that your meter stops completely. It should not be recording any electricity at all with the main power being switched off.

If you want me to look into this for you send me your details and I will confirm exactly how much we estimate you will use over the year and on what readings this has been calculated.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

JPSC

No, your electricity consumption is not too high, though your Direct Debit payment most certainly is too high.

The first thing you must do is to raise your immersion heater temperature to at least 60C to avoid the risk of Legionella.

If you are on the SP Standard Tariff then you are paying more than you need, the comparison sites will help with that, I would expect you to be paying £50-£60 per month. As your actual, recorded usage is not excessive I would stop worrying about the meter at present and concentrate on getting your account with SP into balance.

Do you have a significant credit balance at present? Your previous payments might suggest that. If so, get that refunded before moving to another supplier.

On the question of future monthly direct debit payments, I am not surprised to hear of SP wanting unrealistic amounts which do not reflect any likely future usage. I live in an all electric house in the old SP area and battled with them for years before deregulation, as they took far too much money from me every month, finally asking for 60% too much! I finally left for another supplier about ten years ago not because it was cheaper, but because they took the right amount each month - I have now used three other suppliers since leaving SP - I thought Scottish and Southern were the best - and none of them has tried to take an unreasonable amount each month as SP used to do. Indeed I still pay £15 per month LESS now than SP wanted to take when I left them in 2000 or 2001!

Good luck and reset your Immersion Heater thermostat today, please

Mrs_FunkyGibbon

Colin - I will PM you the details

I switched everything off for 10 hours and the meter didn't move so that doesn't seem to be the problem....although I'm still going to keep an eye on it to see if it goes backwards - regarding your post Colin it is has a digital read out so I don't know if that explantion would still apply?

I have asked my neighbours and the guy who has an identical flat (layout and appliances) to me pays £70 a month and has heating on all the time as well as a heated towel rail (I stopped using mine a long time ago!).
Another neighbour pays £46 a month and although he admits he isn't in a lot he does use the heaters on the highest setting...so this does make me feel a bit more confident that I am being overcharged!

JPSC - thank you for the advice on Legionella!!! I didn't realise that could be a problem