£1000 Bill, and £257/month 1 bed Flat ! Help !

Lechump

Hi,

I have been renting a 1 bed flat for 2 years now, and it has electric heaters, and a boiler. We gave Npower an initial reading (but didnt take note of it... they state it was 5021), and were set up on £68 a month direct debit. We thought this was high, but went along with it.

We continued to pay this as normal, without any contact from Npower. this week we received a bill stating that our account is £1024 in debt, and that our direct debits would be increased to £257. This is a huge shock, and an amount that seems impossible. Effectively, we have paid £1632 (68x24), and are £1000 underpaid. Thus - total cost for 2 years is £2632 (electricity only).

Having taken a current reading, it is around 20000. I cannot fathom what is going on, as we are not high users (2 people in flat), and are out between 8-6 weekdays.

We have 2 TV's, a laptop, xbox, small fridge, small freezer, washing machine. A few other misc appliances, but the above are the main used. We do have very high ceilings / windows (single glazed), which make it hard to heat, but we only have it running around 5 hours a day in the winter (and most of day on weekends). Rest of the year, its rarely used.

Our boiler is on for about 5 hours overnight, and 2 hours in the evening. It is an immersion heater i believe, with a 'secondary booster'. This had problems with the thermostat about a year ago which left us without hot water. This was repaired, and timers set by the engineer (sent by Landlord). All has been fine since. This is the only change that we can think of which may have impacted our electricity. The timer settings appear to have been put on 'boost' for the hours listed above, with the 'main' heating not set on at all.

Our 'comparative' bill shows current usage is 33kwh a day, vs 11KwH last year.

If this turns out to be the culprit, where do we stand legally with the landlord, who's repair led to this huge bill? we have not changed the timer ourselves. This is the first bill we have seen in 12 months, so couldnt have picked up the issue earlier. Are they liable to pay towards the bill? or is it our responsibility?

The only other hope i have, is that possibly the wrong reading was recorded at the start. There is a tag on the meter which says 'installed reading: 6'601' (March 2003). This is higher than our listed 'first reading', but as we didnt record it, how can we prove it or check it?

I am unable to pay this bill, and definately cant afford £250 a month ! i simply dont beleive we are using so much. Our neighbour in an almost identical flat, pays £160 quarterly.

If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Andy_WSM

Oh dear.

Without knowing your first reading, I don't see how you can prove or disprove the bill.

Did you have your meter read by the utility company at any time after - i.e. during a routine meter read? This might at least give you something close to a start reading.

I think the whole immersion thing is a red herring to be honest. Unless you are using gallons and gallons of hot water then the tank will heat and shut off - that's what the thermostat does. Assuming it is well insulated then the "lost" heat will be negligible - and even then will provide an element of background heating in the flat, so not really "lost" at all.

Lechump

The meter is in a communal area, so I havent had them round for a reading, but they could have come anytime without me knowing. On my latest bill, i have listed :

'28/07/09 14'779' (Actual).
02/02/10 20661 (Actual).

Im assuming these are readings they have taken.

My first reading was 24/04/08 (listed as 5021, although not sure if its right or not).

Thanks for your response.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

£1,300 a year for an all electric flat, whilst high, is not excessive; especially as Npower are very expensive for electricity.

Your difficulty is that you haven't checked your meter readings against a bill for 2 years. It really isn't possible to now argue I couldn't have used all that electricity.

As said above, the immersion heater is not the culprit.

Cardew

Lechump wrote: »

On my latest bill, i have listed :

'28/07/09 14'779' (Actual).
02/02/10 20661 (Actual).

Im assuming these are readings they have taken.

My first reading was 24/04/08 (listed as 5021, although not sure if its right or not).

So in 6 months 5 days you have used 5,882kWh which I suspect with Npower is in the region of £700

From your original reading of 5021 you have used 15,640kWh in 21.5 months, with a cold 2.5 months to come so around 18,000kWh in 2 years.

Your price with NPower will depend on your tariff and where you live. You can work it out yourself.

anguk

Your immersion heater seems to be on for a long time. We have an old electric immersion heater that we have to switch on manually (no timer) and we only have it on for about an hour each morning. This gives us enough hot water for 2 adults and our 16 year old daughter.

Cardew

anguk wrote: »

Your immersion heater seems to be on for a long time. We have an old electric immersion heater that we have to switch on manually (no timer) and we only have it on for about an hour each morning. This gives us enough hot water for 2 adults and our 16 year old daughter.

As stated in the posts above, immersion heaters have a thermostat and switch off when the water reaches a set temperature.

Modern well lagged HW tanks lose very little heat - around 2kWh a day when filled with water at 65C(they are tested to a British standard). So the difference between having the water on even 24/7 and timed is not as much as people think.

Also, as again stated above, that 'lost heat' is not wasted as it heats the flat.

markharding557

I don't think you can do much about the amount of the bill.
If you contact them they may allow the debt to be spread over a longer period otherwise if you can't pay then you may be looking at a prepayment meter which normally i would say is not so bad but with npower you have my sympathy.

lil_me

We;ve just gone back to NPower as they are the cheapest in the area, well they were a month ago when I sorted it out I'll be checking again soon. Like has been said it's hard now to do much about the bill but would be worth monitoring what you do have and do use. Simple electricity monitors can be bought from Maplins. I would also keep a rough note of what has been on and readings I'd probably do daily for at least a few weeks.

KimYeovil

15,000 kWh is not a high useage for 22 months. If you had shopped around you would have been able to buy your electricity for 40 to 50% less than what nPower has charged. It's not the amount you are using - it is the tariff you are on that has caused the problems.

You should also check when the catch-up bill was calculated to see if it worthwhile to get it recalculated for earlier periods if prices were lower.

macman

I can't believe the OP wants to blame the landlord if the immersion heater timer has been set incorrectly?
Is this really a landlord's responsibility?