Is my meter inaccurate?

deviruchi

Hi,

I recently moved into a small 1 bed flat in a converted terrace house (27/11/09) and am currently trying to work out if my electric meter readings are accurate.

Just for a bit of background, I have 2 electric storage heaters (which had been switched on for the duration of the period - I have turned them off tonight!), an electric cooker which is used on average 5 out of 7 days (for about 15 minutes at a time), a washing machine used 1-2 times a week, and no tumble dryer. I live on my own and work full-time so am not using appliances throughout the day, and I like to think I'm energy conscious (always turns lights off, and turn everything off at the plug when not in use).

I do not have access to my electric meter - yes, a big mistake on my part - it is apparently in a basement I do not have access to, and to get readings I have to request them from the landlord who sends someone out (is this legal by the way?)

This is what has happened to date. It is with npower on economy 7.

• On 4th March I receive a bill for £290, calculated from an estimate and an actual reading I received from my landlord. I thought this was a bit much, so I requested another meter reading.

• I went on the uSwitch website and it estimated (without any bill or usage information, but my type of property and when I am out etc) that I should be paying ~£519 per year with npower.

• Tonight (15th March), I receive a recalculated bill - for £455!! I asked one of the other tenants what they pay (who has a very similar sized flat), and they said for 1 month longer than what my bill is for, they pay around £270.

This is what the actual readings I requested say:

25/01/10
Night: 13845
Day 42981

11/03/10
Night: 13956
Day: 44504

Which means I used 111kwh on the night rate, and 1523kwh on the day rate in 41 days!

I know electric heaters use a lot of energy, but surely not that much? I am considering asking npower to send someone out to check the meter. They have informed me that if it isn't faulty, then I'll be charged £80. npower have advised me to ask for the starting rate from when I moved in from my landlord (when on the phone to npower, they said all previous tenants had just had estimates and no actual meter readings). Another alternative is I demand that the landlord let me see the meter and give the readings myself.

Does this sound like something is amiss, or was I being too optimistic with what my usage would be?

Thanks very much for any help.

kjsmith7

I would have a look at the meter. I'm not sure if they can not give you reasonable access to the meter...

I would take a daily meter reading for 7 days and see whats going on. Also, see if the storage heaters are programmed correctly. They should only be charging overnight and releasing heat as needed throughout the day.

MacsReturns

Well, from what you've said in the original post, I'd say that sounds realistic, although as kjsmith7 says, the way to use storage heaters is just to have them heating up overnight, and not during the day.

I ran the figures through my little spreadsheet I use for tracking my own gas and electric readings, and that brought up some interesting comparisons. I take it all your heating, cooking and hot water is electric?

(By the way I make it 45 days.. :cool:)

Your daily use comes out at around 36kWh per day over that period (which is equivalent to leaving a 1.5kW load switched on constantly - like maybe your storage heaters?). For comparison, my gas usage in a detached bungalow has been pretty similar, which includes all the cooking, HW and CH. So the figures are about in the right ball-park, and I don't think it's really worth risking £80 for a check-up.

I know you probably don't have any choice, but my number one rule of energy use is NEVER HEAT WITH ELECTRICITY if you can avoid it. It's hideously expensive and has a lousy CO2 footprint to boot. It's almost certainly your heaters that have walloped you, and you need to concentrate on using the E7 tariff to best effect - ie turn off in the day, and recharge them between 12 and 7am.

You definitely need access to your meter - even if you can just persuade the landlord to let you go down there once a week or so, it would help you keep a better track on things. As they say, 'information is power'!

Premier_2

I suspect either your start readings were incorrect (you really should have got these on the day you moved in and ideally had them agreed on the ingoing inventory/statement of condition) and/or the day & night rates are transposed.

Fire_Fox

deviruchi wrote: »

Hi,

I recently moved into a small 1 bed flat in a converted terrace house (27/11/09) and am currently trying to work out if my electric meter readings are accurate.

Just for a bit of background, I have 2 electric storage heaters (which had been switched on for the duration of the period - I have turned them off tonight!), an electric cooker which is used on average 5 out of 7 days (for about 15 minutes at a time), a washing machine used 1-2 times a week, and no tumble dryer. I live on my own and work full-time so am not using appliances throughout the day, and I like to think I'm energy conscious (always turns lights off, and turn everything off at the plug when not in use).

I do not have access to my electric meter - yes, a big mistake on my part - it is apparently in a basement I do not have access to, and to get readings I have to request them from the landlord who sends someone out (is this legal by the way?)

This is what has happened to date. It is with npower on economy 7.

• On 4th March I receive a bill for £290, calculated from an estimate and an actual reading I received from my landlord. I thought this was a bit much, so I requested another meter reading.

• I went on the uSwitch website and it estimated (without any bill or usage information, but my type of property and when I am out etc) that I should be paying ~£519 per year with npower.

• Tonight (15th March), I receive a recalculated bill - for £455!! I asked one of the other tenants what they pay (who has a very similar sized flat), and they said for 1 month longer than what my bill is for, they pay around £270.

Which means I used 111kwh on the night rate, and 1523kwh on the day rate in 41 days! Does this sound like something is amiss, or was I being too optimistic with what my usage would be?.

Sounds to me like you either aren't using your storage heaters correctly or your readings are transposed. With storage heaters you should have much higher night than day readings in the winter. How are you heating your hot water? That is the second largest power user - immersion on all the time? Electric shower? Lights and leaving stuff on standby use very little electricity - look at your heating and hot water use.

You may not be allowed access to the basement if it is not deemed to be a safe place for residents to go. Our meters are in the basement, the lock is activated with the same key as my front door - have you tried? We had a one way gate added to prevent junkies going down, which means I have to go through a shop to read my meter - any chance you can access the basement via another route?

deviruchi

Thanks very much for all of your help.

Everything is electric in the flat - shower, cooker, water, heating. (I never use the immersion though). It's very possible it's down to incorrect usage of the storage heaters, as it's the first time I've dealt with them. I'm going to do a bit of research and make sure I'm using the particular model in my flat correctly (manually adjusted input control heaters).

I'm going to be ringing the landlord today to get the start reading (my fault for not getting it at the start if the tenancy), and to see if I can get access to the meter myself - if anything I don't want to be bugging them every week for a reading. Or, failing that ask to accompany the member of staff who normally does the reading.

spiro

With a E7 tariff you should be looking to use about 3 times as much elec at night as during the day. You are using nearly 15 tijmes as much during the day as at night. The day rate is the more expensive one.

Storage heaters should only be on during the cheap period and set (based on other threads) to maximum input (to warm them up) and minimum output (to keep heat coming all day). Same for you emersion heater.

Ideally also do you washing overnight.

dunloadin

Looks to me that the day and night rates are the wrong way round on the bill, check the read at teatime, or some point through the day, take a second read an hour or so later and see which one has moved.

mattcanary

Hopefully, the landlord will allow the OP regular access to the meter....

deviruchi

Bit of an update...

Spoke to the landlord today and yesterday - Fire Fox, you were right about the reason for not allowing access - health and safety. The meter is in what was described as 'a rickety old basement', which apparently has 6 inches of water in it (!!), so they're not willing to allow me access to the basement myself. However, they are willing to arrange regular meter readings (2 per month they indicated). I guess this is better than nothing?

I spoke to the member of staff who had read the meter, and he said it simply shows 3 numbers; rate 1, rate 2 and the total of both. They think rate 1 is the day rate, and rate 2 is the night, which is how it shows on my npower bill. However, I'm going to be ringing npower tonight and checking, could it be that rate 1 is in fact the night rate? It might explain why the usage is so much higher then, when logically it should be the other way round.

I've checked with the landlord and the heater instructions that I'm using the storage heaters properly, which they appear to confirm. I have now turned the heaters off altogether, and I think I can live without them being on (they don't make much of a difference in the living room... the bedroom is chilly but once you're in bed it doesn't really matter). Plus, the weather will be getting warmer.

I'm also going to try be a bit more savvy with my other usage - I won't be heating up the full water tank above the sink in the kitchen to do my dishwashing; instead I'll boil a kettle, and I'll try do my clothes washing during the night rate hours (don't want to disturb the other tenants - although my neighbour regularly has their machine on full spin at 2am!).

So I'm hoping that if I set up regular readings, that it'll soon show a massive drop in my usage if the storage heaters aren't on at all.

Edit: Just did a quick google, and it appears rate 1 is indeed the night rate (according to EDF's site). If this is the case and npower have got the day and night readings mixed up, I'm very relieved!!

PNPSUKNET

low and high reads look the wrong way around, or you have a faulty time switch