Very high electricity charge

Dhara

Hi guys

I'm after some advice. Basically, my mother had her prepayment meter changed about 3 months ago as the electricity company informed her that it was necessary. Right from the start, she found herself paying about 3 times more. She's only on electricity, no gas. She then switched to monthly payment in the hope that if the meter gets changed, then the new one will work properly. Again no improvement. I'm guessing something is wrong with the wiring. She lives in a 2 bedroom flat btw. Poor thing has lately been avoiding electricity usage to the maximum. Some figures are below for over a course of 35 days:

Night readings:
825kWh
Day readings:
239kWh

This is ridiculously high right? For a single person?

Please advice me on what to do next? If I get the electric company to send someone over to have a look, will they inspect the wiring?

Many thanks for your help!

Fire_Fox

Your mum is using around 7 units per day on the dayrate which is low to normal, and 24 units each night which would be realistic for a flat with storage heaters. Single people don't magically use half as much energy as couples or a quarter of a family, especially not in a two bedroom property which is a fair amount of space for one person. Electricity is expensive (three times the price of gas) and we are emerging from the coldest winter for thirty years.

What do you mean by avoiding electricity use? Exactly what is being used, how long and how often: how many storage heaters and what KW? Power shower, immersion heater, washing machine, tumble dryer? Is the flat well insulated? Has your mum switched off the standard (expensive) tariff or looked for a cheaper supplier? It is heating that uses by far the most energy, evidenced by the relationship between your mum's dayrate and nightrate use.

It is not the energy suppliers job to look at the wiring, it is the homeowners - so either your mum or her landlord. I don't see evidence of any wiring faults; even if there were energy cannot vanish into thin air, the whole house would be live!

macman

What utility co, what tariff? Usage doesn't seem unduly high for an all-electric property during the coldest months.
75% of her usage seems to be on the E7 rate which means it is probably being used primarily to power her storage heaters. her daytime consumption is fairly minimal.
You need to give more info about how her bill has tripled-does it maybe include a charge for the meter change to a credit meter?-some suppliers charge for a meter change, and some will require a deposit.
The utility is not responsible for her wiring-only for the supply up to the meter.

spiro

What type of meter did they remove? There are 3 types, Token, Smartcard and Key. Token meters cannot be updated remotely when prices change so if she had one of these before then she may have been paying the price from 6/8/12/18/24 months ago and is now paying the correct price.

Dhara

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Your mum is using around 7 units per day on the dayrate which is low to normal, and 24 units each night which would be realistic for a flat with storage heaters. Single people don't magically use half as much energy as couples or a quarter of a family, especially not in a two bedroom property which is a fair amount of space for one person. Electricity is expensive (three times the price of gas) and we are emerging from the coldest winter for thirty years.

What do you mean by avoiding electricity use? Exactly what is being used, how long and how often: how many storage heaters and what KW? Power shower, immersion heater, washing machine, tumble dryer? Is the flat well insulated? Has your mum switched off the standard (expensive) tariff or looked for a cheaper supplier? It is heating that uses by far the most energy, evidenced by the relationship between your mum's dayrate and nightrate use.

It is not the energy suppliers job to look at the wiring, it is the homeowners - so either your mum or her landlord. I don't see evidence of any wiring faults; even if there were energy cannot vanish into thin air, the whole house would be live!

Thank you for your reply. Sure enough she did use the night time storage heater, but for the past 12 days, she stopped using it and the energy consumption is exactly the same. Washing machine is being used once a week, no tumble dryer, no power shower, cooker twice a day and kettle twice a day.. SHe's probably using less than half the energy she was a month ago, yet the consumption is still the same. All this only happened after the meter change. What I noticed yesterday was that although it was 10.30 at night, the daytime meter was going up, not the night one. Also, she's asked around many people from the same block and their consumption/charges are less than half of what she's paying!

Dhara

spiro wrote: »

What type of meter did they remove? There are 3 types, Token, Smartcard and Key. Token meters cannot be updated remotely when prices change so if she had one of these before then she may have been paying the price from 6/8/12/18/24 months ago and is now paying the correct price.

It was a key meter. Thank you

Dhara

macman wrote: »

What utility co, what tariff? Usage doesn't seem unduly high for an all-electric property during the coldest months.
75% of her usage seems to be on the E7 rate which means it is probably being used primarily to power her storage heaters. her daytime consumption is fairly minimal.
You need to give more info about how her bill has tripled-does it maybe include a charge for the meter change to a credit meter?-some suppliers charge for a meter change, and some will require a deposit.
The utility is not responsible for her wiring-only for the supply up to the meter.

She was previously with Southern Electric when the meter change took place, then switched to Bristish Gas. She was on the prepayment before and then the change took place and the new prepaymeter meter was taking nearly 3 times the amount. In the hope that it must be a faulty meter and also people advised that Economy 7 rates are better, she switched to Economy 7 and the consumption/charge has remained the same. There was no charge or deposit required by the suplier for the change, all consumption related.

SwanJon

Dhara wrote: »

What I noticed yesterday was that although it was 10.30 at night, the daytime meter was going up, not the night one.

The night rate probably doesn't start until 12 or 1 (depends on where you are in the country).
If the meter has been changed, and the rate of consumption hasn't changed, then it is unlikely that both meters were faulty, let alone faulty in exactly the same way.

Next step is a bit boring, but start a usage diary.
Take the readings at the same time each day, and keep a note of what was used that day.

To cut back on usage, one option is to not heat rooms that aren't used - has she tried this?

macman

If she is switching things on in the evening thinking that is cheap rate, that could explain things. E7 rate is normally midnight to 7am-not 10.30pm!

DVardysShadow

Fire_Fox wrote: »

It is not the energy suppliers job to look at the wiring, it is the homeowners - so either your mum or her landlord. I don't see evidence of any wiring faults; even if there were energy cannot vanish into thin air, the whole house would be live!

Agree. Wiring faults generally cause fuses to blow - or houses to burn down - or immersion heaters to stay on all the time. Sometimes with a flat you do find neighbours wiring connected in error or even the wrong meter being attributed to the premises.

nettttie

spiro wrote: »

What type of meter did they remove? There are 3 types, Token, Smartcard and Key. Token meters cannot be updated remotely when prices change so if she had one of these before then she may have been paying the price from 6/8/12/18/24 months ago and is now paying the correct price.

exactly the same thing happened to me when my meter was changed due to me paying an older cheaper tarif. I ended up taking the payg meter out and joining Ebico; my electric use is still much much higher than gas but all the same it jumped in price when the meter was changed.