Strange Jump in bill, Can anyone advice what I should do?

Tempest501

Basically, I moved with the wife from Sunny South Coast to the Leeds Area.

We have no gas as we are living in a Listed refurb. The " Bed Apartment uses a Wet System for Heating.

From the meter reading (We did the first one and BG the Second) we had used 488 units from 1 Aug 10 to 2 Sept 10 (Bill was £51), which i thought was reasonable.

Trouble is because we are changing supplier they need us to get another reading, so we got our management company to check it again. From the 2 Sept 10 to 20 Oct 10 it reckons we have used 1850 units !!!!!

So I am a little concerned about this and am unsure what to do or even who to call as were in the middle of switch to OVO.

We have started to use the central heating from around 24 Sept 10, but even then it was only on as follows:

6.30am - 7.30am
5.30pm - 8.30pm

Its set to keep around 19 deg. Our Hot water is on the same times apart from it gos off at 9.30pm ( this is enough to give us hot water anytime we need it)

Me and my wife both work so are out during the day.

Any help/advice would be really appreciated as I am very worried about the costs going into winter and I really cant see how that reading can be correct?

KimYeovil

Hello, welcome to the forum, but...

What is 'strange' about the jump? What's the problem? One month (without heating) uses 488 units, one and two-thirds months (including nearly a month with central heating) uses 1850 units. Why would that be not correct?

If you don't want to use so much switch the heating off.

Tempest501

Well I am trying to establish if this kind of jump is normal or is a problem. Baring in mind the heating has only been on for the last 3 weeks and only on for a 4 hours a day.

This is the first time we have live in Elec Only Property and its just seem excessive as Lets say from 1 Sept 10 to 24 Sept we had normal usage it would have been about 400 units approx. That would mean from the 24 Sept to 20 Oct 10 we have used 1450 units approx.

Just seem like a rather large junmp consideringn the heating isnt being used at winter levels yet.

KimYeovil

Electric heating can be expensive.

Do you have access to the meters? Keep a daily and weekly eye on the readings. You can quickly get an idea of how much a session uses.

One and three quarters times 488 is 854 so that's only an extra 1000 units for 3 weeks heating.

One trouble is is that an evening session of 3 hours is not going to cost half of what a 6 hour session will cost - the first couple of hours where the house is being heated up again is where most of the money will be going. You may well find that having the heating on for an extra couple of hours is not going to be that much more expensive and may counter-intuitively make the cost a lot more palatable. (Of course, if you have lots of windows and no curtains and no insulation ignore this suggestion!)

Do you have lots of open spaces? Any self contained rooms in which to cut temperatures on individual heaters?

Tempest501

The trouble we have is we can not read our own meters, we have to request someone to do it as a maintenance firm looks after it (they claim people cant have there own key because there are 4 meters together and we might tamper with other meters.....).

We have 2 bedrooms (one with ensuite) 1 Bathroom, 1 hallway and a Living Area with Kitchen. We can adjust individual radiators (Between Setting 1 and 5). We have full double glazing throughout. We do have quite high ceiling which I suppose could make a diffrence.

Is an extra 1000 units normal you think? I was just shocked from such little use of heating.

Terrylw1

Management companies take incorrect reads all the time. So, thats your first port of call.

If you transferred Supplier, you can dispute the reading and it may end up getting estimated instead. If you transferred to OVO on cheaper rates and your old Suppliers reading is too high, remember you lose on the lower unit prices on the OVO side.

There are 4 meters there, so a reading may have been taken off the wrong one. You gave your first though, so you had access then. As long as the management company are there when you are, they can't make an issue over tampering. They should know that by locking an area and denying access to engineers, they are preventing required access. So, do they have someone who is a key holder you can ask?

As Kim suggested, monitoring the consumption is the best way if the readings are correct. This will then prove whether it's right to you.

Meters can "speed" but do your own checks before you contact Suppliers for accuracy testing...since they cna charge for that if it's not faulty!

Premier_2

You, as the account holder, have a legal responsibility to provide access to the suppliers meters on the suppliers request.

How are you going to do that if you don't have access yourself?

Perhaps if the maintenance firm are so keen to keep the meters to themselves, perhaps they will accept having the accounts put in their name?

Remember, you ultimately pay the maintenence firm, probably through a management charge. If you are not happy, get onto the management company. If enough of you are not happy, consider looking into the right to manage and get rid of the management company and their suppliers altogether.

Tempest501

Well when they did the first reading we werent actually there, they gave us a reading and I then asked them to do another the next day to confirm it was good. The second reading was British gas reading so I guess they must have been able to get access.

I have requested they read it again today to see if they read it wrong. Guess if they read it right I will just have to pester them every few days for a reading.

I hope its wrong otherwise in for a mega expensive winter.

Terrylw1

If it's high and you don't agree, it could always be that the tails into your meter are connected to a different flat. That happens when the builders label them wrong. If you turn everything off and the meter still moves, this could be the case or another favourite cobble up of builders is to wire communal areas to meters they shouldn't!

All worth checking out.

Locked communal areas in flats are very common and councils do it too. Communal areas should be powered off seperate supplies though hence they are classed as business supplies normally.

Tempest501

Terrylw1 wrote: »

If it's high and you don't agree, it could always be that the tails into your meter are connected to a different flat. That happens when the builders label them wrong. If you turn everything off and the meter still moves, this could be the case or another favourite cobble up of builders is to wire communal areas to meters they shouldn't!

All worth checking out.

Locked communal areas in flats are very common and councils do it too. Communal areas should be powered off seperate supplies though hence they are classed as business supplies normally.

The weird thing was when we moved in and had the first reading was something like 19867 even though its a new building (well its a listed building that used to be a Hospital and has been made into apartments). I thought the reading would have been 0 to start with as we are first to live there.

We do have two heater in the communal area where our front doors are. I really hope we are not payuing for those as tehre on 24/7.

Tempest501

Sry for bad spelling and such in last posts was at work so had to post quick.