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

Tempest501

Cheers Terry I will try get this done asap?

Just cant believe there trying to say we used 139 units in two days lol (I mean doesnt that equate to 139 KW of power?)

I have switch all my central heating off now incase it is that and am using a halogen for the time being which is 1.8kw when on full.

Just wanted to ask , my wife spoke to OVO and they told her even if we turn everything off via circuit breaker the meter will run a little bit due to the meter being run of electric is this correct?

Terrylw1

Yes, 139 units is 139 kWh so thats the price per unit you will be getting on the bills.

It's a very usage.

Don't worry until you get in there to have a look at the meter and reads. Agencies have been known to take incorrect reads off multiple meters causing things like this.

If you find this is all down to dodgy readings being taken you should use that against them and demand a key. Communals are a constant pain to Suppliers & customers since can't get into them to check these things.

If you find things are all wired to your property you really need to assess every applicance you are using.

Have a good look at the meters and determine if there is one for each flat and whether there a seperate landlord supply for anything communal. There is always a chance that the landlord's has been wired to one of the flat meters and some form of tenants association would spread this as a 3rd party issue. Could that be an issue? The tails from the meters should be numbered to help you determine what goes where in terms of counting how many meters to expected number of flats/communal areas. Just be aware that they can be numbered incorrectly hence the meter fixers innocently connect them to incorrect flats.

It could be a daft as the tails from a communal supply that uses loads is connected to the meter you think is yours and yours is connected to another meter. Do the communal areas look like the would use a lot since thye could have outside security lights as well as heating, any lifts etc? If so, it might be a possibility.

Tempest501

In this section of the building there are four apartments, the only thig that gets powered that I can see are Four Lights (on a switch and on all night when it gets dark) and Two Covector heaters one downstairs and one upstairs

Tempest501

Ok they came out and we saw our meter. Trouble is we dont have a disk its is a digital meter, apparently a light blinks and when it blinks 100 times that is one unit.

Now the reading from today was 22572 and was taken at 10.30am. The last reading was on Friday at 4:00pm and it was 22346.

So its used 226 units. We stopped using our wet central heating system mostly ( we had it on for 2 hours on sat and 2 hours on sunday), we are using a 1.8kw Halogen now which has been on prob most of sat eveing and most of sunday, from monday to wednesday has been on about 9 hours a day on full blast as the wife has been at home.

I worked it out at about 50 units a day over that period, does this seem more normal?

My wife rung the supplier and they seemed to think that was about normal but I am not so sure since we only have the one heater. They also told us a Oil Filled heater would be better, is this true?

I am considering getting a Wattson to try and monitor better. What do you guys think should I do this or pursue the Supplier to check out our meter since we could not test it as is not a disk meter that rotates.

Thanks in advance

Tempest501

It get worse we spoke to Ovo today and they said we have to get a specialist to look at our meter, they said they only have service engineers.

have no idea what I can do now.

Tempest501

We are now only using our boiler for 1 hour every other day as that seems to be keeping the water hot enough for week days. If we run out of water we can just hit the on demand button but as yet an hour every other day seems to be keep it warm. So i dnt think that can be using much.

Terrylw1

I hope the Supplier went through all your appliances with you first before arranging this visit.

The visit will be a Standard Load Test (SLT) where the engineer tests the meter to see if it's inside an industry tolerance. If too fast or too slow, it willl be changed and you would need billing corrected to account for that.

However, definately go through every appliance you use to be sure in your mind.

Make sure you are on there on the day because these guys are very experienced in all this so will be able to answer any questions that Supplier staff just won't enough technical knowledge of.

He/she will also need access to the meter on the day.

Tempest501

Terrylw1 wrote: »

I hope the Supplier went through all your appliances with you first before arranging this visit.

The visit will be a Standard Load Test (SLT) where the engineer tests the meter to see if it's inside an industry tolerance. If too fast or too slow, it willl be changed and you would need billing corrected to account for that.

However, definately go through every appliance you use to be sure in your mind.

Make sure you are on there on the day because these guys are very experienced in all this so will be able to answer any questions that Supplier staff just won't enough technical knowledge of.

He/she will also need access to the meter on the day.

Would one of these help to determine whats going wrong http://www.firebox.com/product/1870/Wattson?aff=512&awc=550_1288363550_366e42335d08d745ad94c8562b84c40d

Or if the meter is at fault will this not work?

Tempest501

We noticed how timer has not been turning off the hot water could this be a big drain on electricity?

I have turned it off manually now as we noticed ur hot water has not run out after 3 days.

Just wondering if our boiler is acting up the last 2 month?

Terrylw1

Possibly. Try that out and take another read in couple of days. If you see a reduction, it's that.

You could try an energy monitor but shop around and I don't think they all work with certain sets ups in flats. Access to the meter is required but I think with some as long as you can get at the meter tails in the flat, you can connect to them. Others on this board know a lot more about them than I do, don't take my word about them!