Electricty meter reading - economy 7

nepenthes

Hi folks, my parents are getting me to try and read their electricity meter for them, in order to get more accurate bills with british gas.

They have a digital meter which flashes two sets of numbers at different intervals. I've gathered that one is for night, and the other is for day.

According to this sticker on the meter, rate 2 is 'low', while rate 1 is 'normal'.

Now, this is the part that concerns me. If I'm reading the numbers right, their 'day' number (59506) is much, much higher than their 'night' number (17564)- almost double the amount. Is this normal, or is the sticker out of date? I was expecting it to be the other way around, considering they use more electricity at night than day.

Edit: Disregard this folks- I should of just read their previous bills before panicking. I'd delete this thread, but I'm not sure how!

jd87

If they really do use more at night (unlikely) then the meter number could have gone all the way round to 99999 and then back to 0 anyway, explaining the seemingly lower number.

grahamc2003

nepenthes wrote: »

Hi folks, my parents are getting me to try and read their electricity meter for them, in order to get more accurate bills with british gas.

They have a digital meter which flashes two sets of numbers at different intervals. I've gathered that one is for night, and the other is for day.

According to this sticker on the meter, rate 2 is 'low', while rate 1 is 'normal'.

Now, this is the part that concerns me. If I'm reading the numbers right, their 'day' number (59506) is much, much higher than their 'night' number (17564)- almost double the amount. Is this normal, or is the sticker out of date? I was expecting it to be the other way around, considering they use more electricity at night than day.

Edit: Disregard this folks- I should of just read their previous bills before panicking. I'd delete this thread, but I'm not sure how!

Don't delete it, it raises some interesting points.

On my meter, the readings cycle between three numbers, or rates as they are cryptically known (they are in fact counters of kwh used, and not rates as usually used to mean the cost/kwh). Rate 1 is my night rate (not day as in your case). Rate 2 is day rate, and rate E is the sum of rate 1 and rate 2.

Each rate has 5 digits, so every few years they go back to 0 again.

So you can't assume a lower reading is the day reading, and the rate E really adds to the confusion in custoimers minds.

When you read about grannies getting a five million pound electrcicity bill, it's probably due to the meter going from 99999 to 0 which, during the time I spent at a suppliers a few years ago, simply was handled totally incorrectly.