Electricity Meter - Test as readings so high

sleepymans

I am concerned that my units used are so high, though I dont have records going back too far (and my supplier npower only read the meter annually and I am on direct debit payments).

Comparing my units used this year with my sis who has a similar house, appliances etc and who uses exactly half the units I do!!

So I asked for my meter to be checked. Npower state that the meter checking is contracted out to a third party. If they check it and it is not faulty I will have to pay£90, though they will cover the cost if it does turn out to be faulty.

Three questions which I would appreciate anyones response are:

1. Is this charge legal, fair and in line with other suppliers?
2. How can I be sure the meter testing is accurate, fair and honest?
3. Is there any cheaper way I can test the meter, or monitor usage practically (which might indicate the accuracy, or not, of my meter without gambling £90)?

Thanks in advance

JC_Derby

sleepymans wrote: »

I am concerned that my units used are so high, though I dont have records going back too far (and my supplier npower only read the meter annually and I am on direct debit payments).

Comparing my units used this year with my sis who has a similar house, appliances etc and who uses exactly half the units I do!!

So I asked for my meter to be checked. Npower state that the meter checking is contracted out to a third party. If they check it and it is not faulty I will have to pay£90, though they will cover the cost if it does turn out to be faulty.

Three questions which I would appreciate anyones response are:

1. Is this charge legal, fair and in line with other suppliers?
2. How can I be sure the meter testing is accurate, fair and honest?
3. Is there any cheaper way I can test the meter, or monitor usage practically (which might indicate the accuracy, or not, of my meter without gambling £90)?

Thanks in advance

1 - yes i beleive it is
2 - not sure you can, you do have to take it on good faith but... i wouldnt think that they would find it not faulty if it was.
3 -
turn everything off.....and i mean everything. check your meter is it turning (running). if not good. Then turn something on that you know uses a certain amount of electricity ie a 1kw heater.

the other option is get an energy monitor, alot of companies do them for free or were doing. attach it and use it, shows you exactly what is being used....then you can go round and turn things on and off to find out whats using all the electricity.
does your sis work similar hours to you? are they likely to be out when you are in?this also has an affect on what elec is being used.

Premier_2

1. Yes
2. The check is normally done by having another meter fitted alongside it.
It's unlikely that two different meters would give exactly the same results unless they were correctly and accurately recoirding the consumption.
3. Not really. The meter is an accurate device (if working correctly). Nothing else cheaper is that accurate. You can make basic checks such as putting on a 1 kW device for 1 hour (and nothing else) and checking the meter that way or by getting an energy monitor but neither will be as accuarate as a proper meter recording over a few days.

hermanmunster_3

would this help?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Owl-Cm119-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B001JJCLS0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294319996&sr=8-1

4$£&*(£$&*(!

A lot of councils lend out energy monitors, particularly through libraries. Call your local council to see if they do an energy monitor loan scheme.

Katie-Kat-Kins

I think before you jump to any conclusions it would be worth you monitoring your usage daily and keeping a record to see how much you are using and when. Your meter is most likely accurate and you are simply using more electric than your sister, it is very difficult to compare households usage as there are so many variables.

I think some libraries lend out OWL monitors if you can't get one free and they can also help you work out what the energy guzzlers are in your house.

sleepymans

Thnks very much for the replies so far.
Just to add really that my sis has same size house as me. She uses a tumbledrier, I dont. She has an electric shower, I dont. She cooks on an electric cooker, I dont. I use an energy efficient dishwasher once a day, she doesnot have a dishwasher. She and OH are home all day, retired, we are both working.
The final bit of information is that I am using roughly DOUBLE the units she is over the same period!

Hence my suspicion that my meter may be faulty. But the size of my bills means I dont want to take an additional £90 punt to make sure!!

Thanks for the info about monitors etc. If I turned everything off my central heatingclock, fridgefreezer would have to be turned off and I dont have an electric heater to turn on!! I'd have to borrow one.

HappyMJ

Do you have a kettle? They use a consistent and high amount and you even have the bonus of having a cuppa once you've been staring at the numbers on the meter for a few minutes.

My kettle uses 1.8kwh and would take 3 mins and 20 secs to use 0.1kwh which you should be able to see on your meter.

Katie-Kat-Kins

sleepymans wrote: »

Thnks very much for the replies so far.
Just to add really that my sis has same size house as me. She uses a tumbledrier, I dont. She has an electric shower, I dont. She cooks on an electric cooker, I dont. I use an energy efficient dishwasher once a day, she doesnot have a dishwasher. She and OH are home all day, retired, we are both working.
The final bit of information is that I am using roughly DOUBLE the units she is over the same period!

Hence my suspicion that my meter may be faulty. But the size of my bills means I dont want to take an additional £90 punt to make sure!!

Thanks for the info about monitors etc. If I turned everything off my central heatingclock, fridgefreezer would have to be turned off and I dont have an electric heater to turn on!! I'd have to borrow one.

Ok, firstly are you sure you are checking the right meter and reading it correctly?

Checking daily and seeing your average daily usage would help check whether the reason for high bills may be that the meter was read incorrectly once. We had a shocker of a bill when our rate 3 was misread at 00500 rather than 00005! Npower resolved it very quickly.

How do you heat your water? Immersion heaters use tonnes of electricity......

If after monitering your usage daily (or better still several times a day at set times) you are seeing high daily usage with no obvious cause I'd borrow an OWL and turn everything off and see what happens. Then turn on something of known power (doesn't have to be a heater, could be the kettle or the electric shower or something) and see whether the usage matches.

You aren't in a flat are you? There isn't a chance that some communal lighting is hooked up to your meter or something??

4$£&*(£$&*(!

There are too many variables on what you say to compare your use with your sister. Dishwashers use a fair amount of electricity, I own an efficient one but even for a small family it is certainly not on every day - how big is your household?

The best thing I think you can do is connect a monitor (remember these are not totally accurate though) and check its use roughly tallies up with what the meter says. When you go to work, unplug everything apart from essentials, then work out exactly what has been used on what and come back to us with that info.

I would drop the comparison with your sister though, you started this thread saying she has roughly similar appliances and have since said they are totally different.

spiro

The test suppliers normally undertake is in 2 stages:

1) The 1st phase is basically the 'kettle test' so the engineeer can see if the meter is recording the correct amount. If this fails then they will agree and inaccuracy % and adjust the bill.
2) The 2nd phase if you dont agree with the 1st phase is to fit a check meter. This is a second meter they fit for a period of time (1-4 weeks) so that they can see if you meter and the check meter records the same amount of consumption.

Typically it is the 2nd phase that cost you £90.

As other have said monitor it for yourself. Remember things like Owls and not as accurate as your meter and they are supposidly worse at lower consumption rates.