huge increase of electric but why?

hubballi

Atlantic have told me my payments of £23 a month for electric have jumped to £43 a month (average 22 units a month) since last January which has put me in arreas hence the £43. What I want to know is what has pushed the consumption up that much? I have no new appliances or anything, run a 2 bedroom terreced house with just my wife and I. All our heating is Gas. I just don't know what it is, nor do Atlantic.

raymond

Switch off everything and see if the meter stops. If it doesnt then pull out all the fuses or switch off all the circuit breakers, if that stops it then get an electrician in to check it out. If the meter turns with all the fuses/mcbs out then you haver a faulty meter.

espresso

hubballi wrote:

Atlantic have told me my payments of £23 a month for electric have jumped to £43 a month (average 22 units a month) since last January.........

How many?

Why don't you read your meter to find out exactly how many kWh you are actually using? If you read your meter regularly, this would not happen because you would be able to calculate your expenditure form the number of units used.

Cardew

What do you mean by "average 22 units a month"? 22 units cost approx £2.

It is standard practice to increase DD dramatically to recover a debit balance. This is normally caused by underestimated meter readings and/or the DD not being increased to take account of the price increases during the year.
There are loads of posts on this forum where people have had much bigger increases in their DD than you - from all Utility companies.

iceicebaby

Your previous usages have probably been done on an estimated basis. they have probably been to read your meter and in reality you are using more. So it might not be the case your usage has increased now, but more the point that you were underpaying in the first place

anniecave

A lot of electricity companies only review your account every year if you pay by DD. So if you don't keep an eye on it then it can be way out.