Huge Electricity Bill. Incorrect meter reading??

GSBrown123

Hello,

I’m a little new to theis so first of all apologies if this is the incorrect location for this post.

I have recently received an bill from my energy provider for combined gas and electricity. The bill included a statement that they were increasing my direct debits from £90 per month to £115. I checked the actual meter readings against bill to verify if an increase was required. The gas was just about right but the electricity was way out and after a call to the energy provider I was informed that I owed them an additional £3800!!
Luckily I tend to save my bills and letters. Below is a summary of events details.

3 bedroom detached house.
1 person living in the property.
Gas central heating, electric cooker.
The energy provider informed me that for the above details 13kWh per day is typical. Being out of the house approximately between 7am to 6pm weekdays and regularly away on holidays or business I would expect my usage to be lower still.

Moved into the house 2006. My meter was changed from and old analogue (dial) type to a refurbished digital. The issue seems to have occurred after the change.

New digital meter is Ampy Metering-UK type 5235A

There are several estimated readings in the bills but the below are all actual. I’ve calculated the kWh per day by taking the difference in kWh divided by the number of days between readings.

Old analogue meter
*05/07/2008, 61695kWh
*07/08/2009, 63576kWh, 4.7kWh per day

New digital meter installed (refurbished thereofore did not start on zero kWh).
*07/08/2009, 10213kWh
*07/09/2009, 10523kWh, 10.0kWh per day
15/03/2011, 43763kWh, 60.0kWh per day
14/04/2011, 45242kWh, 49.3kWh per day
*05/10/2011, 52375kWh, 41.0kWh per day
09/10/2011, 52410kWh, 8.8kWh per day
10/10/2011, 52418kWh, 8.0kWh per day
*11/10/2011, 52432 kWh, 14.0kWh per day
Average kWh per day for new meter (07/08/2009 to 11/10/2011) = 53.1

Not all of the above reading were reported to the energy company. Only dates *.
Tariff prices aside the above reading of 41-60kWh per day (53.1 average) seems ridiculous.
My meter is inside my house and the energy provider claims that they haven’t had a reading from me since 07/09/2009 even though I have left several cards in the window for them to take and have let at least one person into my house to read the meter in the last 4 months. I know that I am slightly at fault for not noticing that the readings on my bills were estimates for such a long time and that there was a huge difference between them. I just thought they might have mentioned something and I was happy that I was leaving readings on cards for them.

My energy provider actually told me that my usage was normal and I would have to pay the bill but they are understanding enough to set up instalments. That was until I pointed out that 13kWh (as they quoted me above) was normal and the 53.1kWh per day that they wanted to charge was excessive.

They are sending an engineer out shortly but I’m concerned that the meter now appears to be reading something sensible 8-14kWh per day in October.
I was hoping that there is an issue with the mater that 1. The engineer can detect and 2. The energy company will admit to it.

I have installed an OWL energy monitor CM160. In a 2 week period it averages electricity usage at 13 kWh per day.

I’ve check my house for any electrical equipment that I think could be causing an intermittent issue but can’t find anything.

I would be very grateful for any thoughts and comments
Thanks
George

undaunted

There's a massive difference between 4.7kw & 60, so it would sound quite possible that the meter is faulty unless you'd suddenly taken to growing drugs or something

I think I'd therefore just wait for the engineers visit & see what they have to say before deciding how to proceed.

I'd also put all readings (actual and estimated) down on paper to the supplier rather than rely on the call centre operatives stating that there has been no change in circumstances / usages (assuming this was the case) and asking for their explanation.