Faulty electric meter?

btowill

I live in a modern 2 bed flat with gas central heating. My electric DD has just been put up to £59 per month, as we had gone into debit by £45 this quarter. Looking at the meter readings it says we use an average of 9kwh per day, which is up 50% from 2009 when it was only 6kwh per day. I borrowed my MIL's current cost machine to see if this is right and it said each day was 6kwh for the last week (except on Sunday when it was 7kwh). However, the reading on the meter went up by 63 units, so 9kwh per day.

I spoke to my neighbour below me who lives in an identical flat and her bill seems to be £100 cheaper per quarter.

So, my question is - can the current cost reader be that inaccurate or is there a chance my meter is faulty? Not sure what to do!

chanz4

take a read every day for a week, do it at the same time and you will tell. These energy monitors are not 100%

spiro

btowill wrote: »

I spoke to my neighbour below me who lives in an identical flat and her bill seems to be £100 cheaper per quarter.

Their flat may be identical but the price per kwh they pay may be different and their useage may be different. Its like saying 2 people own the same model of car but spend different amounts on petrol, meaningless.

grumpyoldsteve

According to British Gas's "Compare your usage" website feature, we are using about double that of the average user (1842 kWh over the previous 3 months).
Having just had solar PV installed our latest bill is lower, but I am convinced that we are being overcharged for what we have to import; and have been for several years it seems! I have only just become aware of the potential problem with my new found energy consciousness that has resulted from generating our own electricity - and of course British Gas's own tool.

Does anybody have experience of requesting a meter check as British Gas seem reluctant to do anything (which could potentially reduce their income).

I have contacted Consumer Direct who will hopefully put me on the right track to getting our meter independently tested. I am losing patience with the endless emails bouncing back and forth between me and British Gas. They even acknowledged that my usage is high and the meter could be at fault, but all they do is regurgitate energy efficiency measures which we are already doing.

spiro

grumpyoldsteve wrote: »

Does anybody have experience of requesting a meter check as British Gas seem reluctant to do anything (which could potentially reduce their income).

I have contacted Consumer Direct who will hopefully put me on the right track to getting our meter independently tested. I am losing patience with the endless emails bouncing back and forth between me and British Gas. They even acknowledged that my usage is high and the meter could be at fault, but all they do is regurgitate energy efficiency measures which we are already doing.

Checking a meter is a 2 stage process. Step one is the 'kettle test' were the engineer will turn everything off and then turn someone with a know useage for a period and check the meter is recording correctly. Step two is the installation of a check meter which stays on the wall for a period of time. You will probably need to pay for this in anvance and only get the money refunded if the meter is outside the allowed tolerance.
Average UK useage is 3300kwh per annum.