Electricity meter has stopped!

LuFo

macman wrote: »

But it's only been broken for 4 weeks. They have the OP's consumption figures prior to that date to base the estimate on.

Actually it's more complicated than that!

When I moved in here 6 months ago the meter reading was lower than the energy suppliers had on their records - the previous billpayer told me that they had overpaid and were just waiting until it "caught up", so I had "free" electricity until November time, plus I changed suppliers early September and had to give them the same meter reading as I moved in with (are you still following this), so in effect I used no electricity until around the end of November; from then I used approx 110 units up until 3 weeks ago when I took another reading, which is where the meter is stuck at!!

Of course I don't know exactly when the meter stopped - all I know is it must have been either in December or early January!

So all this means that I think the supplier will have great difficulty in estimating my usage anyway!

It is only a small flat, so I don't expect to use much electricity anyway, and it has gas central heating, which I am also monitoring; I am using approx £45 per month of gas at the moment.

Any more suggestions very welcome!

LuFo

Update as promised!

I rang the suppliers today, they will arrange for a new meter to be installed, but not for another 3 weeks as they are fully booked - I have to ring again at the end of the week to book a date!

They said they will then check my usage for the 1st month or so after the new meter is installed, then work out from that approximately what my consumption would have been whilst the meter was faulty and broken (apparently it would have slowed down before stopping altogether!).

I was told that this will be in my favour as it's starting to get lighter at night and so I will be gradually using less electricity going into springtime!

I did end up having to explain about the "free" electricity I had, so that they wouldn't send the fraud squad in, as I was told that I must have used more electricity than I actually did up until the meter broke altogether!

chanz4

suppliers only go after people that steal eg bypass metering, they wont blink about faulty

ragdoll

Hope you get your new meter fitted soon, it may be that for you they do use a future reading to estimate your non metered period especially as your previous usage, before meter stopped working, would be low so they will be better off calculating from a future reading, but beware they (Eon) told me that when my meter stopped working but then said they will only use past meter readings which is in line with their regulators.

Not good in my case as it appears the meter stopped working at almost the same time I got an energy monitor and seriously reduced my usage. Despite being told that they would look at the new metered usage for a month, then they said they wanted to look at a further two months and now three months down the line they are insisting that they will only take past readings. Trouble is before energy moniter we were looking at an average over a year of more than 13 units a day and now we have averaged under 10 units a day and that is over Christmas and winter, as the meter was stopped for nearly a year means the difference on units used is over 1000.

Really hope it works in your favour, in fact if you would be better off with a previous reading quote that using past readings are in line with there regulators!

Good luck

basill

I noticed ours had stopped when two quarterly readings were identical.
I reported it and got the three months free! Customer services said that had it gone on much longer estimated usage would have been billed for.

Shame it was not a winter quarter..

B

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

ragdoll wrote: »

Hope you get your new meter fitted soon, it may be that for you they do use a future reading to estimate your non metered period especially as your previous usage, before meter stopped working, would be low so they will be better off calculating from a future reading, but beware they (Eon) told me that when my meter stopped working but then said they will only use past meter readings which is in line with their regulators.

Not good in my case as it appears the meter stopped working at almost the same time I got an energy monitor and seriously reduced my usage. Despite being told that they would look at the new metered usage for a month, then they said they wanted to look at a further two months and now three months down the line they are insisting that they will only take past readings. Trouble is before energy moniter we were looking at an average over a year of more than 13 units a day and now we have averaged under 10 units a day and that is over Christmas and winter, as the meter was stopped for nearly a year means the difference on units used is over 1000.

Really hope it works in your favour, in fact if you would be better off with a previous reading quote that using past readings are in line with there regulators!

Good luck

Hi ragdoll,

We have a team at E.ON that deal specifically with stopped and faulty meters.

It depends on the circumstances of the meter, what readings they will use and when the meter stopped etc.

I know that some of this usage has to be estimated and they take seasonal variances in to account when doing this, but if you don't agree with the calculations that you have been given then maybe have a word with the agent dealing with your case.

If you need any info from me, just ask.

Helena

LuFo

Ok, another update - and twist to the tale!!!

I rang my new suppliers again on Friday and have an appointment booked for new meter for 2 weeks time - they said they will monitor my usage for just a couple of weeks after that to estimate my usage whilst the meter was broken - sounds fine so far!

This morning I just decided to look at the meter again for no particular reason, and lo and behold the meter has started working again - the number has gone up by 18 units! no idea when it started working again as I didn't bother looking at it all last week!

Any ideas about what I should do now - presumably the suppliers will still want to change the meter, but how will they know what usage to charge if it's now moving! As I said before I am not trying to avoid paying, I just don't want to overpay as I am very very careful about my usage!

Thanks again in advance for any further advice!

DVardysShadow

LuFo wrote: »

Ok, another update - and twist to the tale!!!

....

This morning I just decided to look at the meter again for no particular reason, and lo and behold the meter has started working again - the number has gone up by 18 units! no idea when it started working again as I didn't bother looking at it all last week!

Any ideas about what I should do now - presumably the suppliers will still want to change the meter, but how will they know what usage to charge if it's now moving! As I said before I am not trying to avoid paying, I just don't want to overpay as I am very very careful about my usage!

Thanks again in advance for any further advice!

Is it actually YOUR meter? Do you live in a flat? In which case it could be someone else's meter.

LuFo

Yes, I live in a flat, and yes, it is my (the flat's) meter, it is inside the totally self-contained purpose-built flat.