Help! Incredible Electricity Bill from British Gas

[Deleted User]

Hi Beth7820, try and understand how your eco 7 meter works yourself as British Gas are hopeless with them,I once got BBC watchdog involved in the dual rate meter mess ups and they ran a prog about a few people who actually had, and used night storage heating, and were overcharged thousands and B.G. sat back and took no notice of them.That made good T.V. but most of the mess ups involve people who are billed too little when the readings are transposed. Eventually the penny drops with them, sometimes only when smart meters are fitted with huge catch up bills. your problem may not be a transposed reading( when the last occupier had been getting under billed) but its best to rule it out

[Deleted User]

yes terrylw1 the fact that that night rates not moving, which it should ,means that its either a single rate billing meter now, or its faulty. you could see if its clicking up a unit if the total moves overnight,it usually does with the fridge,freezer etc. I did nt think landlords had permission to do any rewiring into the meter itself. A £900 electric bill is still way over the norm and heartbreaking

Terrylw1

sacsquacco wrote: »

yes terrylw1 the fact that that night rates not moving, which it should ,means that its either a single rate billing meter now, or its faulty. you could see if its clicking up a unit if the total moves overnight,it usually does with the fridge,freezer etc. I did nt think landlords had permission to do any rewiring into the meter itself. A £900 electric bill is still way over the norm and heartbreaking

Its illegal for any customer, the distributor or even metet operator to break the seals to a meter unless try are certified to do so for reconditioning or meter examiner purposes, to avoid the encouragement of fraud in meter operators for a start.

E7 has 2 tails, the day to the day fusebox circuit and the night goes yo the off peak circuit to allow the switchover but the op. Anything not wired directly yo the op circuit also switches over e.g. lights which allows everything else at night rate on top of the heating.

If you decide you don't need storage heating e.g. you go to gas central heating, you rewire so that the op circuit no longer has anything connected which prevents it switching over at all hence the reading won't move as its now operating off the day circuit only, hence the time switch is no longer connected to anything. The meter should be changed to one rate as triggered bt the customer to avoid readings which make the meter appear faulty but the customer has the e7 pricing oitential in the process. However, there should still be some consumption to cover lighting and other appliances that switch from the main circuit so i suspect there might be an issue somewhere with wiring or the meter, it could even be a dodgy sparky/landlord who had removed the night tail from the meter?

spiro

sacsquacco wrote: »

yes terrylw1 the fact that that night rates not moving, which it should ,means that its either a single rate billing meter now, or its faulty. you could see if its clicking up a unit if the total moves overnight,it usually does with the fridge,freezer etc. I did nt think landlords had permission to do any rewiring into the meter itself. A £900 electric bill is still way over the norm and heartbreaking

He cant move the wires into the meter BUT he can change where the tails go. As already said for an E7 meter both the day and night readings should move even if you dont have a heating curcuit as the rest of the house will record against it. The heating curcuit is just a 2nd curcuit that is activated at night. If the night rate is not moving at all this suggests something is wrong. Ask your supplier what the night hours are and try boiling a full kettle during that period and see if the night rate or day rate moves.

The issue may be that if the night rate is not moving that your suppliers meter reader (data collectors) computer system is rejecting the night reading and estimating a reading. Check the bill!

COSTLYPETROL

Good morning Beth

Recently a friend had large bills and the process of elimination unearthed a defective freezer as the main problem.

I know nothing about electrics but please check everything.

Hope you get it sorted.

Take care

Aki123

Dear Terrylw1, sacsquacco, spire and COSTLYPETROL

Thank you so much for all your replies and suggestions. Cousin isn't online today, I've just tried catching up with her but no luck yet. I'll ensure she sees everything this evening and spends a bit of time digesting all of your advice.

I've suggested she should get someone qualified that's separate to British Gas to look at the heating system for her, as I think Terrylw1 is probably right, this could be 'faults and compensation time'.

The fact that the night reading hasn't moved at all does seem to point to the fact that the system has been connected up incorrectly and is using the wrong type of meter for her needs.

Thanks again, you're all really kind to help us out.

Terrylw1

That's a good move Aki, suppliers won't send engineers out just to check third party work (however if you are on site, the engineer can be questioned and he/she wikk most likely tell you what you need to know) but with your own Sparky he can look at everything in the property up to the fusebox which holds the circuits the meter is connected to.

The only thing I can think of is that the landlord has rewired and completely disabled any circuits to the meter that would cause the night read to move I.e. pull elec via the meters night tail. This would be fine if the meter was to be changed, but not long term as ut will trigger supplier investigation processes.

If the landlord just removed the appliances attached to the night circuit e.g. storage heater, your off peak elec would still continue but just for what you manually triggered, so this sounds more complex.

Definately be clear on all this and be onsite when the Sparky attends. Also, why not ask him/her about this system, they may know whether is rubbish or not? Remember though, you are one rate standard now and your heating bill seems very large so you may need some energy efficiency advice so perhaps look at such as the sites and trusts online.

Aki123

Hello all

Just thought I'd give you an update on cousin's problem. She has spoken to British Gas who have said that as a 'gesture of goodwill' they will calculate the £900 worth of electricity that she owes at their standard day rate, which I believe brings it down to about £730ish.

However, they have persuaded her to let someone go in today and change the meter to the correct type for her system, so unfortunately she won't get an independent view on it before the meter goes. As she's at work, she has had to arrange for someone to let the guy in, but has asked them to ask the engineer to tell her if there is anything untoward with regard to the way the system has been installed.

The bill is still horrendous (the £730 is in addition to the £240 she has paid by direct debit!), but hopefully there will be some resolution once the engineer has gone in. Her plan is to be very frugal until her lease ends and then move!!

Once again, many thanks for all your help, advice and concern, it is greatly appreciated.

victor2

If she wants help being frugal and establishing what effects her frugality is having, tell her to come back on here and start a new thread - or just search the forum for ideas. There's plenty of advice to be had!

Terrylw1

That's good in one way with the meter and asking the engineer might shed some light as long as he can see the fusebox. I've found a lot of engineers are really good and have a concern for customers having problems, often since its the same guy coming out to investigate it each time. He might have seen this before or have a view on the kwh side that could help.

Just be aware that if your landlord has rewired, the engineer will need a contractors completion certificate normally to change it as its the electricians safety certificate to him. Usually its needed when any rewirin has been done where the meter change is needed. The engineer will advise on this but if you can get it, it may avoid an aborted job. If it was going to e7, it would needed but I'm less sure on the switch back.

Also, take your open closing readings for meter change, the often go missing, don't get used, etc.