Astonished by Powergen bills :0(

space_rider

Hi

According to the website it`s a system for heating hot water off peak??

http://www.gledhill.net/water-storage/2000-range-index/pulsacoil.htm

peat

I believe that the pulsacoil is a thermal store system. Water is meant to be heated to a pre-set temperature during off-peak periods then used as required. Hot water comes from a the cold water mains feed which goes through a heat exchanger/coil within the thermal store which then gives you hot water at mains pressure.
Sounds to me like the system timer is not set correctly. It might be an idea to phone the manufacturers (Gledhill) and ask for their advise.

bound_angel

Hi :0)
A small update and a thankyou. We finally got an engineer out to see the meter and he confirmed that yes, there is something wrong. The meter is only reading primary expensive units and hasnt been using the cheaper rates on heatwise when its supposed to. Our ongoing reading show that the meter for night and evening/afternoon still havent gone up since March 31st which is 2 months.

On the phone to Powergen now to ask that our bills be revised due to this fault as we've been trying to get them to recognise a fault since our first £600 bill over a year ago. They are not being helpful... actually deliberately obtuse would seem closer to it.

bound_angel

A small but incredibly frustrating update.
We had our meter replaced on 12/06/07 and initiated the same day. After a few days we noticed exactly the same problem. Regardless of when we were using electricity all of it was being ticked onto the primary rate reading and all the others have sat at 0000. We bugged Powergen several times and finally got their agreement to send out another engineer to establish whats wrong with the system as its pretty unlikely that 2 meters would develop an identical fault within such a short time.
The engineer was supposed to be here on 02/07/07. When he arrived it turned out just to be a regular rep with orders just to read the meter. Not a clue what we were on about.
Now we have to try again going through the fight to get Powergen to send the right person.
In the meantime they are still taking readings from the incorrect meter, chagring us, and adding it onto our account. It took a massive fight just to get them to put our account on hold and try to get them to stop the direct debit (which they then still took and my bank had to refund).
Apparently they intend to reactivate the DD in 2 weeks time when they still havent even established whats wrong with our meter.
*face palm*
So we're still at square one, months later with dodgy readings and still getting more charges dumped onto our account.
What next? I'm half expecting to get a charge for the DD I had to get a refund for or even a court threat for not paying the huge charges they keep adding while our account is supposed to be stopped.
*scream!*

SwanJon

If the meter has been changed and the problem is still there, it could be to do with the wiring after the meter. Was any work done when the problem started?
See if your L/l is willing to have a look - it's their wiring after all

bound_angel

No work has been done in the flat at all since we moved in. This was pretty random looking at the bills. Suddenly the meter just stopped adding night/evening usage to the right readings and the primary ones shot up meaning our bills shot up too.
We had yet another Powergen engineer come out to us a few days ago but when I tried to explain that I suspected it wasnt the meter causing the problem he wouldnt have it. Absolutely insisted it was just another faulty meter and so he replaced it with another new one. Not to mention he refused to wait for us to switch off/disconnect items before he shut off the power meaning an afternoon of trying to repair the now damaged Windows boot on OH's PC...
Guess what the second brand new meter is doing? Yup, adding all the usage onto the primary rates. It just can't be the meter causing the problem but Powergen don't seem even slightly interested in discovering whats actually wrong. :0(

Cactus_Jack

floyd wrote: »

Powergen are one ofthe companies that really irritate me. They badgered me to swap saying that they could save me £130 a year on my bills so finally I gave in and changed providers (from British Gas). Big mistake, true, my direct debit payments were £130 less a year, but the amount they were taking wasn't enough to pay for the power I was using so after a year I ended up with a bill for nearly £200 arrears....Its a big con, then when you try and call up to change suppliers and get a final bill, the call centers are abroad and it takes 4 attempts to actually get a result.

All their call centres are based in the UK as of a year or so ago

SwanJon

If meter number 3 is doing the same thing, then it's either the wiring, or you are incredibly unlucky.
Might be worth looking at how much it would cost to get an electrician round to have a look, or get your landlord to arrange it, doesn't sound like Powergen will or can do much if the problem is after the meter.

Not an answer I'm afraid.
One thought would be to ask nicely if they'll undo the bills back to when it went wrong and estimate bills instead. Might not be nice, but it would move some of the use from day to night.

Good luck.