Extremely high electicity bills.

dchurch24

Hi all,

For some reason my electricity bills are sky high.
Recently they've been estimated, so I've just been on BG's website to enter a reading. It wouldn't let me submit the reading as, apparently, it's much higher than their estimate.
Their estimates are currently coming in extremely high already. For example, last month was £150, and this month, so far, is £260 (and we're only 10 days in!).

I live alone, I have a fridge, freezer, TV and a couple of computers that are on 24/7 and laptops that are switched off in the day.
I used to be what I would consider a 'high electricity user', but since my girlfriend and I split 6 months ago, I would no longer say that's true.

I've been paying them around 40-80 quid a month as I truly believe that there is no way the bills can be as high as they say they are.

Is there any way I can get them to send an engineer out to find out if something is wrong?

jalexa

dchurch24 wrote: »

Recently they've been estimated, so I've just been on BG's website to enter a reading. It wouldn't let me submit the reading as, apparently, it's much higher than their estimate.

The only real problem so far is you have not been persistent enough in getting BG accept your customer reading and re-issuing the bill to your reading. Assuming that is you are correctly reading your meter.

In situations like this you need to get a handle on your usage by taking daily readings for a week.

macman

Qouting £££'s tells us absolutely nothing about your actual energy consumption. You are billed in kWh's, and if you post your actual annual or monthly kWh consumption then proper advice can be given.
What your laptops/fridge use is not relevant. The vast majority of energy consumption in your home is for heating and hot water, which you don't mention. So how is the flat heated and hot watered, and if all electric, are you on an E7 tariff with night storage heaters and an immersion heater? If so, what tariff?
I don't fully understand your post, am I correct in thinking that you have been underpaying because you don't trust the estimated billing? If so, a large part of the bill will be not ongoing usage but accumulated debt, so you need to calculate what your actual ongoing monthly usage is and separate that from the arrears.
You cannot possibly be using £260 of electricity in 10 days, that would indicate a consumption of about 2,200kWh, or 220kWh per day!
If you think the meter is faulty then it can be replaced and tested, but if found to be with tolerance then you will be charged for the replacement.

dchurch24

I'm definitely reading the meter correctly. Not sure about the persistency thing, I can click the 'submit' button on their website as many times as I can, but it still says that it's much too high...which it is!
My heating/water is gas, that's why it was not mentioned.
Don't know if I'm on a E7 tariff. I don't even know what that is.
It's not a flat, it's a detached house with three floors...but as I said, the heating is gas so the size of the property is irrelevent to the electricity use I would have thought.
My daily readings suggest that I'm using 24kw per day.

HappyMJ

dchurch24 wrote: »

Hi all,

For some reason my electricity bills are sky high.
Recently they've been estimated, so I've just been on BG's website to enter a reading. It wouldn't let me submit the reading as, apparently, it's much higher than their estimate.
Their estimates are currently coming in extremely high already. For example, last month was £150, and this month, so far, is £260 (and we're only 10 days in!).

I live alone, I have a fridge, freezer, TV and a couple of computers that are on 24/7 and laptops that are switched off in the day.
I used to be what I would consider a 'high electricity user', but since my girlfriend and I split 6 months ago, I would no longer say that's true.

I've been paying them around 40-80 quid a month as I truly believe that there is no way the bills can be as high as they say they are.

Is there any way I can get them to send an engineer out to find out if something is wrong?

What do you use for heating and hot water. They are the biggest component of any bill. Lights, fridges, freezers, TV's and computers all use fairly small amounts compared to anything that creates heat.

victor2

As well as taking daily readings, switch everything off (including the fridge) and verify that the meter is not recording any usage.
With the usage you are reporting, something would have to be using a lot, so switch things back on individually and see when the meter starts recording something significant.
Don't forget to switch the fridge back on when done!

dchurch24

Heating and hot water are both gas.

I do have a small electric heater that I use in the mornings in winter as it's not worth putting the central heating on for the whole house for about 30 mins in the morning when I get out of the shower.

I have used it twice in the last 7 months (that I can remember) and both of those have been this week - both times for about 10 minutes, so I don't think it's that.

dchurch24

victor2 wrote: »

As well as taking daily readings, switch everything off (including the fridge) and verify that the meter is not recording any usage.
With the usage you are reporting, something would have to be using a lot, so switch things back on individually and see when the meter starts recording something significant.
Don't forget to switch the fridge back on when done!

I was thinking of trying one of these to see if it's anything I'm running that's causing the high readings:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/lightwaverf-energy-monitor/70385#product_additional_details_container

jalexa

dchurch24 wrote: »

Is there any way I can get them to send an engineer out to find out if something is wrong?

You are entitled to insist on the supplier arranging a test at liability for a fee if the meter proves accurate.

Before that it is not difficult to use a fixed load such a non-thermostatically controlled heater to perform a basic accuracy test.

macman

dchurch24 wrote: »

I'm definitely reading the meter correctly. Not sure about the persistency thing, I can click the 'submit' button on their website as many times as I can, but it still says that it's much too high...which it is!
My heating/water is gas, that's why it was not mentioned.
Don't know if I'm on a E7 tariff. I don't even know what that is.
It's not a flat, it's a detached house with three floors...but as I said, the heating is gas so the size of the property is irrelevent to the electricity use I would have thought.
My daily readings suggest that I'm using 24kw per day.

E7 = Economy 7. So it might be an idea to check and then tell us what tariff you are on-it's shown on your bill or online account.
24kWh per day is about 8,000kWh pa, approx twice what would be expected for a property with gas CH and DHW. Do you have a back up immersion heater switch that has been left on 24/7 by any chance?
Based on 24kWh per day, how do you calculate your usage at £260 in 10 days? 240kWh will cost about £29.
If you have arrears (estimated or otherwise), your supplier will be adding an additional sum to your monthly DD for recovering that-which is why you need to get accurate meter readings to them by phone and get rebilled to see where you really are.

dchurch24

I have no idea. I'm not the one calculating it, that's BG.
Last month I paid them 150 quid, which is what the bill came to. There were no arrears then etc...
That was due on the 1st of this month.
I checked this morning, and so far I am now 260 in debit - apparently.
There is no immersion heater.
There is, however a UPS battery *somewhere* in the property. It was here when I moved in, but didn't notice it and it wasn't mentioned anywhere in any documentation.
I noticed it first when there was a power cut and the kitchen and hall lights came on.
Maybe it has something to do with that?

Generally, I'm not a high user of electricity. I don't watch TV (in fact, I can't watch tv, even if I wanted to). I do have an ADSL router on 24/7, and a couple of computers. Obviously a fridge and a freezer, but that's pretty much it.

EDIT: Sorry, I had to laugh at the 'by phone' bit. Have you ever tried phoning BG? It's not that I don't believe it's possible, it's just that I have to go to work in the day and haven't got 2-3 hours of messing around with them, hence, I use their website to submit readings. It being 2012, that really ought to be possible ;-)
What's worrying me is the fact that it's saying that my readings are much higher than their estimate suggests it should be, and that's already extremely high. I feel like if I give them the reading I'm going to end up with a 10 grand bill!

EDIT 2: Oops, just looked again and it seems I didn't take into account the 'shortfall' on the payment the month before. I paid 80 quid then, from 150 as I'd been away for two of those weeks, so just couldn't bring myself to pay 75 quid a week for electricity. Still nearly 200 quid though??