Npower increase my monthly bill by over 40%

littlereddevil

I am wondering why you are so reticent to try the easiest option of switching everything off and then checking the meter?

grannyjo

i agree. until you eliminate faulty wiring,/ meter the rest of your experiments could be meaningless. Please do the switch everything off test.

back_against_the_wall

Legionella? Please don't tell me this is something else to worry about. Is there much of a risk of this in a domestic context? You occasionally hear in the news about outbreaks of this in industrial hot water and plumbing systems but I have never heard of an outbreak in a non-industrial domestic home environment, at least not in the UK, maybe overseas.
Anyway, turning down the thermostat to about 50 degrees resulted in a small reduction in my meter reading today from 18 units to 15, the latter still from ideal but some improvement. Bizarrely, my neighbour's reading today, the very same neighbour who I mentioned yesterday as only having used 6 units per day for the last few days, had shot up to 17 units, the only explanation for which occurs to me (I have not seen her today to ask) is that it was so bitterly cold today that she had to turn on her central heating. Meanwhile, I am still persevering with no heating turned on whatever but the weather outlook is so depressing, with blizzard like conditions forecast towards the end of the week, that I doubt that I will entirely avoid having to turn on some heating before the weather turns any milder, of which there is no sign at the moment.
It is not quite fair to say I am reticent about turning everything off. Over the past few weeks I have, in effect, done this, albeit in a rather piecemeal way. I have experimented in turning off all the electrical appliances in my flat for periods of up to 24 hours. I also purchased a new low energy fridge to replace my previous ancient model which I suspected might be causing some problems. I have also experimented in switching off the various circuit breakers in my utility room control unit. There are 12 of these circuit breakers and so far I have experimented with turning 7 out of the 12 off for periods of over 24 hours. The remaining 5 are the least suspect and only control the power to the lights in the various rooms and the power to the sockets in the living room. The only thing which makes any difference is the immersion heater. Fiddling about with the hot water timer settings for this and also the thermostat temperature settings does produce empirical changes to my meter readings. For this reason, based on the correlation between my fiddling about with these settings and the changes in my meter readings the following day, I am 99% certain that the meter in the communal meter cupboard which has my flat no is in fact "my meter" and recording my useage rather than the useage of any of my neighbours who might have hijacked my meter to nefarious ends, which is improbable to say the least.
Having said all that I will have to experiment with turning both everything off, ie all the various appliances in my flat, and then comparing the result with another test where I turn off all the circuit breakers and shut down the supply completely, both tests requiring a period of several hours for any worthwhile results to be significant, in both cases monitoring any changes in the meter readings before and after the shut down. This does require a degree of planning because while the supply is shut down completely there will be no lighting in the flat so I cannot exactly do this late on in any hours of darkness and it goes dark quite early. I stay in bed quite late these days to stay warm so the tests will have have to be done when I manage to drag myself out of a warm bed and face another very cold day. Regards. David.

grannyjo

if you do what Jalexa says ie see your meter disc spinning, turn everything off, check it has stopped spinning, it will only take 5 mins at most- just the time it takes to switch everything off, then on again. You'll have to do it once when lights are needed to check communal lights for instance are not connected to your meter. Is there a communal plug in the meter room- or close. If you have no torch you could take a lamp out and plug it in. If you have a vacuun cleaner or anything, you could plug it in and see if that plug is wired to your meter.
When you moved in and had a high initial meter reading- were the other meters at 0. If they were, that could indicate communal electicity is wired to your meter.

You seem to have 2 major issues
1 Is your meter recording your usage accurately
2 How to use less electricity and stay warm.
You need to eliminate the first . You seem only to be thinking of the second. By concentrating on the immersian heater, you are not solving a lot. Keep all you figures. It would be interesting to contact the energy company and write down exactly what you have used eg immersian 3 hours, tv, 3 hours, computer 3 hours , lihts approx 3 - 6 hoursetc. The companies are supposed to help people on low incomes. Ask them if this usage seems to relat to the units used.
You really must test the meter though joanna
-joanna

back_against_the_wall

Well, everything got well and truly switched off today for 6 hours but not by me. There was a power cut from 3pm in the afternoon to about 9pm tonight. Only the 2nd power cut since we moved to this new development over 4 years ago. Problem with a cable or something. Anyway, that outage of 6 hours should cut down my useage I thought, reducing my meter reading today from the 15 units it had clocked up yesterday. Nope. When I checked the meter reading shortly after the power was restored just after 9pm it was up 18 units from the previous day! 18 units in a day in which there was a 6 hour power outage, in which I have had no heating on whatever (it was colder today in my flat than in a Siberian labour camp), in which I was not able to boil any milk or water to make my usual breakfast, in which I had to make a very late evening meal after the power was restored, in which there was no lighting or immersion heater activity or anything else for six hours; and yet my reading had gone up by 3 units, 3 full kw/h, from the previous day! This is, not to mince words, frankly impossible.
I take on board all the advice from jalexa and grannyjo, but the question remains, given all the tests I might make, switching various things off etc, and I will have to make the further tests suggested in recent postings, how can any of this persuade my supplier, formerly Npower and now British Gas, that there is any question of my meter being faulty and over-recording my useage? I have a spread sheet going back to last November with all the daily readings for both myself and all the other residents in my block. I could conceivably produce another spread sheet, along the lines suggested by grannyjo, recording the individual useage of every appliance and utility in my flat, but to what purpose? You really think that someone at Npower or British Gas are going to sit down and carefully analyse all the statistics I might send them? Npower have already said they cannot help with any meter testing and their only concern now is to get me to pay my final bill up to the end of my account with them. I will sound out British Gas but I really do not expect much help from them. These energy companies could not really care less about people on low incomes, poverty income in my case, unless they get a big prod from the government, who themselves are only after votes to get themselves re-elected. It is all about profits, profits and more profits. Who owns these companies anyway? Not the government, who really have very little influence over them, whatever their ineffectual regulatory gestures may mislead us, the public, into believing. Regards. David

grannyjo

Are you really writing these replies at 4.01 and 3.30 am? . I can understand your 'rants'. I'd feel the same way but yesterdays readings point to electricity being recorded on your meter that does not belong there- . I asked yesterday if the other meters in the flats were at 0 when you moved in - when yours was showing quite a lot of units.
Keeping your usage down is obviously of great importance, but I think what other readers and myself also think, is that you need concrete proof of something wrong to show to the power companies. If everything was switched off ( not the circuit breakers- they should be on) and the meter wheel was going round- that would be concrete proof. If you ask british gas to check the meter, it might mean that sort of problem does not show up.

At the moment all it seems you can say to British gas is I am not using many appliances but my kw usage seems high. Other flats seem to have a lot more appliances on and pay only a very small amount more.
Have you tries saying that to them- if so what do they say
If I was in your position I would phone or email britsh gas and tell them after a power cut of 6 hours you are recorded at 18 units at ? pm when the power cut finished yet other flats used about ???? units What do they suggest. Say you want a reply within 48hours.

Also - have you seen the martin Lewis newsletter this week. It has energy conservation news on it. Is your flat council owned , private landlord or your name on the deeds. I don't think council properties come under the scheme
good luck joanna

grannyjo

https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/entitlement
if you haven't done it already it may be worth you checking this site to see if asre eligible for any other help,

back_against_the_wall

Don't know where these late timings for my messages in the very early hours come from. I do compose a lot of e-mails late on, between 2 - 3 am. This is just a reflection of the odd hours I keep at the moment. I go to bed very late and get up between 2 - 3 pm. I stay in bed to early afternoon because it is warm in bed under various blankets and it is an effort to get up and face another cold day! Anyway, just took another meter reading at 4.30 pm and it was 18 units again! That's 18 units from 9 pm last night when the power was restored to 4.30 pm the day after. I am afraid I have no recollection of the meter readings of the other flats when we first moved in over 4 years ago. At that time I had enough to think about coping with my elderly mother who was distraught at being forced to move from our former home. Meter readings were the last thing on my mind. The flat is a leasehold property in my mother's name. I had a long argument with the local Council, Salford, after my mother's death in March 2010 about the financial and legal issues involved in having the leasehold title transferred to me. That is another story entirely. Just, suffice to say I am in the middle of applying for Probate at the moment to get myself appointed as my mother's Personal Representative. The meter readings after the 6 hour power cut do point to something being very wrong which I will be putting to British Gas, together with my other concerns, in an e-mail I will send later today. I will also perform the test you suggest grannyjo of switching everything off but not the circuit breakers. I still think to be of any use this test will have to cover several hours, noting the readings at the start and finish and any changes over that period. Kind Regards. David. (Don't think I qualify for any other benefits at all.)

grannyjo

as jalexa says Post 42 -.it will only take a couple of minutes- check the disc or flashing light- then you can switch everything back on. Best done later when other flats are occupied. if the meter does stop try again as they might not be using the offending appliance.To me it seems someone else has turned up their heating and its going on your meter. read Jaleska post as he said- please - best wishes joanna- the sooner you can get this straightened out the better.

fed_up_and_stressed

Back against the wall- are the meter readings on your bills from npower actual reads or estimates it could be something as simple as them over estimating consumption if they have been estimating.

Also it is worthwhile getting an energy consumption monitor your supplier may have them to send you or you can pick them up quite cheaply so you can see how much appliances use and for example can check usage with appliances on for say an hour and see how much the meter goes up and then for an hour off the consumption meter will tell you how many kwh the item you are testing uses.

Or you can contact your supplier to ask them to get an engineer to site to confirm the meter they have on record does supply your property ..useful for say flats ...if the meter is in your property check the details on the meter and tag against what the supplier hold.