Disputed Electricity bill...

molerat

Are the meters in a communal cupboard - mixed up meters
Check day and night reads are correct way round - switch on a high wattage item and the appropriate dial should show use.
Immersion heater for heating water in summer ?
Why E7 when gas heating ? - generally cheaper on single tariff.

Switch off the main switch on your consumer unit when it is dark and see if the meter increments - crossed meter
...or someone else in the block screams - you are paying for their electric

Knight_Templar

No, we have no air con during the summer months, or solar panels... there's nothing that we use during the summer months that we don't use during the winter months.

When I discussed this with the supplier they had a look back through meter readings dating back three years (prior to us moving in) and it appears that during the winter months (using Nov-Jan) we use on average 10 units of electricity per day (about average for this size flat) but during the summer months (taking May-Nov) we use an average of 23 units per day... peaking at around 28 units... and so far no one can shed any light on why that might be.

JimmyTheWig

Outdoor heated swimming pool?

Knight_Templar

The electric meter is in a separate cupboard and we're sure that the readings are the right way around... I take your point about the water heating, but if anything I'd say we were more likely to use MORE hot water for baths etc during the winter months that the summer.

Knight_Templar

That would be nice JimmyTheWig... but alas no, no heated swimming pool! lol

Wywth

Knight_Templar wrote: »

We recently got our statement from my utilities supplier stating that we're more than £500 in arrears, baring in mind we live in a small two bed flat and we've only been here for 10 months we decided to question the figures.

After many phone calls and lots of long discussions we discovered that for some strange reason, according to the engineers meter readings our electricity usage more than doubles during the summer months (and according to their records this pattern has been going in for the last three years at least)... neither we nor the energy company in question can suggest a reason WHY this might be.

If anyone out there has ANY idea why this might be happening I'd LOVE to hear from you.

I don't know.

I don't know why you use more electricity in the summer.

And I don't know why you are "more than £500 in arrears, baring in mind we live in a small two bed flat and we've only been here for 10 months"

Have you not paid for any electricity yet??? :cool:

Knight_Templar

Hi Wywth, we've been paying, by direct debit, the amount which we originally agreed with the supplier was the average amount usage for a property of this size... and have been paying it for the last 10 months... they are saying that this previously agreed amount is around £55 a month short of what the meter is saying we use... problem is we don't know WHY the meter is saying that.

dogshome

As already posted, with Gas CH& Hot Water it is questionable that you should have an ECO 7 meter, unless that is your supplier is adding it's 2 readings together and chargeing you as though you have a standard meter.

However, as the ECO7 meter will still be recording the Day & Night use seperately, it would be worth keeping a daily record of the Day & Night readings to see if all this extra power is being consumed during the day, the night, or both

Checking the meter
1)Establish that the meter number printed on your bill matches that on the actual meter.
2)Switch off everything in the flat and check that the meter has stopped completely.
3)Useing mobile phones with everything off, stand by the meter whilst a mate/partner plugs in a kettle and keeps switching it on and off - the meter should show the consumption in synch. with the kettle switching
4) Still with all off, take a meter reading and plug in a Fan heater with a known rating 1000 or 2000 watts, run it for an hour and check the meter, which should have used
exactly One or Two units respectively

MAYAN65

do you have the reads from when you moved in?
does your meter have a day/night/total?

are all your billed reads actual? the summer spike could actually be down to a low estimate coming out of winter.
i know you have an E7 meter but do you need it?

A check meter or standard load test can cost over 100 and if im honest faulty meters are few and far between(im not saying yours isnt)