Excessive electric bill from Npower

MarkTT_2

Here's the start of a long story...

Me and my other half bought our first house 18 months ago, its a brand new 2bed Coach house which is all electric.

Our fisrt bill was from EDF, £375 for the quarter. Not knowing any better we just paid it and put the expense down to us being all electric.

We then changed via Uswitch to Npower, which *should* have been cheaper.
We were paying £40 a month by DD, then received a quaterly bill, still owing over £200.

Again we just paid this and increased our DD and made sure we used as little electric as possible. By now our savings were being used to pay the electricity bill. We contacted Npower about the unusually high amounts, who just told us to contact the Energy Efficiency helpline to help reduce our bills. Subsequent bills come through around £300 a quarter based on my own meter readings which we pay.

Now we have received a bill for £455 for the last quarter. We have spent what savings we had on the bills and have no money to pay this one.

We are adamant that there is something wrong here.. The readings they are basing the bill on are my own readings taken from the meter, so can't argue they are incorrect.

The units I've used on the latest quarter bill are 2113 day and 4392 night.

Surely this is excessive!?
We both work full-time so only home evenings and weekends. Electric panel heaters are thermostatically controlled and only on for a max of 5 hours a day during winter, never used in summer. All appliances are brand new, including LCD TV, water boiler, we are told by the builders is a super efficient one, and nothing is ever left switched on overnight or when we are not there. Washing machine gets used twice on a Sunday afternoon.

Our neighbours in the apartment opposite get billed only £120 a qtr and use the same appliances given to us from builders.

I've tried contacting Npower about this but not getting anywhere.

I can only put this down to being a faulty meter, faulty wiring when the place was built, or someone pinching my supply!?? How can I prove its wrong and get my money back??

Regards,

Mark.

tripled

I hope you aren't using those electric heaters in the day time.

To test your meter, you need to turn everything off, plug in something which you know how much it uses every hour such as an electric fire, and leave it for 60 minutes to see how much has been used on your meter.

nPower will test your meter for you, but if they find there is nothing wrong with it most suppliers will charge you around 60 quid for the priviliege.

Cardew

For a winter quarter 2113 day and 4392 night units is not excessive for an all electric house IMO. In fact you have done well to use 68% at night rates.

What rates are you paying for Tier1, Tier2 and night? The prices for Economy 7 tariffs vary tremendously according area and company.

Inactive

MarkTT wrote: »

Washing machine gets used twice on a Sunday afternoon.


Mark.

You would save by using a time switch for your WM to come on overnight at low rate.

roses

Why is that doing well consdiering 68% is used at night rates? If everyone is at work during the day then surely it's normal to have a significant amount as night rates?

Cardew

roses wrote: »

Why is that doing well consdiering 68% is used at night rates? If everyone is at work during the day then surely it's normal to have a significant amount as night rates?

Many people on this forum find that storage heating 'runs out' of heat in the evenings and they top up at daytime rates. There is also the weekends when most people don't work.

Also even working people are normally home by 6pm so they use daytime electricity for 6 or 7 hours until Economy 7 rates start.

That is why IMO a ratio of 68%/32% night/day rates is good.

goldmercury

having a similar problem.

I remember someone posting a link to a device that tests your appliances and tells you how much juice they are eating up anyone know what the device is called?

Cardew

goldmercury wrote: »

having a similar problem.

I remember someone posting a link to a device that tests your appliances and tells you how much juice they are eating up anyone know what the device is called?

Maplins/Lidll etc sell power measuring meters - they were about £14/£6.

They work for anything that plugs into a socket.

Don't be conned into buying an Electrisave(£60-£70) as these just measure the instant reading for the whole house and are useless for anything with a thermostat or consuming variable power - which is most appliances and electrical equipment.

The cheaper meter measures cumalative power consumed. e.g. plug in your fridge/freezer for, say, a week and it will tell you how much power in kWhs(units) it has used.

The electrisave will only tell you what power the compressor is using at the time it is running - but 90+% of the time it is not running.