Think i am being overcharged by Scottish Power

molerat

As Cardew has posted that gas figure is meter units and adding your kWh figures I make your use around 25000 from Jul 12 to Jul 13. To put that into perspective I am a "high user" and use around 23000 pa keeping my 3 bed detached in N Scotland toasty, your use is way off the scale.

You need to find which meters actually belong to you, it is quite common for meters to be muddled in flats. You will need one person in the flat and one by the meters. In the flat turn all gas appliances on full blast and then turn off, your meter will start running and stopping accordingly. Do the same with a high use electric device, kettle or electric heater etc, the meter will react accordingly. Hopefully you will be able to identify your meters. Check that the serial numbers on the meters are the same as on the bills.

Next, when the flats are occupied and busy, around sunday lunchtime would be good, you need to turn off all your gas appliances and see if the meter moves at all. With the electric flick the main switch in the flat off and again check the meter. This will hopefully show if someone else is tapped into your supplies.

You also need to give monthly accurate readings to SP to give a true reflection of your use and to stop the low estimates and eventual catch up bills.

Digitalfaze

Thank you molerat,

i will get this checked tomorrow or the weekend, is there anything that can be done about these huge bills as i still see it unfare if we are getting these bills when we cant possibly be using that power? the meter is also due to be replaced but nobody has arrived to put it in place yet

molerat

You need to prove that you are not using the energy. The starting point is to confirm your meters and then take regular reads. The energy companies do very little to help in these situations so the majority of the legwork will be down to you.

macman

Back to basics: OP is your gas meter metric or imperial? It's marked on the front, cu m or 100's cu ft.
Until you know that you cannot check if your gas bills are correctly converted from meter units (volume) to energy units (kWh).

molerat

Picking apart the figures in the first post shows metric billing, I hope it is not an imperial meter :eek:

30/04/13 - 13/06/13 - 45 - 836 - 19 - 2316 -51

20/06/13 - start = 21253 (estimated 30/4/13) end = 21461 (actual 14/6/13)

Wywth

Digitalfaze wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, we cant get into the basement as there is asbestos warnings where the meters are, ...

There's nothing wrong with asbestos unless in fiberous/dust form

If it's solid and not disturbed, there is nothing wrong with it. I know someone who has an asbestos garage and uses it every day and has done so for the past 50 odd years!

If the asbestos is really considered in a dangewrous condition it should be arranged to be removed by the LL/managing agent.
How will you isolate the supply in case of emergency if the meters are in a dangerous location to access? How do you think a meter reader could ever read the meters? Where did your annual usage figures come from???

All sounds a bit Corporal Jones to me ... :cool:

Digitalfaze

Wywth wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with asbestos unless in fiberous/dust form

If it's solid and not disturbed, there is nothing wrong with it. I know someone who has an asbestos garage and uses it every day and has done so for the past 50 odd years!

If the asbestos is really considered in a dangewrous condition it should be arranged to be removed by the LL/managing agent.
How will you isolate the supply in case of emergency if the meters are in a dangerous location to access? How do you think a meter reader could ever read the meters? Where did your annual usage figures come from???

All sounds a bit Corporal Jones to me ... :cool:

I dont know what you mean by "corporal jones"? i understand about asbestos but the signs on the door from the management company imples they are dealing with the situation, how do i know the asbestos is solid and work has not already comenced?

I also dont know what mean by isolatind the supply?

Digitalfaze

I have been down to the meters today and got soem info and also swiched everything off in my house and the meters stopped so i dont think anyone is tapping my meters, my fiance went down 4 days ago and took readings, the meters are not imperial.

gas is: qmax=6m3/h pmax=75mbar
electric is kwh

The latest meter readings:

19/07/13 gas=21503 electric=5268
23/07/13 gas=21507 electric=5319

the meters were fitted in:

gas - 1996
elec - 1997

molerat

The gas seems quite average over the past month or so, 1.3 m3 per day, maybe a bit high but nothing to worry about. Is your boiler a combi or do you have a tank of hot water ? The electric is 15 kwh per day, that is high, 1.5 -2 times the average and is consistent since the March actual read. What are you using - tumble driers, heaters, heat lamps ? Have you got an immersion heater that is on all of the time maybe ?

Wolf3

doing a quick calculation based on your current reads and estimated reads from a year ago i'd suggest your electric usage to be 6744 kWh and gas usage 26456 kWh. Going on comparison figures as a guideline you would be paying £960 per year for electric and £1180 for your gas on a Standard tariff without discounts.

Going off OFGEM guidelines of 3300 kWh electric and 16000 kWh gas you can see your energy usage is quite large for a 2 bed flat. Whilst its reasonably high usage its not unheard of and last years weather certainly made most people use a fair amount of energy.

You say your on a fixed price tariff till next year, did you sign up to this before last years price rises or afterwards.