NPOWER Meter Reading Mistake....?

[Deleted User]

Good day all, I've taken to joining the forum to post a query that's been causing me some anxiety for a few months now.

I live in a small one bedroom flat and have my electricity provided via NPOWER. I'm on a *really* old tariff from many a moon ago (a standard economy 7 tariff for elecricity only) and to press my bills have been quite low - the six months up until June of this year I paid £27 per month and the six months prior to that I paid £21 per month.

In June I got a bill saying my monthly direct debit had gone up to circa £80 :eek:. Given that my personal circumstances hadn't changed I was surprised to say the least. In the bill it said I could pay a lump sum amount of circa £180 there and then to lower it to £54 so I took this option as I struggled to understand what was going on and I didn't fancy a monthly increased of 300%!

I was convinced though in the weeks that followed that an error had being made so I took to reading my meter and noting the readings on a weekly basis - usually taking the readings at the weekend. My digital meter gives three readings - a 1) for the night rate, a 2) for the day or 'normal' rate and a T) which I believe is a total of the two (I found this from a quick Google).

Today I logged into the NPOWER website and tried to enter a manual reading - it gave me an error when entering the day rate saying it was not as expected when compared to my usage pattern - it also told me the previous reading from June of this year - a number *very* similar to the T or total rate I'd recorded over the past weeks and months - it was also higher than the reading I was trying to enter which leads me to believe that whoever read my meter may have taken this number by mistake when trying to take the day rate.

Explains why the usage patterns on the NPOWER website say my usage for the first part of this year was 400% higher than last year!

I've reported this to NPOWER who are sending an engineer to check the meter in three weeks time...

Apologies for the lengthy post... I just wanted to share this as it's been getting to me for some time.

[Deleted User]

this is the usual " can t tell day from night " on your meter, either by you , or more likely the meter readers. Are you sure that rate 1 is the night rate.? most modern digital meters rate 1 is used as the day rate. Double check by seeing which rate advances in the eco 7 hours. Many digital meters, ones with a button to scroll through, now default to showing the rate in progress.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I would be astonished, however small your property is, if you could heat and power it for £27/m=£324 p.a.