Who is responsible for this electricity bill?

candypanda

Hiya
We rent a house and have been here for 18 months. we have been with npower this whole time and have given readings every 2 months. We are leaving Npower now to move to british gas, and they have decided to send us a bill saying we are in debit of £800 because we have used 8000 kw in the last 7 months. We haven't had any new appliances.

To find out what it was that was using all the electric, we turned everything off and watched the meter as we turned things on and off. We found that the lights are causing the meter wheel thing to turn around seriously fast. It does 1 rotation in 40 seconds with nothing on, when the lights are on it does 1 rotation in 8 seconds. Even with our dryer on it does 1 rotation in 35 seconds. The lights are halogen spotlights, I know these use a lot of electric but £110 per month?? No chance!

Our roof has leaked in several times over the last year and each time the landlord himself has been up there messing about. Something is clearly not right with these lights, I don't know if the leaking in could have affected it.

I'm bringing in an electrician this week to write a report on what's going on so I can take it to the estate agents/our landlord. If there's a fault with the electrics, who has to pay this bill?? We've been giving meter readings and Npower never wrote to us to tell us we needed to increase the direct debit. But the amount of electric being used by the lights cannot be right! The meter readings are accurate though and all match up.

Where do we stand? We're getting married next month and I don't know what to do we can't afford to pay £800 and I don't really want to because someone is at fault here but i don't know who.

Thank you for any information, it is greatly appreciated.

macman

The bill is your and yours alone, assuming the reads and billing are correct. Any dispute between you and the LL over the wiring is a 3rd party issue, and one that Npower are not concerned with. So you'll need to pay the bill and discuss it with him,
How many halogen lights are involved, at what wattage, and for how many hours per day?
If you have gas CH and DHW, then your typical leccy usage would be around 3,400kWh per year, so something is seriously awry. Why don't you post your annual usage rather than the last 7 months? If you heat or produce hot water via electricity, your usage will of course be much higher.

candypanda

Sorry I didn't clarify; I know I need to pay Npower I meant whether I needed to take it out of my money or take it from the LL.

We have 15 50 watt bulbs, and I'd say 7 of them are on for about 12 hours a day because we have a cat that goes insane if the landing lights aren't on. The rest are on about 5 hours a day. I used a calculator online for electricity usage and just worked out if I had them on constantly it shouldn't cost more than £44 a month. So even with other appliances maybe £60 a month? But not £110 !

The annual usage they've sent is 7,000kw

spiro

candypanda wrote: »

To find out what it was that was using all the electric, we turned everything off and watched the meter as we turned things on and off. We found that the lights are causing the meter wheel thing to turn around seriously fast. It does 1 rotation in 40 seconds with nothing on, when the lights are on it does 1 rotation in 8 seconds. Even with our dryer on it does 1 rotation in 35 seconds. The lights are halogen spotlights, I know these use a lot of electric but £110 per month?? No chance!

I have an old Sangamo S200.16 meter and it is stamped 250 rev/kwh. Based on that if your meter disc is rotating every 8 seconds with only the lamps on that means 1kwh is 8 sec * 250 = 2000sec or every 33.3 minutes. That basically means they are using 2kwh, that is the same as having a 2 bar electric fire on. In terms of your DD, suppliers typically only review every 6 or 12 months.

Cardew

candypanda wrote: »

Sorry I didn't clarify; I know I need to pay Npower I meant whether I needed to take it out of my money or take it from the LL.

We have 15 50 watt bulbs, and I'd say 7 of them are on for about 12 hours a day because we have a cat that goes insane if the landing lights aren't on. The rest are on about 5 hours a day. I used a calculator online for electricity usage and just worked out if I had them on constantly it shouldn't cost more than £44 a month. So even with other appliances maybe £60 a month? But not £110 !

The annual usage they've sent is 7,000kw

I don't know how you calculated 'if I had them on constantly it shouldn't cost more than £44 a month'

15 x 50 watt bulbs will use 0.75kWh an hour. So left on constantly 18kWh a day - thus 540kWh a 30 day month. 540kWh for £44 is cheap electricity.


With your use of 7 lights for 12 hours and 15 for 5 hours(which is what I think you are saying) will use 7.95kWh a day.


So out of the 7,000kWh pa annual usage, your lights will account for 2,900kWh, leaving 4,100kWh for other electrical use; which isn't excessive.

spiro

Cardew wrote: »

I don't know how you calculated 'if I had them on constantly it shouldn't cost more than £44 a month'With your use of 7 lights for 12 hours and 15 for 5 hours(which is what I think you are saying) will use 7.95kWh a day.

Based on this assumption you are spending about £1.16/day or £34.82/month. Running them 24/7 would cost £78.84 based on you paying NPower 14.6p/kwh. Re the cat, turn them off every night and it will get used to it or get a childs plug in night light.

macman

candypanda wrote: »

Sorry I didn't clarify; I know I need to pay Npower I meant whether I needed to take it out of my money or take it from the LL.

We have 15 50 watt bulbs, and I'd say 7 of them are on for about 12 hours a day because we have a cat that goes insane if the landing lights aren't on. The rest are on about 5 hours a day. I used a calculator online for electricity usage and just worked out if I had them on constantly it shouldn't cost more than £44 a month. So even with other appliances maybe £60 a month? But not £110 !

The annual usage they've sent is 7,000kw

Well in that case, how can you have used 8,000 kWh in the last 7 months? Which is correct?
I agree with the above calculation, about 2,900kWh pa is solely due to these lights. So that's approx £350pa for lights for your cat! Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a decent cat pyschiatrist (or maybe just fit LED's instead)? Any money you spend on an electrician's report will be a complete waste of money in view of these figures, as your usage is otherwise normal. The remedy is in your own hands.
You aren't understanding the DD amount properly. You are not using £110 per month-a large part of that £110 is to clear the £800 debt. For example. if that's set to clear in 12 months, you'll be paying an extra £66pm in arrears, over and above your 'normal' consumption, which on 7,000kWh pa would be around £70pm. So by my reckoning, and assuming a 12m payback, your DD should be nearer £136 than £110.
I think you need to reconsider that discussion with your LL.