Help: Energy leak, massive bill!

jimmynostrils

Hi all - this is my first time posting so apologies in advance for any etiquette faux-pas.

In short, I'm trying to help my parents (in their 70s) who appear to have a problem with their electrics that has led to their meter readings going off the charts over the past four-five months (to the tune of several thousand, I think).

We've only just identified this, so apologies some of the details are a bit sketchy.

The situation is:

Have lived in same (big) house in Scotland for 20 years - energy bill for last few years been circa £1200 a year. It's a big house, but it's just the two of them most of the time.

In July / August of 2013 they got a new meter installed by energy company. All seemed fine. In September they had an electrical fault in one of the rooms, an electrician came out, seemed to fix fault, but made vague comment about negative polarity (sorry, neither father or I technical, and I just heard about comment now).

In January, my Dad calls the energy company to give them the reading - they say he must have made a mistake, and that the consumption level was impossible based on past performance (he has the recorded amount for this). He's told to call back in four weeks with a new reading, but in the end he doesn't check again for six weeks (for various readings). When he does, he notices the meter is whirring round something crazy, he calls the electrician out, he agrees something is wrong and effectively isolates the circuit (leaving a third of house without power) and is coming back to do full check tomorrow.

Where my parents are very, very worried, however, is based on my Dad's calculations, if the energy has indeed been leaking through some sort of fault, then they could owe as much as £7,000 over that four / five month period.

Obviously the next step is to get the problem addressed and call the energy company (which he's planning on doing tomorrow night), but they're very worried and I am trying to find out if they are liable to meet these costs.

Seems crazy that A) Energy company hasn't alerted them, given long track record and They didn't red flag the account when my Dad called in the super high reading.

Any ideas where they stand? I know the detail is important, so will get that off them, but in principle: If something goes wrong like that with your electricity, and you're not alerted by the energy company (and indeed you report the reading), do you have to pay for the consumption?

Thanks so much for any helpful advice

Jimmy

WestonDave

Firstly the energy company will not have any way of knowing what is going on until your parents give them meter readings - it would appear from your text that on the first occasion they gave an abnormal reading this was questioned and pointed out to them which gave them an opportunity to check.

In terms of paying for it, it depends on what is causing the problem - if the meter fitting was faulty (which seems unlikely if the problem is isolated to one of a number of circuits running from that meter) then the energy company would not be able to collect the charges. If however (as seems more likely) the electrician did something odd, then your parents would have to pay for the electricity used albeit there may be a case for recovering that from the electrician.

In principle on the basis of what you've disclosed so far I would say they are likely to have to pay as I'm struggling to see how the energy co are at fault - you complain they didn't alert your parents but your text shows they did raise a query at the first opportunity and its not their fault your Dad just sat on it for 6 weeks rather than double checking the figures and monitoring the meter.

Ich_2

but made vague comment about negative polarity

That needs checking properly by a competent electrician as to where it is and rectifying ASAP

It's probably worth them also checking the property actually has a good viable earth as well.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Firstly energy cannot 'leak', indeed Albert Einstein stated 'energy cannot be destroyed'. If it is being 'used' it would manifest itself as heat; and even a kW or so would be noticeable, let alone the many thousands of kWh that are untraced.


Your parents either have a faulty meter, or the meter has been misread now, or at an earlier time.


It is also possible that meter readings have been under-estimated and this is a catch-up bill.


£1,200 pa for a big house in Scotland with(presumably) electric heating is extremely low. Lower indeed than the average bill in UK for properties with(much cheaper) gas central heating.


Many houses in Scotland have different forms of tariff with off-peak electricity for storage heating.


Do your parents have Storage heating?