Economy 7 help!

Fl1ghtR1sk

I have just noticed (fixed deal coming to an end so taking notice of such things) that my electricty bills are a bit odd. We have day and night time readings on our meter and are on an economy 7 tarriff. I've just noticed that my night time usage is about 90% of my total bill with the daytime accounting for around 10% (maths genius).

There is no way that this is correct. At night (which I now understand to be probably between midnight and 7 am) we have a few electricals on standby and of course the fridge/freezer etc running but these run all day too along with the oven, lighting, tvs etc. Our heating is all GCH.

I'm panicking that something has gone quite seriously wrong like perhaps our day/night meters having been wired incorrectly.

I presume I need to notify my electricity supplier? Am I going to be liable for the costs of correcting the bills for all the years (I presume) when this has been incorrect?

molerat

Firstly you need to check which is the day and which is the night read. Check which register is advancing during the day. If the readings are reversed they should only back bill for 12 months from the time you noticed as they have had plenty of opportunity to notice the error themselves. With a 10% night use then E7 is probably not economic and you should probably investigate single rate either by change of meter or a supplier that will use combined readings. Changing the meter with your current supplier may make your current predicament go away.

Fl1ghtR1sk

Thanks - seems obvious but that never occurred to me as a way of checking! And 12 months is big relief - we can probably cope with that. My husband thinks that our meter was actually changed not all that long ago (probably around 18 months) so maybe it all went wrong then.

dickieg

I would check the time on your meter, it could be fast or slow, look at this link http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-02-20/which-says-electricity-meter-clocks-showing-wrong-time/