Over 13000 units of electricity.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

touche, I was ignoring the tenths.

lstar337

OP, ask to have your meter investigated and swapped. It doesn't seem to be able to take reliable readings any more and has clearly been wrong for some time.

Ask if once you have a new meter they can estimate your back usage based on readings on the new meter.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I think the mistake has been made by OP, as Jan reading of 66445 was done meter reader, OP seems to be misreading meter by 10,000 units.

The actual reading of 69877 seems more in line.

OP, maybe this will help.

• Read the dials from left to right starting with the dial marked 10,000. Do not read the dial marked 1/10
• If the pointer on a dial is between two numbers, write down the lower number. This may not be the number nearest to the pointer
• If the pointer is between 0 and 9, use 9
• If the pointer is exactly on a number, write it down and underline it
• If any of the underlined numbers you have written down are followed by a 9, you will need to take one away from the number you’ve underlined
• So the reading for the above example would be 94694.

ratrace

Cor what hard work just to read a meter

i so glad we have a digital one only number are displayed no dials

op - can you find out if it can be replaced with a more modern one it will make your life easy

our whole street had they electric meters replaced a few weeks later then the gas one was also changed

Also want to say i bought the plug in type of of appliance checker/reader was shocked to discover our other freezer which is quite old was using £20 of electric every month and our total electric bill is around £80 it was taking about 1/4 of all energy used

nightswimming

It may actually be easier to read it right to left. If the dial is a low number you know the next dial to the left must just have passed a number. If the dial is a high number you know the next dial has not yet reached the next number. So although your 10000 dial looks like it has passed 7, that can't be true as the previous dial is a 9.

Definitely time for a new meter if the dials have become misaligned.

[Deleted User]

i cant see it that well but its 69877 i ve just had a detached retina op last week and only got one good eye. the first dial seems to have a slightly out of alignment on the 10,000 kwhr pointer, definitely 69877, dont get too fixated on it being past the 7 , the other dials would be out of kilter if it was nt that. I have a photo of the 10,000 pointer appearing to be way past a border from above but when seen from correct viewing angle it then appears to be bang on border

Nada666

There should not be a misread in the first place. It doesn't look 'clearly' past the 7 at all. When the pointer is on/near a number you look at the dial to the right (that is, if you don't just look at your previous reading and use that to make a sensible guess.) The 'correct' reading seems pretty straightforward.

Nada666

[Deleted User] wrote:

it's tricky when pointer is on a number,



this one reads, 60169, some folks would read it as 60279.

Not if they are paying attention. Why would they do that? It doesn't look anything like 60279.

Jonnybegood_2

I can't believe the response i've had from everyone in here with this "predicament". You guys have been brilliant getting to the source of this problem. Now rather than waiting until Sept 6th for the engineer to come, should i ring up asap and ask for the meter to be checked for faults or a replacement?

Thank you all again for your knowledge and help.

nightswimming

I would call straight away and give them the correct meter reading and ask them to generate a new bill. That will solve your main problem of the large bill. Npower are not very good at generating bills though, so it may take a while for them to sort it.

Assuming the January meter read was correct your usage still seems a little on the high side. I would take daily readings for a while and try to see if any of your appliances are using large amounts. I can recommend the Efergy Elite energy monitor, I've had mine a few weeks and it seems to be reasonably accurate. I discovered my old chest freezer was using over 4kWh a day! My nice new one uses less than 1kwh a day and will have paid for itself in 2 years.

Definitely ask about getting the meter checked and hopefully replaced for a nice easy to read one, those dials are complicated enough to read without them being misaligned, but my understanding is there may be a charge if the meter is not actually faulty.

Oh, and it would also be a good idea to check you are on the best tariff for your usage. Electric usage should be fairly constant throughout the year (unless you use it for heating) so you should be able to estimate that once you know what your daily figures are. Gas is harder to estimate yourself but there should be a figure for 12 months usage on your bill. Put those figures into the "Cheap Energy Club" page (link is on the homepage) and it will find the best tariff for you. Npower may block any switch if you owe them money though, so get your bill sorted first!

Good luck!