High Readings on Electricity Meter

Mr_Manco

Hi just after some feedback please.

We are in a flat with 1 attic bedroom, a living room, an open plan dining room/kitchen area and a further smallish room. We are a mum and dad with 2 young children.

When we moved in a year ago, we were with British Gas and pretty soon got a massive shock with our first bill!

Bill period 21st Sept 2013 to 28th Nov 2013: £245.23

We queried it bearing in mind that although we had the keys to the property we didn't actually properly move in until mid October.

British Gas gave us all the usual technical mumbo jumbo so you come away more confused and none the wiser so just pay up basically. We asked if they could send someone to check if the meter is faulty but they would not and sort of said it was our responsibility to prove this. Our landlady paid her electrician to come and have a look and he could find nothing to make him suspicious of the actual meter.

Our next bill period 29th Nov 2013 to 3rd Feb 2014: £548.78

We contacted British Gas again and they kept saying it's our usage (4460 kwh) and we owe exactly as per the bill. We wondered if there simply must be some mistake somewhere. After much correspondence they finally came back and said the rates were the wrong way round ie day and night. However, they now said this would actually increase the bill. They wrote off the previous bills and came up with a new one:

Bill period 21st Sept 2013 to 19th Feb 2014: £864.20

We cancelled our contract with them and then got a final bill covering period 20th Feb 2014 to 2nd April 2014: £574.48

The only way we could pay this was by instalments which we have been doing ever since as well as now paying our new supplier OVO.

With the new supplier OVO we are paying £38 a month fixed direct debit although we owe more to be made by top up payments.

Everytime I submit the meter readings online OVO flashes up a message saying "That's a high reading, are you sure?"

Well no the answer is we are not sure but what can we do about it? Any advice or help much appreciated, thanks for reading

[Deleted User]

Its an Eco 7 meter I presume so you re an all electric flat. These meters are always getting read the wrong way round and by the sound of it, you at least are paying the correct amount. Are you night storage heating ? and could you tell me what sort of timerswitch is fitted..eg a meter with built in timer, radioteleswitch or an old analogue 24 hour timer.?
The usual advice is to check if any of the readings, start reading included is an estimate and that you are recording the 2 correct readings from a digital meter. Rate 1 and Rate 2 only. not the" T" for total..work out from when the readings advance which is day and night and make sure you know when the cheap rate 7 hours starts as that is half price electric

JJ_Egan

Contact Ovo re your meter readings .

Armorica

Painful as it may be; try taking daily/hourly readings?

Mr_Manco

sacsquacco wrote: »

Its an Eco 7 meter I presume so you re an all electric flat. These meters are always getting read the wrong way round and by the sound of it, you at least are paying the correct amount. Are you night storage heating ? and could you tell me what sort of timerswitch is fitted..eg a meter with built in timer, radioteleswitch or an old analogue 24 hour timer.?
The usual advice is to check if any of the readings, start reading included is an estimate and that you are recording the 2 correct readings from a digital meter. Rate 1 and Rate 2 only. not the" T" for total..work out from when the readings advance which is day and night and make sure you know when the cheap rate 7 hours starts as that is half price electric

Thanks for the reply.
This is the meter we use.

Ampy single phase reporter electric meter.

Not sure what what you mean timerswitch I hope this helps.
The meter is currently reading Rate 2 at 17:48.

We do not use the storage heating, They do not heat very well, When we did turn them on we was using our £1.20PH for not a lot of heat. So last winter we was very very cold. Can't face a other freezing house this year. We only have electric here. We still had huge bills without using any heat.

[Deleted User]

The timerswitch changes the day and night rates.You get 7 hours cheap rate, say 7p a kwhr, and 14 hours day rate, between 16p and 19 p per kwhr. So its important to do as much heavy electric heating in the cheap rate. Night storage heaters are wired in to come on in the night rate only. The usual cheap hours are between 12 midnight and 7.30 am but timerswitchs can be well out of kilter sometimes and you get your cheap 7 hours anywhere within the 24 hrs. The Ampy meter has a built in clock, yours is more or less the right time and rate 2 on that meter will be the day rate. Keep an eye on it and you will see it default to show the night reading around 1 am ish.. As its B.S.T. now the 7 cheap hours moves back an hour,, 1.30 am to 8.30 am approx. British Gas would ve billed you a flat single rate for the 24 hours which as you re not using the night storage would ve been a better bet. In my area BG electric is approx 13 p kwhr. I dont think Ovo can do single rate billing, but worth asking them. If not a new single rate meter is needed ( approx £70 ), then you could go to the cheapest possible electric tariff available.
There is a possibility that former occupiers have got the supplier to bill them single rate only. If your bill details day and night reads at different prices, you are being billed day/night. Eco 7 meters are nice and cheap if the supplier is daft enough to bill you transposed reads.. thats if you re not using night storage.
If you are using an electric fire for your heating you will be paying a lot more than using the night storage heating,, a lot more. It will be all on the expensive day rates. I think its best to get the night storage heaters working well. I see many people who use them, their houses all seem warm. You will halve your bills.