Electricity Meter readings unusually high?

London33

Hi there,
I'm on an Economy 7 meter with EDF and regularly do my own meter readings to upload to their site. They sent me an email last week asking me to do an additional meter reading which I found unusual. However on checking, the meter is showing that I have used three times more electricity (on the day rate) in the past three weeks than I used in the period of 15 January to 21 March. I phoned them and they have suggested I keep an eye on it.
From January to March, with lights on constantly plus electric heating on occasionally, plus constant cups of tea, I used 69 units. I was away for two weeks in March though.
From 23 March to 15 April I have apparently used 169 units! I have no new electrical appliances plugged in and I believe my usage should be less due to lack of heating and less usage of lights.
I monitored it last week and in three days I used 6 units. Before this time I have unplugged everything bar the fridge. It still seems alot compare to winter, right? I did not use the washing machine in this time, use a hairdryer (mine broke!!)and only used the kettle once a day.
When I called EDF and they said they could send someone out but it was more likely something plugged in at my end and if they were to send someone and there was no issue with the meter then there was a charge.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what it could be? I'm out of the house for the majority of the day (7am-7pm). Also, I live alone so know exactly what is used!
Should I bite the bullet and pay for someone to come out?
Thanks for reading!

macman

If you are on E7, it is assumed that you have NSH's and an immersion heater? Therefore all your heating and hot water should be on night rate (unless you boost the hot water on day rate). So whether the heating is on or off should make no difference to your day rate usage at all. (If you are using some other form of electric heating as a backup on day rate then that's crazy, as it is costing you about 350% more than the cheap rate).
But 69 units on day rate in five weeks is incredibly low usage-that's barely £8 per month. However, since you were away for two weeks of the five, it's not unreasonable to suppose that your usage would be 2/5ths lower than normal. So maybe project that as 120 kWh? 169kWh (assuming your reads and calculations are accurate) over 3 weeks is certainly higher, but still very low usage-and it includes the Easter holiday when you presumably were not at work.
There's no evidence that you have a meter issue, and wasting maybe £60+ on a meter test is not justified.
Have you perhaps been boosting the immersion meter on peak rate more often?

footyguy

London33 wrote: »

Hi there,
I'm on an Economy 7 meter with EDF and regularly do my own meter readings to upload to their site. They sent me an email last week asking me to do an additional meter reading which I found unusual. However on checking, the meter is showing that I have used three times more electricity (on the day rate) in the past three weeks than I used in the period of 15 January to 21 March. I phoned them and they have suggested I keep an eye on it.
From January to March, with lights on constantly plus electric heating on occasionally, plus constant cups of tea, I used 69 units. I was away for two weeks in March though.
From 23 March to 15 April I have apparently used 169 units! I have no new electrical appliances plugged in and I believe my usage should be less due to lack of heating and less usage of lights.
I monitored it last week and in three days I used 6 units. Before this time I have unplugged everything bar the fridge. It still seems alot compare to winter, right? I did not use the washing machine in this time, use a hairdryer (mine broke!!)and only used the kettle once a day.
When I called EDF and they said they could send someone out but it was more likely something plugged in at my end and if they were to send someone and there was no issue with the meter then there was a charge.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what it could be? I'm out of the house for the majority of the day (7am-7pm). Also, I live alone so know exactly what is used!
Should I bite the bullet and pay for someone to come out?
Thanks for reading!

Have you considered using an Owl type monitor to try and understand how much electricity you are using and when?

Try your library. Some people have suggested they can be borrowed for free for a short period, although my local library only has the plug-in type of monitor for single sockets.

mattcanary

Maybe the timeswitch on your meter (this controls the hours in which you are charged cheaper electricity) ha sbroken?
This may mean that some (or all) of the electricity used in the night time would be getting billed on the expensive day rate.

[Deleted User]

The older analogue 24 hr circular timer switches are frequently not set at the correct time or anywhere near it. I would nt classify that as "broken " as its a good thing if the user is aware of it ,pushing the cheap rate into a more usable time slot The pointer at the bottom shows the time it thinks it is with two other pointers with on /off show the cheap 7 hrs time slot. Electric meters with their built in timers and radio teleswitch timers are usually more or less correct

good_advice

Hi, I do not think 6 KWh in 3 days is that high.
You did not have the washing machine on. How about the oven? hob?

I think our items that use the most electric is the washing machine and oven.