Moved House - massively reduced electricity cost

ripplyuk

I moved in at the beginning of July and put £20 on the prepayment meter. I've checked it regularly and I can't believe how little it's using. It still has about £3 left from the first top up. I thought it might be some sort of technical fault so I topped it up by another £20 last Friday but it's still not using any more.

It says my average monthly use is £8.76. In the previous house, my average bill was about £30. The only difference I can think of with my usage is that this new house doesn't have an electric shower and the old house did. Could that account for this difference? I am very thrifty with electric, everything turned off at the mains etc, and it's only me in the house but this seems very cheap.

The other possibility is that I was paying for my old landlords electricity as well as my own. There was an engineer out reading the meter once and when he looked at it, he told me that my landlord was taking electric off it (landlord worked in the yard adjacent to my house). I could see the wire he was talking about. He told me the landlord could be in a whole heap of trouble but I spoke to him and he assured me that this wasn't the case. As my bills seemed average, I believed him.

The only reason I'm asking is that I'm worried if the meter is faulty in some way, then I'll someday have a huge bill to pay back.

[Deleted User]

Sounds to me like its bypassed under the lower cover.Standing charges alone would take up approx £1.80 a week .
Sounds also a bit of a wind up, of course bits of wire sticking out is highly suspicious and also dangerous.Don t be coming on here bragging about free electric, get phoning customer services and do your duty and report it. "E.ngineer " is a loose term for a meter reader, most of them have little idea about energy theft and the suppliers have drummed into us by their laxity that its no big deal to thieve energy.
Yes you will have to pay it all back because you are now using electricity without paying for it and you know you are.Cust services is your next stop, freephone so theres no excuse

ripplyuk

It is two different houses that I'm referring to.

There's no standing charge on my tariff. There's also no 'wires sticking out'. Everything around the meter looks perfectly normal. If you're referring to the meter at the old house, I can't see why customer services would care if I was paying for my landlords electric. It's not a 'wind up' and no one's 'bragging'.

I know in the old house I was using much more electricity as it was a bigger house. The new house is small. I've no cooker yet and I know they use a lot, and no electric shower. The fridge is also brand new A++ rated and the one in the old house wasn't. I also haven't been using the tumble dryer at all since I moved in. I'm wondering if these things can account for the difference.

victor2

With no electric shower and no cooker, your electricity usage will be very low. How do you heat your water? If that is by gas then electricity is only driving your energy efficient fridge and other low usage devices like lights, TV, computers etc. Being summer, you probably aren't even using the lights much, and they are most likely to be energy efficient bulbs as well.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. You are currently using a very small amount. Enjoy it, it will go up!

[Deleted User]

So you are with Ebico are you ? The only company I know to do a NSC charge tariff in the UK, extremely high tariffs and not suitable for most except the lowest users .If not, then the prepay meter is bypassed under the lower cover. No wires would show if its done cleverly. You say the landlord was somehow extracting electricity via your old meter (prepay ?) from the other house. The landlord would not add wires directly to your meter and run his needs from that.He would bypass it and then simply run an extension lead from any socket. That meter would be bypassed. So can you confirm that you are with Ebico at your new house ? because your usage equates with just the weekly standing charges which even if it meter is bypassed it would still need to be paid. As a check, if the red light stays on , no blinking, when electric is used, then the meter is illegally bypassed and you would be liable for an estimated repayment .

HappyMJ

ripplyuk wrote: »

I moved in at the beginning of July and put £20 on the prepayment meter. I've checked it regularly and I can't believe how little it's using. It still has about £3 left from the first top up. I thought it might be some sort of technical fault so I topped it up by another £20 last Friday but it's still not using any more.

It says my average monthly use is £8.76. In the previous house, my average bill was about £30. The only difference I can think of with my usage is that this new house doesn't have an electric shower and the old house did. Could that account for this difference? I am very thrifty with electric, everything turned off at the mains etc, and it's only me in the house but this seems very cheap.

The other possibility is that I was paying for my old landlords electricity as well as my own. There was an engineer out reading the meter once and when he looked at it, he told me that my landlord was taking electric off it (landlord worked in the yard adjacent to my house). I could see the wire he was talking about. He told me the landlord could be in a whole heap of trouble but I spoke to him and he assured me that this wasn't the case. As my bills seemed average, I believed him.

The only reason I'm asking is that I'm worried if the meter is faulty in some way, then I'll someday have a huge bill to pay back.

£17 for 1.5 months. Summer. Not using much. Let's say Ebico. My region it's 16.55p/kWh. £17 would get you a little more than 100kWh divided by let's say 6 weeks is 17kWh per week. Quite normal for this time of year.

I use 20kWh per week when the heating is not running.

lstar337

HappyMJ wrote: »

I use 20kWh per week when the heating is not running.

Same here, so it is possible.

It might be worth asking your supplier to have the meter checked anyway. Explain that it is a new meter to you, and the usage is very low, and that you would like assurance that the previous owners have not bypassed it and left it in an unsafe state.

ripplyuk

I'm with Budget Energy, paying 14.5p per kWh. The heating and hot water is all through oil, as there's no gas here. All the lights are energy efficient bulbs.

It's good to here that other people use very little at this time of year. I've just got a card from someone calling round to read the meter but I was out. If they come back, maybe they'll be able to have a look and tell me if everything looks normal at the meter.

lstar337

ripplyuk wrote: »

I've just got a card from someone calling round to read the meter but I was out. If they come back, maybe they'll be able to have a look and tell me if everything looks normal at the meter.

Good idea, but I doubt they will be back.

[Deleted User]

Looks like your leccy prepay meter in Northern Ireland are way ahead of the rubbish prepay key meters we have in the the rest of the UK and be assured its highly unlikely to be got at and tampered being a semi smart meter with a keypad online top up. No standing charges and a tariff of 14.5 p/kwhr are nt bad neither. Apologies for my earlier suspicions of a fiddle in place , but I m used to finding all sorts of scams and fiddles on the key meters we have which are childs play to bypass

ripplyuk

No problem sacsquacco. I didn't know we had different keypads to the rest of the U.K. I've never had one before but I really like all the features it has on it. The online top up is very handy too.

The guy from the electric company did come back. I told him what I was concerned about and asked him to check it. He said its fine, there's no problem with it. I got the feeling he thought I was a bit paranoid but I just like to be sure everything's ok. He spent some time explaining how it all works, and the different parts etc.

I think I'll just monitor it from now on. No doubt it'll go up once I get a cooker etc, so for now, I'll just be glad it's not costing much.