Absurdly high electricity bill

Ghostbills

Thanks for the advice so far. In that case I'm sure I have the old style meters. The vast majority of my heating is overnight with the economy seven storage heaters. I don't think the timing is off on these, I'm not sure how to check as they are quite old and only have the input/output dials. I'm definitely going to get on a cheaper tariff. Is it possible to switch providers whilst having this debt with npower?

Despite all this I find it incredibly hard to believe this bill is accurate and I've accrued such a debt. It's way higher than my folks five bed! Are meter readings always accurate?

CashStrapped

Can you post all the actual meter readings (not estimated) you have taken and the dates.

I assume you took an actual meter reading around the date you moved in.

Please post them so we can look at the figures ourselves. Also post the exact tariff you are on. Please include the pence per KWH for day and night rate if you are on an E7 tariff.

If you are using over 16000kwh of electricity a year. That is a ludicrous amount to be using.

Before we blame the meter, we need to work out what you really have used and how you operate your set-up.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Ghostbills wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far. In that case I'm sure I have the old style meters. The vast majority of my heating is overnight with the economy seven storage heaters. I don't think the timing is off on these, I'm not sure how to check as they are quite old and only have the input/output dials. I'm definitely going to get on a cheaper tariff. Is it possible to switch providers whilst having this debt with npower?

Despite all this I find it incredibly hard to believe this bill is accurate and I've accrued such a debt. It's way higher than my folks five bed! Are meter readings always accurate?

The distribution of day / night suggests the readings are right, its your use of the day rate that is the issue. 9,000 kW of day rate at x3 the price of night rate is one hell of a day consumption. Your starting point is to :

- get on the cheapest E7 e-tariff
- get on DD with the best discounts
- submit x4 weekly readings in the future
- close the 'damper' output and leave it closed
- never ever use the 'boost' mode
- live within your [now reduced] means

If you can scrape through to the end of May when your heating will drop to zero you can pay the debt over the summer and will have learnt from this lesson. Best of luck.

Haylescom

With mine we hear the rate switch over. At midnight there's a clunk in the meter cupboard. If you have a mains switch on the wall for the storage heater with a red light, that'll come on at midnight too. You can see which rate is moving on the meter as well.
As a point of reference, I live in a 2 bedroom house that's not particularly well-insulated, with my OH. Over the last 12 months we used 2000kWh on the day rate and 5500kWh on the night. All of our washing is done at night which definitely has an impact.

macman

You don't need to switch supplier, the tariff I based my £810 saving on was an nPower E7 fix. nPower E7 Standard tariff is expensive.
You can do that switch online in 5 minutes. Then address the issue of your massive day rate usage. Richie is spot on.

Robin9

macman wrote: »

You don't need to switch supplier, the tariff I based my £810 saving on was an nPower E7 fix. nPower E7 Standard tariff is expensive.
You can do that switch online in 5 minutes. Then address the issue of your massive day rate usage. Richie is spot on.

You can do that switch today.

macman

Post a pic of your meter. If it is an older type with a mechanical timeclock, you will be able to see the current time on it.