Is my meter faulty

Robin9

I do hope the OP comes back to the forum

jcontest

Alter_ego wrote: »

How did you get the graph for 2016? Perhaps your calendar is ahead of mine.

If you look a bit closer you can see it is shaded.
They put down the "Expected" value. The thing to bear in mind here is that the price they are going to set for you will track near that "Expected" value, as such their historical usage shows them using a lot more than that and there could be a shortfall in the balance next Christmas to cover the cost then.

3,000 kWh of electricity a year doesn't look bad to me as I think the UK average is just over 4k.

Typical UK gas usage is around 15,000 units kWh so I would say that the OP is not to bad off on that either.

There can be a lot of things that use Electricity in standby, some drain nearly as much when in standby as when not in use at all.. Personally I never turn my switches off, but much of that comes from the fact that I hate replacing blown power supplies.
If you think the meter is at fault then the only way to test it is to put another meter in line with it and make sure they have the same reading (or close to it). You CAN get energy monitors but they will generally cost £35-£150, your council MIGHT have a scheme that has them so you can borrow one.
LIke here.
https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/getinvolved/environment/energyefficiency/energy-efficiency-projects/Pages/Energy-monitor-loans.aspx

Dom29

Hi Guys,
Sorry for the late reply.
Im on a monthly DD I was paying £40 per month
im with Npower Your tariff:
Price Fix July 2016 Elec DD
(Ends 31/07/2016)
Here are the reading which i submitted I did miss a couple but when i sent them again they revered as their estimates were crazy.

CashStrapped

Looking at the electricity readings:

From 06/05/15 to 29/02/16 (two confirmed readings) you used 2664 KWH. This is not a full years data (only 299 days). Based on that we can see you used around 8KWH per day (2664/299). So we can estimate that adding another 66 days (a full year) you may use in total (annually) around 3252KWH.

This is around the average usage figures for electric users in the UK.

With regard to gas.

From 07/10/15 to 29/02/16 you used 407 units of gas (gas units are not in KWH, you have to convert them). Again this is also not a full year. Furthermore, gas use drops in summer so it is not as easy to extrapolate. But if we use October to November as a guide for the rest of the year (as it was very mild) we can estimate that you may use annually around 9000KWH in Gas.

This would put you in the bracket of low users.

Use the figures I calculated (Elec 3252KWH and Gas 9000KWH) in a comparison site using your current tariff as a comparison and see how you compare.

What you need to get your head around is that a Direct Debit is not what you actually pay for your gas and electric . It is just an estimate of what your energy company thinks you will use. A DD usually stays the same all year. In summer you overpay and build up a credit. In winter your DD underpays (does not cover your actual bills) but because of the summer overpayment credit, there is enough in the account to cover it. By spring your account should be around 0.

An accurate DD amount relies on regular actual readings. If you do not give them regularly, when you do finally submit them the account will correct itself and you end up in either a credit position (nice if it happens) or a debit. If you are in a debit, your energy company will then put up the DD to try and clear the debt whilst still paying for your current bills.

What you need to concentrate on is what you pay per KWH of gas and electric. To do this you need compare your tariff using a comparison site.

Now you have have rough figures for annual use you can do this.

As your tariff ends in July this year, comparison sites will assume you go on to a standard tariff for comparison. Select the option to compare against your current tariff for the whole year. For my area, based on the KWH usage above, there are tariffs around £180 cheaper. However, that is for my area.

Your tariff does not seem to have exit fees, so you can switch at any time. However, double check yourself.

Good luck!

[Deleted User]

@dom29

At £40pm towards your fuel costs, you have been underpaying each month for your actual fuel used.

As Cashstrapped said, the DD is just a calculated contribution towards the cost of energy used. So now npower need you to

1. Make up the shortfall for the cost of fuel used to date;

2. Increase the amount paid each month going forward to cover your actual cost of energy used.


Hence the large increase as you are now pay for arrears and to cover current use.


Using npower's own figures for this tariff for average gas and electric, this tariff averages out at £951pa, or £79.25pm source here .As your gas usage is lower than average, your fuel costs would be lower but not by £39pm.