Npower - Are we being ripped off?

NScarano

Hello everyone,

My partner and I had a recent fright with a bill now totalling £1,362.28 and are hoping if anyone would has any advice to help us.

We moved into a 3 bed house in October last year, and it's all electric and we have underfloor heating in all bedrooms, the living room, dining room, bathroom and kitchen.

At the end of January I went to Uswitch to get us on a cheaper tariff, which happened to be Npower and since this was our previous provider at this address, we just switched tariffs. We were advised by Npower the switch took effect on 01/02.

We have received the first bill with the old tariff from the move in date until 04/02 with an estimated reading, this came to £395.07. As this amount did not sound alarming we did not question anything and simply paid it on 18/02. On 11/04 they've requested a meter reading, which I submitted and waited for the bill. On 14/05 we have received a reminder to pay £827.31. I logged in online to look for bills relating to this amount, and found a bill of £1,293.38 and noticed a few errors on it:

• We were being charged from the move in date until 31/01 with another estimated reading - we had already settled a bill covering this period;
• This time they are charging an extra 5600 kwh under the old tariff compared to the previous bill (day and night combined), and just over 300 kwh under the new tariff;
• We spotted other minor errors between the online bills against those sent through the post likes dates.

There was another bill of £533.24, this time the new tariff has been used to calculate the costs, where the readings go up until those I submitted online on 11/04. Based on these readings it says we have used 5280 kwh over a period of 67 days, that's an average of 79 kwh a day!

Of course this raises the suspicion that the meter is also faulty. So we called Npower to express our concern and they told us to take pictures of the readings for 3 days and make notes of what we use during this period, which we have done, and then call a number which I saw online is what they call the Health Through Warmth team at Npower. We found an e-mail address which we think is a better way to go about this issue so we can track the progress and use it to protect ourselves. We are doing this between today and tomorrow.

I'm assuming the next step once we contact Npower again is for them to get someone to come over and get the meter tested, but since we lost confidence in their accuracy and honesty, I worry that they even if they confirm the meter is faulty, that they might not fix the meter to the current standards. With this in mind I wonder if anyone could help us with the following:

• Has anyone been through a similar situation?
• If so, what steps were taken to resolve it and how long did the process take?
• Should we get a second opinion and get an independent company to test our meter?
• Does anyone know what a typical usage is for a 3 bed house that runs on electricity only?

In our case we have a small dishwasher, a washing machine, fridge/freezer, small freezer, microwave, kettle, toaster, 3 laptops, vacuum cleaner, iron, and a towel rail (in white which is meant to be energy efficient). These things are mostly new, all used within reason and not very often as it's only my partner and I in the house, but we are in most days. I know underfloor heating uses a lot of electricity and is probably what pushes the readings up the most. But when taking the pictures of the meter recently we switched the heating off at night and most of the day and the readings are still between 30 - 42 kwh, which we think are not right.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!
Nicole

undaunted

You may or may not be able to query the billing to some extent but it seems likely to me that your main issue is electric under floor heating throughout the house is going to be expensive whatever tariff you are on.


Work out how many sq m you have and how long each room is on, how well insulated the house is etc etc & you may be able to calculate how likely these bills then seem


Example of a couple of systems claimed running costs http://www.thermogroupuk.com/electric-underfloor-heating-running-costs


http://www.heatmat.co.uk/running-costs

System

Meters are required to comply with National Metering Standards. If you think that your meter is inaccurate then you are entitled to have in checked. The supplier will raise a charge for this check which will be waived if the meter is found to be defective. All that said, my guess is that Occam's Razor should be applied first. You need to check how much your various electrical bits and pieces use. Most libraries have energy monitors that they will let you have use of on loan. Look at the key demands first: underfloor heating, hot water, electric showers etc. You will be surprised how much energy a simple thing like a towel rail can use.

CashStrapped

In addition to the points above. I would just clarify, when you moved in and set up an account with npower, did you give them a meter reading at all? Or did they estimate an opening reading. If it was estimated this could mean you were paying for some of the previous occupants use. This would not have helped your bill, but there is nothing you can really do about it now if this is the case.

However, as per above, the electric underfloor heating will be the main culprit. And your total electric use is certainly an issue (depending on how you calculated it).

You need to take this out of the equation completely by turning it off at the consumer unit/fuse box.

Personally I would start isolating your use over a 24hr period more scientifically. At a specific time of day, say 7:00pm turn off the electric underfloor heating at the consumer unit for 24 hours. Take a note of the meter reading. At 7pm the next day take another meter reading and do the calculation.

Fridge, freezer, tv etc will consume far far less of you total usage.

Also, how are you heating your hot water? Do you have the immersion on 24/7 maintaining water temperature? Is the tank well insulated? What is the immersion temperature set at? Does it have a timer?

Basically, heating and hot water are the biggest culprits. Isolate these two items and you should get to the root of your usage issues.

You may even want to buy a home energy monitor which will show you a graph of live use. Watching the meter does the same job but it makes it easier for people to monitor use.

edit:- I would also manually calculate the the total bill to date. Do this by taking the earliest meter reading you have up to today's date. Then you can cross check what they have charged to date.

nPower

NScarano wrote: »

Hello everyone,

My partner and I had a recent fright with a bill now totalling £1,362.28 and are hoping if anyone would has any advice to help us.

We moved into a 3 bed house in October last year, and it's all electric and we have underfloor heating in all bedrooms, the living room, dining room, bathroom and kitchen.

At the end of January I went to Uswitch to get us on a cheaper tariff, which happened to be Npower and since this was our previous provider at this address, we just switched tariffs. We were advised by Npower the switch took effect on 01/02.

We have received the first bill with the old tariff from the move in date until 04/02 with an estimated reading, this came to £395.07. As this amount did not sound alarming we did not question anything and simply paid it on 18/02. On 11/04 they've requested a meter reading, which I submitted and waited for the bill. On 14/05 we have received a reminder to pay £827.31. I logged in online to look for bills relating to this amount, and found a bill of £1,293.38 and noticed a few errors on it:

• We were being charged from the move in date until 31/01 with another estimated reading - we had already settled a bill covering this period;
• This time they are charging an extra 5600 kwh under the old tariff compared to the previous bill (day and night combined), and just over 300 kwh under the new tariff;
• We spotted other minor errors between the online bills against those sent through the post likes dates.

There was another bill of £533.24, this time the new tariff has been used to calculate the costs, where the readings go up until those I submitted online on 11/04. Based on these readings it says we have used 5280 kwh over a period of 67 days, that's an average of 79 kwh a day!

Of course this raises the suspicion that the meter is also faulty. So we called Npower to express our concern and they told us to take pictures of the readings for 3 days and make notes of what we use during this period, which we have done, and then call a number which I saw online is what they call the Health Through Warmth team at Npower. We found an e-mail address which we think is a better way to go about this issue so we can track the progress and use it to protect ourselves. We are doing this between today and tomorrow.

I'm assuming the next step once we contact Npower again is for them to get someone to come over and get the meter tested, but since we lost confidence in their accuracy and honesty, I worry that they even if they confirm the meter is faulty, that they might not fix the meter to the current standards. With this in mind I wonder if anyone could help us with the following:

• Has anyone been through a similar situation?
• If so, what steps were taken to resolve it and how long did the process take?
• Should we get a second opinion and get an independent company to test our meter?
• Does anyone know what a typical usage is for a 3 bed house that runs on electricity only?

In our case we have a small dishwasher, a washing machine, fridge/freezer, small freezer, microwave, kettle, toaster, 3 laptops, vacuum cleaner, iron, and a towel rail (in white which is meant to be energy efficient). These things are mostly new, all used within reason and not very often as it's only my partner and I in the house, but we are in most days. I know underfloor heating uses a lot of electricity and is probably what pushes the readings up the most. But when taking the pictures of the meter recently we switched the heating off at night and most of the day and the readings are still between 30 - 42 kwh, which we think are not right.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!
Nicole

Hello NScarano,

Thank you for your post.

I will be more than happy to take a look at your account and billing for you, if you can send over your details in an email to the address on my page.

Thanks
Carmel

NScarano

Thank you CashStrapped ! I will do the tests as you mentioned. The very first meter reading was the actual reading, thanks for bringing this up though. Yes we have an immersion and we were told the tank is a very good one but I don't think it has a timer.

NScarano

Thank you Hengus - I will get the meter tested for sure and test the individual items as suggested.

undaunted

NScarano wrote: »

Thank you CashStrapped ! I will do the tests as you mentioned. The very first meter reading was the actual reading, thanks for bringing this up though. Yes we have an immersion and we were told the tank is a very good one but I don't think it has a timer.

I would have thought it unlikely but if this is the case I'd suggest you get someone in to fit one. Immersion + under floor heating with limited if any control = ridiculously high bills!!!




At this stage I'd be more inclined to follow Cashstrappeds advice than likely waste your money testing what sounds likely to be a perfectly good meter

Robin9

Nicole - I wonder what tariff you are on? E7 or E10

If its E10 that would explain your day time 30-42 units

Also do you heat the unused bedrooms?

CashStrapped

undaunted wrote: »

I would have thought it unlikely but if this is the case I'd suggest you get someone in to fit one.

While a timer is useful anyway, it is not always necessary with an immersion if the hot water tank is a modern and very well insulated.

This is because the immersion has a thermostat, so once the hot water is up to the specified temperature it turns itself off anyway. The well insulated tank will easily maintain that temperature until some water is used. At that point the immersion will turn itself on again for a very short time.

That is why I asked how well insulated the tank is and what temperature it is set as. If it was not well insulated then the immersion may indeed be coming on all the time to maintain temperature.

If the thermostat had broken then the water would usually be coming out scalding.

It is worth working out exactly what is going on though and if the immersion is just on permanently. A hot water tank may look well insulated but a simple jacket may not be enough. It needs to be the really modern type (insulated when manufactured and sealed in a skin).