Low electricity readings

sjb2016

Hi All,


I've just got a bill from my supplier indicating that we are about £300 in credit, so they will be sending us some money. Although I like the idea, this struck me as odd because we are only paying £71/per month in DD for both gas and electric (3 bed, semi, 2 adults, 2 under 10s).


So I went back over our readings for electricity, and they seem very low. We don't have a t.v. or clothes dryer, but even so, we used about 4000KwH/pa from May 2014 to May 2015 (verified by bills from old supplier, I try and submit a reading every month). It seems that this year we've only used about 2000KwH.


We did have a circuit breaker replaced in the consumer box in the spring of 2015 because it had melted through (seems two bare wires were touching!). Perhaps that issue was causing us to use way more electricity than required?


I obviously don't want to pay more than I have to, but neither do I want to be accused at some point in the future of doing something illegal or have to pay a massive bill.


Is this something the supplier needs to investigate?


Any advice, much appreciated!

HappyMJ

sjb2016 wrote: »

Hi All,


I've just got a bill from my supplier indicating that we are about £300 in credit, so they will be sending us some money. Although I like the idea, this struck me as odd because we are only paying £71/per month in DD for both gas and electric (3 bed, semi, 2 adults, 2 under 10s).


So I went back over our readings for electricity, and they seem very low. We don't have a t.v. or clothes dryer, but even so, we used about 4000KwH/pa from May 2014 to May 2015 (verified by bills from old supplier, I try and submit a reading every month). It seems that this year we've only used about 2000KwH.


We did have a circuit breaker replaced in the consumer box in the spring of 2015 because it had melted through (seems two bare wires were touching!). Perhaps that issue was causing us to use way more electricity than required?


I obviously don't want to pay more than I have to, but neither do I want to be accused at some point in the future of doing something illegal or have to pay a massive bill.


Is this something the supplier needs to investigate?


Any advice, much appreciated!

Actual meter readings or estimates?

If the May 2015 meter reading was an estimate then the average is 3,000kWh per year which is normal.

The two wires touching wouldn't have used much at all. The wires would have melted and tripped fuses before using very much.

Going forward I'd read the meter every month and supply readings so you get very accurate bills.

[Deleted User]

What sort of meter do you have ? The old analog Sangamo Weston electric meter will stop sometimes. It will show a blank digit on the fifth digit. Glass fronted meters with a cracked glass can have the glass pushed against the circular barrel slowing it down. The commonest meter for reading mess-ups is the electric dial meter with its six pointers. There is a technique for reading these correctly when they align on borders.

sjb2016

Thanks for your replies. The meter is a digital, economy 7 meter, originally installed by SSE. There is still a sticker next to the meter that I believe gives the installation date as sometime in 2008, so fairly new.


As I said, I try and do readings every month, and the number of KwH I'm using to compare are the actual readings.


Just gone back and checked our opening reads (from June 30, 2015) and my most recent reading (from June 2, 2016), and we've only used 2265 KwH in that time (that is day time and night time readings combined). Just seems very low to me.

victor2

Assuming you don't have an electric shower, or some other high user of electricity, that's a realistic annual electricity usage.

sjb2016

victor2 wrote: »

Assuming you don't have an electric shower, or some other high user of electricity, that's a realistic annual electricity usage.

Well if you're happy, I'm happy Only big user are the washing machine (on at least once a day) and the dishwasher (on at least very other day). Anyway, seems that others think this isn't excessively low, so I'll leave it be for the moment!


Thanks for all your replies.

[Deleted User]

You have a two rate Eco 7 meter which very frequently gets the two readings transposed . This can make for a lower bill if expensive day units are billed at the cheap night rate. Watch your meter at the changeover period to see which reading is day or night.The changeover period can also be governed by a timer switch which in itself can also be set wrongly.