High Energy Bill - Possible Problem

Fergie76

My daughter lives in a small flat, which is basically two rooms, kitchen/living room, bedroom/shower room.

The flat is electric only. Previously her electric bill was included in her rent, as there was only one meter for her flat and the house upstairs, as the Landlord who owns her flat also owns the one upstairs and there was no way of telling who used what electric.

In November, the electric was split and each house was given its own meter and my daughter was then responsible for her own electric costs.

She has just had her first bill and for a month it is £173, which is exceptionally high considering she works 12-hour shifts and is hardly ever home and even when she is, she is in bed sleeping.

When she is home she is frightened to turn anything on. The only things that are on all the time are her fridge and wifi router.

It is smart metres that have been installed and hers and the people that live upstairs meters are in the same cupboard, so when she has been checking hers, she has also been checking her neighbours, and her neighbours usage/cost is significantly lower than hers, despite being a young family, home more than my daughter and house more than twice the size.

How possible/probable is it that when they have connected the two meters that they have mixed them up and charging my daughter for upstairs and vise-versa? This is the only thing that I can think of, as I have contacted the energy company and they say that the smart meter is working correctly.

matelodave

You or she needs to check that the meter that's connected to her flat is the one thats on her energy bill - check the serial number on the meter and the one on the bill

The easy way to see if the meter serial number on the bill is the one that's connected to her flat is to shut off the power for a minute or so at the main switch connected to her meter/flat and make sure that all the power in her flat goes off.

If it doesn't then leave it off for a bit longer and see if the upstairs household gets annoyed.

Once you've established that she's connected to the correct meter she should be able to check what's using all her energy especially if she's got a smart meter. Use the monitor device to check by turning stuff on and off.

Rodders53

Possible but should be unlikely.

Should be easy to switch off the whole flat: at the consumer unit (or even at the meter if isolating switches are fitted by them). Daughter can then check that her flat has no power in the flat.

That should mean only the meter that is connected to upstairs will flash as energy is taken.

Presumably the rent has been reduced to allow for the electric costs the Landlord previously included?

Smart meter indoors monitor screen should also allow daughter to identify what the load is consuming at different times? That may identify something left on consuming energy (e.g. hot water cylinder?).

Robin9

She needs to check herself first. Switch off the consumer unit by the meter and see which flat looses its supply.

Fergie76

Thanks for the replies.

She is at work today, but is going to do a burn test when she gets home tonight. Yes, her rent has been reduced accordingly.

I have told her to switch off her hot water, as she doesn't have a bath so the only thing she needs hot water for is dishes and to wash hands. For the amount of dishes she has, she can just boil kettle for this.

She switched off hot water yesterday morning and was out at her friend's house last night and it is still saying she used £4 electricity and upstairs only used £2.

Robin9

Is she getting the £4 from her In House Display or is she reading the units on the meter herself and doing some sums to determine her consumption ?

Fergie76

On Compare the Market, it says that for the size of her flat, number of occupants etc, her annual bill should average about £500-600. Going on the higher estimate, that is still only £50 per month (I realise it is winter and bills will be higher, but its got to the stage where she is even frightened to turn on the heating, as it is just a couple of electric wall heaters).

Fergie76

Robin9 wrote: »

Is she getting the £4 from her In House Display or is she reading the units on the meter herself and doing some sums to determine her consumption ?

On the actual outside smart meter, it tells her in £'s how much she has used, as well as wattage.

dogshome

Worrying
This building with one meter would have had common Power & Lighting circuits to supply every room, which ideally would have been on ring mains for each floor, so not too difficult to separate.

But with just one meter, this building obviously had a 'cheap' conversion to flats and heaven only knows how the wiring was up-graded, if at all.
Switching off her consumer unit before going out whilst the other flat is occupied, is a must

matelodave

Dont keep looking at cost, look at kwh. If she's on a high cost tariiff then that will make it look worse.

Do as suggested - turn it all off at the meter. Follow the leads from the meter to the appropriate consumer unit and turn it off to make sure that it does actually go off. If that confirms that you've got the correct meter then turn everything off indoors and check the consumption of stuff - in kwh, not ££'s. Stop comparing with other people, do you own measuring.

She should also check that she's on the best tariff that she can get.

Fergie76

It's difficult as she is only 21, not sure about all this stuff and I live in Scotland.

She's at work today, but when she gets home tonight, she is going to turn everything off for half an hour and see what happens. On the main fuse board, it is labelled for her flat, that is where she switched off hot water yesterday and she said it was cold today, so has right board, but I would have thought water would have stayed warm longer, seeing as she hadn't used any yesterday.

Will see what happens tonight and take it from there.