Old electric meter reading fast?

Alex19911

Hey guys, I've just looked into switching my energy supplier from power, but have been told in a 6 month period we have amassed a debt of £1500. There is a reason for the lack of checking of bills, this is originally my mothers house, that me and my partner rent off of her for just the payment of bills. Our combined stupidity we saw they was taking £93 out a month for gas and electric we was happy. Until we logged into the online account and saw the debt increasing.

So we have complained to npower about the lack of communication from them in terms of the bill just rising, and in fairness the lady did say it doesn't seem right for a 2 bed terrace house to be using so much and has frozen the account for now until someone inspects.

So I checked the serial number on the meter and it's 58 years old, now from what I've read aren't meters supposed to be certified / exchanged every 20 years?

Im in a mad panic as I'm an apprentice and my partner is a student so we are currently trying to make ends meet, and with this bill it's quite scary.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

jk0

Ask them to put a 'check meter' in series with it, and run like that for 6 months say.

Then if the antique meter is running fast, you should be able to argue for a reduction.

Alex19911

Thanks I'm going to ask for one, everything in the house is LED and the only consumers we've added to the house is a dishwasher and dryer and they only run once a day each if that. Surely they can't impact so much.

House_Martin

At 58 years old it is most likely a "dial " meter.These have 6 little circular dials with pointers.
they are notorious for being read incorrectly.As well as the date on the meter some are reconditioned with a small sticky label giving the date of reconditioning or recalibration.
Don`t bank on the meter being the cause but look to readings/estimates
These meters, and the analogue cyclometer type meters are mechanical and more likely to run slow than fast.

Alex19911

Yeah its a dial meter, so if they've under read at their last reading and if I've read it correct would they be obliged to help us with payments?
To be honest I thought that myself, but trying to justify the price hike it was the only thing I could pin point as everything is relatively new. I mean, unless our elderly neighbours are stealing our energy haha!

House_Martin

Alex19911 wrote: »

Yeah its a dial meter, so if they've under read at their last reading and if I've read it correct would they be obliged to help us with payments?
To be honest I thought that myself, but trying to justify the price hike it was the only thing I could pin point as everything is relatively new. I mean, unless our elderly neighbours are stealing our energy haha!

Are you reading the dial meter correctly.when the pointers are dead straight on a border that is when the errors occur and the first three dials are very important to get right.Meter readers get them wrong as well as the general public
suppliers are not averse to a "catch up " bill in stages but they don t like it to take too long.
The alternative is to fit a prepayment meter with a weekly debt repayment of between £4 to £16 a week

Carrot007

Yes dial meters are old. The number in the serial will be the date. But there is usually a sticker on it too showing when it was last recertified for use which has a date year too (the month is represented by letters).

Obviously these days recerts do not happen as it is cheaper to bin and buy a new meter but up to say 10 years ish ago they were recertified for re-use.

Also under reading is more common with these meters.

It's highly likely someone has done a misread. I have even done one and it took a while to sort.

If you want to post a list of dates/reads and maybe even a meter pic with current read we could look for any errors that may be happening.

Alex19911

Oh dear. I think I’ve read it wrong. The first dial is pointing at 6 but the second dial is at 7 indicating it’s still going up to 6 but gives the appearance it’s actually 5. What a dope. Thank you so much.

Alex19911

Id love to link the photo of my meter but as a new user No matter what I try I can’t do it.

Ben84

People's electric use varies widely, but £1,500 for six months sounds highly unlikely.

Meter mis-reading isn't uncommon, and those old dial meters are a real pain to read as well. We got a several thousand pound bill because of this once.

Anyway, don't count on your supplier keeping the bills accurate. I've known them go months between sending the meter man around. It's good to figure out how to read your meter and periodically telephone to give them a reading, because you can easily pay too little or too much for months if you don't.

Carrot007

Alex19911 wrote: »

Id love to link the photo of my meter but as a new user No matter what I try I can’t do it.

Just hide the link by repalcing the dots with say the word dot or something like!