Electric usage has quadrupled, what to do?

BooJewels

ChaunceyGardiner wrote: »

Even if the fridge and freezer were running with their doors wide open they could hardly consume almost a kilowatt per hour between them.

It was for 30 hours - not 6: 11am yesterday to 5pm today.

Therefore 5 Kwh works out at 167 watts an hour which sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

So that is suggestive of either something you unplugged being very high drain, or your meter is doing something funny. Would be interesting to take a meter reading for the same time period on another day of typical use for comparison, as you now have your yardstick to compare with.

ChaunceyGardiner

BooJewels wrote: »

It was for 30 hours - not 6: 11am yesterday to 5pm today..

My mistake.

Kayleighb1

That!!!8217;s a good idea Boo I should be able to do that this weekend.

Kayleighb1

Have just taken my first reading to monitor an 11am - 5pm(+24hrs) period.

It is showing that since my last reading at 5pm on the 19th I have used 54 units. That doesn’t seem too bad?

Includes 2 tumble dryer uses, normal dishwasher use, and a bit extra too as we had a joiner in who was using electric tools off the mains power.

BooJewels

That certainly sounds better than the numbers in your opening post.

If I'm working it out correctly - your recent reading was for 114 hours of use - so 474w (0.474Kwh) per hour. Extrapolating that for a year would be 4152Kwh per year (11.4Kwh/day) - certainly lower than the 8000Kwh your smart meter reading suggested you were using recently - but obviously higher than the previous year - in fact, it's bang in the middle of those two extremes - suggestive, at this early stage, that both were wrong and reality was possibly somewhere in the middle.

House_Martin

Kayleighb1 wrote: »

May 17 was submitted by me and verified with similar readings from the provider. It is a smart meter but not an EDF one so readings aren't automatic. Not sure about May 16.

It is possible that 1500KWH was under if the May 16 reading was wrong, but that doesn't then account for 6000KWH in the following 9 months. And that is an accurate reading definitely.

There is literally nothing in my home that could be sucking up that level of electric. All heating is gas. We use the normal appliances, energy saving bulbs and we are pretty good about turning off lights etc. Most appliances are A/A+ rated and all are under 4 years old.

Could the meter be faulty?
Not sure what my next steps are given that EDF wont accept the reading.

It could be faulty. We have had a few digital gas meters going bonkers on here over the years .
What make of smart meter is it. ?
Be aware the Secure Liberty smart meters for some unearthly reason not only display KW reading on screen 1 but also it displays KVarh reading on one of the other screens. Possible area for mistakes on dumb smart meters.
This meter is the only domestic electric meter to display the KVarh reading in the UK. It is used by large businesses.
Secure Liberty meters are now used, in their ignorance, by Eon as well as a few smaller suppliers such as Ovo, Utilita, First Utility

Kayleighb1

Took my reading earlier and was 17 for 30 hours so 13.6 a day, but that is a weekend day.

Am going to take weekly readings for awhile but all seems ok in terms of use. I think pp are right that there has been more than one faulty reading and I am now dealing with probably 2 years worth of use.

For my own ref today!!!8217;s reading was 11357

Kayleighb1

It is a secure liberty meter yes

BooJewels

Kayleighb1 wrote: »

Took my reading earlier and was 17 for 30 hours so 13.6 a day, but that is a weekend day.

That certainly sounds like a plausible amount for a family home at a weekend - and in line with your weekday average of - what did I work it out as - 11.4Kwh?

Am going to take weekly readings for awhile but all seems ok in terms of use.

I'd concur. I have no idea how you're going to unravel the issue of these peculiar historical readings, but I do think, as myself and others have already stated, that taking your own regular readings and keeping a record of them cannot possibly be anything other than useful.

This just gives you ammunition when finding yourself in situations like you are now - if you can prove a track record of typical use and that you have done the responsible thing and kept track of it as you go along. My electricity company tried to put my DD up by about 55% this time last year and when I reeled off my typical use for the last 4 years, they had to agree that their estimated projection of my future use was a bit enthusiastic and by the end of the conversation, dropped my DD by a tenner, as I was a chunk in credit.

What I do is put a post it note on the calendar and when I've done the reading, just pop it onto the following month to remind me again. It's just one of the tedious responsibilities that comes with being a grown up! I'm certain that over time, the few minutes you invest, will end up paying dividends.

Smodlet

We live, we learn. Call me sad but I actually enjoy arithmetic so working out last month's usage on the first of the month is no chore to me and it is always good to take control of a situation, imo. How many areas of our lives do we really have much control over?

A few minutes of calculations once a month will soon become normal, maybe even satisfying to you. Any future issues will be far easier to resolve as they will only ever be a month old so no going back over however many bills, trying to figure out what went wrong when.

If EDF have made a mess of your readings, Kayleighb1, I would still ask for compensation as it is their responsibility to ensure their meter readers know how to do their jobs. Good luck.