Paying extortionate amount, not sure how to proceed

Noctover

Hi guys and girls,

I don't really know the best solution from here.

I live in a 2 bedroom flat (quite large for a flat but no mansion). My partner and i are full time employed so only really active within the flat on evenings and weekends. We have a money saving kettle that only boils 1 cup at a time, we use the washing machine and dryer once a week, and the dryer runs overnight during the Eco7 cheap period, again only once a week. We rent this flat.

My electric bill has just gone up again from £81.50 to £150 per month.

Between January and March we apparently racked up £527 of electric charges: £152.73 during the day and £354.86 during the evening at a cheap tariff. I dont even know how i use more in the evening everything is off AND its cheaper! Now we did use Storage heaters during this period, however we only ever used 2 and the price has been high even the 9 months a year that they are entirely switched off.

Between Apr and June this month it says i accrued £322.77 of electric, this was with no heaters being used at all. £108.44 during the day and £195.09 during the evening. To settle my electric bill by the end of the review year they have not put it up to £150 per month, for a mostly empty 2 bedroom flat. This will come to approx £1375.52 per year cost for the year in December. As far as i can tell this is 3x the national average for a 2 bedroom flat and more than a 5 bedroom home.

This has been happening for years, i swapped supplier hoping to resolve the problem but its still coming up to about the same cost. They will NOT change my clock which is 1 hour out half of the year or install a smart meter so that i can figure out where this energy leak is coming from; because the meter is in an "unsafe location". I cant help but feel my meter is horribly wrong or that it is taking reads for multiple flats in the building. I'd have to be running a cannabis farm to use this much!

My neighbour, who is retired, at home 24/7 with all her heaters on full blast all year rounds pays £70 per month in comparison.

Any guidance appreciated on how to proceed from here.

Kind Regards,

Colin

Browntoa

Are you providing your own monthly readings ?

Or are the bills estimated

Noctover

The first bill was based on reading, 2nd bill estimate. Im going to provide a reading from that when i get home.

[Deleted User]

Firstly you have to get to grips with your actual Eco 7 cheap rate times.Do not believe the published times. They are only a guide and only to be relied on if you have a Radio Teleswitch timer control on the meter , or one of the newer Eco 7 smart meters
Old analogue meters controlled by a 24 hr circular timer can have their cheap 7 hours coming on virtually anywhere within the 24 hrs.
Digital meters with their built in clocks can have the time drifting up to 4 hrs out of synch.
Observe closely how your meter works and track down the 7 hrs cheap rate start time.
Also switch immediately to the lowest possible Eco 7 tariffs. Use Ukpower.co and make sure you know what your true cheap rate 7 hrs ratio to the day rate is. You won t be able to do that until you have narrowed down when your cheap rate starts.. Once you do that, then try and use the high usage appliances like showers, ironing etc in the cheap rate only.
Suppliers all to often will transpose the day and night reads but in your case they probably have n`t done that

Robin9

Noctover wrote: »

. ......................As far as i can tell this is 3x the national average for a 2 bedroom flat and more than a 5 bedroom home.................

Not quite right - elec in a gas heated home is approx £4/500 but yours is all electric and you can expect it to be double that


Let us know how your meter readings compare with those on your bill.

molerat

Noctover wrote: »

I live in a 2 bedroom flat


My electric bill has just gone up again from £81.50 to £150 per month.




My neighbour, who is retired, at home 24/7 with all her heaters on full blast all year rounds pays £70 per month in comparison.

I know what my immediate thoughts would be. Are you sure the meter that is being billed is connected to your flat ?

D_M_E

Do you have Economy 7 meter(s)?

If so, have the readings been switched - have you been billed at the day rate for the night rate Eco7 reading and at night rate for daytime usage?

As already said, are you sure the meter being allocated to your flat by the supplier is the actual one measuring your usage?

If it's a smart meter and is the correct meter, do the serial numbers on the bills and on the meter match?

Noctover

Hi all, thanks for the tips.

Ive checked the meter and it is the correct serial number on the bill for my meter. I am currently taking regular readings of the meter to see its increment. I can see the clock on the meter is 1 hour 20 minutes slow which impacts the ECO7 time. I am gong to stay up late tonight and check exactly what time my Eco7 night rate kicks in (Friday night meter reading, such a party animal). Will report back with
any findings.

Thanks again!

Robin9

Did you read the meter yesterday - if so, how do the readings compare ?

Noctover

Night - Day

06/03/2019 - 57941 17462
20/06/2019 - 59719 18218

Difference of 756 day and 1778 night between 06/03/2019 and 20/06/2019.

Robin9

How do these compare with those ESTIMATED on your bill ?