URGENT HELP ! SAYING ENERGY BILL IS £42 PER DAY!

ChrisB148

Hello  

I am desperately seeking some advice from anyone regarding an issue with my electricity supply / energy provider.

 I live in a 3-bedroom property with my wife, our 5-year-old daughter and our 5-week-old son.  My current energy provider is Bulb.

 Having been a follower of MSE / Martin’s shows for some time I regularly switch energy provider in order to keep costs down.

 I joined Bulb in February 2020 and was supplying meter readings on a monthly basis. I was in credit each month and everything was fine and normal.

 However, around August 2020 I started to receive large bills for energy of £1800 FOR THE MONTH.

 That is right, Bulb has said that the energy produced in my house that it equates to over £42 PER DAY which is £1302 per month and a staggering £15624 per year.

 After tax and wage deduction, I only clear around £1150 per month from my wage, and it is the only income coming into our household at the moment due to my wife being laid off from her zero-hour contract when the pandemic hit.(since started a claim with UC)

 I have complained to the energy provider who said the it was “impossible” to generate that much energy however are still increasing my debt by £400 every 10 days.

 They have checked the meter and found the meter to be at no fault whatsoever.  They stated that no third party is “stealing” my energy and they are stumped as to why the consumption is so high, but they are not willing to do anything further to investigate as they have done what they are “obligated” to do. i.e. test the meter.

 We private rent the property and have been in touch with the landlord to question this, and although my landlord has sent an electrician around to the property and no appliance in my house is causing an issue or is producing more energy than what is normal.

 I am completely at my wits end with this whole saga.  What makes matters worse is that back in December 2019 I declared bankruptcy and I was discharged in Dec 20 just over a month ago.  With the new fresh start post discharge I was optimistically looking forward to the future and had a goal of owning our own house in around 6 years after my credit file heals.

 However, this debt which stands over £3000 at the moment has turned that positive looking future into a nightmare and the reality is that I will have to go back into some form of insolvency to repay these high energy bills.  I feel its completely unfair, it is not like I have took a loan of £3000 or bought something or seen any benefit of this thousand of pound of debts. 

 Mentally this is keeping me up most nights, anxiety through the roof with the idea of going back into some insolvency plan when me and my wife have worked so hard to get to this point.

 Ultimately, I know that it is not sustainable to live in this property and longer and I would move out tomorrow if I could.  However due to my bankruptcy no letting agency / landlord would accept me into their property as the negative impact of the discharged bankruptcy even though I have never missed a rent payment in the 10 years I have been renting.

 I feel trapped, stuck and really unfairly treated.  This is affecting my mental health, my wife’s and ultimately, we have 2 very young children whom we know that they can see and feel the worried state of their parents.

 I have spoken with citizens advice, put into financial ombudsman and been told the same thing, that Bulbs legal obligation is to check and test the meter, which they have done.

 In a time when we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet, I would have thought that this energy provider would want to investigate why and what is causing this surge.

 I have attached a bill which shows my usage at over £42 per day.

 I really look forward to anyone's ideas / suggestions or advice if anyone has gone through somthing similar.

Thank you

Chris

tim_p

What is the meter reading right now?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Are you on a Smart Meter?

Is the current meter analogue or digital?

ChrisB148

Hello, no smart meter as Bulb have rejected my request for one. digital meter - reading from this morning below.

ChrisB148

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Are you on a Smart Meter?

Is the current meter analogue or digital?

tim_p said:

What is the meter reading right now?

51988

digital and no smart meter

wiseonesomeofthetime

So you don't even get to see the dial spinning around, or have the opportunity to get the meter changed by switching to a smart meter!

My thinking was (a) switch to smart meter, so (b) if consumption reduces dramatically, it would provide evidence of a faulty meter (despite what their engineer said).

Thinking cap back on then.


Edit: Did anyone else have access to your home around July/August 2020, or did the landlord conduct any work inside your home around that time?

CoastingHatbox

I feel for you and your situation.
The meter reading is increasing by on average 3.5 KWh each hour.
Can you temporarily turn all of the circuits off at the distribution board for an hour and see if it still increases at the same rate?
If it does, then the meter or the electrical installation has to be at fault?
If it does not, then turn the circuits in the house on one at a time until the rate of increase returns.

tim_p

Quick back of fag packet maths shows 9070 kWh used in 15 months, so around 600 / month.  No idea where they are getting an EAC of twice that. 

Gerry1

Screenshots of previous bills, together with those dated 15 November 2020, 15 December 2020 and 15 January 2021, please.

When was the last time a meter reader visited?

[Deleted User]

Take the meter reading at hourly intervals - for electricity I use approx 10 kWh per day ATM on good days and the worst day might be as high as 14 kWh per day ATM (couple of washes, tumble dryer and oven used).  To use over 300kWh on average per day is way too excessive.  So if your meter is ticking over at > 10kWH per hour then something appears to be wrong.

Gerry1

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

So you don't even get to see the dial spinning around, or have the opportunity to get the meter changed by switching to a smart meter!
My thinking was (a) switch to smart meter, so (b) if consumption reduces dramatically, it would provide evidence of a faulty meter (despite what their engineer said).

The Elster AS300P is a smart meter.

Aren't smart meters wonderful?  No more estimated bills and all that...

Might be worth downloading the historical readings via https://data.n3rgy.com/consumer/home

Haven't used it myself (no smart meter !) but no doubt another forumite can advise.