Meter check or smart meter? 7 July 2021 at 6:01PM in Energy 75 replies 2.3K views

Anita85

My electric consumption has gone up considerably from last year. I contacted my provider, I was asked to do 7 days of readings taken at same time of day. They say my consumption is normal as I changed energy providers in March they have no record of my normal usage. Although I have told them what they were. My consumption what I use now over a month is what I used in 3 months last winter. After many emails and not getting answers I opened up a complaint. My options are to have a meter check but if not faulty I incur £257 costs or smart meters can be fitted free. I'm not that sure about smart meters and how reliable they are but at first I said I'd have smart meters. I've had a message today to say they can fit one next month. Now I'm having second thoughts as if meter isn't faulty why has my consumption increased so much? I'm confused  as what to do for the best. I'd be very grateful if anyone has got any advice and what would you do in this situation? 

niktheguru

You need to check the meter yourself.
is your lifestyle different to last year, have you been working from home, have you bought any new electrical devices? Do you have gas heating or all electric? 

You need to take daily reading to see how many kWh is incrementing every day, then try turning everything off at the fuse board, does your meter fully stop. Then try looking at what appliances are using e;ectricity in the house to determine if there is a single cause making it high, or is it just you’ve been at home more and it’s been a cold winter (assuming you have electric heating)

Carrot007

A smart meter is a good idea, but will not solve your problem. (and if your current meter is faulty may cause issues in getting money paid back (any meter change would, it's not a smart thing)).

You are quit capable of taking 1/2 hourly reads as much as a meter! Ok maybe you sleep a bit but you can take reads as often as possible thoughout the day and then see if they make sense.

Also turn everything off run a 1kw electric heater for 15 mins and see if you have used .25kwh, electrci meters go well into the decimal places so that should be enough. And YES EVERYTHING ELSE OFF>

Sandtree

When our electricity bills jumped several years ago it took a bit of head scratching but after going around and checking everything it turned out our flatmate had turned on the emersion heater's booster one day and forgotten to ever turn it off again. Turned it off, bills back to normal.

Robin9

Anita85 said:

My electric consumption has gone up considerably from last year................

What sort of figures are we talking about ; are we talking about £'s or kWh..; are we talking about estimated or actual consumptions ?

Can we have some figures please for the last 2/3 years ?

Anita85

My lifestyle hasn't changed, I have no new electrical appliances and I have gas heating.
I have continued to do daily readings since energy company requested 77 days worth. I have reduced it a bit by switching off dvd player, CD player and bathroom extractor fan. 
I don't have an emersion heater so that's not it.
This is actual readings not estimates and it's the kwh that's increased. I don't have 2-3 years of figures as I tend to do online accounts and don't print bills off. I have managed to download bills from my previous supplier so from
28/3/20 - 2/3/21 I used 1709kwh
3/3/21 - 7/7/21 I've used 2016kwh
I've used more kwh in 4 months this year than 11 months with previous supplier. 
I have checked around the house and can't find the reason why. It's a fairly modern house (14 years old) I live on my own so no teenagers with lots of gadgets. 
I'm just totally baffled at the moment 

Anita85

Supposed to say 7 days not 77 🤦‍♀️

QrizB

3/3 to 7/7 is 126 days, so your average for that period was 16kWh/day.

You've recently been taking daily readings, how many kWh a day are you typically recording now?

If you take a reading before bed and then another in the morning, what's your overnight usage like?

Anita85

Good idea about over night usage, I'll do that tonight.
The average usage over the last week has been 11 kwh per day

Robin9

What does the display on your meter look like ?

Is it an old type with clock dials that go in different directions ? Speedometer type ? Digital where its difficult to see the decimal point ?

2016 kWh in 4 months is a lot 

What is your heating ?

Anita85

It's a digital display, it only shows 5 digits so no decimal point. I can't read partially used units (if that makes sense?)

I have gas heating, my shower is heated via gas boiler and I don't have a tumble dryer or hot tub.

My overnight readings last night from 10.30pm - 8.30am was 4 kwh. I obviously used lights to get upstairs, I had bedside light on till just before midnight. This morning radio alarm on for about half an hour. I think that's a lot as I've looked again at my bill from last year and between
28/3/20-12/7/20 I used 487kwh which I've worked out to be 4.55 daily.

My  current energy company at one point did admit my readings had risen "rather rapidly" but said its difficult to determine without further information. They asked me about new appliances, underfloor heating and hot tub. My answer was no to all.

The 7 day total readings I sent them was 152 kwh which works out to 21.7kwh daily. Compare that to last years readings its over 4 times more. 
They told me that 21kwh daily falls into high end of normal range and it might be for a family of4-5. 

I've lived here for nearly 7 years and in this time I've never had a problem till now.