Electricity meter reading spike

kcwro

I have just managed to get through to them and they took a reading themselves in March 20 ( before lockdown) which showed as 14552 - 2747 units used in 89 days - no appliances have changed and all lighting and appliances are energy saving.
After spending 40 minutes on the phone, I have a rather vague response as to looking into it, but was told the meter has no memory for historical readings to see when usage spiked/dropped to pin it down to anything/nothing - the only thing that can be done is install a meter checker - not much use when everything is normal now.
I am not sure whether anyone CAN help on this very tricky problem

QrizB

The problem we all have is that whatever happened to cause your spike, your meter readings have been rather infrequent. You should try to take readings more regularly.

8578 - 01/05/19

11805 - 01/11/19 - 3227 kWh, 185 days, 17.4 kWh/day

14522 - 01/03/20 - 2717 kWh, 122 days, 22.3 kWh/day

24611 - 12/02/21 - 10089 kWh, 349 days, 28.9 kWh/day

26916 - 05/08/21 - 2305 kWh, 175 days, 13.2 kWh/day

Do you use electric heating, or gas? If you use electric heating I would expect your consumption in winter months to be pretty high and this past winter was colder than the year before, could this explain it?

matelodave

If you've got a smart meter and still have the IHD (in home device) it's often possible to interrogate the meter memory even if the meter is now "dumb"

My SSE "smart"meter was installed some five years and five suppliers ago (non of which have been able to use it's smart functionality) but I can still use my IHD to check my monthly consumption for the past 13 months, my weekly consumption for the past five weeks and my daily consumption for the past seven days and my hourly consumption back to midnight

The IHD  also allows me to read the meter from the comfort of my lounge rather than going out into the cold, rain or snow to do it which means that I can give monthly readings to my supplier and not get stuffed by having months or even years worth of estimated bills with the consequence of a ginormous catch up or confusion about consumption

kcwro

It is smart, but dumb and I  no longer have the IHD, unfortunately.
After my contact with UP , it doesn't seem as if I'm going to get far, but for those who have tried to help (and you're so right - readings have been very irregular) the readings are as follows:
6.5.19         8758
21.11.18  11805
15.3.20     14805
12.2.21     24611
16.2.21     24673
26.2.21     24811
25.3.21     25146
16.7.21     26676
5.8.21       26916
If I don't get anywhere, I would rather pay the excess off in a lump sum (ouch), instead of 178.76 monthly dd as they intend doing - though they are still  saying our usage is 751 units a month??!!

niktheguru

You said you're in an all electric property, this sounds like you've used the heating a lot over the winters and these are probably genuine bills. You're averaging use over the whole year, but because youve taken readings infrequently it makes it seem like your consumption has increased throughout the year, when probably you had really high consumption during the winters due to heating use, and now that its warmer your usage has returned to a lower level.

I think the end result is you're going to have to pay up! (take regular monthly readings from now on to keep an eye on your usage)

matelodave

As said above, you use a lot more energy in the winter than you do in the summer. Our Annual average is around 20kwh/day, however we are presemtly only using 8-10kwh/day whereas in Jan/feb it avearges out at 40kwh/day with peaks or of over 50kwh/day.

Regularkly reading your meter and submitting your readings will not only help you understand your consumption but will avoid  getting ginormous catchup bills. It also has the advantage of you being able to quickly identify any anomalies and getting them sorted out easiliy rather than trying to guess what happened seveal months ago

kcwro

I think you're right, I  will have to pay up for lack of proof,  but no, we are not ALL electric - we are in the depths of the country so are on LPG for heating- we are only with UP for electricity.
Thanks for help though - will await up's final response with interest

cannugec5

kcwro said:

Thanks, MWT, we are on electricity only.
I haven't phoned Utility Point yet to get from them the reading that they will have taken themselves during my time with them.

Well, that’s confusing! You are on electricity only, but you are not only electric as your heating is LPG!

kcwro

Thank you  to all those who have attempted to help.
I apologise for being a little confusing in the way I put things, but will end posts now before they become more savage and catty as I have I noticed in others' queries - much should have been learned over lockdown in appreciating the time spent with our fellow man and also valuing our time so it can be spent in worth while activities - have a good day, all 😊

Jackiehobbs65

We moved into our home on 3rd August 2020, it had the old dial meter and economy 7 and Scottish Power was the energy supplier, so we stayed with them until November 2020 when we changed to Peoples Energy. The final electricity readings of 42654 and 7732 were taken and given to Scottish power and in turn given to People’s energy via the 3rd party data company.
Between leaving one company and joining another our meter ( we talking one day) spiked by nearly 10,000 KWh and has stayed at the higher rate. PE then estimated our bills, saying my reading were in dispute and Scottish Power weren’t acknowledging this. They then suspended our billing, but continued to take the £98 DD per month

At that time we had several power cuts ( the area is prone to them regularly, usual a few minutes, but can be longer) and at the time we changed companies, there was a massive power surge in the area. 

We have received several bills saying we owe £2,400, the last one being this week. I am in dispute with PE and they seem to be passing the buck to SP but SP bills are in line with meter readings from the previous owner. 

We have been in this situation now since Feb 2021, and it is very stressful. I wrote a final email this week to PE telling them about the power surge etc and will refuse to pay the bill, as it is not electricity we have used. We don’t have any heavy use appliances like tumble dryers and immersion heaters, there’s just two adults in the house and we don’t work from home.
could the power surge and power cuts caused our meter to spike?
I had a smart meter installed last week and the engineer read the meter before removal, so I’m of the opinion that PE could calculate our bill using the reading of 51308 up to the engineers reading and put an end to this ongoing dispute.