£2.5k for 5 months electricity

rapidkoala

I've had nothing but problems with British gas since I moved in back in April. Switched from EDF to British gas gave them meter readings etc. 
Tried time and time again over the last few months to get them to put me on PAYG meters. They sorted the gas immediately but there was always problems with the electric. Just this week they finally changed us over and have sent a bill for £2.5k for the period of April to last week. Now I'm not having no wild parties where I go around switching on and off all my appliances 😂 How on earth can I have used that in 22 weeks. That's a ridiculous amount (£113per week approx ) just on the electricity. We've since checked all the readings and they say that it's correct. They told us that between April and August there was a big spike of useage. We haven't used anything different to what we are now. 
Who can seriously afford £113 a week for electric. 

QrizB

That does sound quite a lot, roughly 500kWh/week; you could run a 3kW kettle or immersion heater continuously for that!

Can you post your meter readings, or a copy of your bill?

JJ_Egan

Can you post these readings .

Gerry1

Not a good idea to change to PAYG, the kWh rates and standing charges are likely to be significantly higher.

Thrilled

Its worth turning off low use things and seeing if the meter is whizzing round, its possible for a high use piece of gear to get stuck in an on state, like an electric heater of some kind.

wild666

When they change the meters they should leave a card with the readings from the old meter(s) on and the new readings which should be ZERO. That sort of reading would be consistent with growing your own drugs in a spare bedroom, I'm not saying for one minute this is what you have done. Do you have the meter readings from when you moved in and asked them to install PAYG meters, to the readings of the meter(s) they took out. 
It could be that the old meter was faulty, items using electric constantly will be the fridge, freezer, router, TV and other TV receiving equipment on standby cookers, microwaves, lights left on constantly, games consoles and other electrical appliances left plugged in with the socket switch left on. 
Try turning everything off at the socket, leaving the fridge, freezer and router the only items drawing power. Check regularly the reading of the meter, as many times in the day as you can, modern equipment might only use a few kWh per day, in my case 3 or 4 kWh with the desktop on for 14 hours, one cooked meal and one washing up load per day. 
If you're out all day at work with no one in the home then with everything off the reading might be less than 1 kWh if you take the reading before leave and again on entering the home. A massive increase could mean a fault somewhere or someone is using your supply as well as you. You could even turn all appliances off for 90 minutes then take readings the readings should be the same as the one taken before just after turning everything off. If not then something is wrong and needs investigation.

JGB1955

Has an immersion heater been left on?

rapidkoala

I chose PAYG because I can budget easier that way, no unexpected bills 💁. I have gas central heating no electric heaters. But no heating on until just this week.  They never changed the meters they said they were already smart meters so just switched them over without visiting the property. 
We don't have any special running just the usual cooker, TV, fridgefreezer, games console. Besides that it's been warm we've been outside mostly! 
Readings 15 April
previous supplier: 14331(E)
New supplier: 14568 (R)
My reading yesterday 27204
We are going to take meter readings every day at the same time for 7 days and also turn off all appliances and check 30 mins later what the reading is. 
There's no way we've used that amount of electricity. I'll be paying it back until 2034. 

rapidkoala

We only moved into this property at the beginning of April. 

macman

But if you were on a correctly set DD credit meter account, you wouldn't have any unexpected bills either...PAYG is pointless unless your credit rating prevents you getting a credit account.

brewerdave

When you changed supplier did YOU actually read the meter ie 14568(R) ??