help, I have been overcharged

Swipe

I had the opposite when I got my smart meter. My old mechanical meter ran much lower, approx 25% slower. Made a huge difference as my storage heaters use 12000KWh overnight on E7 over 12 months Was pretty gutted to say the least.

P1Fanatic

jasminemoney said:

Thanks everyone. I am on dual rate and have been forever. I have compared my usage since I had the smart meters installed (9th September 2022) with the same time period last year. The usage is difference in the night time rate was almost 7 times higher last year to now. The only thing we use at night is a dishwasher, which we have always put on at night. Nothing else has changed. It is ludicrous how much difference there is! We have changed nothing since having the smart meter installed, we rarely even look at the display. Our habits are still the same, no changes to the number of people in the household and no new appliances. I really don't understand why it was so high previously.

Sorry for going off topic but I always used to put the dishwasher on late at night - not for energy saving but convenience. Then I met my wife and she said don't as they are one of the worst appliances for catching fire. I was somewhat skeptical but since then we know 3 people who have had dishwasher fires, including a friend who was sleeping upstairs with his 3yr old boy in the next room and was luckily woken by his smoke alarm. We also had a recall on our own previous Bosch dishwasher to change a part that was susceptible to catching fire. I'm sure plenty will say mine has been fine, don't worry, but for me its not worth the risk to you and your loved ones of running one whilst you are asleep.

Alnat1

Plenty of phones have caused fires when being charged overnight but billions of people still do it.

Swipe

P1Fanatic said:

jasminemoney said:

Thanks everyone. I am on dual rate and have been forever. I have compared my usage since I had the smart meters installed (9th September 2022) with the same time period last year. The usage is difference in the night time rate was almost 7 times higher last year to now. The only thing we use at night is a dishwasher, which we have always put on at night. Nothing else has changed. It is ludicrous how much difference there is! We have changed nothing since having the smart meter installed, we rarely even look at the display. Our habits are still the same, no changes to the number of people in the household and no new appliances. I really don't understand why it was so high previously.

Sorry for going off topic but I always used to put the dishwasher on late at night - not for energy saving but convenience. Then I met my wife and she said don't as they are one of the worst appliances for catching fire. I was somewhat skeptical but since then we know 3 people who have had dishwasher fires, including a friend who was sleeping upstairs with his 3yr old boy in the next room and was luckily woken by his smoke alarm. We also had a recall on our own previous Bosch dishwasher to change a part that was susceptible to catching fire. I'm sure plenty will say mine has been fine, don't worry, but for me its not worth the risk to you and your loved ones of running one whilst you are asleep.

Every room should have a smoke alarm, the kitchen especially, and be tested weekly.

SAC2334

EssexHebridean said:

Hang on - you're on Economy 7 electricity by the sound of it, but ONLY using the night rate for a dishwasher? What is the reason for the dual rate supply- and how do you heat your home and hot water? 

It sounds like never mind the potentially over-reading meter (which as others have said, sadly there is likely no way of proving, now) you could be a candidate for switching to a single rate tariff.

lots of areas had eco 7 dual rate electric meters installed  even though they were not on night storage heating. They were installed in relatively new houses when they also had a gas supply from new .
I was told that they were installed to encourage night rate usage in certain areas . 

Many of these meters would have been transposed for years . I know in my areas I used to go to meter readers would enter the day rate into the night rate fields on our data recorders.
A newly installed smart meter would get the correct rate recorded every time 

MWT

SAC2334 said:

Many of these meters would have been transposed for years . I know in my areas I used to go to meter readers would enter the day rate into the night rate fields on our data recorders.
A newly installed smart meter would get the correct rate recorded every time 

This would be my guess as well, in which case the OP might not want to have the previous bills 'corrected'

We do need some more information though to figure out what is really happening..

If we can get some actual numbers it would be a start... on the period that has been compared between this year and last year, what was the total used in the day/night periods both now and then?

victor2

Many years ago, my father was persuaded by his supplier to get an E7 meter installed, as it would "save him money". No storage heaters, gas central heating and hot water. He swore it saved him money, always running the dishwasher at night. When he switched suppliers (because he always had a hard time giving them readings), it became apparent his day and night readings had been transposed throughout the contract. The new supplier realised that. Luckily for him, the old supplier left it as it was. His bills went up and I eventually persuaded him to switch to a single rate tariff.