Eon threatening to cut off electric soon if money isn't paid

mrsg1990

We've had a chat with uncle B I'm now authorised to speak to eon on his behalf. 


To out it mildly, he's very confused and repeats himself, he's convinced a man he spoke to at eon has doubled his direct debit so he can take it for himself. Uncle B said that debt collectors were threatened.... knowing what I know now about his cognitive state, we've discussed with him the possibility of him moving nearer to us, and he's wanting to move.

On another note, his DD was £90 a month, then all of a sudden the smart meter started to send meter readings every couple of days at at 30 kWh a day, it said he used £100 in 10 days Eon are sending someone out to have the meter checked to see if it is faulty,.there is a charge for this £100.03, but if there is a fault Uncle B will be refunded and a new meter installed. We shall see, but I am taking things with a pinch of salt.

elsien

On a change of topic, you might wanting to be having a conversation with Uncle about power of attorney while he’s still well enough to be able to do it. It will be very hard to support him further down the line without it.
Has he/is he willing to see a GP about his memory issues? There may be medication that can help slow down any decline. Or it may be something simpler, like an infection impacting on him? 

Brie

Thanks for coming back about this - hopefully you will continue to update as it's all quite intriguing.  

I'm glad that Eon has accepted that you will speak to them - between the confusion and possible hearing issues I'm sure that you will be able to make more sense of things.  I'm glad he's bought in to moving closer - it will make life much easier (I've been juggling my live in MiL moving into care in the UK and my own mother moving to assisted living in a different country - nightmare in the doing but so much better now it's done.)

mrsg1990

Thank you for all your support and help. This is something we had a talk with him 18 months ago, he seemed all for it, said yes, then when he got home, he said no. I think he'll get cold feet again about moving or adult social care. 

I've asked my husband to be frank with him and let him know the consequences of what he chooses. If he doesn't want to move, that's fine, but we can't drop everything to help him. We can try our best, but we don't have a car, we have a 9 month old, a 6 year old with autism, life and work stuff.  I've given him information about local drops ins, citizens advice, ect. And we'll help as much as we can, but if he's not willing to get support from adult social care/see a GP or move closer...then I don't know what more we can do for him. He went to Thailand via Manchester airport in September for 4 weeks by himself so he capable, and independent, but then there is the other side where he forgets things (who doesn't),repeats himself, doesn't retain information, is convinced someone from eon is scamming him,doubling his direct debit to steal half, and that he's getting a new smart meter installed on the 17th of November, but it's a tolerance test on the 17th of December, and I've explained this to him, he understood it, retained it, then 20 minutes or so later he says he's getting a new meter installed in the 17th of November (when he isn't). 

Sorry for the long post, my heads all over the place 

mrsg1990

My husband's uncle is visiting for a few days...he's had problems with bills before (previously posted)...he is with eon next for electric.

Using the electric there is a fridge, electric blanket, lighting, tv, while gas is hot water, heating and he uses a gas fire 


The smart meter was tested in December and found to have no fault...the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

So on the 21st April the reading was 17882.2 and 21st may it was 18635.8 so 753.6kwh was used

Yearly estimate for electric in kwh is 12949.2 kwh.

He's in debt of nearly £2k, this has been accumulating since September 2022..as he was only on a fixed direct debit that didn't cover the entire amount 

So we know it's not the meter at fault, and we're going to get a device to check the appliances...and ask an electrician to check out wiring/inspect appliances ect

But what else can we do, he lives on his own in a small 2 bed room terraced house. 

There's no way he is using 4x the amount an average household does....

Swipe

before you buy your device, turn everything off you can think of and monitor your In home display (assuming you have one) to confirm there is no current draw. Then switch everything back on one by one to find any high usage devices that could be causing the problem.

InvertedVee

mrsg1990 said:

My husband's uncle is visiting for a few days...he's had problems with bills before (previously posted)...he is with eon next for electric.

Using the electric there is a fridge, electric blanket, lighting, tv, while gas is hot water, heating and he uses a gas fire 


The smart meter was tested in December and found to have no fault...the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

So on the 21st April the reading was 17882.2 and 21st may it was 18635.8 so 753.6kwh was used

Sorry to hear this. 753.6KWh of energy in 30 days is over 25KWh per day, which is very high. That's an average of 1KW power throughout the day. You could expect lots of sundry items (lights, TV, chargers, audio equipment, broadband router etc) to add up to about 50-150W of base load. So something very power hungry is consuming the rest.

I'd check for any high-power devices with electric heating elements. Has the immersion heater been left on? Any hidden electric heaters tucked away, any electric towel rails?

Then I'd do something similar to what @Swipe suggested, except I wouldn't rely on the in-home display. I'd switch off all circuits and verify the consumption at the meter, writing down the readings at half-hour intervals. After the first half hour, I'd switch the lighting circuits back on and measure the consumption, then do the same one circuit at a time, taking meter readings as you go.

It's tempting to cut corners and make assumptions but at least this way you can be sure of where the problem lies.

Good luck to you and your husband's uncle.

[Deleted User]

The smart meter was tested in December and found to have no fault...the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

How exactly was the smart meter tested and by whom? The only true test of an electric meter’s accuracy is by fitting a calibrated test meter which runs in parallel with the existing meter for a period of days. That said, meter faults are extremely rare according to Government statistics.

the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

If smart meter readings are being used, what is being estimated? If the supplier is receiving smart meter readings, bills should never be estimated.

If you look at 2 bills a year apart, what is the annual usage in kWh? It may not be the same as that shown on the statement.

If your Uncle can be persuaded, you can monitor his actual usage with an App like BRIGHT. Provided the meter is in a 30 minute profile, you get usage information both in terms of kWh/30min and cost on a daily basis:

Spoonie_Turtle

mrsg1990 said:

the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

So on the 21st April the reading was 17882.2 and 21st may it was 18635.8 so 753.6kwh was used

Why are the bills estimated?

Regardless, with those actual readings that's a heck of a lot of electricity.  Sanity test is the first thing to do, if not done already (turning everything off to make sure the meter is powering his house and his house only).

Stupid question, and apologies if this has all already been covered in another thread, does he have an EV?  Immersion heater left on/faulty?  Pond pump/heater, tropical pet requiring heat, electric shower, electric heater accidentally left on somewhere (maybe a shed)?  What type of lighting (halogen wouldn't account for it all, but it does add up)?

If he hasn't already, he needs to go room by room (including the loft and any cellar, if applicable) and take note of absolutely everything plugged or wired in.  Anything that uses power, including alarms.  Then find out how much power they do or should use, and make note of how often/how long they're used.

Somebody did post here about a faulty electric clothes drying rack pulling 300W plugged in even when it wasn't on, which would add up to over 220kWh in a month.  An energy monitor would tell you if anything is faulty and doing something like that.

Robin9

Spoonie_Turtle said:

mrsg1990 said:

the bills are estimated with the smart meter supplying meter readings on the 21st of every month. 

So on the 21st April the reading was 17882.2 and 21st may it was 18635.8 so 753.6kwh was used

Why are the bills estimated?.

...........  we've had fish tanks, stones stuck in pond pumps, underfloor heating that nobody wondered what the switch was for. , the greenhouse heater, the American fridge/freezer

You say - he is visiting you. Are you picking him up ? Then switch off everything bar the fridge and freezer and read the meter as you walk out the door

You don't mean estimated do you. 

Pick up a copy of his bill - then on your phone get the Hugo app and you will be able to see his daily consumption