De-energised electric meter - what is this?!!

Astria

Suntastic said:

I don't know how long they have been occupied but I moved into them in September, two of the flats were occupied before, probably about July or August this year.  They don't seem to be here this week, they tend to go home at weekends but no sight of them this week!  One of the flats has two occupants and the other flat just one occupant. 

Flat 1 (with the different meter) moved in only recently so they haven't had a bill in yet.  

They have been cooking as I have smelt the food drifting up from below, so have been using the oven.  I have radiators that are not gas, I think they have water in them, I'm not sure, never had these before.  They are operated from a Bravo thermostat.

Please don't say you have an electric boiler.

Some new builds go with electric because it's cheaper than installing a gas main, but the costs of running such a system are ridiculously huge. Of course the builders don't care as it's not them who have got to pay the energy bills!

macman

Your rads may well have water in them, but the water has to be heated by some kind of boiler, which will be either gas, or, if you are really unlucky, by electricity. If there are pipes feeding and leaving each rad, then you have wet CH system. Tell us the make and model of the boiler.
Edit: you have stated that the flat is all electric, so no gas supply? If so, you have a very expensive electric boiler. Time to move out then.

EssexHebridean

It does rather sound that we may have our answer doesn't it - I confess the hairs on the back of my neck prickled when I spotted the OP had referred to "radiators" earlier in the thread. 

Other possibilities are the usuals really - as already said, panel heaters that are in fact not as "turned off" as they appear - these should be hard wired into a switched spur - make sure they are actually turned off at the wall if you want them turned off. An immersion heater switched on and running 24/7 could also be using a fair old chunk...

I can't recall whether you said whether you were renting or whether you own the flat OP? If you are renting and it turns out that you DO have an electric boiler then I suspect those suggesting that you might consider it time to move again probably have a point. If you own it, then unless you are able to/want to have gas run in, then storage heaters might be your best bet. 

Keep_pedalling

macman said:

Your rads may well have water in them, but the water has to be heated by some kind of boiler, which will be either gas, or, if you are really unlucky, by electricity. If there are pipes feeding and leaving each rad, then you have wet CH system. Tell us the make and model of the boiler.
Edit: you have stated that the flat is all electric, so no gas supply? If so, you have a very expensive electric boiler. Time to move out then.

Mind you the opening post said that the heating was off and it was freezing, and it is quite possible these are oil filled rads. 

I wonder if they have tried throwing that isolation switch yet?

Spoonie_Turtle

Maybe this is just my inexperience showing but would electric heating like that really use 2,500kWh in a relatively mild month?

QrizB

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Maybe this is just my inexperience showing but would electric heating like that really use 2,500kWh in a relatively mild month?

Could it? Yes.

Should it? No, probably not.

@Suntastic you should try @Gerry1's meter sanity test. Complete all the steps and let us know what you get.