High electricity one bedroom flat

Blotto17

Hello everyone, there are two of us living in a one bedroom flat. Our electricity bill has gone up recently like everyone else’s but it has gone up ALOT. Some times we are apparently using £12/£13 a day worth of electricity. My partner has been to view our meter with the maintenance from our building and it says a different energy company on the screen to what we are using. There is a flat on the opposite side of the building to us which has our energy company on the their meter. This flat is known to be high users of electricity. Parties at weekends. Loud music etc. We are just baffled by how much electricity we are being charged as we are literally living in the dark ages to try and save money. We don’t turn the lights on. We use candles. We just use the fridge the microwave and every 2 weeks the washing machine. We charge our phones outside of the flat. TV is just an ornament. Our electricity cost is shown to us daily and seems to go up on Saturdays and Sundays. But we live the same every day. We work shift work so weekends are kind of irrelevant to us. We are convinced we are paying the electricity bills of that other flat. We’ve spoken to the management in our building about it and we got half an agreement from one of them but absolutely no action. Our electricity company and the people in our building are just passing responsibility two and fro. We have a contract here till August and the rent itself is very reasonable. We could end up with higher monthly outgoings overall if we move to another place as the rent will most certainly be more expensive. Is there anything we can do? We are getting nowhere with the people who run our building. We get the impression they actually don’t know what to do. Or don’t want to properly admit what’s happening as if they do they will have to sort out how much we have been overpaying and the other flat under etc Any advice or thoughts?

comeandgo

Go with the maintenance man and shut the meter off, go back to your flat and see if you have any power.  If you have then you are being billed for the wrong meter.

Coffeekup

It is getting cold now.... So it could be your heating costing you or your hot water?. What type of heating do you have?

If it is the incorrect meter, first things first you need to check is your meter has the same identity number (MPAN/MPRN) as your bill.
If it doesn't and is the same as across the room you need to inform your energy supplier with photos.

Also how is your energy cost being shown to you daily? Smart meter?

Edit: could someone move this to the energy forum please? They'll get more help there.

tacpot12

comeandgo said:

Go with the maintenance man and shut the meter off, go back to your flat and see if you have any power.  If you have then you are being billed for the wrong meter.

Not every flat will have a way to shut power off at the meter, so you might need to turn the power off at your consumer unit. 

silvercar

Welcome to MSE! I hope you find some help with your problem.

I’ve asked for this to be moved to the energy board. 

Robin9

Coffeekup said:

Edit: could someone move this to the energy forum please? They'll get more help there.

For info  - if you click on the Report button - there is an option to contact MSE and request Threads be moved

Keep_pedalling

The labels don’t mean much no one comes out and changes them when you switch supplier. It seems to be quite common for the wrong meter to be allocated to a flat. As previously stated the best ways to test it is to switch off at the meter if it has an isolation switch and see if you still have power. If no isolation switch throw the switch on the consumer unit in the flat and check that the meter is not registering any consumption.

Blotto17

I have asked for my post to be moved to the appropriate area. I’m sorry I didn’t realise I put this in the mortgage section. Our usage is available to us daily. We log into this account given by the provider and they let us know how much we’re using every day. We are just being passed two and fro about this all the time. Between our building and the provider. Why can’t they just deal with it themselves rather than us doing all the work. 

Robin9

Blotto17 said:

I have asked for my post to be moved to the appropriate area. I’m sorry I didn’t realise I put this in the mortgage section. Our usage is available to us daily. We log into this account given by the provider and they let us know how much we’re using every day. We are just being passed two and fro about this all the time. Between our building and the provider. Why can’t they just deal with it themselves rather than us doing all the work. 

It's not in their interest to sort it out - if it needs sorting. \have you done the switch off at meter test ?  What is your daily usage  - in kWh not £ ?

It is however in your interest as you think you are paying too much. £10/£12 for an all electric flat may not be high - I assume you have on peak panel heaters plus hot water.

dunstonh

Some times we are apparently using £12/£13 a day worth of electricity. 

The monetary amount doesn't help us.    We need to know the kWh you are using.

And if you have a smart meter, look at the meter and the IHD to see if the kWh are the same.    The IHDs sometimes have the wrong unit price.   So, working by kWh is a safer way to measure your use.

Our electricity bill has gone up recently like everyone else’s but it has gone up ALOT.

Ours has gone down but thats because we halved our use.   However, electricity is twice as expensive as it was this time last year.  So, when you say " a lot" what do you mean by that?

Were were your meter readings in a similar period last year (actual, not estimate).  How do these compare with the same months this year?

[Deleted User]

Do you have electric heating?  If you do - £12 a day when the heating comes on would not be unusual.  But as dunstonh, £ are not very useful, kWh are.

If you want to do a meter sense test, follow the process below:

Turn off the main switch at your consumer unit.  Go and look at the meter and see whether there is a red light flashing on it - you should not find one.

Turn many things on in your flat.  Go and look for the red light again - it should be flashing fast.

If it doesn't match this pattern, then the meter you are looking at is not your flat.