Eco 7 Elec Bill - HELP! 11 January at 4:50PM in Energy 8 replies 218 views

roxhas123

I was £489 in credit with my electric (my whole flat is electric and im with SSE). popped my reading in when asked, error message appeared when putting in my night reading saying this doesn't look correct, I proceeded to add it because its the reading showing on my meter. My account has been unavailable since Friday until today. 
I have a look and I'm now £500 debit on my account!? how can I have used nearly £1k in electric in 3 months!? I have had storage heaters on but that's about all that has change with my usage? can someone explain this to me? to my understanding they've used my £489 credit and now owe a further £500!?

Gerry1

Make sure that the day and night registers aren't transposed: there's no scheme that says R1 is Day and R2 is Night.

Post the make and model of the meter (preferably with a photo) and someone will tell you exactly how to check which register is which.

If you read the meter, say at 10am and again at 8pm, the only register that should have incremented (apart from any marked T for Total) should be the Day one.

pochase

When was the last time you gave a meter reading before this one?

Can you post your bill please so we can see if there were for example estimated readings and this is a catch up bill?

roxhas123

I’ve always given meter readings everytime they’ve asked for them, never had an estimated bill 

roxhas123

When we 1st moved in, they did put us on a standard tarrif instead of eco 7 which was never picked up until an engineer come out to try and fit a smart meter. Getting changed over to the correct tariff took an age in itself.

I never initially put the meter readings in myself, an SSE employee sorted it for me when I emailed pictures of my meter readings - from then on I’ve followed suit when asked to put them in? 

Spoonie_Turtle

What does the last bill with meter readings say?  That bill says they haven't charged anything, it's just a statement of how your credit is made up.

Mobtr

Are you sure you have put in the correct readings & not the total by mistake? If you can post the part of the bill that shows the readings & calculations it would be helpful 

HampshireH

When a flat I lived in had storage heaters my winter bill was nearly £400 for the quarter and that was 17 years ago (it was poorly insulated and damp).

If you have been running them constantly as well as an immersion (assumed) for hot water it's feesible that the bill could be accurate with the recent tariff increases.

If you have been submitting readings you should be able to work out your usage/cost against your tariff 

Scot_39

roxhas123 said:

I was £489 in credit with my electric (my whole flat is electric and im with SSE). popped my reading in when asked, error message appeared when putting in my night reading saying this doesn't look correct, I proceeded to add it because its the reading showing on my meter. My account has been unavailable since Friday until today. 
I have a look and I'm now £500 debit on my account!? how can I have used nearly £1k in electric in 3 months!? I have had storage heaters on but that's about all that has change with my usage? can someone explain this to me? to my understanding they've used my £489 credit and now owe a further £500!?

The letter above look like a credit transaction holding statement - it contains an amount for £159.79 carried forward from last Q billing. BUT there is no charge for that quarters usage - and the bill is for 0 days - 10th Jan to 10th Jan.

How much electricity did you actually use in the Q ?

I am a light user - £1200-1400 a year - based on last 2 years use and Oct pricing - which has just gone up c8% on ave in Jan - so another £100. 

And I only heat to min 15 in halls etc /18 in Living Room - and was away a week of Dec - my Dec bill usage was still £140.

Others - who heat homes few degrees higher - pay £10s - £100s more per month - read one post other day at at IIRC c£400+ per month for middle floor flat for elderly couple - heating whole flat to 21C.

Getting a reading queried is worrying - If you ARE worried about the meter readings being swapped.

My elderly mum's account had a glitch with BG system - I think because they had compared to an estimated bill.  It was nearly 6m out after 2 years. Despite being given 4 actual readings - 2 by meter readers - they hadn't used any of them.

Sadly it is not unheard of for people or firms to get day / night registers swapped over - e.g. when change suppliers or meters. Some here have reportedly been billed wrongly for a long time. But unless a recent change - would be surprised if hadn't spotted.

Problems may not be common - but can - especially at new higher prices - be costly when they are.

Knowing when your E7 rates switch (typically but not always c12-7am) - check the change in the individual rate registers - over several hours of light use - or less on heavy - to confirm which is which. One register increments, one fixed zero usage etc.

And then compare those registers to readings on bills - it may or may not be obvious purely based on absolute readings - depending on historic usage splits - but given you had an input queried / rejection they may well be.

For me - off-peak 90%+ of total use on Dec cold days - more typically c70% annually - it's not easy to mistake the two.

In summer however - or on a new meter - I would also need to do the difference / zero use method in one of the peak / off peak slots.