Why is my electric bill so high [Merged]

[Deleted User]

Hi,

can you stick up a photie of meter, somebody will know how it works?

HampshireH

gf3978114 said:

macman said:

After each top up of £x, how much does the credit on the meter increase by? If less than the value of the top up, then there is almost certainly previous debt on the meter that you are now paying for? Any debt should have been cleared when you moved in.
Tell us exactly what it says 'after the balance', or post a screenshot.
IIUC, you are not paying a supplier, but this is a private sub-meter and you are paying the LL or council for the supply?
Are you getting the £400 EBSS credit payments?

I check my metre every few hours and it goes down by a lot each time. I'm not getting any kind of payment, how it works is the council own the electric account by utila and I have to pay on utilas website as a guest.

It's really odd that you are topping up as a guest on a council account 

Unless you are in some kind of supported housing?

Most Councils and Housing Associations have an account in their name until someone moves in. Then on day 1 that person sets it up in their name.

If you are not paying your own account you could very well be paying someone else's debt.

Press 9 on the meter and it should scroll through the different screens for you

EssexHebridean

When you log in as a guest on the Utilita site is there anything there that tells you the unit rates and standing charge?

Regulars.  I'm right I believe in thinking  that Utilita are the ones who have a an option of zero SC and a higher unit rate for the first 2 units per day? I’m wondering if this is the case here, whether that could give the impression of fast disappearing credit if the meter checks are made inside those first two units? 

macman

HampshireH said:

gf3978114 said:

macman said:

After each top up of £x, how much does the credit on the meter increase by? If less than the value of the top up, then there is almost certainly previous debt on the meter that you are now paying for? Any debt should have been cleared when you moved in.
Tell us exactly what it says 'after the balance', or post a screenshot.
IIUC, you are not paying a supplier, but this is a private sub-meter and you are paying the LL or council for the supply?
Are you getting the £400 EBSS credit payments?

I check my metre every few hours and it goes down by a lot each time. I'm not getting any kind of payment, how it works is the council own the electric account by utila and I have to pay on utilas website as a guest.

It's really odd that you are topping up as a guest on a council account 

Unless you are in some kind of supported housing?

Most Councils and Housing Associations have an account in their name until someone moves in. Then on day 1 that person sets it up in their name.

If you are not paying your own account you could very well be paying someone else's debt.

Press 9 on the meter and it should scroll through the different screens for you

The OP said it was temporary council-provided housing, so presumably quite short term.
As suggested, we need a pic of the meter, and maybe one of the Utilita guest account.
OP, please can you post some actual kWh usage figures, say 24 hours apart? Saying 'it goes down quickly' doesn't really tell us much.
I think CAB were correct and there is old debt on the account, which obvs should have been cleared before the OP occupied the property. I have never encountered such a 'guest account' system before.

pochase

EssexHebridean said:

When you log in as a guest on the Utilita site is there anything there that tells you the unit rates and standing charge?

Regulars.  I'm right I believe in thinking  that Utilita are the ones who have a an option of zero SC and a higher unit rate for the first 2 units per day? I’m wondering if this is the case here, whether that could give the impression of fast disappearing credit if the meter checks are made inside those first two units? 

You are spot on, Utilita is the one who split the daily SC onto the first two KWh.

It just should not make a difference as long as OP uses more than 2KWh per day.

pochase

macman said:

HampshireH said:

gf3978114 said:

macman said:

After each top up of £x, how much does the credit on the meter increase by? If less than the value of the top up, then there is almost certainly previous debt on the meter that you are now paying for? Any debt should have been cleared when you moved in.
Tell us exactly what it says 'after the balance', or post a screenshot.
IIUC, you are not paying a supplier, but this is a private sub-meter and you are paying the LL or council for the supply?
Are you getting the £400 EBSS credit payments?

I check my metre every few hours and it goes down by a lot each time. I'm not getting any kind of payment, how it works is the council own the electric account by utila and I have to pay on utilas website as a guest.

It's really odd that you are topping up as a guest on a council account 

Unless you are in some kind of supported housing?

Most Councils and Housing Associations have an account in their name until someone moves in. Then on day 1 that person sets it up in their name.

If you are not paying your own account you could very well be paying someone else's debt.

Press 9 on the meter and it should scroll through the different screens for you

The OP said it was temporary council-provided housing, so presumably quite short term.
As suggested, we need a pic of the meter, and maybe one of the Utilita guest account.
OP, please can you post some actual kWh usage figures, say 24 hours apart? Saying 'it goes down quickly' doesn't really tell us much.
I think CAB were correct and there is old debt on the account, which obvs should have been cleared before the OP occupied the property. I have never encountered such a 'guest account' system before.

Here is the link to their guest system

https://my.utilita.co.uk/guest

macman

Unfortunately we can't see how much info that enables the 'guest' to see once logged in, but I suspect it's just to ID the account and make a payment to it?

gf3978114

Basically all I can do is make a payment as a guest I cant see other information. I pressed nine and after saying how much balance I have which seems to go down several pounds every few hours, it says IMP REG then "49441 KW h" then goes to other screens of different numbers that are also "KW h" then IMP RO and other IMPs? I have no idea what any of it means. Its supported temporary housing. Heres what the metre looks like 

theoretica

I think it would be worth you keeping track of more than just the £ - so you can compare how kWh goes up with how the £ goes down and check that it does relate to use in your flat and only your flat.   But I am sorry I am not sure if IMP REG is the right register to look at.  You also want to find out if you are paying the same for day and night use or if night use is cheaper, as it often is in properties with night storage heaters.

The meter is dated 2017 - if it shows about 50000 kWh in that time, that is a property using a lot of electricity - averaging £8 or £9 a day at present prices (and that is averaging summer and winter). 

gf3978114

theoretica said:

I think it would be worth you keeping track of more than just the £ - so you can compare how kWh goes up with how the £ goes down and check that it does relate to use in your flat and only your flat.   But I am sorry I am not sure if IMP REG is the right register to look at.  You also want to find out if you are paying the same for day and night use or if night use is cheaper, as it often is in properties with night storage heaters.

The meter is dated 2017 - if it shows about 50000 kWh in that time, that is a property using a lot of electricity - averaging £8 or £9 a day at present prices (and that is averaging summer and winter). 

I shouldnt be using that much. I dont have heating in or anything plugged in constantly. No hot water. Its ridiculous.