Meter readings

Ildhund

You said you'd become conscious of bills. That is an admirable state to have reached that many others would be well served to aspire to. 

On the latest bill, you should see a detailed breakdown of how it was calculated: the readings used, the differences between readings (giving the consumption) and the unit price paid for consumption. If there is no difference in the unit rates, there's nothing to bother about. If there is a difference, then whether the low/night consumption is being charged at the low/night unit rate or not becomes vital, as EssexHebridean's example shows. So check that first, then come back and tell us what you found. There will be plenty more good advice to follow ....

If you need help with deciphering the bill, post a photo of it with personal details obscured.

Strummer22

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

What makes you think they're the wrong way around?

For example, Reading 1 might be the day reading, or it might be night; there seems to be no convention as to how all the different meters are configured.

If you look at the meter, it should show you which rate is currently active, somehow or other, but errrr, there's far more clever folk on here, if you need help with that.

My meter has a "low" and "normal" number. They also show on the app which has the word night next to low and day next to normal. However, for some reason my parents have been putting the low into the normal and the normal into the low so it looks like were using way more energy at night than during the day. Im really not sure how this has happened.

The point of Economy 7 for example, is to have 7 hours of cheaper electricity, through the night, athough exact timings may vary.

It's a tariff designed for people with storage heaters, that heat up on that cheaper rate at night, and discharge the heat during the day.

If the majority of their usage is at night, and they're on Economy 7, then that's excellent, and is how it is intended to be used. 

Edited to add, sorry @Keep_pedalling, I mostly just repeated what you said. 

Sorry dont mean to sound rude but not sure howelse to phrase it but what does the heating have to do with the initial post?

Just to confirm, their property is heated by electricity, right? As explained by other posters, having electric heating, specifically storage heaters, would be the most common reason to have differing day and night readings (at least, until the advent of electric vehicle tariffs, which didn't exist 14 years ago). 

If the property is heated by gas central heating, that begs the question as to why there are day and night readings in the first place.

FrugaiMacDugal

Going by OP user name, QuantumCactus42, could be Quantum HHR heaters.

FrugaiMacDugal

Strummer22 said:

If the property is heated by gas central heating, that begs the question as to why there are day and night readings in the first place.

Could be there was electric storage heating previously, now removed, and now being billed on a single rate..

QuantumCactus42, what are readings now, and readings on last statement, is the rate the same for low and normal?

amibovvered

If the property is heated by gas central heating, that begs the question as to why there are day and night readings in the first place.

The bungalow I currently live in was originally electric only, heated by night storage heaters and on an Economy 7 tariff.  The vendor had gas central heating installed about 14 years ago. I purchased the property in November 2022 - it was still on an Economy 7 tariff and the vendor had commented on how it was cheaper to run the dishwasher etc at night.  I had the tariff amended to the same unit cost for both rates - I tend to prefer cooking/watching TV/using the lights etc during the day! I don't think my vendor had realised that in order to have the cheaper night rate he was paying more for the daytime rate!

QuantumCactus42

EssexHebridean said:

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

What makes you think they're the wrong way around?

For example, Reading 1 might be the day reading, or it might be night; there seems to be no convention as to how all the different meters are configured.

If you look at the meter, it should show you which rate is currently active, somehow or other, but errrr, there's far more clever folk on here, if you need help with that.

My meter has a "low" and "normal" number. They also show on the app which has the word night next to low and day next to normal. However, for some reason my parents have been putting the low into the normal and the normal into the low so it looks like were using way more energy at night than during the day. Im really not sure how this has happened.

The point of Economy 7 for example, is to have 7 hours of cheaper electricity, through the night, athough exact timings may vary.

It's a tariff designed for people with storage heaters, that heat up on that cheaper rate at night, and discharge the heat during the day.

If the majority of their usage is at night, and they're on Economy 7, then that's excellent, and is how it is intended to be used. 

Edited to add, sorry @Keep_pedalling, I mostly just repeated what you said. 

Sorry dont mean to sound rude but not sure howelse to phrase it but what does the heating have to do with the initial post?

As explained above - most commonly Economy 7 meters, so those that have a peak (daytime) and off-peak (night-time) rate are used by those who use night storage heaters for their heating. For example where I used to live we had that heating - that mean that of our roughly 4500 kWh annual electricity use, around 75% of this was used at night because that was when our heaters and out water tank heated up ready for the day ahead. 

An example:
If someone used 100kWh a week - that might mean that they were using 25 of those units at the peak rate (let's say 20p for arguments sake) and 75 at night - 10p. That will see a weekly bill of £5 for daytime use, and £7.50 for night time. Total bill = £12.50 
If the readings were entered the wrong way round, that would mean the person would be charged for 75 at daytime = £15.00, and 25 at night-time = £2.50. Total bill = £17.50  This is why the general assumption that if E7 readings are entered back to front, it will mean money back to the customer, not additional payments being needed. 

How do your parents heat their home?
How do they heat their water?

Ahh I see. Thank you for your explanation! We dont actually heat the flat. The heaters are permanently off to save on costs. We live in a 2 bedroom flat, everyone is out of the house all day, everything is off on the plug and we dont have any radiators on and use extra blankets instead. We still somehow spend around 4000kWh annually. I believe we have a water tank which heats the water.

QuantumCactus42

FrugaiMacDugal said:

Going by OP user name, QuantumCactus42, could be Quantum HHR heaters.

Unfortunately it is just a ChatGPT generated username. 

QuantumCactus42

Ildhund said:

You said you'd become conscious of bills. That is an admirable state to have reached that many others would be well served to aspire to. 

On the latest bill, you should see a detailed breakdown of how it was calculated: the readings used, the differences between readings (giving the consumption) and the unit price paid for consumption. If there is no difference in the unit rates, there's nothing to bother about. If there is a difference, then whether the low/night consumption is being charged at the low/night unit rate or not becomes vital, as EssexHebridean's example shows. So check that first, then come back and tell us what you found. There will be plenty more good advice to follow ....

If you need help with deciphering the bill, post a photo of it with personal details obscured.

So I dont think there is an issue with the actual numbers. Just the order they were inputted. One of our bills for example has 901 at night and 113 for the day from the period of Jan til March. When I look at the meter tab on the app, the daily consumption has been added to the night consumptions and vice verse so what I think our actual usage is, is 901 for the day and 113 for the night. Does this make sense? Sorry for my lack of knowledge about this but I really appreciate the support everyone has given! These terms are all new and trying to get my brain around it is taking some time!

QuantumCactus42

Strummer22 said:

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

QuantumCactus42 said:

vic_sf49 said:

What makes you think they're the wrong way around?

For example, Reading 1 might be the day reading, or it might be night; there seems to be no convention as to how all the different meters are configured.

If you look at the meter, it should show you which rate is currently active, somehow or other, but errrr, there's far more clever folk on here, if you need help with that.

My meter has a "low" and "normal" number. They also show on the app which has the word night next to low and day next to normal. However, for some reason my parents have been putting the low into the normal and the normal into the low so it looks like were using way more energy at night than during the day. Im really not sure how this has happened.

The point of Economy 7 for example, is to have 7 hours of cheaper electricity, through the night, athough exact timings may vary.

It's a tariff designed for people with storage heaters, that heat up on that cheaper rate at night, and discharge the heat during the day.

If the majority of their usage is at night, and they're on Economy 7, then that's excellent, and is how it is intended to be used. 

Edited to add, sorry @Keep_pedalling, I mostly just repeated what you said. 

Sorry dont mean to sound rude but not sure howelse to phrase it but what does the heating have to do with the initial post?

Just to confirm, their property is heated by electricity, right? As explained by other posters, having electric heating, specifically storage heaters, would be the most common reason to have differing day and night readings (at least, until the advent of electric vehicle tariffs, which didn't exist 14 years ago). 

If the property is heated by gas central heating, that begs the question as to why there are day and night readings in the first place.

We only have electricity. No gas. But we also never turn on the heating at home anyways.

QuantumCactus42

FrugaiMacDugal said:

Strummer22 said:

If the property is heated by gas central heating, that begs the question as to why there are day and night readings in the first place.

Could be there was electric storage heating previously, now removed, and now being billed on a single rate..

QuantumCactus42, what are readings now, and readings on last statement, is the rate the same for low and normal?

The actual readings themselves dont look wrong. The numbers are all currect. Its just that when they were inputted on the app, they were inputted the wrong way around.