Is my electricity meter wrong?

lynz412

Hi there, in June 2007 for electricity bill from EDF for £510 for the quarter, got one hell of a shock and called them. They told me that we hadn't had actual meter read for a year so it was a catch up. I thought that was fair enough and paid the bill, then in Ocober got a bill for £220 and that was also an actual, so assumed that was correct and back on track. Then in February 2008 for another electricity bill for £489!!

Looked on the front of my bill where there is a little graph that shows the usage.

This quarter last year we used 31.4 units a day, last quater we used 32.6 units and then this quater we used 62.4 units per day.

Nothing has changed in the house etc and i called EDF who said that they would send someone round to check the meter and that they would have to justify to me the massive jump.

How do they check this? How can i prove that i haven't used all the electricity?

Have compared this with my neighbours usage and we have the same size house and the same amount of occupants and we have used almost 6 times more.

Please help.

Pixie28

62.4units per day is a heck of a lot. Are you all electric ie heating etc?

For your own info, you could monitor your usage every day for a week or so by taking a reading at the same time each evening and see how it averages out.

lynz412

No, our heating and cooker is all gas!!!!

frostyspice

There's no immersion heater turned on by mistake, is there?

Cardew

We get scores of posts here stating their meter is faulty; and they never are.

However this might just be the exception.

It is simply impossible to use that amount of electricity(22000kWh) pa with gas for heating.

Other than the faulty meter, it can only be the meter read incorrectly(is it digital or with the dials that run clockwise and anticlockwise - the latter are easy to read incorrectly)

One other thought(and I am not joking) is the street lights wired through your meter.

It should be easy to check the meter yourself . Turn off everything(including fridges/freezer) and watch your meter and then turn on items.

ScoobyCanDo

Cardew is spot on again ................ most meters are OK (but then again a FEW can be out?)


First, if you want your 'METER' checked .................. it's going to cost you, as they will send an engineer out to your home with a replacement meter, then they send your old meter off to a test centre and wait for the results to come back.


If it's not proven faulty .................. YOU pay the bill for swapping & testing the meter!!!


So it pays to check things out yourself ................. start as Cardew says, then go out and buy yourself a Plug-In Energy Meter as sold by Maplins :-


http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343&criteria=Energy Meter&doy=21m3


[Can be found cheaper on Ebay??????????]


Next test all your big electrical items, one at a time and build up a record of your daily usage. Next compare them to your actual meter usage and see if you still want your meter tested?


One thing I have seen, is a faulty Immersion Heater ............... faulty wiring meant it STUCK ON ............ 24/7 and at 3kWh, it racked up a 70+ Unit usage a day ................ until it was fixed (only thing was the owner was a bit stupid, as they failed to notice how hot their water was all the time!!! ........... probably thought the Hot Water Fairies had paid them a visit!).


Anyway as Martin says ......................... IT PAYS TO CHECK, so get checking.

===============================================

Scooby :cool:

Joyful

Scooby are you not referring to testing a gas meter? I believe they will arrange first an accuracy test for electric then if it proves faulty they will install a check meter to run side by side to see how wrong the meter is. If the meter is found to be faulty then there will be a charge.

ScoobyCanDo

Joyful wrote: »

If the meter is found to be faulty then there will be a charge.

I am now ............???

__________________CONFUSED!

___________________________________________

But NO to your first question.:D