High Electricity Bills // Fault in the system?

cmacneil

Hi all -

I'm looking to get advice from other Electricity customers on a pricing matter...

I live in a 1 bed flat in Central London, in a purpose-built building. There are 2 adults in the flat and a 3rd occasionally visits. We each have a short shower in the morning, use heavy appliances (washing machine and dishwasher, which are less than 3 years old) in energy saving modes 2 - 3 times a week during Economy 7 hours. We cook most of our dinner meals at home. We heat with electricity only and don't use storage heaters all that often - when we do temps are around 21 degrees. All pretty normal stuff.

However, we've been hit with electricity bills of £450 and £320 per quarter. Although we could switch to another company initial quotes suggest we won't save more than about 5 - 10%. I'm beginning to think that there's something wrong with the meter reading the actual consumption rate in our flat.

So, I think:
* we're not using our equipment efficiently (although have implemented changes in behaviour aroudn light bulb usage, shutting off machines rather than keeping them on standby, etc)
* there is a fault in the system which is causing some electricity loss
* or we are paying for someone else's usage (either because it was a genuine mistake in cabling, or someone's pinching our power!)

First, does our usage as described above compare with your own, and ultimately the bills you receive?

Second, is there any way that we can get a trained technician in to do a quick audit on our flat to see whether we're actually using what we're paying for?

Thanks,
Chris

notbritishgas

cmacneil wrote: »

Hi all -

I'm looking to get advice from other Electricity customers on a pricing matter...

I live in a 1 bed flat in Central London, in a purpose-built building. There are 2 adults in the flat and a 3rd occasionally visits. We each have a short shower in the morning, use heavy appliances (washing machine and dishwasher, which are less than 3 years old) in energy saving modes 2 - 3 times a week during Economy 7 hours. We cook most of our dinner meals at home. We heat with electricity only and don't use storage heaters all that often - when we do temps are around 21 degrees. All pretty normal stuff.

However, we've been hit with electricity bills of £450 and £320 per quarter. Although we could switch to another company initial quotes suggest we won't save more than about 5 - 10%. I'm beginning to think that there's something wrong with the meter reading the actual consumption rate in our flat.

So, I think:
* we're not using our equipment efficiently (although have implemented changes in behaviour aroudn light bulb usage, shutting off machines rather than keeping them on standby, etc)
* there is a fault in the system which is causing some electricity loss
* or we are paying for someone else's usage (either because it was a genuine mistake in cabling, or someone's pinching our power!)

First, does our usage as described above compare with your own, and ultimately the bills you receive?

Second, is there any way that we can get a trained technician in to do a quick audit on our flat to see whether we're actually using what we're paying for?

Thanks,
Chris

You say you do not use the storage heaters a lot, does that mean you use other forms of electric heating, surely you do not sit and shake.
What is the breakdown of units used, ie how many at day rate and how many at night rate. You seem to be doing the right thing by using dishwasher etc on E7 rate.
I think it fair to say that heating a property by electricity is fairly expensive, but £450 for a one bed flat could be high. The number of people in the flat should not make too much difference as it costs as much to heat it for one as for three.

Compliance_Queen

Hi,
I had a similar problem earlier this year. Massive bill - did the same as you. When the letter changing my DDM from £56pm to £150pm arrived I did something about it!
Eon refused to listen at first. Being an assertive being I finally got to speak to someone who did listen. Turned out that my newly installed digital meter had been read incorrectly by the meter man. My (much larger) night time units had been charged at the more expensive daytime rate and vice-versa.
Many years ago when I lived in a flat my gas bill arrived and it was four figures!!! Now that one turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, meter wise. They had read the meter belonging to another flat as mine. Once again, I had an awful battle to get anyone to listen to me :mad: .
Challenge it!

spiro

Is the meter in the flat or a central location with other meters? If it is the latter you need to ensure the meter allocated to your flat is the correct one. If the meter is in the flat check which register is recording during the day and then check the current day and night readings against your bill to ensure they are being billed the correct way round.