electric meter suspect fault or rogue practice

[Chrysalis]

My electric meter is going up at the rate in excess of 500+ units a month easily this amounts to a lot of electric.

To put into perspective I am home most of the day and I have a pc and fridge always on. The monitor for the pc is lcd tho and of course not always on turned off when not in use and I have a cpu that has idle low powered modes and hard drives turn off when idle.

My tv I dont use standby I turn off when not in use, and I am the only one living here is a 1 bed flat. Gas central heating and water. No washing machine and no dishwasher. Energy saving lightbulbs with only one on at a time usually but 2 maximum.

When I first moved in on proper meter readings not estimated I was paying approx £70 per quarter electric which seems about right compared to my old place and what people I know pay.

All of a sudden recently there has been 2 weird occurances.

1 - Somehow my electric company are telling me meter readings are been taken of the wrong meter (this came about when a recent meter reading was very high). Some of the previous meter readings especially the earlier ones were taken by me and one back in spring was taken from a proper meter reader guy whilst my summer bill was estimated. The reading I gave was about 1400 units higher then the previous reading so they asked for my meter serial number which didnt match so my bill got reset and my last bill was for £9 sound good?

2 - I have been watching my meter now since august in august it was 8958 units then in late sept 9300 units and now first week of oct 9725 units!!!!.

The meter reading they used for the reset of the bill was 8300 which is completely wrong as it wasnt even that low when I did the dispute so I have 2 problems here (a) getting the reading reset again to something like what it is now else my next bill is going to be silly (b) the fact my meter is logging extroadinary amounts of usage. So at 9p per unit I am looking at quarterly bills of approx £189 assuming 700 units a month up from £70 a month a year back and I am using less electric as back then I had a higher power usage pc and CRT monitor and was even using electric water heating whilst now I use gas and back then normal lightbulbs.

Property is house split into 3 flats, 2 of the meters are normal ones the other normal one is increasing but a much lower rate and they have a washing machine which is on at least an hour a day they also hoover a lot. The 3rd property is a slot meter.

I have already asked for the wiring to be looked at landlord says its not down to him to get it checked out so rang electric company and their response was only to readjust the bill which they seemed to have done incorrectly. Is 700 units a month a lot for what I have described?

I forgot to mention the labels above the meters are stickers hand written so I think its a possibility flat 1 (my flat) and flat 2 have been swapped round. This is why I wanted it checking out as flat 2s reading is in line with previous bills and usage and its also the one I believe they had logged as my meter.

[alferret]

In excess of £50 pm is a lot of electric, even for a family of 3\4.

If you have the old type meter where you can see the dial going round, what I would do is turn off every appliance in the house and remove all plugs, make sure all islators are off and nothing is on, then take a look at the meter and see if it is moving, you could do this in the evening when you know your neighbours are in and your fridge would be ok being if switched off for a long period.

If the meter you suspect is yours but not the one your being charged from doesnt increase and yet the other one is still moving then you should contact your supplier explain this and get them to send someone out.

[superbiatch]

Are you all electric Chrysalis? I am and my bills for similar sounding property at a rate of 10.49 per unit is approx £30-£35 a month - thats before adding heating on for winter. So i'm approx using 300 units a month and I'm out between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday, and often staying at friends at the weekend, hope that helps.

If you aren't all electric, i'd be getting in touch with someone and sharpish

I had this problem with britsh gas, my electric was sky high. I phoned them and all they said was they could only check into it after I'd done readings at around the same time everyday for 7 days. This didn't work out, and I even got intouch with the council who own the property and they sent out a electrician to check the meter and wireing, he found no faults. So I insisted that BG change my meter for pre-pay and now I don't seem to be paying as much, as a matter of fact, what I pay has dropped by almost a quarter!

You could ask your provider to test the meter, but there will be a charge if they don't find fault with it. BG wanted £50! The best bet is to have pre-pay installed this would give you an idea of wether it was the old meter, if the bills are still over the top, and you want to go back to a normal non-pre-pay you can, your provider won't like it but they will do it.

[lauzjp]

Originally Posted by Enuff

I had this problem with britsh gas, my electric was sky high. I phoned them and all they said was they could only check into it after I'd done readings at around the same time everyday for 7 days. This didn't work out, and I even got intouch with the council who own the property and they sent out a electrician to check the meter and wireing, he found no faults. So I insisted that BG change my meter for pre-pay and now I don't seem to be paying as much, as a matter of fact, what I pay has dropped by almost a quarter!

You could ask your provider to test the meter, but there will be a charge if they don't find fault with it. BG wanted £50! The best bet is to have pre-pay installed this would give you an idea of wether it was the old meter, if the bills are still over the top, and you want to go back to a normal non-pre-pay you can, your provider won't like it but they will do it.

My parents in law had the same problem. They were on the pay monthly scheme and BG wanted £90 per month! They came and did readings, but the bills just got bigger and scarier. So they got a card meter put in, and find that they are using nowhere even near half that amount.

[Alien]

I'm on a pre-pay card meter & I pay about £70-80 a month, but a large part of that is due to my air conditioner. When the weather gets really cold I only use about £30-£40 a month.

That's at 9.46p per unit & a fixed charge of £1.30/week, BTW.

I monitor every penny I put in the meter, what date, how much is on meter before I top-up ect.. you have to, if you don't you could be ripped off. Just how many people do check? I bet it aint many.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Enuff

The best bet is to have pre-pay installed this would give you an idea of wether it was the old meter, if the bills are still over the top, and you want to go back to a normal non-pre-pay you can, your provider won't like it but they will do it.

If you're on a credit meter DO NOT go onto a Prepay. You'll be ripped off on the per unit price and also you'll have a hard job getting your company to switch it back.

This is definitely not the best bet!

Do as Aferret suggests - switch off your main fuse/trip switch and check the meter after a couple of hours - you'll soon know if they're swapped over.

Even if it stops it doesn't mean that its correct, they do sometimes go wonky and need recalibrating.

Speak with your energy provider and ask them what their procedure is for over charging meters. They will have one - it may mean taking several readings but if it's a one bed flat and you're "using" that much energy they'll see somethings wrong.

---------- Post added at 19:40 ---------- Previous post was at 19:38 ----------

Originally Posted by lauzjp

My parents in law had the same problem. They were on the pay monthly scheme and BG wanted £90 per month! They came and did readings, but the bills just got bigger and scarier. So they got a card meter put in, and find that they are using nowhere even near half that amount.

Well I'm sorry but they must have had a dodgy credit meter. This isn't because they're paying less for the energy (prepay is notoriously expencive). They're probably not using any less either.

[Angua]

check you are not on a dual rate meter (charges over the top for the day rate & low for night time). Pre-pays are always the most expensive so it may be worth checking as has been said above but you always know how much things are costing. Only pay £75 for both Gas and electric ourselves and it is only water & central heating on the gas with a well used induction hob (not the cheapest to run but very safe) in a 3 bed semi.

[papa smurf]

you may have a fault turn every thing off at the plug, and see if meter is still showing a usage

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by alferret

In excess of £50 pm is a lot of electric, even for a family of 3\4.

If you have the old type meter where you can see the dial going round, what I would do is turn off every appliance in the house and remove all plugs, make sure all islators are off and nothing is on, then take a look at the meter and see if it is moving, you could do this in the evening when you know your neighbours are in and your fridge would be ok being if switched off for a long period.

If the meter you suspect is yours but not the one your being charged from doesnt increase and yet the other one is still moving then you should contact your supplier explain this and get them to send someone out.

A quicker alternative to turning everything off would be to turn off those things that should be powered down (like computers) and then flip the master switch on your fuseboard. The meter should stop moving at that point.

---------- Post added at 18:08 ---------- Previous post was at 18:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

So at 9p per unit I am looking at quarterly bills of approx £189 assuming 700 units a month up from £70 a month a year back and I am using less electric as back then I had a higher power usage pc and CRT monitor and was even using electric water heating whilst now I use gas and back then normal lightbulbs.

I'm a bit confused at the maths here 70/month = 210 1/4 which is more than 189 a quarter.

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I forgot to mention the labels above the meters are stickers hand written so I think its a possibility flat 1 (my flat) and flat 2 have been swapped round. This is why I wanted it checking out as flat 2s reading is in line with previous bills and usage and its also the one I believe they had logged as my meter.

Occhams Razor

Originally Posted by papa smurf

you may have a fault turn every thing off at the plug, and see if meter is still showing a usage

weed farm, next door, is a possible, of course

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Do as Aferret suggests - switch off your main fuse/trip switch and check the meter after a couple of hours - you'll soon know if they're swapped over.

This is what I have done.

Dip switches in kitched turned em all off nothing electrical in house worked left like it for an hour, the meter in question increased by 8 units other meter didnt move.

I then turned them back on and turned my pc on and went to the meter cupboard switched of the switch there and checked my pc still turned on.

Now I did something a bit stupid, when I rang up in the morning after I spoke to them I realised the 8300 they used was still based on the meter I think is mine in other words the one that is really correct, but they have escalated it to the meter team and I asked the guy when they coming out he just said they will fix it probably meaning they are now going to put me on the meter which isnt mine I reckon.

So this morning (sat) I will now ring up again saying I made mistake and other is mine so it gets changed back since clearly my landlord doesnt care, the electric company dont care enough to come out I guess they just want a meter to bill off any will do for them. I dont know if I am going to swap the flat labels back as they have been ignored by them anyway but will get the meter # changed back again.

I can understand people saying my bill isnt that high but understand this is not a family home I live on my own and dont use electric heating. My sister for a comparison has a lodger owns a house and pays more per unit then me and her bill for a quarter was under £50. My unit price has dropped since I moved in so for my bill to more then double since then its not sense at all.

[lauzjp]

there was a story on the news yesterday about a woman where the street light outside was going on and off whenever she switched her kettle on

[Chrysalis]

Is done now back on the other meter hopefully. Approx 150 units over the 8300 reset currently but thats fine. I am now considering going on that npower economy7 tariff mentioned in the other thread where it gets cheap after 748 units a year which for me I think is about 4-6 months worth.