£1,000 electric bill :(

AdladUK said:
Thank you for the info. I think at this point I accept the readings as correct and I also accept I owe this amount, however it's just a case of is my equipment faulty, or is someone tapping into it, because the usuage is just way to much for what I do
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Don't pay it until it's sorted, if you do and it is found to be something wrong your end it'll be almost impossible to get your dosh back in any reasonable time scale.
 
I forgot to mention, I pay about £30 for electricity and about £30 for gas p/m trough the year. I don't think 1 person could use more electricity than 60-70 p/m even though everything was electric.
 
JBuk said:
How old is the meter, have you checked it to see what units it reads in? are you sure it's not the gas meter that's being read :p
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I'd say about 2 years old. I'll check it again to make sure what type of denomination the units are in, but I'm 99% sure it matches. There is no gas in the building
 
19 units a day is a lot and your bill is about 27 units a day.

I will say that in our house at weekends and both of us in all day I have seen 25 units used (we have an owl meter) so it is possible but you do seem to be using a lot.
 
Greebo said:
19 units a day is a lot and your bill is about 27 units a day.

I will say that in our house at weekends and both of us in all day I have seen 25 units used (we have an owl meter) so it is possible but you do seem to be using a lot.
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I figure that the difference between the 19 and 27 is winter, although yeah it's stupid. Way too much given my situation.

I'll be sure to bring this up with Katie next time we speak :D
 
AdladUK said:
These guys took a reading on the 19th Aug of 59,663. I just took a reading myself an hour ago of 59,898.

That means in 12 days I've used 235 units, so about 19 units a day.

Does that sound right?
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Sounds way too high. I just check our bill (2 people, 2 bed flat) and between April and July we used 520 units. That's more like 6 units a day.
 
Do you have some kind of electric water heating system that you might be leaving on 24/7?
 
Do you have any friends who know about electrics? maybe you could get them round to check why your flat is eating power
 
Im liasing with a different supplier on a similar issue atm, they REDUCED my direct debit instead of increasing it on the back of some meter readings as they accidently only looked at the Gas, and not the combined, thus making it seem I was massively in credit. This came to light when i moved out ~4 months later and i had a bill for £300 despite being told on previous bills i was in credit!

They're allowing me ot pay it back over 3 months but I'm pushing for a concession of some variety as gesture of good will, as it was definitely their mistake that caused me to be behind, not a lack of communication (ie not enough meter readings)

Tom.

PS we used 17 units per day of electricity averaged over 228 days, and that was with 3 people in a house. I had a plasma tv on a few hours a day, a PC on 24/7 and for about half of it a dual quad core xeon server on 24/7, and my "lodger" had similar (lcd tv and a dual p4 server iirc) so not very light users really.
 
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I had an issue at a previous house of unusually high electric bills. I asked the supplier about checking to see if their was a problem with the meter. They told me that they would check it and if they found a fault, there would be no cost to this. If there wasn't a fault, I would have to pay for this service. I can't remember the cost but it wasn't a trivial amount of money. I think it was about £150.
 
average 2/3 bed with 2/3 occupants is going to average about 10 units a day, a bit more if its an elec only property.

Either youve got a lot of stuff in your flat just burning through electric or the meter is faulty.

Call spow and tell them you think the meter is faulty - you may have to call in with reads a week or two apart though for them to check before they send anyone out.
 
As a guide I live in a 2 bedroom house, 2 people, with 2 PCs on 24/7 and various other gadgets (PS3, 360 etc etc) on randomly. I just looked and I am averaging just over 800 units a quarter.

I would check to see if its not being stolen.
 
Thanks guys for all the advice. I really appreciate it.

So the summary from what I can gather is as follows...

- I do owe the £1,000 and the readings they've taken are correct.

- I am obliged to pay this amount in full, but they will most likely be willing to do some sort of payment plan.

However...

- My electricity usage is way too high, about 2 or 3 times what it should be (for a 1 bed).

- It's possible that either the meter is faulty, or some how I'm getting charged for some one else's usage.

Oh and I also need to buy one of the OWL things. They look good :D
 
Same as above really, I live in a 2 bed flat with 2 PC's running, Tv's DVD's sound systems the lot, my monthly DD for gas an electricity is only £45.

And i'm one of the least energy conscious people you will ever meet. Everything on all the time.
 
Can you borrow a electricity meter, turn everything off and see if something still is drawing current, we have a Wattson, when I first got it I turned everything off an. d it went to zero, and gradually turned thing on to get a guide on how much gets burnt. This way you will be able to tell if someone sapping your electric. Is it a house / flat conversion? sometimes rings get mixed up you may be paying everyones HW & CH

Stuff on standby doesn't use loads in fact I turned everything I normal have on and it didn't register a £, my bathroom halogen downlighters eat electricity, when the wifes ironing and drying clothes and the dinners in the oven and it's mid winter turn the monitor off it's depressing
 
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