This is getting ridiculous (energy prices - Strictly NO referrals!)

[Werewolf]

ok, I think we need to be very very careful on this line of discussion as we do not want people getting ideas and hints about bypassing their meters, besides it being flat out illegal there is a huge risk in doing so even if someone claims to know what they're doing.

And i'm saying this from the pov of being a moderator, not wanting any law breaking to be encouraged, and having woken up one morning to the lovely smell of the incoming mains cable shorting out (not I stress due to tampering, just age, but still sobering to realise what can go wrong).

 

[Minusorange]

ok, I think we need to be very very careful on this line of discussion as we do not want people getting ideas and hints about bypassing their meters, besides it being flat out illegal there is a huge risk in doing so even if someone claims to know what they're doing.

And i'm saying this from the pov of being a moderator, not wanting any law breaking to be encouraged, and having woken up one morning to the lovely smell of the incoming mains cable shorting out (not I stress due to tampering, just age, but still sobering to realise what can go wrong).

I'm waiting for the Darwin award for the person who decides to fudge with their electricity and gas at the same time, no doubt it will happen if things get bad

 

[gEd]

Who reads meters these days though? The last time a man actually came to read mine must have been at least 10 years ago. Which is probably what they're gambling on.

Here in SW London, they come around about once a year.

 

[silversurfer]

Before risking a life from dodgy wiring, just buying coal for a stove is way easier to do & anthracite glows blue on its flames kinda bling as its mostly carbon simple cheap energy; long term some nice solar panels. Really no need for any extremes unless to grow drugs under sunlamps then its rip anyhow.
Years ago I lived in a coal miners house, very cheap setup all ran off 1 fire in the lounge. The radiators, the water everything got heated by some clever heat capture in the chimney. It was only post war build nothing close to fancy but no matter how poor people were that house had energy. now we struggle ?

 

[Werewolf]

I'm waiting for the Darwin award for the person who decides to fudge with their electricity and gas at the same time, no doubt it will happen if things get bad

I've read about it happening in the past, often the bypasses were very badly done, and sometimes discovered by the fire service.

Here in SW London, they come around about once a year.

I suspect they do physical inspections semi routinely in areas that are more likely to do it/businesses more likely to do it (so poorer areas, and businesses you'd expect to have a high usage*).

Personally I suspect these days the power supply networks probably know how much each substation is providing, and can probably compare that to billing for properties, then target customers supplied by a substation that has a "mystery drain" above a certain level (and make sure the substation isn't faulty).

I don't know if it's the case here, but apparently in the US at least there used to be a bonus paid by the supply companies in some areas for any gas/electrical engineer who spotted and reported potential bypasses (when confirmed), and one of the standard tests for your boiler during a service is from memory to check that it's consumption is within it's specific limit over a period of time, presumably because it demonstrates it's not using too much gas (or you've got a leak) but it will also show if the meter is reading slow and means the engineer sees the meters.



*IIRC places that do cooking used to have a higher chance because gas/electricity were a major cost.

 

[scarps]

A late family friend spent her heating allowance on Christmas presents. Her son kept telling her not to do this. Fell on deaf ears.

This gives me an idea, I might ask for a months electric as a christmas present.

 

[Werewolf]

Before risking a life from dodgy wiring, just buying coal for a stove is way easier to do & anthracite glows blue on its flames kinda bling as its mostly carbon simple cheap energy; long term some nice solar panels. Really no need for any extremes unless to grow drugs under sunlamps then its rip anyhow.
Years ago I lived in a coal miners house, very cheap setup all ran off 1 fire in the lounge. The radiators, the water everything got heated by some clever heat capture in the chimney. It was only post war build nothing close to fancy but no matter how poor people were that house had energy. now we struggle ?

One of the reasons we don't use coal for residential heating these days is that it's very inefficient to burn at a "residential" level, and you don't have anything like the same level of filtration of the exhaust that you do at the commercial plants.

There is also the thing with coal miners that they often used to get at least part of their pay as a set amount of coal per year (and that carried over to their pension), so basically they were insulated from any increase in it's price as they would get something like 10 tons per year, so it made sense to use it to heat everything they could.

I think at times people forget exactly how bad it used to be when people used to routinely use coal and wood for heating and cooking in towns and cities, it was literally a killer.

 

[silversurfer]

Long term reliance on coal would be a step backwards (we dont produce it anymore either), but to adjust a heating bill for next winter to a reasonable level its the simplest thing. Anyone in Scotland for example should be using the interest free loan offered to get solar, no real reason not to. For example if inflation were to be 10% above that 0% rate for 10 years it would equate to 4.2k cost for a 10k system fitted, thats as good a bargain as your'll ever get. I'm not sure of all the terms but would appear a very good idea. I'm well aware this weakness in currency is ongoing so very likely inflation is not going away also

 

[arknor]

Who reads meters these days though? The last time a man actually came to read mine must have been at least 10 years ago. Which is probably what they're gambling on.

I have a crappy credit meter and they seem to get automatic readings everytime I top up with the key, sometimes I would't need to top up again for months which seemed to be a red flag.
I would get letters saying they were worried I hadn't topped up in awhile, blah blah if your struggling get in touch.

My reader according to the website had about 6 manual readings done a year, probably just people checking I hadn't manipulated the meter.

 

[Richie]

Long term reliance on coal would be a step backwards (we dont produce it anymore either), but to adjust a heating bill for next winter to a reasonable level its the simplest thing. Anyone in Scotland for example should be using the interest free loan offered to get solar, no real reason not to. For example if inflation were to be 10% above that 0% rate for 10 years it would equate to 4.2k cost for a 10k system fitted, thats as good a bargain as your'll ever get. I'm not sure of all the terms but would appear a very good idea. I'm well aware this weakness in currency is ongoing so very likely inflation is not going away also

My current annual usage for electricity is 1100kwh and, at current pricing, is costing me around £306 annually for the units (27.8p/kWh) so it would take a very long time for me to balance that cost out before saving money even with electricity rises.

The above £306 does not include the standing charge as, correct me if I'm wrong, this is still paid even if you have solar?

 

[wesimmo]

Who reads meters these days though? The last time a man actually came to read mine must have been at least 10 years ago. Which is probably what they're gambling on.

Everybody does.

I'd say there are at least 600-750k meters that need physically reading every week.

It's also less about the power companies wanting to read them, more that they are required to get X amount of reads over 1 or 2 years by the regulator.

 

[theone8181]

Everybody does.

I'd say there are at least 600-750k meters that need physically reading every week.

It's also less about the power companies wanting to read them, more that they are required to get X amount of reads over 1 or 2 years by the regulator.

Not wanting to go off topic, but if you had panels fitted and the meter was inside, how would they no you had panels and not this dodgy bypass, do you reckon they'd drive by, see panels and just chalk it upto that?

 

[wesimmo]

Not wanting to go off topic, but if you had panels fitted and the meter was inside, how would they no you had panels and not this dodgy bypass, do you reckon they'd drive by, see panels and just chalk it upto that?

You've got to remember who does meter reading, basically they're not massively well paid and are incentivised/managed against doing volume. The feet on the street basically want to get around as many jobs as possible and get as many reads as possible.

So for the vast majority of cases, the reader will just do the bare minimum to get a read or be able to justify not accessing the meter. And, as with any industry, some will not even do that and just make stuff up while sitting on the bog at home. Though they tend to be picked up and 'managed out'.

 

[gpuerrilla]

You can also submit a reading yourself, you don't want an estimate.

 

[gpuerrilla]

The above £306 does not include the standing charge as, correct me if I'm wrong, this is still paid even if you have solar?

Yes. However solar grid-tied setups do export back to the grid. Current state its only about 5p a unit. If you have had solar a while and got in on the FIT tariff you could offset some of the costs like standing charge.

 

[wesimmo]

You can also submit a reading yourself, you don't want an estimate.

Yep, power companies love customers sending in the reads, it's the cheapest option for them, especially now they have online portals and dont have to take the calls, they don't have to install smart meters with all the cost (though again regulatory targets mean they will continue to push for roll out) and they dont have the expense of sending a person round. If you submit regular self reads, you'll likely never see a meter reader.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

My meter was physically read a few times in fair quick succession a few months after we moved here. I can only speculate that’s because the people that livers here chundered through energy and we just didn’t.

Based on the meter installation date and the reading it’s reading when we took over, I reckon we halved their usage, if not more.

It obviously triggered something to have readers out in succession.

 

[413x]

Mine was read because I hadn't read it in 6 months.

I bet they wish they hadn't with the credit I now have!

 

[gpuerrilla]

I don't think it works like that. Meter readers are contractual either on behalf of the supplier or employed direct by supplier. I guess they can send a person if they want someone to be busy instead of sitting in an ASDA car park, however it cannot be cost effective to send multiple people to the one address over and over within the same week/month. Might be fine in a town or urban area, but as you go rural your just wasting fuel and man hours.

 

[Pottsey]

Yes. However solar grid-tied setups do export back to the grid. Current state its only about 5p a unit. If you have had solar a while and got in on the FIT tariff you could offset some of the costs like standing charge.

Not just some of the costs but many with solar FIT tariffs offset the entire cost. Even with a hot tub which is an energy hog I expect many people will even with gas + electric +standing charge combined get a £0 bill in for the next bill if we keep getting nice days like now. Even if it doesnt make £0 I expect it will be so low Solar FIT tariffs users wont have to worry about the increased energy costs at the moment.