Electricity problem

[Barmaid]

Not entirely sure where to post this so here goes.

My elderly grandparents (86 and 85) have lived in their property for 20 years. Their electricity is on two different rates - a day rate and a night economy 7 rate. For years, they have used more at night (because they put their night storage heaters on during the night to store the electricity for their heating). Recently, they had a new meter installed and at the same time some new people moved in next door to their semi detached property.

Historically, their usage on the day rate and the night rate has been consistent. However, recently, their usage on the day rate has shot up and their usage on the night rate has shot down. This means that their electricity bill has increased dramatically. On the October 2010 bill (before new meter) the usage for the previous 12 months was 10949kw and the estimate for electricity for the next 12 months was £799. On the latest bill dated Jan 2011 the usage for the last 12 months was 18000kw. The estimate for the next 12 months is now approx £2,300.

Cont'd

[whiskeryron]

Sorry this won't help your grandparents,but it illustrates just how easy it is for these service companies to make mistakes. Some years ago we were told by the gas board that our meter was very old & was going to be replaced it was replaced & everything was in order (we thought),we then started getting huge (& I mean huge) gas bills,we got in touch with the gas people & were told that everything had been checked & was correct I then started checking the meter every Sat morning & working out how much had been used x price per unit & it was miles out. To cut a long story short the answer was that our previous meter was in imperial measurement & had to be converted to metric to work out gas used & the new meter was a metric one, which we discovered was still being converted to work out gas used, & so was roughly doubling the price of gas used. We were fortunate in that their offices were fairly local & I was able to go there & demand to see someone in authority. We had all overpayments refunded + £200 for inconvenience & travel expenses. Ron.

[rowanwitch]

had to help a friends parents in similar situation it was a case of the meters being connected in reverse i.e the night meter wat recording the day use and the day meter recording the night use...it took a lot of letters and recorded phonecalls eventually they sent someone round with half a brain and i was able to show him what was happening in the interim I told friends parents to pay the same as the equivalent quarter the previous year plus 10% this more than covered the real usage which they finally admitted they couldn't recalculate and all but the last 3 months was written off....During this time I moved from helpful concerned, throug facetious, sarcastic to you wouldn't want to meet this woman in person but eventually with scattergun letters to all departments and trading standards and the ombudsman and the entire board of directors I ground them down......just don't go away at least one letter a week ....it has worked with Severn Trent, Barclays bank, Sky TV, BT and Birmingham City Council too the MP is worth a letter too

[whiskeryron]

rowanwitch, I live just north of Birmingham ( just in staffs) if I should see you I shall avoid all eye contact. Ron ♥

[The Builder]

BM, I wouldn't even try to top all the good advice you've had on here......... but, being a practical guy, I think you need to start at the root of the problem. It needs a decent electrician to inspect the present set-up. It's not difficult. I could do it myself.
Within a short time, he'd be able to tell you which circuit is on which meter........ and exactly what the clock times are for each period.
There are various "flow meters" that can detect whether a circuit is being used at any time as well.
This sounds complicated, but it wouldn't be to him.
Banging heads with Utility Companies and Statutory bodies is always an uphill struggle. If you're armed with the right technical info from the start, you'd be in a very strong position.
Good luck

[BRIGHT SPARK]

TB is correct...any decent sparks will be able to determine your Kwh usage...or you could do it yourself with a energy monitor..about £25..or sometimes free from Eon.Armed with this info pay them a visit.We have done this for several clients ...both domestic and industrial with some success.However some clients with electric heating do use an awful lot of energy..ie 3bed 3 kids busy house £1900pa before the last increase.good luck

[Nosha123]

Hi BM

Is it possible the new meter has been wired in the wrong way round? SO night usage is being read as day???

Can someone take regular readings from their meter? Say 8am and 8pm each day.. then see if the night usage is higher or not... as if they are frugal it should be easier to see when its being used...
Also - calculate what the kWh are based on the rate they are paying...

Another good forum I have found (apart from this lovely one) is http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com
There is an electric bill section! With lots of experts who could help!

[Nosha123]

Oh and my Elec supplier has made mistakes.. by entering the day and night readings in the wrong way. Resulted in a bill for MINUS £600.

Unfortunately for me I queried it.. it should have been +£600

Bummer