Electricity Meter Increased by 5000kwh

[KaiserDahms]

Went to give my quartely meter reading and found that it has skyrocketed.

The figures for previous quarters have been

14745
15124
15354
15452
15696
20308

I'm at a loss as to what could have caused this increase, I live by myself and have gas heating and cooking appliances. The electricity is prett much only used for PC/Consoles, lights and charging my phone. the 203208 reading is from last night and when I came home it was still at the same reading until I turned lights and pc on etc about an hour ago and it's at 20309 now.

Power company are going to give me a call to discuss this but I have no idea how I could use that much in such a short time especially as I'm only home to sleep as I work long hours.

[KaiserDahms]

Not anyway that I can think of, it's a ground floor flat but I lock the windows. Nothing that I've got has changed, same consoles, pc, tv and fridge/freezer

[KaiserDahms]

it's a purpose built flat, been here for 2 years and never had anything like this happen. They've estimated the bill will be around £680...... I was hoping the meter could be broken but the fact it never changed overnight suggests that it's not faulty.

[KaiserDahms]

I turn off the boiler (which is gas) except for when I am doing washing and having a shower. The power company think it could be that I had given wrong readings previously, however I take pictures of it when I take note of them becaue it's hard to see it. I've got everything on that I'd have on but it's not making any difference to the meter reading.

[KaiserDahms]

The company think something seems odd as well, they've taken the reading for today and will call back in two weeks and see what it is then.

[KaiserDahms]

Nothing found as of yet, since the reading of 20308 it has gone to 20349 in two weeks. Told the power company this and they've just said I must have used something during the 3 months that used up 5000kwh.

[KaiserDahms]

After telling the company that I won't pay that bill and that I want to raise a complaint they've now cleared the bill and are going to install a new meter. They'll work out the average usage from what I've provided and bill me that.

[KaiserDahms]

Hi, an update on the situation. The power company have now change their mind about fitting a meter and charging an average of daily use. They are going to install a check meter and see if the meter is reading incorrectly or not. I have explained to them that it has read what I expect correctly since that spike however they are saying it's impossible to only use 2-4kwh a day and that the uk average is 20kwh and that I must have used an average of 53kwh a day. I have protested this and got a rather snotty reply back saying I must have been away when the meter readings were low and that the high readings were when I was living there...

A complaint has been logged and will be nearing the 40 day mark soon. The account details are in my landlords details so they're not going to pay and I'm not going to pay and the landlord is more than willing to take the company to small claims court as she's had problems with them in the past and found they usually give up before it goes that far.

I shall update you all on what happens when I hear back after they've inspected the check meter.

[KaiserDahms]

Sheepshanks said:

OFGEM say the median figure is 9kWH per day.

Where did you get that figure? I've tried looking at ofgem and can't see it. One point that the energy company has suggested is that for the last decade the meter has been undereading the usage and for some reason it decided to pick up the unregistered usage. No real way to prove this of course as it's going back years and if the equipment was unreliable I of course should not suffer due to that.

I checked the circuit breaker to see the what the fuses were. but soem seem very high so doubt the figures I have would indicate an amp usage higher than what the fuses could handle. Tried doing some maths to work out if the kwh usage would indicate a high amp figure that wouldn't be possible but I'm getting different figures all the time. Can someone explain how I could work it out if it's possible

Edited by KaiserDahms on Wednesday 10th February 21:21

[KaiserDahms]

it is indeed a digital meter and not one with a spinning disc

[KaiserDahms]

well I think the meter is faulty as it's dropped bfrom 20500 to 19000 so I doubt it's used negative kwh.

[KaiserDahms]

This is the meter reading from this morning.


And this is what it showed when we complained.