Faulty electricity meter?
Discussion
Short version : I think the electricity meter in my parents house is faulty. Recently bills seem to be going through the roof.
Long version : the electricity bills at my dad's house were on direct debit and then last June for some stupid reason British Gas started double debiting twice each month. This resulted in multiple annoying phone calls explaining the problem, BG customer services saying they understood and would correct it the following month and then the same damn thing happening again. in the end I told them to cancel the DDs and we'd pay on receipt of bill.
That seemed to work fine until recently. Previously as the DDs were taken in equal instalments they never noticed monthly peaks and troughs. However the bill for this January jumped from £150 to £300. We checked the meter and the readings were correct so assumed that they had been just using more heating during the day.
Fast forward to March and the bill for February is £600. there is no way in god's green earth that my mum and dad have used that much electricirty in one month. so I checked the meter yesterday evening and this morning. Overnight it's used 10Kwh. This seems ridiculously high to me so the next step is to call somebody out. My questions were
1. is it possible for a meter to just "go faulty"
2. is this a common occurrence
3. How do "they" check if the meter is faulty?
4. How do we go about getting a refund if my parents have overpaid?
All advice appreciated
Long version : the electricity bills at my dad's house were on direct debit and then last June for some stupid reason British Gas started double debiting twice each month. This resulted in multiple annoying phone calls explaining the problem, BG customer services saying they understood and would correct it the following month and then the same damn thing happening again. in the end I told them to cancel the DDs and we'd pay on receipt of bill.
That seemed to work fine until recently. Previously as the DDs were taken in equal instalments they never noticed monthly peaks and troughs. However the bill for this January jumped from £150 to £300. We checked the meter and the readings were correct so assumed that they had been just using more heating during the day.
Fast forward to March and the bill for February is £600. there is no way in god's green earth that my mum and dad have used that much electricirty in one month. so I checked the meter yesterday evening and this morning. Overnight it's used 10Kwh. This seems ridiculously high to me so the next step is to call somebody out. My questions were
1. is it possible for a meter to just "go faulty"
2. is this a common occurrence
3. How do "they" check if the meter is faulty?
4. How do we go about getting a refund if my parents have overpaid?
All advice appreciated
It was originally a 4-bed detached but it was extended years ago when we all lived at home. Its now 7 bed/3 bath but most of the house isnt used.
When it was extended they had a new fuseboard and meter put in for the extension, there's also a separate meter for the economy 7. Tbh I think even they've forgotten which parts of the house run off which meter.
When it was extended they had a new fuseboard and meter put in for the extension, there's also a separate meter for the economy 7. Tbh I think even they've forgotten which parts of the house run off which meter.
You can do basic checks, like check the meter stops when everything is off, and that it registers something like a 1kW setting on a fan heater correctly.
10kwh overnight would be a small heater, or the immersion part time.
It's pretty rare for meters to get badly out.
Any possibility of neighbours plugging in to outside socket, or the old thing of next door actually connected to your circuit?
10kwh overnight would be a small heater, or the immersion part time.
It's pretty rare for meters to get badly out.
Any possibility of neighbours plugging in to outside socket, or the old thing of next door actually connected to your circuit?
Countdown said:
No greenhouse or EV. They have about 5 economy 7 storage heaters but they re supposed to run off a separate meter
As they seem to get monthly readings, I assume it's a smart meter - what does the in-home display show?Is it possible that the conversion from economy 7 to smart meter was cocked up?
silentbrown said:
As they seem to get monthly readings, I assume it's a smart meter - what does the in-home display show?
Is it possible that the conversion from economy 7 to smart meter was cocked up?
Not smart meters - both old style conventional meters.Is it possible that the conversion from economy 7 to smart meter was cocked up?
Tbh it’s never been an issue before so we’ve never really monitored it. We’ll be doing it until the engineer visits.
ARH said:
Heaters running on economy 7 will only use cheap electric at night. If they are on during the day they will use normal rate electric. I know I may be stating the obvious but in my mind the most likely cause is a faulty timer turning the heaters on during the peak hours.
From what I remember the Economy 7 meter (which is separate) cuts off outside of 11pm - 7pm so it literally only supplies energy during the night.given that there is (afaiaa) a separate wiring circuit for the E7 heaters I'm not sure why they would suddenly be using the Main elec circuit. But then there's no other reason why we would use 100kwh overnight.
- Confusing
Countdown said:
From what I remember the Economy 7 meter (which is separate) cuts off outside of 11pm - 7pm so it literally only supplies energy during the night.
given that there is (afaiaa) a separate wiring circuit for the E7 heaters I'm not sure why they would suddenly be using the Main elec circuit. But then there's no other reason why we would use 100kwh overnight.
That is not how I remember it from when I had e7. The supply to the house is either through the normal meter or the e7 meter. It switches over to e7 at night. The heaters are just on the normal house circuits and can be used at any time of day. given that there is (afaiaa) a separate wiring circuit for the E7 heaters I'm not sure why they would suddenly be using the Main elec circuit. But then there's no other reason why we would use 100kwh overnight.
- Confusing
ARH said:
That is not how I remember it from when I had e7. The supply to the house is either through the normal meter or the e7 meter. It switches over to e7 at night. The heaters are just on the normal house circuits and can be used at any time of day.
It's about 25 years since I moved out but, from what I remember, there was something different (non-standard) about the set-up because of the extension, the need for a separate meter and the way the E7 heaters were wired.To be honest I'm just guessing. They'll need to get an engineer out.
ARH said:
That is not how I remember it from when I had e7. The supply to the house is either through the normal meter or the e7 meter. It switches over to e7 at night. The heaters are just on the normal house circuits and can be used at any time of day.
A fairly standard setup is a split board with half of it only coming on with the night rate.Usually two immersion heaters, one on each board to give cheap heating plus the option for daytime topup, and similarly storage heaters run primarily from the night rate but with a boost heater on the daytime circuit so you can run sometime if you need to.
It's possible if it's a switch supply that the switch has packed up and everything is running full time.
Or maybe if there's multiple or a split rate meter someone has mixed them up.
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