A plea to all Electricty User's

[Wontdothatagain]

PLease, Please ensure that you pass on your meter readings to your energy provider. I have spent the last 2 days going to 12 different customers who have requested that their meter is "checked" as there bill's are to high only to find that,

They have been having estimated bill for around 2 years and then an acurate reading has been taken and they get a huge bill.

They have not noticed that the cost of the electricty has gone up that much and combined with estimated bill's has left them with a huge bill.

One Pub i went to opt to receive their bills by downloading them from the net but asked why they don't put their readings on there said "its not my job". They had a discrepancy of 6400kwh on top of what they deemed as excessive bills.

I did go to a well regarded establishment of higher education (Posh School) near London who had a meter installed in 2004 and because of a cock up with the supplier, have not been billed since the install, their reading was over 1million Kwh

 

[Alarm]

Only way to make sure you keep your hard earned cash!

I love estimated bills.................always get them reduced

 

[Paul_C]

Just paying on the estimated readings for years can certainly result in a nasty shock.

Some time ago a business client I do regular work for in town asked me to "have a quick look" at the home electricity bills, as she thought they were too high. When I read the meter and compared it against the estimates, it turned out that they'd been paying purely on estimated bills for 5 years or more since they moved into the property, and those bills were based upon readings taken before they had several E7 storage heaters installed.

So far from "confirming" that the bills were too high, I had to break the bad news that they actually owed several hundred pounds more. I think EDF or TXU or whoever it was then spread the extra cost out over the next 6 or 12 months.

 

[big-all]

i am surprised that estimates are causing under readings

i give meter readings every month on the 21st on the odd occasion when they don't get through they always over estimate by 20 to 30% to get my attention and each subsequent estimate being a further 20 to30% over reading after a year your on double actual use lol

 

[plugwash]

I remember when I moved into my flat I couldn't gain access to the meter (the estate agents had managed to borrow a key from a neighbour to get the intial reading but my attempts to do the same failed) and was getting very low bills for a while presumablly because the flat had previously been empty. Eventually a meter reader did manage to get a reading and the bills became a little more realistic.

It was years before I actually managed to get a key to the meter cabinet (renting a flat within a housing association block from a private landlord seems to result in communication snarlups!).

 

[Stoday]

Before privatisation, meters were always read. Bills were only estimated if the meter reader couldn't gain access.

Now it's DIY reading or bills based on an estimate from previous bills that were based on an estimate... and so on ad infinitum.

 

[dormermike]

In an age of energy price rises some people might be tempted to try a bit of futures trading and over-read a meter. Easy 18% saving right there. Morally i cant imagine its any different to estimating a meter reading for years on end and not bothering to send someone out.

Swalec read mine twice a year btw.

 

[Paul_C]

Or over-read somewhat on the November bill, then under-read on the February bill to help spread the cost of the heavier winter consumption out a little, for those using electric heating.

E-On also seems to have settled into a routine of sending a meter reader out only every 6 months in this area, with estimated bills in between.

 

[DominicJ]

I was told (could be rubbish) that there is a meter at the substation. So they know the total used by the mini grid you're on.

They can then subtract any actual reads, and be left with an estimated total, which they can then divide between the unknown properties, based on historic consumption.

My estimates are always bang on, because all the neighbours are on keys.

 

[big-all]

In an age of energy price rises some people might be tempted to try a bit of futures trading and over-read a meter. Easy 18% saving right there. Morally i cant imagine its any different to estimating a meter reading for years on end and not bothering to send someone out.

Swalec read mine twice a year btw.

doesn't work

when they do read the meter they amend all the bills to a computer forecast off how that use would have averaged out over the period including reading on the day off increase

 

[Paul_C]

I was told (could be rubbish) that there is a meter at the substation. So they know the total used by the mini grid you're on.

Possible in some cases I suppose, although I've never heard of it being used widely. Maybe one of the DNO guys will offer some insight. In some cases there are ammeters fitted to each phase, with a provision to record the maximum demand on that phase over time. I've seen those at the substation which feeds my house when talking with a DNO engineer a couple of years ago (400A fuses and apparently the maximum demand on one phase reached over 600A at one point - probably all the people who have moved into what were formerly holiday homes and installing storage heaters).

If you look at the many instances of overhead transformers which just feed via pole-mounted fuses to the distribution lines though, it's obvious that there is no metering on those.

 

[westie101]

I was told (could be rubbish) that there is a meter at the substation.

The only place I have seen metering is at 132/33 kV sites as they used to be the interface between the grid and us.

The only metering in distrubution substations is on the site supply!!
Distrubution boards do have Maximum Demand Indicators that average the demand over 30mins and are useful to ensure transformers are not too overloaded or to check if we have sufficient backfeed capability for HV outages.
(We can load them up to 136% in the correct conditions)

As noted, pole mounted equipment has non of this, but we do have equipment we can fit to record demands if we need them.