Digital Meters

[salem2000]

Hi.

In october 2007 our supplier changed our Electric Meter, since then the Mrs is convinced that we are being charged way-to-much. BG have now put our Direct debit up to £85 p/month, last year it was approx £40 p/month.

We live in a three bed converted bungi with gas heating and cooking, the washing machine takes hot water from combi and has no electric heater fitted.

We have tried to find info on the meter and how to correctly calculate the usage since installation, but keep getting it wrong.

What are your opinions on the usage and/or readings. (pics below)

Thanks.

 

[Steve]

the washing machine takes hot water from combi and has no electric heater fitted.

If this is true, it is VERY unusual. In the summer, it would never draw any hot water, since by the time it filled up, the boiler would just be getting warm (I know I have to run the tap for a while when the heatings off before the hot water starts)

Anyway, You mention BG supply your lectric - do they also supply the gas on dualfuel? If so, the £85 covers them both? In this case, check your gas consumption - It may well be that they have put your DD up because of the winter gas consumption (which is normal to be 10x what it is in summer). BG always used to do this to us, we changed to scottish power.

If you have an online account management service, see if you can view your previous consumption - SP let us view ours by graph, the gas is a perfect sine wave, drops to near 0/day in summer (we have gas oven) but rises to quite ridiculous amounts in winter.

Also check the unit price - it may well have gone up quite a bit in the last year.

 

[salem2000]

the washing machine takes hot water from combi and has no electric heater fitted.

If this is true, it is VERY unusual. In the summer, it would never draw any hot water, since by the time it filled up, the boiler would just be getting warm (I know I have to run the tap for a while when the heatings off before the hot water starts)

Anyway, You mention BG supply your lectric - do they also supply the gas on dualfuel? If so, the £85 covers them both

Hi, and thanks for the reply

The washing machine is an American Style, and does not have a heating element. We have not had any problems with the water temp at ant time of the year, and has worked out very well. the load size is over twice the size of a normal machine, which is why it works with the boiler.

We are dual fuel with BG, but the gas is not included in the amounts I listed.

 

[Steve]

Time to dig out past bills and work out your consumption in KWH then. See if the new meter has made your consumption shoot up.

 

[flameport]

Your meter reading is 8595, and as it was at 0 when installed 15 months ago, you are using approx. 573 units per month, or 19 per day.

This is certainly not impossible or unreasonable, although there is probably scope for reducing it.

At various prices per unit:
10p = £57 / month
12p = £69 / month
15p = £86 / month

The monthly payment amount is really of no use, since it is not likely to represent the actual amount used. If you had been underpaying for a while, the amount per month now will be more than you are actually using. Or they could have increased it by some arbitrary amount based on any number of factors.

The washing machine thing is not likely to be saving any energy - you are just filling the pipes between the boiler and washer with hot water. 99% of new washing machines are cold fill only for this reason.

 

[conny]

Just out of interest,
we were paying £40 pm by dd for our gas and they decided to up it to £59. Bit of a jump but we thought well prices have risen. A month later they wanted to up it to £86pm so I rang them up and asked for a review in light of their double increase.
Their response was to decrease it to £50 per month because someone had calculated wrong!
So my advice is to ask for a review and then just keep an eye on it by ringing them again a month later and asking how your account is looking.
They certainly will not tell you if you are paying too much, it is up to you to ask.

 

[FourFootMedia]

When you say "last year" do you mean 2008 or 2007 (you said your meter was replaced last year, but the date on it says 2007...), as electricity prices have risen quite steeply since 2007, which will account for a fair bit of the rise.

Also, who's to say your old meter was 100% correct, it might have been metering too little and your new one is metering the correct amount...

 

[salem2000]

When you say "last year" do you mean 2008 or 2007 (you said your meter was replaced last year, but the date on it says 2007...), as electricity prices have risen quite steeply since 2007, which will account for a fair bit of the rise.

Also, who's to say your old meter was 100% correct, it might have been metering too little and your new one is metering the correct amount...

Sorry, my error. It was indeed Oct 2007. Post amended


Thanks for the replies, will have to contact them.

 

[maltaron]

Try changing supplier. My supplier notified me that it wanted to increase my DD from £45 to £ 81, just because my winter quarter took me into debit having been in credit all the rest of the year. This is for electric only as I cook and heat with oil, as the OP, I am in a 3bed bungalow. A quick check on a compare site saved me £200 a year.

 

[Pyromaniac]

we changed to scottish power.

We did 2 years ago - monthly direct debits £32 a month and always in credit a little after each bill.

Today I got an email off them saying from next month our DD was to go up to £68 a month . . .

I sent them a reply back saying I was stopping the DD to them as I didnt like being used as their free savings account and to send me a Standing Order mandate form instead . . . ( which they say on their website you can do )

 

[NoPoke]

I've just had notification from my energy supplier that day electricity units now start at over 20p a unit., dropping to 14p a unit once I've met the minimum consumption. Night units cost 6p per kWh, I'm sure the costs were half that not so long ago.

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You could monitor your consumption daily for a month, then using your current electricity costs calculate your monthly expenditure.

If it is still high, then either it is correct and you need to find out what is causing the high consumption or it is incorrect and the meter is faulty. To have some confidence of the latter you could spend around £40 on one of the wireless consumption monitors that are now available. google for OWL energy monitor.


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[plessey]

Just a point for those who think their electric meter may be faulty.I had a new digital meter installed in march 2007 .from then up until my last bill all seemed to be ok.
I am with British Gas for both gas and electric.I had my electric bill come in for the last quarter,on inspecting the bill,I found my consumption had doubled from previous bills!!.When I queried the bill with BG and suggested the meter may be faulty,they tried to fob me off with the idea that having looked at the bill to quote them"nothing jumps out at us looking at your bill" I replied it bloody jumps out at me,cos the consumption has doubled even though I am using all the same equipment as for the last two years.
After a long and tedious round of going from one "expert" in British Gas to another,I was told if I was to get someone out to check the meter and it was found to be correct then they would charge me £100.00!! if was found to be faulty no cost would be charged.
Anyway,to cut it a bit short they asked me to do a check reading on the meter each day for seven days,and report back to them.The first day I done it the meter read 66 kws hrs used over 24hrs.This is normally what I use in FIVE DAYS!!
I got back onto them with the readings after a week,they still tried to fob me off,I then asked to speak to some one in higher authority,and manage to get to talk to someone who could actually understand my
problem.He told me the charge would be £35.50 to £39.50 which include vat.not the £100.00 quoted earlier.United Utilities would come out and fix a accuracy meter between the supply and my meter.
This has been done and has been running for 11 days now.
A reading was taken from my own meter at the time of installing the accuracy meter,The accuracy meter was set to "0".

I have just checked both meters and found that my own meter has clocked up 60 kwh over and above the accuracy meter.
Which proves that my meter is faulty.
So for anyone out there who thinks there meter may be faulty,don,t give up badger them and remember,the high qoutes for charging you for checking your meter ,just may be a ploy to put you off!!!

 

[NoPoke]

I'm curious as to how much (as a percentage) the meter is over-reading.

 

[plessey]

Over the period where the accuracy meter has been fitted (11 days)its about 28%.Over the period of the last quarter(87 days). I estimate it is somewhere around 80%.

 

[radioredcat]

Iv'e been with scottish power for four years and have had no problem with them till last month when i got a letter saying they wre going to put my DD up fron £44.50 to £71,I tried many times to phone them and kept getting the usual message saying they are busy with a high vollume of calls.
So i sent them an email which they acknoleged that they had received it and i said if they havn't contacted me by the 18th of this month i will cancel the direct debit,They didn't and i cancelled the DD and as yet they havn't contacted me yet as they are not using me as a bank either so i think it's time to look elsewhere.
It doesn't look very good when they don't seem to want the buisness.
I don't like the idea of these digital meters i prefer the mechanical ones they rarely go wrong.

andy