Is there something wrong with my electricity meter?

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Matt.

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I just got an electricity bill from EON today for £290. This is for 17 weeks, and so works out at over £70 a month. According to my meter i am using 18units a day, however, i can't see how this can be true.

I live in a 1 bed new flat, on my own. I have no dishwasher, washing machine, or kettle, and dont use heating... The only significant electrical items other than lighting are:
- Computer (12hrs a day, no screen)
- Hifi amp
- TV (5hrs max)
- Laptop (always plugged in, used 12hrs a day max)
- Oven
- Fridge
- Water heating (4hrs a day)
- Toaster!
As you can see, there isn't much there, and i work during the day, so am only home in the evenings and at the weekend. I am also very careful with turning things off when i am not using them.

Looking at my electrical bill for my last house (oven and heating were gas), i was using 6units a day MAX), now i appear to be using 3x that.

Do you think there is an issue somewhere, or does 18units a day seem correct for my level of usage?


Thanks
 
That sounds way too high for your 'consumer profile'.

But what, exactly, are you paying for according to your bill? Are your paying via a Budget Scheme, i.e. so much per month for a year irrespective of the underlying usage. Or is the figure based on actual consumption and, if so, are the start and end meter readings true readings or estimates?
 
are you sure you are reading the meter correctly? is it dials or digits? and are do you have economy 7?
i live in a flat and i use loads of elec. costs about £40 a month max
 
Your fridge alone can e 5 units a day. Computer you are probably racking up another 5. Water heated by electricity? Hiddeously expensive. I would say it's entirely possible you are using 18 a day - thats not a lot. Your cooking and heating was gas before - now it's electricity.

You can ask to have your meter tested by E.ON will charge you at least £90 for the test and if it prooves your own meter is running correctly you'll have lost £90 for nowt.

Do some tests of your own. Get a meter reading before your water heating comes on. Read again when it goes off. Thats going to give you an idea how much that uses compared to the speed th emeter runs the rest of the time.

And the main thing you need to check - are your charges based on actual meter readings or estimated reads? If they haven't got a good history of your usage they might over estimate.

Yes I did work for them until a year ago and I saw so many people insist they didn't use as much as they were being charged for. 99% of the time they were simply using a lot more than they thought.

The other thing to remember - electricity charges have gone up more than 50% in the last couple of years so you might be using the same number of units but paying twice as much.

I'm happy to look at your bill if you think there might be something wrong with it.
 
If that is true readings - beginning and end - then the bill is accurate.

Despite what many profess on forums, meters rarely go wrong and when they do, they go massively wrong.

You could switch to a cheaper supplier - but I'm not allowed to tell you who ;)
 
Sounds a heck of a lot to me Matt, If it was an estimate, that could be the problem. Or if you've just moved in, you could be being charged a part of the last persons bill (Or builders)

Four hours for water heating is excessive, for you alone, and very expensive, you should cut down on that.

I changed from Eon to these people, and save a lot.

http://www.ebico.co.uk/
 
KIN ELL thats a lot we live in a large 2 bed flat with TV on nearly 24hrs pc and 2 lappys on 24hrs and all the others utilities like fridge washer ect ...is your water heated by electric or gas? if its an immersion heater then this will blow your bill through the roof but if its a gas boiler its way to expensive
 
We live in North lincs and get our eleccy from Scottish power it just makes sense at least a 40% saving for us
 
Just done a quick check on my leccy meter. I moved in to my 2 bed flat start of Feb.

45 weeks and 1893 units on the meter. When i moved in the meter was not zero but for a quick calculation it don't matter. So,

45 weeks = 315 days
1893 units / 315 = 6.0095 units per day.

I live with my partner in a 2 bed flat, fridge freezer, lappy and router powered 24hrs, leccy cooker used every day, large TV used evenings (+sky, surround sound). We also got a leccy blanket for the bed thats on 3 hours every night.

So i reckon that there is something going on with your meter.As someone has already mentioned turn everything off in the flat and see if the meter is still counting. Might be a bit extreme but ping all the trips off so you know everything is off. Also are you in a communal flat with everyones meter in one cupboard?? If you are then have a look at other meters and compare.
 
If that's not a gas boiler, but an immersion heater, then that's probably the problem - they cost hideaous amounts.

I live in a large 2-bed flat with computer running 24/7, all cooking electric, lappy and plasma on all evening and lights blazing and my bill is £33 a month!
 
If your on economy 7 just check the are read the day and night rates correctly.

They phoned me a while back to check mine and they had been calculating it wrong for years, I got several hundred pounds back off e-on.
 
I am currently running a load of tests, but so far i think these are the offenders:
- Immersion heater (i am going to try running this for 1hr at 4am)
- Oven
- The 15 50w halogen bulbs i have in my kitchen/living room :eek: - I am not sure what to do here, getting candles seems the best option as the halogens might be responsible for 6units a day, and £25/month!
 
are u splitting ** bills with other members in ** block?
 
I am using my power meter thing now to work out usage and some things are quite surprising!

For example... my PC uses as much power in standby, as my laptop does whilst running! and that the PC costs £5/month to run, and the laptop less than £1. Whereas my horrendous lighting costs nearly £1 a DAY to run :eek:

All of my 'toys' (eg. computers/tv/etc... so non essential electrical items) cost me less than £12 a month to run. It's my lighting/kitchen/heater that make up the rest of the bill :o

Now the problem is that replacement lightbulbs are £8 EACH, and i need about 10 of them!
 
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I just went and bought a load of energy saving bulbs in Tesco (2 for 1) :)

The aim is to reduce my bill by at least 50%, but for it to not be a complete nightmare, and without having to resort to candles and cold food :p
 
i personally contribute a huge size 11 carbon footprint, i have a living room that glows red when i turn the light off through all the things on standby, im with Eon and pay half of what you do...
 
Well from investigating why my bill is so high, it's really not down to all the toys i have, but more down to the lightning and immersion heater...

As mentioned above, my laptop costs less than £1 a month to run, my hifi costs 25p, my tv £1.50, etc... :) The main costs are lighting, water heating, and the oven. If these are gas for you, then that would explain your bill when its compared to mine.
 
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our electric has gone from 7 pence pwh last year to 12p pkw!! so ours has gone up a lot, were also ona key metre.. not a great ideaa for saving but we dont like getting huge bills!! we par as we go.. were with EDF.. i think we should shop around.. as should everyone else!!
 
Matt. said:
I am currently running a load of tests, but so far i think these are the offenders:
- Immersion heater (i am going to try running this for 1hr at 4am)
- Oven
- The 15 50w halogen bulbs i have in my kitchen/living room :eek: - I am not sure what to do here, getting candles seems the best option as the halogens might be responsible for 6units a day, and £25/month!
Click to expand...

Blimey mate get rid of them halogens, i use the energy effiecient builbs and flouesent light in the kitchen, there save you a packet in the long run.

I leave the emmersion heater on alday long but set to a lower temperature then the enconemery 7 sat to insure hot water all the time, just mean its quicker to heat warm water then cold, i dont normally hear the heater kick in till late afternoon if at all by doing that. Oh make sure the jacket is nicely intact will retain its heat better.

Your also better of leaving your heating on 24-7 at low temperature, i have a Oil filed radiator set to 18deg in each room, which i find comfortable Also think about some good curtains personal i have 2 sets of thermals per window, stops drafts, should help cut your heating bills..

Costs me less then £30 per month.
 
yeah could be it, we have gas heating and water...i feel better about leaving everythingon standby now..
 
Ok these are my meter readings...
14/12/2008 (evening) - 15965
22/12/2008 (midday) - 16046

So that's 81 kwh in 7.5days, resulting in approx 11kwh a day.

Which still seems REALLY high.

My calculations would be (for 7 days):
- Toys (computers/tv/etc...) - 15kwh
- Lights - 5kwh
- Fridge + misc - 8.5kwh
Which gives = 28.5kwh

Meaning i am using 6.5kwh a day on water heating and using the oven.

The water heater is on for 1.5hrs from 5:30am to 7am. This is the minimum i can have it on to have water of any decent temp for a shower. The oven is on for approx 40mins to 1hr a day. I also have 1 or 2 loads of washing per week.

Is something wrong here? or is 6.5kwh per day normal for 1.5hrs of water heating and 1hr of oven use?


I was expecting to use 9kwh/day max. I am away for Chistmas soon for 4days, so i will check the meter before i go, and leave only the fridge on. This will allow me to check a few things out :)
 
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What size oven do you have, sounds about right to me, 8kw is about the power they are. so with the thermostat going on and off i would expect about that. so 6.5kw use with each unit about 15pence.....not bad going i would say. A free standing oven with 4 rings and grill is about 13kw with every thing on, allowing for thermostat's. I dont think you have any problems. I have never heard of a meter being wrong apart from when its stopped completely, then it took the resisdents months to notify the electric board.:D
 
I am just not liking the fact that it costs me £30 a month to have the water heater on for 1.5hrs a day, and the oven on for 1hr a day!
 
Halogens:
15 bulbs at 50watt = 750watt of bulbs
How much time are your halogens on per day??

Say 4 hours a day? well that is 21 kWh for 7 days...
 
Just looked at our immersion heater and it's 3kW, so 90 minutes would be 4.5kWh (assuming that it's on all the time and not switched off by the thermostat). That leaves 2kWh for the oven and hob.
 
RichardtheSane said:
Halogens:
15 bulbs at 50watt = 750watt of bulbs
How much time are your halogens on per day??

Say 4 hours a day? well that is 21 kWh for 7 days...
Click to expand...

I have replaced them all with 7w energy savings ones (£2.50 each in Tesco!) :)
 
Good plan. I've only got 4 halogens but I think I'll be doing the same now I know where to get some :thumbs:
 
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