+£1000 electricity bill!!!!

[MsMarshmallow]

we have been living in our new flat (rented) for one month. It's a smallish 1 bedroom apartment and it's only one adult and one child. We have received an unusually high bill and checking our electricity meter reading since then, it says we should pay more than £1000 on our next bill.

Help! there must be a mistake, it's impossible that we are using that amount of energy!!! Has anybody had a similar experience or can offer some advice?

[eurochick]

Did you give a meter reading when you moved in?

[mousmous]

sounds like a mistake.
was the flat empty for some time with the (electric) heating or hot water on?
take daily readings for a week and get back to the company for a more acurate estimate of your real usage.

[MsMarshmallow]

I submitted a meter reading when we moved in, and then each 2 weeks approx. Could it be that the meter is faulty?

[youbethemummylion]

Either faulty meter (very rare) or inaccurate estimate (very common) take a read at same time everyday for a week then ring power company and ask them to reestimate your usage.

[youbethemummylion]

If based on your reads they think meter is faulty they will send engineer. Have you checked serial number on meter with that on your bill? Meter mix ups do happen especially with flats. Also check the meter if in communal area for random extra wires electric theft does happen again more common in flats.

[PigletJohn]

Please tell us the meter reading when you moved in, and the meter reading now (and the date of any intermediate readings you know) including the leading zero(s) if any.

You do know about disregarding the decimal figure on the right?

[mameulah]

Is your immersion switched off?

[RandomMess]

Hmm has someone tapped into your supply...

[PandaNot]

Yes I would think you have underfloor heating and an immersion heater on round the clock.

[purplebaubles]

£1000 for one month?!

Ours is £160, which I think is outrageous, but not even in those realms!

[PigletJohn]

50p says a mistake in the meter reading.

Can you contemplate the amount of heat that would be generated by seven thousand kWh in a month? Even the small smelter I bought when I left Brinks Mat at Heathrow doesn't use that much.

[Snargaluff]

Do you have economy 7/8? I briefly in a flat with storage heaters but there was no economy 7 so my first bill was absolutely horrific. Had immersion heater too. So I was paying for peak electricity.

[McFox]

It must be a mistake with the meter readings - we are in a similar property and pay £50 a month for electricity and gas!!

[sleepyhead]

Even with an immersion heater running 24hrs (and you having several baths a day so the tank was refilled several times), and with heating running 24 hrs, and on Eco7 peak rates, I still don't believe you could rack up a £1k bill in a month in a 1 bed flat.

We left our immersion heater on for almost 2 years (as students, don't ask), and while the bill was large, and we were foolhardy and profligate, it wasn't actually that massive.

[Snargaluff]

I didn't register 1k in your op! Yikes! Must be a mistake surely

[imnotmymum]

Wow we live in a big house with 4 kids/dog/tumble drier and we are £200 so that mental !!! Look into previous debt if rented

[specialsubject]

Even the small smelter I bought when I left Brinks Mat at Heathrow doesn't use that much.

love it.

[Fluffycloudland77]

When we had a high estimate edf reckoned giving readings too frequently made it look like you were a high user.

No idea why but that's what they said to me.

Or your on a E10 tariff & they've messed it up because they don't understand the meter & it's 5 different rates so you've been billed wrong.