Electricity meter reading far too high

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I moved house last month and took a meter reading of 3957, I then took one exactly a month later and it was 8192. This can't be right can it? That means a monthly electricity bill of around £700.

We don't have gas, we are electric only. We've had new radiators installed so they are brand new and efficient. We've still got electric underfloor heating in the kitchen and lounge which could be inefficient I suppose but not to the tune of £700per month.

We live in a detached bungalow, not a mansion.

British Gas are useless. They say it could be a meter fault but hey can't send anyone round to check until lockdown is over.

What do I do? We are accruing a bill of £25 per day at the moment.

Heating is on in the mornings and evenings only. We don't use a tumble drier or dishwasher. Washing machine is on a few times a week, nothing excessive. There's nothing I can think of that is costing a lot of electricity and certainly not £700 per month!

We are taking hourly readings and the meter is showing as using between 6 and 20 kWh per hour.

[Ch3rish]

@lydia2021

I had friends with this problem. They found it was their immersion tank. The thermostat had gone so the tank kept heating up 24/7. Not saying it's your problem too but worth checking

As I understand it the OP has ruled this out after just about everyone suggested it

[chomalungma]

@slashlover

Just a quick question from when I worked for a power company, are you sure you're reading the meter correctly? I used to get people complaining about their power use and they were reading all of the numbers including the ones at the end so your 3957 to 8192 may actually be 395.7 to 819.2.

I think that might be a possibility?

[DorotheaDiamond]

Fwiw we used about 1250 units in a month (5 bed house)...so about 40 a day - this is running dishwasher at least twice, washing machine and dryer at least once each, plus (don’t ask) 5 fridges/freezers and god knows how many computer type gadgets on standby.

So yes, yours seems high...

[BeatricePrior]

Op can you take a picture of your meter so I can see the reading. Are you counting the last number on the dial?

[BeatricePrior]

Your supplier can see a request to your meter operator to investigate a faulty meter.

[starbrightstarlight8888]

@BeatricePrior

Your supplier can see a request to your meter operator to investigate a faulty meter.

I'm definitely reading it correctly.

[starbrightstarlight8888]

Sorry I quoted the wrong post.

[Violetroselily]

Could you turn things off for a good few hours to see what difference that makes? E.g. immersion off for3 hours, then back on and underfloor heating/rads off for 3 hours and so on. Then you can track usage over a longer period? Obviously might not be feasible depending on your home situation

[BlueTimes]

@BeatricePrior

Your supplier can see a request to your meter operator to investigate a faulty meter.

In what grounds though? The OP says that when turning everything off the meter stops recording. Faulty meters tend to stop recording altogether or else keep clocking up regardless.

[BeatricePrior]

Yes you are, I thought you may of been looking at the last digits in red but your not.

If you ask your supplier to send a "flow" to the mop (meter operator) to investigate a meter that is reading too high, they should do this.

The mop should then attend in about ten days. They do for commercial sites anyway.

[marthastew]

My MIL had this and it turned out to be her electric underfloor heating. She left it on all the time and was spending thousands on it. We only found out when she was staying with us and paid some bills online.

[BeatricePrior]

The meter could be over consuming. That's an old meter. They can send them away to be accuracy tested.

They will either fit another meter in parallel to check the consumption or replace and send the old meter for testing.

[Catsincharge]

Also had the same issue and it was the electric underfloor heating

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I've asked British Gas to come and check the meter and they say they can't send people out until lockdown ends. They also said if they come out and it's not faulty I'll be charged.

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Stacks of BG staff are on strike at the moment, I understand.

[cautiouscovidity]

@starbrightstarlight8888 My bet is on the heating. Electric heating is very expensive if not set up correctly. For most underfloor heating systems it's significantly cheaper to leave it on all the time (with a thermostat) than have it heat up and cool down (by having it on first thing and then the evening).
Also, the previous occupants said they paid £150/month. Did you see proof of this or just take their word for it (bills from all the year, not just summer months)?

[starbrightstarlight8888]

I took her word for it, I'm not sure why she'd lie tbh. I asked her again earlier and she's going to find the bills for me. The Nextdoor neighbours say they pay £120per month for a similar size property.

[JustLyra]

You need to spend longer than a lunchtime doing the turn off/on game.

You need to turn everything off at the switches and wall. Plugs out etc. Then turn your mains electricity off and leave it at least 10 mins to see if the meter moves.

Then leave everything off, but switch the mains back on and leave it half an hour to see if it moves.

Then you need to systematically turn one thing on at a time for 30 minutes-an hour to see how much it uses.

You’ve got a lot of heating devices, and you’ve now mentioned a third difference from the old residents (radiators, immersion and now the towel rails).

It’s long, and boring, and cold, but it’s the only way to work out if something has the meter spinning way more than it should. It’s also a good way to show BG a concrete date when your meter was faulty if it proves to be that (write things down and take pics of the meter).

[slashlover]

I did this already and nothing showed up. The lounge underfloor heating switch kept the meter going when the underfloor heating wasn't on but I realised that switch is connected to the electric radiators too. The electric rads are on timed so also weren't on at that time although they were set to come in at a low temperature all day which I didn't realise so that might be why the meter was still going.

So your radiators and underfloor heating were both off and were still drawing power?

[BlueTimes]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I took her word for it, I'm not sure why she'd lie tbh. I asked her again earlier and she's going to find the bills for me. The Nextdoor neighbours say they pay £120per month for a similar size property.

I know it’s tempting but you really can’t compare properties. It’s electrical appliances that count so a same sized house that doesn’t have an immersion heater or underfloor heating, will be very different.

[Lexilooo]

The old owner could well just be telling you their direct debit figure not their actual usage. This will be a figure based on average usage across the year and will also take into account any credit or debit. I wouldn't put too much importance on what they were paying, they could also have had a different tariff as well as different usage patterns.

[LadyGAgain]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I've asked British Gas to come and check the meter and they say they can't send people out until lockdown ends. They also said if they come out and it's not faulty I'll be charged.

Yep. £200. Same situation.

[BarbaraofSeville]

@starbrightstarlight8888

I took her word for it, I'm not sure why she'd lie tbh. I asked her again earlier and she's going to find the bills for me. The Nextdoor neighbours say they pay £120per month for a similar size property.

Is next door set up with similar all electric heating?

That's likely to be the main factor, using electricity to heat air or water is very expensive, doubly so if you've got a lot of heaters going. Eg underfloor heating, towel radiators, standard radiators and the immersion heater.

The weather is going to be warmer over the next few days. How about at the weekend, you turn the heating down as low as possible, turn off the immersion heater and towel radiators, and see what usage you have over the weekend?

[MrsMoastyToasty]

Is there any chance that it could be an old imperial meter rather than a metric meter, but the electricity company are charging as if its metric?

[starbrightstarlight8888]

It's a metric meter, it has 5 numbers in.