Huge Electric Bill

[Madwomanuptheroad29]

Got our most recent electric bill and it appears to have more than quadrupled since the end of last year and I am trying to get my head around that.
We get billed quarterly, our last bill in February was an estimate. The last reading was on the 21st of November 22. We have fairly economical appliances, solar panels that work and due to this our electric bills have always been reasonabley okay. After the initial price rises last year we paid £100 per month and as per the bill which followed the November meter reading were £170 in credit. Now, six month later we got a bill of just over £1400 pound.
There was an increase of 23% in December and another one of around 9% in April. But unless I am completely deranged it still does not add up.
Nothing else has changed in terms of new or additional appliances. The only thing we got installed but it has as yet not been used is a car charger (delivery of the car was delayed).

As per the bill it appears that our usage has more than quadrupled.
Since last autumn my adult son who had been back in the house has moved out (with his x box and huge tv that would have eaten electricity) and I have worked mainly back in the office. So if anything the electricity use should have gone down.
So if anyone has some ideas how that could be causing this please tell me.

I would:

• check whether the meter reading on your bill roughly corresponds with what's showing on your actual meter. Do you have a single rate meter? If not check that the readings are the right way round
• check what you're currently being charged per unit
• check that your meter seems to be working properly ie turn everything off in the house and see whether it's still going up
• check that you haven't left an immersion heater or heater on

Sorry, prices went up by 14% in April. But still makes no sense - even if prices had been going up by 50% in total since last confirmed reading in Nov 22 we would have owed less than £300 and it would not explain how consumption has quadrupled.

When they estimated the bill in Feb did you read the meter to see if it was close to being true as that’s likely where the issue lies .

No I did not read the meter in February. So realistically the bill covers the last six month. But our habits have not changed and we did not get any new or different appliances. I have compared with other winter bills. It does not make sense as our actual consumption should have remained broadly similar. (I appreciate that electricity prices have increased)

We do not have an immersion or electric heaters. We have a tumble dryer but it is a heat pump one and we had it for a number of years.
I will double check the meters. It is a single phase one.
We checked the solar panels and the inverter. They are working.
The house was fully rewired around 10 years ago.

May have solved the mystery - switched off the electricity supply via the trip switch and checked the meter and you could see the numbers behind the decimal point go up while watching it. So in the couple of minutes I was watching it (with electricity supply to the house switched off) the meter went from .12 to .19
So i assume the meter is faulty.

Moral of the story: Get a smart meter or submit readings regularly.

I’m at the other end of the spectrum - have a smart meter and now submit daily when I remember. I’d spot a faulty meter within days, not 6+ months.

You are going to have a very hard time proving for how long it’s been faulty. Good luck.

Fwiw. We have a list of jobs that one of us does on the first of every month. Eg check all smoke alarms/co alarms are clean and working and read all the meters and submit readings, check stop cock works, and a proper check around for diy jobs like clearing gutters etc. Fingers crossed that this means such problems are fairly quickly flagged and sorted.

By my calculation (counting how fast the meter runs with the electric switched off and the excess unexplained electricity consumption) the meter would have developed the fault around mid April.