Think I'm paying for someone somebody else's electricity and I'm not even joking.

[Epicstorm]

Our fuel bills have always been very high and I've long felt something isn't right.
Obviously the current hike in prices has brought this to the fore. I've contacted my fuel provider who say they aren't responsible for what's being charged to the meter. Our payments are twice what our neighbours pay (identical house, two retired occupants so circumstances very similar). Fuel provider says they estimate a much lower reading bases on the house size but the actual readings we give are much higher. We (like the rest of the country) have been very frugal with our energy use and I can't believe what they say we're using. Everyone I know pays a lot less than us even bigger families in bigger houses.

I wondered if anyone else has experienced anything like this and what you did? Did you find you were paying for something you shouldn't have been? Were you able to resolve the issue? I'm at a loss to know what to do. It isn't a smart metre by the way . I don't really want one and it would still presumably register any usage that wasn't ours. I'd be so grateful for any help.

@Epicstorm - have you got any household pets or hobbies that need a lot of electricity?

Go round each room, and the garage, and the garden, and the loft, etc. and list everything with a plug or on a spur, noting whether it's on or not.

OMG 😱 How did you figure it out?

There are some awful shits in this world.

Turn off all the switches on your electricity fusebox, make sure your heating and cooker is off then check if you meter is still moving. It doesn't have to be for long,15 minutes will be more than enough to see if anything untoward is going on

Possibly a faulty meter , we had higher usage before a smart meter was fitted . It costs you money to get the meter checked though not the supplier . On ours the time was never right either

Check the meter number on the bill/app/website with the metre(s) in your property. If they don't match then the supplier is billing you to the wrong metre.

Just out of interest, how many kWh do you register a day?
2 seniors live here and we use 9 on average per day over a month. Some higher days and others lower.

I agree with others, you need to check. Turn every single thing in your house off at the wall, and go and look to see whether the meter continues to move or not.

I've known someone whose meter was in the wrong units and got a huge refund once it had been proven.

I had this and started a thread about it. Unfortunately it was something we were using. Could only find out by being incredibly forensic - used a plug meter thing that you plug into each appliance and read how much it uses.

Still gutted to think of how much we were paying unnecessarily - didn't realise until we went away for a week and switched everything off we could.

What was it?

Wow. That sounds like a battle and a half

Could it be the meter making an error? I once rented a place with a faulty meter, the readings it gave were insanely expensive.

Thank you for all your comments . I’ll read them and come back to post when I’ve had chance to look at what’s been said.

My dad had this with his fridge. Having turned everything else off it turns out the fridge is using an insane amount of energy - think £800 a year. They think it was a power surge that broke part of the PCB so it never stopped running.

This is the sort of thing we used OP. Worth doing it over a decent time period as some things fluctuate e.g. fridge freezer. Turn off the separate circuits at your fuse box if that's helpful too.

www.amazon.co.uk/Electricity-Monitor-Consumption-Analyzer-Backlight/dp/B0B4R2PPLZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_4

With us it was a dehumidifier in an outbuilding that shouldn't have been on anywhere near as much as it was.

My god! I hope your landlord was prosecuted?

Immersion heater left on,,,,really easy to do.

So grateful for all the suggestions. It will take me time to work through them.

No immersion heater so I can rule that out immediately. We are well insulated so that shouldn’t be a problem. Wish it was all that straightforward. 🙈

Still trying to find out what the problem is. The other night our meter recorded 27 kw while we were in bed. Nothing being used just the fridge, freezer on and telly on standby. Following day using dishwasher, hob, washing machine and usual stuff we used 7.
That night we turned everything off at the mains except for fridge and freezer and used 3 overnight. I was pleased with that but my friend who leaves far more on standby/plugged in than me used 1.7. Turned everything off again following night and used 6 overnight, last night 3 again.

I've ordered a plug to read the to monitor the usage of individual appliances but it's baffling at the moment.

Eon want £100+ to check the meter but I'd rather get an independent electrician tbh.

No I'd pay Eon the £100 to do it! Then they can’t dispute the independent report plus, if an issue is found, you'll get more than £100 back in refunds! It will be worth every penny IMHO. Even if they don't find an issue (unlikely by the sounds of it) then at least you'll have the peace of mind.

Meanwhile, I'd even turn your fridge & freezer off one night to check - provided you don't open the doors, they stay cool/frozen for 24 hours usually

Also, if you do pay Eon to do it and they do find an issue, I'd expect the £100+ charge to be wiped anyway, especially if it's a fault with their meter

3 and 6 seem high for fridge and freezer - do you have a garage or outbuildings with an electricity supply? Something in the loft? I suggest going to your fuse box and turning off one area at a time for a period and measuring readings.

I'll update my other thread too...

No real knowledge of this but if the meter is showing higher and lower readings accordingly when you're switching stuff off, I reckon it'd be unlikely to be a problem with that? Definitely be totally forensic first. Make a list of every appliance over your house. Deffo check your fridge with the plug thing when it arrives (this was a massive pain for us as it's a built-in one but I'm glad we did it!)

Have you got outside lights?

Faulty fridge and/or freezer?

Is your fridge or freezer old? We keep having our gas coming on during the day when the only appliances using gas ( boiler and oven) aren't running. I think I said this before but when electricity was spiking before it was the immersion so we turned it off