Oh my god oh my god oh my god, have just received an elec bill for £800 for 3 months!!

[Pawslikepaddington]

There are two of us in a 2 bed house!! Oh my god!! [reaches for brown paper bag]

Sorry sleigh-there is a rate (price) for night use and a rate for day use, so it was £400 of day use. I've got a laptop, so it isn't on standby, I can't check re the immersion, but there is something v wrong if I have only used £8 of night time elec, with night time heaters on all the time, and £400 of day time elec when we are only in for 2 hours. Hmm, interesting! A light at the end of the tunnel!

Oh god, what can I do in that case? It was a rented house, but they may say that I should have realised earlier, but earlier bills just said everything was fine and I should just continue paying £30 a month.

Sorry I don't quite understand

£8 per night for 90 nights = £720 or £8 for night use for all 3 months?

£400 for day use for how long the whole 3 mnths?

Can you actually write down what is on the bill that makes it £800?

Write down the usuage & costs?

or was it

£400 day use per month less payments made?

£8 for the whole three months, and £400 for the whole three months. It says at the bottom that there is £400 from the previous bill outstanding, so they add up to £800. (The previous bill when I had it said that there was £200 outstanding, but when I rang them they said it was fine as it would sort itself out over the summer usage). Surely then they would have known a huge balance was accruing? And that £200 was wrong? When I moved house in October they sent me a final bill that was for £200, which I thought was for this balance from May, as I turned the heating off at the end of June when I realised you could do it, which I could kind of understand, which they have now replaced with this £800 one.

And this is less payments made, sorry!

I'm really confused now!!!

I think you need to ring them and ask why the previous outstanding of £200 is now £400, it sounds like they could have double billed you the same £200?

Oh that's true-clever sleigh! I never even thought they may have doubled it!! We are cracking this slowly you wonderful woman!

It is going to be hard for you to do much without paperwork

You could ask your previous company for your final meter reading and dates?

And ask your current company for copies of all statements over the last year?

Then do a spreadsheet noting the meter readings and dates and working out usage averages?

Sounds like the timer on your storage heaters might have been buggered though - although I don't see how that is anyone's responsibility but yours, unfortunately

Re the timer being broken-surely that is the elec co's problem? If it their clock or whatever is the wrong way round? There was a meter under the stairs, but it had no clock on it, only two numbers for high and low, so there was no way I could know if it was doing am or pm.

You normally have to faff around with the timer if you have econ-7 to make sure that they 'recharge' themselves during the time that your elec. co. has cheap electric (which varies) - it's the same as any other heating system

(in that it's udner your control)

Where is this timer then? Better make sure I do it at new house (we have ecom 7 here too). All they have are a switch on the wall, an input dial and an output dial-there are no timers anywhere-not even on the elec meter outside. to econ 7 heating!

you need a MANUAL

With my old storage heaters you couldn't put the booster fan heater type thing on while they were charging...

Have a look on the net and see if you can find instructions for yours?

Other thing is you can sort of guess by feeling them, hottest when just finished charging and coolest when due for a charge. So they should be chucking out loads of heat first thing and cool down through the day if they are set right..

IME anyway maybe the modern ones are better!

I agree with others you need to check what the reading was when you moved in. Any chance the landlord would know they sometimes take a note between tennants...

Running the dryer eats energy too.

It does seem a ridiculously huge bill though there must be something you can do...

They were always stone cold by 10pm, which is why I used to go to bed as it was too cold to stay up past then, and always seemed roasting first thing, so they seemed to be set right. There was no booster on them at all-is this timer something that is on each individual heater, or on the electricity meter? Thank you, this is really helpful, but so confusing .

The timer on mine was somewhere only an electrician could get at it...

Sounds like they were set right though.

Maybe the meters are connected the wrong way round - with the day meter cnnected to the night supply and vice versa? Although if you don't live there any more I dn't know how you could check that.

I know-they were defo the right way round as I used to wake up roasting really early in the morning because I was so hot. Surely it isn't my fault if the meters are connected the wrong way round? Is it? [fingers crossed emoticon]

If the meters are connected the wrong way round that's not your fault, I don't know whose fault it would be though.

How can you find out if you don't live there any more though

We have recently been in a house with storage heaters, and they were costing £4 per night (there were only 4 of them on low). It is that and the tumble dryer, I think.

You could ask the current tenants? But you really need to know the details of how much you have used over what period... (i.e. meter readings) because while it does sound VERY HIGH it doesn't sound ridiculous

£4 a night!!!! . Our house is so cold there is no way I can't use them either-so far since we moved in (9 weeks ago) dd has had two ear infections, a chest infection, an upper respiritory infection, two burst ear drums, impetigo and some kind of weird rash-she was never ill at the old house-I swear it is the cold!

Dammit! As long as I know I have used the elec, and nothing was the wrong way round, I am ok with paying it off and will just chalk it up, but if I was being charged a day rate, or the original reading was wrong, I am bothered IYSWIM. I will need to pay it off v slowly, but do you think they will expect me to pay it off at £100 a month or something as it is so big?

I think you need to talk to them paws. I also think you need to do a bit of investigating and digging - old bills, talk to old co, see if you can contact new tenant/landlord etc

On our first bill in our current house (with economy 7 electric) the electricity company got the 2 meter readings the wrong way round and charged us day rate for the (big) night reading and night rate for the (tiny) day reading. We could sort it out easily enough because we still live here....not sure how you could check they are the right way round now you have moved but I would be ringing the power supplier and getting them to check it out at their end (or just insist to them that the meter readings are the wrong way round )

I shall put my investigator's hat on, and read sherlock holmes tonight! . You are a positive one chukky!