Electricity usage

Falcone

Falcone

Well-known member
Got an awful shock yesterday, got my electricity bill in and it was pretty grim reading.
Since december 2007 which was the last time my meter was read i had used 43000+ units, on my recent bill i checked and i was at 59000 which is 16000 units for just over 12 months.
Bear in mind we have been paying 25 a month over the last year, they estimated how much id being using in relation to previous years consumption.
Our bill read 1785, so after paying 300 for the year already they are saying that i owe another 1785.

There has got to be be something seriously wrong here you cant go from using 25 per month to almost 200 per month, its just not possible. I know energy prices have risen, but those rises are ludicrous.

Anyone been in the same boat, who can offer advice. I spoke to a friend who said i may have a dodgy meter as its over 25 years old, but as you can imagine im not too happy about this bill, and it looks like its going to scupper my attempts to go on holiday to China in March...
 
Check around your house to see if you have any switches (not connected to sockets or appliances) that are truned on. We moved into our house about 3 1/2 years ago.
After the first 12 months our bills were sky high for our Leccy and I couldn't understand why, but a lad I knew who was a sparky told me check in the meter cupboard and airing cupboard.
In the airing cupboard there was a switch that was turned on, I think it was for the Leccy shower we never used, and in the meter cupboard there, was a whole array of switches that were on. I turned them all off, and now I am always in credit with our Elec, even tho our cooker is on twice a day for the kids tea, when they come in from school and me and me missus, when I get in from work.
I think the switches may have been for the immersion heater, which if it's on all the time is gonna cost you a small fortune.
If your meter is of a certain age, it may well need to be replaced, but I don't know who is responsible to do that, wether it's your supplier or the national grid.
Phone your supplier though and demand that something is sorted out, as that is an astronomical demand for £200 per month

good luck
 
They've all got a bad habbit of estimating your use and setting the payments either too high or too low. Ours were set far to high for a while so we ended up massively in credit, naturally they reviewed then set them far to low so we ended up in debit and then yep they re-set them far too high again. We're now at £50 for gas and £70 for leccy (3 bed house, computers in most rooms, plasma telly, fish tanks etc so it's about right.)
 
bizarrely, I just got off the phone to npower about getting out meter changed.

the meter man was here before chrimbo, and the meter was dead, blank screen (its one of the digital ones), he was supposed to log it to be replaced but hadn't, hence the chase up

when we moved in, there were storage heaters in the house which I sharp got rid of as they are outrageously expensive to run

just discovered the meter thats in is a dual rate one cos of the storage heaters, which gives cheaper leccy at night....

but day time leccy is twice the price!!

so we've been paying twice the price for out leccy for over 8 years!

so try to get them to put a normal credit meter in...., surprise surprise, they are not very keen on that idea. "Well why do you want a normal meter, when the dual rate one gives you half price through the night"


because I'm mostly akip through the night and you've been screwing me for twice the price for over 8 years

outrageous really the cost of the stuff. all our cooking/heating/water is from the rayburn - coal/logs and anything else we can find that burns, I fitted a gas cooker for when the rayburns not used(LPG no mains gas out here)

so just lighting and computers/telly - still 250 quid a quarter. hopefully that'll change with an ordinairy meter
 
burn stuff! its great

the rayburn is the biz, the one I put in had been stood in a field for a year, so cost nowt. stripped it, cleaned it and put it back together

it gets lit about september october time, and is kept lit till about april, heats the whole house, 6 radiators, hot water and all the cooking, we'll burn about a ton and a half of coal and a couple of tons of logs in that time, total cost is under 400 quid, which is pretty good considering. can't imagine how much a gas bill would be to have central heating on full 24/7 for 6 months

down side is, its just too warm in here a lot of the time, and when the wind is up, its the worlds fastest solid fuelled microwave/combi boiler. the gauge on the oven regularly nudges 750 Fahrenheit!

thinking about a small wind turbine up the fell behind us for electrickery, reckon even a small one would generate enough for us, and flog some back into the grid so when there's no wind it'd balance out and we'd end up paying very little in total
 
Falcone said:
Just wondering if any of the forum users currently own aquariums at home.

Im in the process of completing my fish house, when its done i will have around 40 individual tanks and will be housing a large range of African and South/Central American cichlids which will be for sale.
Because i dont have the overheads a shop unit would have my fish will be a hell of a lot cheaper than the shops in some cases 50% cheaper, which in the current economic climate is quite considerable.
Been doing this as a hobby for quite a few years now, and have been breeding from home.
I can also do wholesale, order of 50 or more will receive a further 10% discount

If anyone has any questions give me a shout.

Just like to say thanks to Jim and the other mods for letting me post this.
Click to expand...


These fish tanks (heaters/filters/lights etc) not got owt to do with it. I used to have a large tank (48"x36") a few years ago and when I got rid of I noticed a fair drop in leccy useage.
 
Never noticed much impact on our electric bills - down to one tank at the minute but have had 4 just a couple of years back, have my lights on timers so they simulate dawn & dusk a bit better (ie one light comes on/goes off then the next and the next in stages). I always run 2 heaters in my larger tanks aswell for better distribution and to keep the strain off a single one in the winter.

Time I do notice changes is when the kids are off school in the holidays and have all the computers on, consoles and TV's...
 
Found out the problem...........

My wife read the meter and phoned npower to give them the reading, but as is with the old needle display meters the reading was as follows 49027, but because the needle was almost on the 5 my wife thought it was 59027 units.

As you can expect im unbelievably happy about this , works out i owe the eleccy company 160 pounds, which is a damn site better than 1700+.

*wipes brow*
 
mark said:
burn stuff! its great

the rayburn is the biz, the one I put in had been stood in a field for a year, so cost nowt. stripped it, cleaned it and put it back together

it gets lit about september october time, and is kept lit till about april, heats the whole house, 6 radiators, hot water and all the cooking, we'll burn about a ton and a half of coal and a couple of tons of logs in that time, total cost is under 400 quid, which is pretty good considering. can't imagine how much a gas bill would be to have central heating on full 24/7 for 6 months

down side is, its just too warm in here a lot of the time, and when the wind is up, its the worlds fastest solid fuelled microwave/combi boiler. the gauge on the oven regularly nudges 750 Fahrenheit!

thinking about a small wind turbine up the fell behind us for electrickery, reckon even a small one would generate enough for us, and flog some back into the grid so when there's no wind it'd balance out and we'd end up paying very little in total
Click to expand...

Just ordered an Esse Ironheart multi fuel cooker/heater and got a 18'' Makita chainsaw for me birthday, cant wait to start chopping stuff up and burning it
 
mark said:
burn stuff! its great

the rayburn is the biz, the one I put in had been stood in a field for a year, so cost nowt. stripped it, cleaned it and put it back together

it gets lit about september october time, and is kept lit till about april, heats the whole house, 6 radiators, hot water and all the cooking, we'll burn about a ton and a half of coal and a couple of tons of logs in that time, total cost is under 400 quid, which is pretty good considering. can't imagine how much a gas bill would be to have central heating on full 24/7 for 6 months

down side is, its just too warm in here a lot of the time, and when the wind is up, its the worlds fastest solid fuelled microwave/combi boiler. the gauge on the oven regularly nudges 750 Fahrenheit!

thinking about a small wind turbine up the fell behind us for electrickery, reckon even a small one would generate enough for us, and flog some back into the grid so when there's no wind it'd balance out and we'd end up paying very little in total
Click to expand...

I've experienced the heat first hand, It's melted me crimpolene slacks and turns buckfast bottles into blobs of molten glass.
 
"I've experienced the heat first hand, It's melted me crimpolene slacks and turns buckfast bottles into blobs of molten glass."

I was the Crimpolene Kid, petrol blue with bulbous gold buttons (Peters Stores) and green channel seam flairs (SMC) and fake snakeskin platform sole Cheasea boot hoojars (Frisco - Handyside Arcade)
 
Last edited:

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