Scottish Hydro Electric

[baileywoos]

We currently use Scottish Hydro Electric and we're querying our electric bills. What should we do?
We've contacted the supplier who checked the meter and said it's fine but even they are astounded by how much electric we're supposedly using.
We have a normal 3 bed bungalow (it's actually temp accomodation while we're building), it's heated by logs or coal, only 1 of the electric fires is ever used and has the other normal electric appliances.
We were on a card meter but changed this to paper billing as we thought we were being charged too much - prices have almost doubled since changing.
Our first bill for 2 months was over £400. After we got this one we stopped using the tumble dryer, made sure nothing was left on, didn't use the 1 fire that was used on timer and turned off any outside lights etc. Our 2nd bill for 3 months came in at just over £600.
We've never had these kind of charges and there are friends in the area who use a darn sight more than us and are paying a fraction of the two hundred a month we're paying.
Scottish Hydro won't help any further as they've checked the meter, although they did ask if someone was tapping into our electric. Pretty impossible as we live on 4 acres.

Any ideas?

[Ruthie P]

OMG Baileywoos!! when you say they have checked your meter what do you mean? Do you mean they have been out and done a standard load test and actually checked the accuracy of the meter or did they come out and check that the meter was there and they were billing the right meter number etc. What type of metering do you have there? Is it a single rate meter where you dont have a lower rate over night? are you sure there arent any storage heaters hiding somewhere? Do you have an emmersion heater that has been left on by mistake? If youre on 4 acres of land are you connected to mains sewerage or do you have a pit that would consumption? I would turn every single electrical item off at the walls inc fridges etc go to your meter and see whats happening, if its still moving you know there is something on somewhere you either havent spotted or have forgotten about.

let me know how you get on.

Ruthie

[baileywoos]

Okey dokey. To check the meter they put another meter at the side and checked that they ran together.
Up till 5 months ago we paid by card meter and we thought then that something was wrong with the amounts we were paying. The man came out and said that our derelict was hooked up to eco7 for the storage heaters. These storage heaters were taken out a couple of years ago and there is absolutely no electric in that derelict and hasn't been for a couple of years but apparantly we were still hooked to eco7. So, we got rid of the card meter and the eco7 and our bills have doubled.
we really do have nothing that should be using it to this extent. We had a couple of strip lights so we've taken those out, put normal lights and have put energy saving bulbs everywhere.
Iheard from a local once that the previous owners had some deal going with Scottish Hydro with the eco7, even though they never used the storage heaters.
Damned if I know what's going on here. We thought by cutting down or out the things that we know use alot of electric such as the one heater, tumble dryer, outside lights etc etc we'd make a saving. Nope! The bill seems to stay the same no matter what - £200 per month.

[baileywoos]

Originally Posted by baileywoos

Okey dokey. To check the meter they put another meter at the side and checked that they ran together.
Up till 5 months ago we paid by card meter and we thought then that something was wrong with the amounts we were paying. The man came out and said that our derelict was hooked up to eco7 for the storage heaters. These storage heaters were taken out a couple of years ago and there is absolutely no electric in that derelict and hasn't been for a couple of years but apparantly we were still hooked to eco7. So, we got rid of the card meter and the eco7 and our bills have doubled.
we really do have nothing that should be using it to this extent. We had a couple of strip lights so we've taken those out, put normal lights and have put energy saving bulbs everywhere.
Iheard from a local once that the previous owners had some deal going with Scottish Hydro with the eco7, even though they never used the storage heaters.
Damned if I know what's going on here. We thought by cutting down or out the things that we know use alot of electric such as the one heater, tumble dryer, outside lights etc etc we'd make a saving. Nope! The bill seems to stay the same no matter what - £200 per month.

We're not connected to main sewerage but septic tank doesn't use electric.
Immersion heater never ever ever goes on - daren't! We take showers.

[gondukin]

Try turning absolutely everything off at the wall, including the fridge (don't worry they are designed to stay cold for several hours as long as you keep it closed) and even your alarm clock. Check the reading, give it an hour and check again, it shouldn't have budged. You will soon see if any electricity is still going anywhere. Then try turning appliances on one at a time to see how the meter is affected.

Don't try to short cut simply by switching off the main fuses, if there is something draining the power without you knowing that would simply shut it off as well.

Just out of interest how is the property heated? If you don't have storage heating you can't be running the whole house of a 1 bar fire surely. Do you have oil/gas?

[Ruthie P]

Hi Bailey, if they have installed a check meter at the property and it came back as accurate then there is nothing wrong with the meter for sure. Stupid question but are you sure they arent billing on the check meter and your main meter (stupid I know but it does happen if the supplier are given details that the meter is a normal meter and should be billed, if they are you are being billed twice for your consumption). Was the property a farm at any point? Just wondering if you are being charged business rates and higher VAT rate and climate change levy. I know these may seem like stupid questions but I am trying to cover every avenue. There isnt a main meter and sub meter there is there? This is a real puzzler!

[baileywoos]

Originally Posted by gondukin

Try turning absolutely everything off at the wall, including the fridge (don't worry they are designed to stay cold for several hours as long as you keep it closed) and even your alarm clock. Check the reading, give it an hour and check again, it shouldn't have budged. You will soon see if any electricity is still going anywhere. Then try turning appliances on one at a time to see how the meter is affected.

Don't try to short cut simply by switching off the main fuses, if there is something draining the power without you knowing that would simply shut it off as well.

Just out of interest how is the property heated? If you don't have storage heating you can't be running the whole house of a 1 bar fire surely. Do you have oil/gas?

The property is temp accomodation while we start to build a house.
The front room is a ctually a living room, kitchen, diner in one room and that is heated by a log burner which also burns coal and heats up the whole room plus the hallways. Our bedroom has a heater on the wall but we never ever put it on and my daughters both have a heater on the wall (electric) but as their rooms interconnect they only use one fire for a few hours at night and keep their doors open so it warms both the rooms.
No heating other than the log/coal burner and one heater for a few hours at night.

We're certainly going to switch off the electric and check out the meter.
Before when we were on a card meter we used to put £50 in it and then go home to England. Everything would be switched off at the fuse and yet we'd still have to put the meter onto emergency and fill it up again when we'd come back 2 weeks later even though everythings off and no one lived here (the house was derelict)

Doesn't make any sense to us really.

[baileywoos]

Originally Posted by Ruthie P

Hi Bailey, if they have installed a check meter at the property and it came back as accurate then there is nothing wrong with the meter for sure. Stupid question but are you sure they arent billing on the check meter and your main meter (stupid I know but it does happen if the supplier are given details that the meter is a normal meter and should be billed, if they are you are being billed twice for your consumption). Was the property a farm at any point? Just wondering if you are being charged business rates and higher VAT rate and climate change levy. I know these may seem like stupid questions but I am trying to cover every avenue. There isnt a main meter and sub meter there is there? This is a real puzzler!

The check meter was installed and removed purely for the test.
No business rate and it hasn't been a farm.

Haven't got a clue what's going on here.