EDF Energy - 12 months bill has more than doubled!

[insigniades]

Hi guys

 

I've been struggling to keep up with payments on my energy supplies recently and today decided to check my account to monitor my bills.

 

I've noticed that for the period of Nov - Feb in 2012/13 they have charged me £750!!! I live in a 1 bedroom house, by myself - I have 1 heater on regularly.

 

I flicked back through the bills and for the same period of Nov-Feb in 2011/12 they charged me roughly £300 - I noticed the tariffs have changed - what are my rights with this? It seems insane they can more than double your bill with a tariff change?!!?

 

Advice is very much appreciated.

[Conniff]

Just rounding off, that would equate to around £4,000 per year, that's more like a factory tariff.

[insigniades]

Yeah that's one way to look at it £750*4 = £3000 a year... Seems a lot or am I in denial?

[seanamarts]

Im not sure what is going on with them right now, but my bill has doubled this quarter to from the same last year.

 

I have to say that Im quite shocked at the amount you are having to pay. I would seriously get this look into.

[insigniades]

I think it's crazy that I'm expected to pay way more than half of what I'm paying on rent on my gas and electricity!

[ericsbrother]

take meter reading today and then take a reading at the same time of day in 2 days time. look at the bill you have and see how many days it is for and then you can work out how many units per day you have been billed ofr and how many you have used over the last 2 days. If the amount per day is about the same then the bill is correct to that part. Your consumption for a £750 bill will be about 60kW per day

What is the tariff you are on? Average price for electric is about 15p per kW.

Switch off everything in the property for an hour an see if the meter has moved. If it is an old fashioned meter with the spinning disc then it shouldnt move at all. If it has just digits then these should remain exactly the same. Dont turn the mains fuse off as this isan attempt to determine if something else is connected to your supply that you have no control over such as a street lamp or next doors garage etc. If ther is a change in the meter reading you need to call out your electricity company to investigate.

If none of this is different you need to ask waht tariff you are on and what is the company's cheapest tariff. If you have been switched without your express permission you have grounds to make a complaint, firstly to the company and then to OFGEM. Dont tell the company you intend to complain to ofgem otherwise they will not investigate the complaint first.

If you want, post your meter readings up here if you are struggling to determine what your consumption per day is and it will be calculated for you.

[insigniades]

Hi ericsbrother

 

It seems to be gas more so than electricity, looking at my bills from the past year I can see that they seem to think my gas and electricity usage has actually doubled which is odd - I'm doing nothing differently to what I was a year ago...

 

I will do what you say though on the electricity and see if it comes up with any answers.

 

My bill went from £300 in Nov - Feb 11/2 to £750 in Nov - Fb 12/13 - interesting.

[insigniades]

Just to add to this, I'm looking at my last 2 bills I have a bill here for the following dates:

 

02 Feb 12 - 07 Nov 12 which is 8 months usage. For that period they have charged the following:

 

£336 - electricity

£310 - gas

 

Total of £646 - divide that over the 8 months £80.75

 

Then 08 Nov 12 - 06 Feb 2013 has come in at £749 divided over the 3 months is £249.66

 

So in the space of 3 months, my bill has gone up by £170 a month? This is laughable.

[insigniades]

I've also just done a calculation from my estimated meter reading in Nov 2012 against my actual meter reading now and its saying I've used £1200 of gas in 3 months?

[ericsbrother]

I need the usage fugures from your meter and from the last bill to make sense of it. what you are paying is only the end result and doesnt tell me anything. Do the same with your gas as I suggested with the electricity. Note the consumption for 2 days exactly and then switch off everything for an hour at least and see if the meter is still running. Dont turn off the supply at the isolation point/meter, just all of the appliances to make sure that the pilot lights arent using gas. then tell us what the readingas are before and after and I can tell how much energy is being used.

[ericsbrother]

How is your energy bill calculated? are they estimated readings? I need those readings and ones you have taken today. With your gas meter, does it read in cubic metres or cubic feet? It will be marked after the numbers as CUft or M3 Check the bill has the same units of consumption because if your meter reads cubic feet and they have taken it as cubic metres then your consumption is being overestimated by 27 times. This is quite common.

[insigniades]

Hi mate

 

It's in M3.

 

Meter readings:

 

Nov 2012: 7320

Current: 9478

 

Thanks for the help mate.

[insigniades]

To add:

 

Before today, my last ACTUAL meter reading was:

 

6379 which was in Feb 2012

 

It's now: 9478

[ericsbrother]

That is a huge amount of gas, do what I said about turning off everything and leaving it off to see if the meter moves on. It is the equivalent of 89 kWh per day which is like having 2 electric fires on all day every day. I suspect a leakage somewhere. commonly a leak can develop around the meter itself or on flexible connections to cookers, which are now no longer permitted. You can call out the gas supplier or Transco and they will do a pressure test for you. Bear in mind that you may still have to pay for the escaped gas but at least the bills will plummet once the problem is found.

[insigniades]

What would I have to be doing to use that amount of gas mate?

[ericsbrother]

I cannot say, I can only deal with information that you post up here. How much do you pay per unit of gas and electricity? Have you done what I siad you should do and if so what are the results?

[insigniades]

Hi mate

 

Yeah turned it off for 24 hours (excluding maybe an hour n a half when I had a bath) its moved 1 unit - compared to what was about 6.5 units a day.

[The Quen of Darkness]

Hi,

 

Have you had your meter changed recently?

 

The reason I ask is that we had the same problem after a meter change - ours was running like we were powering the entire street instead of a 3 bedroom house

 

After much haggling they came out & fitted a check meter to run alongside the existing one & found that it was running at a tenth of the speed, its worth asking them to do this if you suspect a meter fault as we got a £1000 bill reduced to £200

[insigniades]

Hi !!

 

Thanks for the suggestion, they're phoning me on Saturday so I will find out what they say and if necessary get someone out to look at the meter!

[ericsbrother]

It shouldnt have moved at all. There is a problem

[Feebee_71]

It shouldnt have moved at all. There is a problem

Ericsbrother, looking at the post about the meter changing I read it as the OP turned off everything the meter supplies for 24 hours apart from a short period of time when they had a bath (presumably using gas for the boiler)

 

Feebee_71