Electricity bill - Is this OTT?

[Chri5]

Grasping at straws, but did she have any trade works in the house ?

Wall bashing, chop saws, drills, kangos all eat power- as does the constant click of a boiling kettle.

 

[Stoday]

I got a qualified electrician to do some work new CU in kitchen and disconnect a box which served the old immersion heater upstairs which had been left live after removal of the boiler.

Had this been left on during the period of high kWh use?

 

[TonyWarrington]

No trade work - other than me in the summer months refurbishing before she moved in.

The immersion heater had been removed approx 2 years before she got the property - what was left was the old switch box which had not been disconnected so still had a live feed.

 

[ColJack]

loft lights left on for 24hrs a day?

 

[securespark]

What are you suggesting?

 

[TonyWarrington]

Have checked everything I can to see if anything left on or using excessive power. Due to the fact that the loft light is operated like an extension light i.e. plugged into a socket in the upstairs hall it is highly unlikely that this would be left on.

At this stage I am convinced that the problem lies firmly with npower's inability to manage this account properly and change the account to standard tariff. This further confirmed by the fact of my test on meter reading indicating usage of only 15 units per week.

 

[ColJack]

next door tapped into your power to run their "loft lights" 24hrs a day?

 

[TonyWarrington]

Ahh - Now I think I see your drift do you mean something like this

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To be honest at one time I did have suspicions that someone was tapping in to the power - even had a good route around the loft for any evidence

 

[Paul-man]

My daily average is between 7 and 9 kWh per day, in a 2 bed victorian terrace with GCH. (those figures includes winter time with the long periods of darkness)

 

[TonyWarrington]

Finally (I hope!) have reached agreement with Npower. They are refunding my daughter over £500 for overpayments made while incorrectly on Economy7 tariff - with reversed day / night readings and for charging Economy 7 for the last 12 months on the new meter.

The new meter figures at least confirmed my opinion that she was using no more than 2.5-3 units per day. Npower quoted usage figures went up to a maximum of 16 units per day!! Consequently they tried to charge her at one point £140 per month

With the benefit of hindsight I really should have raised an official complaint much earlier in this saga! Instead I relied on the customer accounts department to sort it out - clearly a poor decision on my part.

So thanks again to all for help and advice - in future I will be banging the table and complaining much sooner