Forced break

[pevil2000]

Hey everyone

My electric company are trying to rip us off with a £1600 electric bill for the past year, for 2 adults who are rarely in the house. We've always paid ~£300 previously. So I'm having to cut corners and as much as I hate to admit it, Hz is one of those.

So enjoy your time in Istaria; I'll still be around on the forums

*wingwaves*

[Sigi]

I hope all will turn out well for you! Good luck!

[spritfire]

Aww Noo
i havent been on much myself what with work i will miss your scaly green dragon who can i pounce on now
hope it all gets sorted out and you can come back
miss you loads *winghugs*
Greystar

[pevil2000]

*winghugs all back* you'll still see me online until this sub runs out at least... but not too often probably *sigh* I hope it won't last too long...

Grey, get your msn sorted out and you won't have to miss me :P

[Charys Stormchild]

Having worked for an energy supply company for almost 25 years (would have been more but they sent my job to India) I can suggest a couple of things.

1) You've probably done this anyway, but just in case, check the meter reading as compared to what's on your bill.

2) This sounds silly but have a good hard think about anything different you may have done during the last quarter...maybe the immersion heater was on constantly for some reason, things like that.

3) Look back over old bills if you have them, maybe you had a string of estimated readings and it's just caught up. Sadly I saw this happen a lot over my working life.

4) Turn off everything possible for an hour, read your meter at the beginning and end of the hour. See how much you use. For just a fridge/freezer the usage should be minimal.

After these steps, if you haven't had a several consequtive estimates and the meter reading has changed more than just slightly, contact your supplier and ask about getting the meter tested. As far as I know the Dept of Energy still carries these tests out independently for all energy companies. Sometimes a meter just has a nervous breakdown and starts running fats. If I remember correctly and the guildelines are that all meters should operate within a +/- percentage, small innacuracies are expected. If the meter is tested and found to be faulty your bill should be adjusted.

It's also worth mentioning that if you've changed your supplier and your monthly payments have fallen then maybe the amount you've been paying just wasn't enough to cover the bills, due the exhorbitant price rises.

Hope this helps and means you can get back in game soon.

[pevil2000]

heh thanks for those points... unfortunately yeah, we already did all those. You're right that our monthly payments had actually dropped... but only by £12 a month and according to what they think we're spending, that means even if we'd stayed on our old payments, we'd have still been paying ~£100 too little each month!

Only thing we haven't done yet is have the meter tested, but we are going to (it's an old flat with old wiring, *hopefully* somewhere is a fault of some kind)

[Wylonus]

wow, that bummer, i would ask local mechanic or local lawyer to get authorize to test for faulty meter or damaged if next door neighbor may had bumped the pin while lawnmowing?
my other guess it would be move to other house if renting.

i think it is old meter model need to replace, it is so old and outdated, and it may have worn out little tiny parts.
so this wouldnt be your fault for high bills since the company should check regularly to see it operate correctly or find it "tampered" or damaged from a bump.
if they find it faulty and worn out, they should excuse your billings because they didnt keep up with maintaince, so dont let it out of control if budget isnt in your favor.
it happen to my sister and she had to pay over $600 a month on gas and heating each month, and her house is very old and it was built during late victorian age.
her house had been stripped and remodeled and i feel it was done badly, and i noticed some woods need to be replaced.

if i were you, i would check for dents (damage marks), tool scratches, or hammer spots if someone trying to ruin it or made you spend extra bills.

if not tampered or damaged, no signs of dents, then it might be internal pin parts got worn out.
good luck.

[Charys Stormchild]

In the UK most meters are inside so a neighbour couldn't damage them, though it has been known for meters to get damaged by internal work being done at a property.

Sadly, there is no legal obligation for the energy supplier to carry out routine maintenance on meters, in fact I don't think it's possible, and the only people authorised to test a meter would be the Department of Energy (or whatever they call themselves these days). This request must come from the energy company, no one else is allowed to remove or move the meter.

If it is a case of the meter being old then sometimes that will cause problems, but the problems will be detected by testing.

Hope you get it sorted soon