Electric Meters

[Lakers]

Hi everyone I hope is well, I have the locks fitted to our little place in the sun, the window and patio locks fitted are very good and thank you all for your advice.

Anyway some time ago i fwded an issue with our electric bill, currently our bills shows a useage rate of 500units per week, this appears very high.

we have had the bill reviewed and the costs are correct, therefore it can be 1 of 3 things
1/ Meter is faulty
2/ the apt or outside electric socket is being used in our absence
3/ units are correct and we use alot of electric and need to invest in a small sub station !!.

Therefore to remove item 1,  I am planning to replace the existing meter with a 3 tarrif range.

I have been informed this would cost about £35.

Has anyone done this and are the costs correct and are there savings when moving from 1 tarriff. Any other suggestions. Regrds Lakers

[OvacikOldBoy]

Hi,

your elec usage does seem v high, is anyone living out there at the moment.  Not sure about the cost of changing the meter but seems reasonable.

You should see a difference when you change to the new meter as the name implies there are three tarifs.  The cheapest being during the night 10pm to 7am, then during the day being the next cheapest with the most expensive being in the evening from 5pm to 10pm I think

Allen

[Crabbit]

2/ the apt or outside electric socket is being used in our absence, seems to be favourite to me.  

[Crabbit]

PS,
I very much doubt that changing to a new digital meter will help, the person/people STEALING your electricity won`t care about tarrifs.

[kevin3]

Could it also be that Laker is still on the builders tarrif.?

[Crabbit]

Even on a builders tariff an electric meter doesn`t clock up vast amounts of units in your absence.  

[kevin3]

Could try turning off at your main switch,(cunsumer unit)then watch the meter to see if it's still running,then also while it is off,try plugging an appliance into your outside socket and watch the meter again.If that socket is run off your supply it should go off when you shut down to leave the property.If it does'nt,get someone (perhaps reccomended on here)to fit an isolation switch inside your property.It's not impossible that your supply is being tapped.!An independant electrician should be able to detect this for you. : (  you could also wire up your door knobs.): :)good luck.

[mikrik]

Hi Lakers, I have just recently got changed from builders tariff to domestic tariff it wasn't at all straight forward.

Firstly the builders had me on single phase so I had to get an electrician to change it to three phase.

Then the electricity company, which is now under new management and called Aydem, wanted all sorts of paperwork:- deeds, planning permission,habitation certificate,passport translation,tax no, etc. (originals of course not copies)
 
I, along with the electrician spent the best part of a day going from pillar to post in their offices. The staff tried to be as helpful as they could but it was very frustrating trying to get the paperwork sorted out.

Then I had to get the electrician back to install a new meter after which I had to wait for 4 days over the weekend for Aydem to come and check it out.

 The charge by Aydem was only about 65 Ytl  but after I had paid the electrician a couple of days wages for running back and forth and bought a new meter  it was a lot more than £35.00

It might be worthwhile giving the new company a couple of months to get their new system in place before getting yourself changed over.

In the meantime make sue your supply is turned off inside the house when you leave.

[HappyMonday]

Crabbit is more than likely right. It is common practice for builders to pinch electricity or water supplies.  We twice came back to our apartment to find that the maintenance man had removed the water meter from the apartment below us and was feeding the water from the missing section direct to the hosepipe. You can bet that if this was discovered it would be seen as the apartment owners fault and not the maintenance company! We have now (hopefully) stopped this in our complex but whilst in the UK who knows what is happening.

[Andrew H]

What is the situation about having sockets outside places? seems anybody can use then. Is there any reason why they cannot be removed as we never seem to use them ourselves but clearly tradesmen seem to help themselves.